Customer Review from Josie E.

Summary

I finally, happily own a guitar that feels like my own. The CE501 has a solid mahogany body with a spalted maple top – making every guitar individual because of the natural variations in wood grain. The set maple neck has pearl/abalone block inlays on an Indian rosewood fretboard (22 frets). The abalone inlay carries through from the body to the headstock, and the quality Korean locking tuners just make life (and tuning) that little bit easier.

Sound

The guitar is from the Cassidy series, and has all the classic Les Paul type sounds. Its ‘tree-esque’ body makes me feel inspired to play country music, but that certainly doesn’t mean that other genres are beyond its reach. I’ve never had trouble achieving the distorted sounds of heavier rock songs with the guitar.

Head, Neck and Body

The neck has pearl / abalone inlay on the fretboard, and is far more ornate than many other guitars I’ve seen within this price range, most only featuring single marker dots. The guitar is also available with the ‘Tree of Knowledge’ real white pearl / abalone inlay, which spans the length of the fretboard, and is a beautiful detail. I haven’t yet found that the guitar has gone noticeably out of tune while playing, unlike my previous guitar, and only takes a minute or two to retune between one day and the next.

The body has a gloss finish on maple, which is something I hadn’t really come across before. I often found that other guitars looked too ‘plastic’ to consider them elegant, and that some guitar bodies were simply a ‘slab’ of wood, whereas the bodies on these guitars are more sculpted, so that they are comfortable to play for hours. I found it very difficult to choose this particular guitar from the other in the Cassidy range – they all have the same high quality finish and each has its unique aesthetic appeal.

Having followed their manufacturing process over the course of a year, I feel that Simon Cassidy’s new brand instils his passion for music, reflected in the painstaking time he spent designing, overseeing their manufacture at intervals (having to travel all the way to China on numerous occasions!), and importing them, but also in personally ensuring they are perfectly finished and properly set up before being sold.

Overall impression

I love my guitar. Previously having used my brother’s guitar for lessons, I never felt as inclined to practice, whereas now when I go home, it’s one of the first things I do to unwind. Owning a guitar that you feel attached to makes you far more likely to persevere with playing, and now I no longer have to begrudge fifteen minutes of tuning and can use that time for practice.

Full details of this guitar can be seen via this link… Cassidy CE501