Patrick James Eggle Acoustics

meltedbuzzbox · April 2019

danishbacon said:

meltedbuzzbox said:

redtheblue said:

Atkin Atkin Atkin... Once you have met he guys and visited the workshop and watched the videos and played the guitar you simply know that this is a company searching for the holy grail.

Then you play all the other brands coda have in stock and you realise atkin are really quite meh

In what respect?

So my biggest judge was the sound. In the price range I always found that a rival Martin or Taylor sounded better, played better and had a nicer voicing.
Perhaps it was a bad batch, I cant say for sure. I tried 5 or 6 of them and I was honestly underwhelmed. YMMV and all that jazz.

ToneControl · April 2019

I tried a PJE baritone
It was good but not outstanding, unlike the Avalon one I now own
Avalon are probably the best value for top-level guitars, especially when buying used

ToneControl · April 2019

meltedbuzzbox said:

danishbacon said:

meltedbuzzbox said:

redtheblue said:

Atkin Atkin Atkin... Once you have met he guys and visited the workshop and watched the videos and played the guitar you simply know that this is a company searching for the holy grail.

Then you play all the other brands coda have in stock and you realise atkin are really quite meh

In what respect?

So my biggest judge was the sound. In the price range I always found that a rival Martin or Taylor sounded better, played better and had a nicer voicing.
Perhaps it was a bad batch, I cant say for sure. I tried 5 or 6 of them and I was honestly underwhelmed. YMMV and all that jazz.

I think I tried Atkin and can't remember any strong opinion

Just to calibrate your statement, what other brands have you tried against Martin and Taylor? I can think of half a dozen brands that are way better

danishbacon · April 2019

ToneControl said:

I tried a PJE baritone
It was good but not outstanding, unlike the Avalon one I now own
Avalon are probably the best value for top-level guitars, especially when buying used

Would love to try an Avalon someday. I played a Walden baritone that was wicked, only acoustic baritone I've ever played though.

Regarding the Atkin thing - I get that relic jobs are not for everyone. Not for me, but I appreciate there's a market. I've handled a couple and they've both been excellent, about 6 years apart in build age. I imagine his earlier work was not up to the standard of today's stuff. I've also handled some very high end instruments, Collings, santa cruz, 7-15k gems at the north americanorth american guitar and fit and finish wise, at least the Atkin I own is excellent and compares very favourably. It's not as refined as some intricate luthier work nor is it perhaps as polished as a Collings but we're talking about instruments that retail at half of what a good Collings costs and far less on the used market.

Fret-job on mine is excellent. No defects, hidden edges, superbly finished. Perhaps what @Moe_Zambeek referred to was a dud, but I've not handled 15 Atkins so I don't have an established baseline.

I played one very good Martin, out of maybe 5 or 6 Martin's I played and it was a late 80s D28. I owned a more recent D16 which was fine but uninteresting. Furch D22cm did rounds on it.
I digress, not sure how this is of any help at all to OP and his quest for a PJE, but I stand by my advice. Play as much as you can side by side, handle them, look at the binding work, the weight, glue runoff in the construction, neck joint, wood choice etc and find the guitar that speaks to you, irrespective of what's on the headstock. I know this is easier said than done, especially as a member of a GAS fuelled forum where residual values really matter if you are on hopelessly long term quest to find 'the one'. I once had and sold 'the one'. In hindsight it was a lesson as I now have a really good benchmark and have discovered that there are equally excellent guitars to be had just a few lumps of wood down the line.

Fifty9 · April 2019

All v helpful chaps as I am new to high end acoustics. Cheers Danish, sound advice. I’ll take my time I think. My recording king is a nice guitar so helps manage the GAS and I’m more a collector than player in all honesty so no need to rush. I’ll enjoy the journey of trying the different brands. Need a trip to the north American guitars store I think.

danishbacon · April 2019

If you head to London also try to visit Ivor Maraints, they've also got a nice selection downstairs.

Fifty9 · April 2019

Will do.
cheers

kjdowd · April 2019

danishbacon said:

If you head to London also try to visit Ivor Maraints, they've also got a nice selection downstairs.

Good selection of Santa Cruz as well, which are always excellent

Jools · April 2019

My two pence worth on Faith, they are very very good value, I had a Blood Moon Venus for around 10 months which is a thing of beauty obviously from the Trembesi but also from the finish quality.

However I had an issue with the saddle but was offered a replacement without question but due to high demand it would be a 2-3month wait for another. My local shop suggested I try the Neptune as it has a bit more bass in it and they suggested it had a better sound than the Venus.

Long story shorter, while trying the Neptune I picked up a PJE Legacy Earth and was gobsmacked at how much better the sound was, the torrefied spruce really gave it an aged sound, I walked out the shop with that one and it's been my go to acoustic ever since.

I am going to check out Atkin's now though

but just a final thought, if you don't want to lose money on potential resale later, why don't you buy second hand, unless you know you're buying a future collectors item you will always lose a big chunk when buying new?

Fifty9 · April 2019

Bit of a left field option appeared yesterday. A Gibson J45 AG walnut with cutaway.

It’s the J45 type I’m after which led me to the PJE Kanuga and this post. Anyhow, what’re the views on here of those that have tried them. And it’s back to my original budget of 1k for a mint one.
Cheers all

ToneControl · April 2019

Fifty9 said:

Bit of a left field option appeared yesterday. A Gibson J45 AG walnut with cutaway.

It’s the J45 type I’m after which led me to the PJE Kanuga and this post. Anyhow, what’re the views on here of those that have tried them. And it’s back to my original budget of 1k for a mint one.
Cheers all

for used Gibson and Martins, try Frailers

meltedbuzzbox · April 2019

ToneControl said:

meltedbuzzbox said:

danishbacon said:

meltedbuzzbox said:

redtheblue said:

Atkin Atkin Atkin... Once you have met he guys and visited the workshop and watched the videos and played the guitar you simply know that this is a company searching for the holy grail.

Then you play all the other brands coda have in stock and you realise atkin are really quite meh

In what respect?

So my biggest judge was the sound. In the price range I always found that a rival Martin or Taylor sounded better, played better and had a nicer voicing.
Perhaps it was a bad batch, I cant say for sure. I tried 5 or 6 of them and I was honestly underwhelmed. YMMV and all that jazz.

I think I tried Atkin and can't remember any strong opinion

Just to calibrate your statement, what other brands have you tried against Martin and Taylor? I can think of half a dozen brands that are way better

A lot of Gibson's, several collings, several lowden, a few national, several fischer, a top end breedlove (that sounded like a cannon), Yamaha, a few guilds etc

I think you've kind of summed it up, you can't remember having a strong opinion of them. They're nothing ground breaking.

To be honest I didn't think much to the collings I tried either, controversial I know.

Whitecat · April 2019

Peach have a deal on Atkins at the moment - free Fishman pickup on any new one in stock...

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Patrick James Eggle Acoustics

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