Fazley Outlaw Series Maverick Basic HH Blue starter kit

My 5 star rating takes into consideration the price, which was, unbelievably, £74. I had so much fun playing a load of Dad Rock, as well as some funk and soul yesterday...I can honestly say that I haven't enjoyed playing guitar that much in quite a while.

Firstly, the best thing: the tone is fantastic - no need to change the pickups in my opinion. They're not too hot and there's enough clarity to cover most styles, whilst still having that togetherness under overdrive that makes hum buckers so satisfying. The guitar itself resonates really well - no dead spots, good sustain too. I'm not a big fan of the long strings behind the bridge that go through the body - they create loads of sympathetic resonance that makes it really annoying to play this guitar unplugged, but luckily it doesn't come through the amp at all. I believe some players will enjoy this element (Sonic Youth fans perhaps) and will strum them for special effects.

The body is super smooth and curvy, and the teal finish is really attractive without being too bling. The body is also one of the lightest I've played, just shy of feeling cheap. I wouldn't mind a few more grams for reassurance, and the guitar is actually neck-heavy when sat on your lap, although I do think the Jazzmaster shape emphasises this because of the way it sits on the body.

The neck is obviously where corners have been cut - the side dot inlays are awful, really messily done, and the fret ends are rough all the way up the neck. The frets were also not very polished (a bit scratchy on vibrato and bends) and there's actually a couple of high frets. This sounds bad, but I was expecting to have to get this done, so either buy the tools (amazon ones are actually pretty good) or factor in the cost of a fret job.

The actual shape of the neck is a modern C, so quite flat, and the fretboard although listed as 9.5" radius definitely feels like at least a 12" to me, ie. quite flat. It actually reminds me of my old Charvel CX291. The rosewood is lovely a chocolatey colour, and should get even better with some oil.

I'm not sure about the tuners, they seem overly-sensitive to me. The strings seem to go slightly flat as soon as you let go of the tuner - very annoying. The intonation on the low strings was way out when it arrived, so that had to be sorted. The bridge is really nice, although the spacing is on the narrow side, like a lot of earlier 'import' guitars.

My plan is to spend some time on the frets and also give it a custom paint job. New tuners and maybe a bridge with wider spacing if at all possible.

Overall rating is still 5 stars because it was so cheap and I got so much for so little money. Love it!

For some reason the blue ones are much cheaper than the other colours. At £74 this is an absolutely bargain. I've been playing for 40 years and spent 5 times more than this to get an over rated Fender or Gibson that doesn't play as good as this Fazley. Its lightweight and very easy to play with a fairly thin neck. It took hardly any setting up at all and even came with a gig bag. On the strength of this guitar I'll be buying more Fazleys. Superb value for money.

great well balanced guitar good sound and plays well

Perfect, exactly what you see in the photo. Well made. Get one.