NGD - Faith Neptune Mango Prototype

myrman · February 2023

I am a big admirer of Faith guitars so I was really happy to have purchased this one off Faith Neptune Mango wood prototype from Absolute Music at this weekend guitar Show in Birmingham. (Great guys btw) They had quite a selection but this one stood out for me. Unfortunately there is no onboard pickup but I will add something at some point. The front back and sides are all mango wood.

I have to admit that it took all my willpower to not come back with one of the other models available.

Image: https://i.postimg.cc/W48Ln7y9/PXL_20230225_140607564.jpg

maw4neu · February 2023

Stunning . . . I love my Faith Neptune . . . Great guitars :-)

maharg101 · February 2023

That is just stunning, I love the striping, and even the fretboard is getting in on the act. Happy NGD !

fastonebaz · February 2023

Very nice indeed. Unique even.

roberty · February 2023

Stunning is definitely the word

I've always liked those Seymour Duncan Woody pickups. Much better than piezo to my ears

HNPAGD

Mellish · February 2023

I like that top and back.

HNGD!

Soupman · February 2023

Cracking guitar Gromit! The word 'stunning' has been used several times above. It is just that. Congrats!

bertie · February 2023

the same as The Other Dennis bought at the Manchester GS ?

Faith Mango, 1 of a kind ? - but Denni's is a more brown/wine colour ?

OP - https://thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/243280/the-what-i-bought-at-the-guitar-show-thread/p1 ;

myrman · February 2023

bertie said:

the same as The Other Dennis bought at the Manchester GS ?

Faith Mango, 1 of a kind ? - but Denni's is a more brown/wine colour ?

OP - https://thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/243280/the-what-i-bought-at-the-guitar-show-thread/p1 ;

So looking at the info on the label in that one I guess it's the colour plus the maple binding as opposed to Trembesi binding on mine. So not a unique mango guitar just a unique finish. Either way I'm very happy with mine.

bertie · February 2023

myrman said:

bertie said:

the same as The Other Dennis bought at the Manchester GS ?

Faith Mango, 1 of a kind ? - but Denni's is a more brown/wine colour ?

OP - https://thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/243280/the-what-i-bought-at-the-guitar-show-thread/p1 ;

So looking at the info on the label in that one I guess it's the colour plus the maple binding as opposed to Trembesi binding on mine. So not a unique mango guitar just a unique finish. Either way I'm very happy with mine.

oh for sure - Im not a fan of overly figured tops - (like that horrid old Ibanez thing they did) but when I first saw Denis and now yours its more "understatedly interesting"

Backs however are a different ball-game and "all bets are off"

thomasross20 · February 2023

Super cool.... Sounds?

myrman · February 2023

thomasross20 said:

Super cool.... Sounds?

Sounds very nice. I have a standard Neptune High Gloss which has a brighter tone overall.

Sporky · February 2023

That's lovely. I don't think I'd like the timber as much on an electric.

TheOtherDennis · February 2023

bertie said:

the same as The Other Dennis bought at the Manchester GS ?

Faith Mango, 1 of a kind ? - but Denni's is a more brown/wine colour ?

OP - https://thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/243280/the-what-i-bought-at-the-guitar-show-thread/p1 ;

It's a combination of the stain and the grain, @Bertie - mine is stained gold with a more understated grain, while @myrman's is stained in a different way (I think Faith described that as 'moon' staining, iirc?), and it's a much more distinctive grain pattern.

What makes each one 'unique' isn't the wood - they're both fully solid mango - it's the way Faith have finished them. They had another mango one on the stand finished in what I think they described as 'midnight' staining, so a really, really dark blue, with another figuring pattern.

I may be wrong, but I think the neck joins may be designed in a slightly different way, too - so on my Avalon cutaway, the neck is joined smoothly down through the cutaway arch. On my Faith, the arch starts slightly away from the neck. I think I saw the Avalon style arch on one or two of the other Neptune cutaways, but I may be wrong (ie, they may have been other models).

And I think the fingerboards and binding are different too - mine has an ebony fingerboard and maple binding. Not sure what that is on @myrman's.

When I was talking to Alex, who said he was the Faith head honcho (at least on the stand, anyway), he said the plan had been to see how the guitars would sound, how easy the wood was to work with, what people thought of them and then decide on future production based on that. As it turned out, the supply wouldn't have worked out for a Faith-level production run, so mango was shelved. (I may have misunderstood, so if anyone knows any different, I'm ready to be corrected.)

They brought the guitars along to the show because they decided they'd sell the prototypes anyway, just to see how they went down. Mine certainly went down very well, and when I went back on Sunday afternoon, they said they'd sold pretty much everything they'd brought and had to bring out some standard models just so the stand didn't look bare.

Oh, and we also bought them at the same show, by the way.

TheOtherDennis · February 2023

For those who haven't seen mine on the other thread, this is the one I bought -

Image: https://www.dropbox.com/s/kmqj2b72s1vnexl/IMG_7832.jpg?raw=1

bertie · February 2023

TheOtherDennis said:
What makes each one 'unique' isn't the wood - they're both fully solid mango - it's the way Faith have finished them. They had another mango one on the stand finished in what I think they described as 'midnight' staining, so a really, really dark blue, with another figuring pattern.

I may be wrong, but I think the neck joins may be designed in a slightly different way, too - so on my Avalon cutaway, the neck is joined smoothly down through the cutaway arch. On my Faith, the arch starts slightly away from the neck. I think I saw the Avalon style arch on one or two of the other Neptune cutaways, but I may be wrong (ie, they may have been other models).

And I think the fingerboards and binding are different too - mine has an ebony fingerboard and maple binding. Not sure what that is on @myrman's.

gotcha

did you manage to play any of the other variants ? (and @myrman ) or were yours the only ones of their kind at the respective shows ?

be interesting to know/hear the tonal differences

Image: /plugins/EmojiExtender/emoji/fb/1.gif

myrman · February 2023

@TheOtherDennis ; I was really tempted by the Legacy prototype that they had. Did you try it? Much more of a standard look but sounded great. I just couldn't justify going home with 2 guitars.

TheOtherDennis · February 2023

I played a couple of other prototypes, but not the other Neptune ones, because I wasn't keen on the dark finishes. They had prototypes of some of their other models - Venus and Legacy, I think they were.

They had a Venus that was pretty much perfect for me in terms of looks, because it was a matt/satin finish, which I absolutely adore, but it was spruce and rosewood, and as I said in the other tread, I've already got three of those.

My mango Neptune is really bright and zingy, but not in a sharp way - its quite rounded, and not as crisp as, say something with mahogany would be (like my LArrivee, for example). And it seems to have plenty of volume.

If I was capable of playing something worth recording, and I was capable of recording it, I'd happily put a soundclip up, so you could hear what I mean.

I absolutely love it. It's the only guitar after my Avalon I've ever bought that I didn't go off within a couple of days.

myrman · February 2023

TheOtherDennis said:

I may be wrong, but I think the neck joins may be designed in a slightly different way, too - so on my Avalon cutaway, the neck is joined smoothly down through the cutaway arch. On my Faith, the arch starts slightly away from the neck. I think I saw the Avalon style arch on one or two of the other Neptune cutaways, but I may be wrong (ie, they may have been other models).

And I think the fingerboards and binding are different too - mine has an ebony fingerboard and maple binding. Not sure what that is on @myrman's.

Here is the cutaway on the Faith Vs my Avalon LS310c

TheOtherDennis · February 2023

myrman said:

@TheOtherDennis ; I was really tempted by the Legacy prototype that they had. Did you try it? Much more of a standard look but sounded great. I just couldn't justify going home with 2 guitars.

I couldn't justify going home with one!

I tried a couple of the other guitars, not sure which models they were, and they were all really nice, and were cracking guitars, but I couldn't justify them.

And then out of nowhere, I absolutely fell in love with the one I bought. I'm really not that into bling at all, I much prefer the understated stuff, but I simply couldn't resist this. Childish, I know, but as the saying goes, if we only pass this way but once...

TheOtherDennis · February 2023

myrman said:

TheOtherDennis said:

I may be wrong, but I think the neck joins may be designed in a slightly different way, too - so on my Avalon cutaway, the neck is joined smoothly down through the cutaway arch. On my Faith, the arch starts slightly away from the neck. I think I saw the Avalon style arch on one or two of the other Neptune cutaways, but I may be wrong (ie, they may have been other models).

And I think the fingerboards and binding are different too - mine has an ebony fingerboard and maple binding. Not sure what that is on @myrman's.

Here is the cutaway on the Faith Vs my Avalon LS310c

Likewise - I think my Neptune has a slightly larger bit at the side of the neck join than yours -

Image: https://www.dropbox.com/s/cwiejr128d3kz66/IMG_7859.jpg?raw=1

bertie · February 2023

lovely bit of binding/purfling on both

TheOtherDennis · February 2023

The binding on mine is maple, don't know what the other one is, tho

myrman · March 2023

maharg101 said:

That is just stunning, I love the striping, and even the fretboard is getting in on the act. Happy NGD !

Pinged an email to Faith today to check on the fretboard and neck wood and it's a mahogany neck (as expected) with a Macassan Ebony fretboard.

Monkeybone · March 2023

I was there too. Spent ages trying out the Legacy Neptune prototype, even got Mrs Monkey to agree to let me buy it but only if they'd let me pay hire purchase style. Unfortunately, they said no, and even worse, as I walked away, dejected, someone else snapped it up.

Monkeybone · May 2023

Monkeybone said:

I was there too. Spent ages trying out the Legacy Neptune prototype, even got Mrs Monkey to agree to let me buy it but only if they'd let me pay hire purchase style. Unfortunately, they said no, and even worse, as I walked away, dejected, someone else snapped it up.

As a follow up to this, I found the guy that bought it was selling it on ebay, so I do now own it

Soupman · May 2023

@Monkeybone great result! And I suspect a small saving on the original price! Well done you!

Monkeybone · May 2023

Soupman said:

@Monkeybone great result! And I suspect a small saving on the original price! Well done you!

Ohhh, I wish that were the case...

The price at the show was £856, the guy who bought it at the show originally had it listed on eBay for £1200! Thankfully, I managed to haggle him down to £950...

GTC · May 2023

I've never tried a guitar with mango top, back and sides before. However, my favourite uke is an all mango Pono baritone. The finish is natural mango with high clear gloss - sort of sick-coloured!

Howdy, Stranger!

Categories

In this Discussion

Become a Subscriber!

NGD - Faith Neptune Mango Prototype

Comments