What's the perfect instrument for the acoustic guitarist who wants a genuine electric guitar sound, while retaining the feel of an acoustic? Gary Cooper thinks he's found the answer.

Despite the mass acceptance of solid and semi-acoustic electric guitars, not every player is going to find either type exactly to his or her taste. What about the acoustic guitarist who wants to retain an acoustic feel but get a true electric sound from it? Add-on transducers seek to keep the natural acoustic sound and amplify it, so they're not ideal for the guitarist in this quandary. Thankfully, British craftsman builder Nigel Thornbory has a solution in his new Jazz model - and, as I recently discovered, it's a fine answer and a fabulous instrument.

Without any reservations at all I have to preface this review by saying that the Thornbory Jazz is one of the best made, finest finished guitars I have ever played: it's the work of a genuine master, and handling it - just looking at it - gave me a rare glow of delight. Nigel Thornbory isn't one of the British makers whose work I'm very familiar with, but the loss has been all mine.

Semi-acoustic in construction, the Thornbory's top is made from two pieces of beautifully figured maple, the same wood being used for the back and sides. Binding the top and back are strips of plum wood (and the first reader who says 'great if you're stoned' gets eaten by the IT Cat - that's a promise!). The soundhole is ringed with exquisite mother of pearl inlays. The plum wood theme is reintroduced on the classical-style headstock with its Schaller machines, where it's used as a facing material for the maple headstock's base. Even better (and unaccountably luxurious for such a relatively low priced instrument), the headstock is also inlaid with both pearl and silver. No mere black and white photo can do justice to the overall result of these materials, nor to the precision and care with which they've been employed. Even colour wouldn't do the job adequately, because you'd still lose that evocative scent of wood, glue and varnish which characterise a newly handbuilt guitar. Still finding myself looking at the guitar (incapable of playing it, I was so taken with the appearance), little details emerged which reinforced my feeling that this was the work of a definitive luthier - small touches like plum covering on the heel, silver position markers on the ebony fingerboard edge, the quality of ebony used on the bridge, the mother-of-pearl topping on the bridge pins - here's a guitar to drool over, even when you're not playing it.

Before reporting back on the Thornbory Jazz's sound and feel. I'd better give the final technical details first. The bridge is a solid ebony job, non-adjustable, fitted with a shining brass saddle, and the strings fasten with traditional bridge pins. The Schaller machines are of the traditional 'classical' type and, although I usually detest this type of tuner, these worked so smoothly and accurately that they really surprised me.

Amplifying this guitar is one of Schaller's own (and much underrated) humbuckers, in this case their 'Golden 50' model, positioned between the soundhole and the bridge. This is wired to two pots (volume and tone) as well as to a pair of metal flick switches, the first giving series/parallel settings, the second providing in/out of phase on the Schaller's twin coils. Obviously, this is an extraordinary amount to play with - more, even, than you'll find on many solid electrics - and the resulting tonal versatility is yet another of the attributes which make the jazz one of the most usable guitars I've played.

Finally managing to tear myself away from drooling over the looks of this guitar, I eventually got around to playing it. Nigel's design concept was to let the basically classically orientated player feel completely at home on an electric instrument. In this he hasn't just succeeded - he's triumphed. The neck on the sample I tried was suitably wide for a classical player, measuring 1 4/5" at the nut, and fractionally below 2 1/4" at the 12th fret. The Jazz's ebony fretboard bears a zero fret, something I rather like as an idea as it shifts the emphasis for intonation accuracy away from the nut. It's a feature of some of the finest jazz and acoustic guitars, and it often surprises me that more makers don't fit them.

Being more used to a Strat or SG's neck width, the clasically dimensioned Thornbory's neck did seem a shade wide for me - but you have to bear in mind that this is very much a bespoke guitar; made to order for one particular customer who had asked Nigel to reproduce this feel. Ask him for a more conventional acoustic width, or even that of a solid electric, and he'll oblige. Even so, the neck was remarkably comfortable to play on as it was shallow enough to counter the fatigue that I had expected but didn't get. Even more complex jazz chords were easy to finger, which is perhaps why the maker has dubbed this model the 'Jazz'?

With the Schaller pickup set to humbucking and in phase, run through my Laney valve combo, the Thornbory certainly had all the warmth of a jazz guitar, but flick over the phase and/or the single coil settings and the Jazz comes alive to a super, almost Rickenbacker-like jangle which would sound fantastic in a Country setting. Crank your amp up and there's plenty of overdrive potential too; even if the neck dimensions on this example didn't suit typical Rock bends and three note chords etc., the potential for a fabulous rhythm sound was all there - and, as the neck is dimensioned to order, the thought of what this guitar could do in a Folk/Rock setting was impressive, to say the very least.

Obviously, as with any hollow-bodied guitar feedback can be a problem, but not exceptionally so - and anyway, this isn't meant to be a heavy metal, 200-watt- amplified guitar. What it does suit is Country and Folk/Rock sounds, especially if you employ the coil tap to give an extra edge.

For the acoustic guitar player who feels stranded when they want an electric sound (mainly because they're more used to an acoustic's feel), the Thornbory is as close to the perfect answer as I've tried since the Gibson Chet Atkins. Because the guitar is custom made, you can order an individual model any way you choose, either with a conventional acoustic-shaped neck or, as my sample had, one closer to a traditional classical's shape. Equally, you don't have to have traditional classical type machines, nor a classical headstock - in fact almost all the features of the guitar can be varied to order, from neck width to fretting, hardware, electronics; the choice is yours.

The Thornbory Jazz is not only one of the finest made guitars I've played, it is also unique. For the player who wants to progress beyond the confines of pure acoustic guitar sounds, who wants amplification, but without losing an acoustic's feel, the Thornbory Jazz is possibly the best answer yet devised. Certainly it's one of the most satisfying guitars I've ever played.

Price £595 (£655 With Calton Case)

More details From Nigel Thornbory, (Contact Details).