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Fernando: Like Allen, I found the Fretlight guitar to be an excellent learning tool. I also found it offered a useful and interesting way to help with writing riffs and licks, especially those adhering to scales and keys that one might not typically be comfortable enough to write in. When using the play-along tracks, I found improvising to be an enhanced learning experience, since you don’t have to rely on prior knowledge or memory to know what scales to use, and when a song modulates, the scales change in real time. Looping such a progression is very helpful to learn the possibilities and actions necessary for this type of harmonic content. A real axe, too The lights on the fretboard aren’t the only thing this instrument has going for it—this is also a full-fledged guitar. We both played it through an amp and various rigs, and we feel like it would be a suitable instrument for live performance or even for recording. The FG-421 model we had for review sports a 25.5” scale with a 12” radius and Cshape maple neck with 21 medium/high frets. The fretboard is made of “advanced” polymer with an LED circuit board layer (throughout all of its 21 frets) right underneath. The body is made of alder and is available in classic Jet Black, Pearl White, Renegade Red, Tobacco Sunburst, Rustic Red, and Powder Blue. It has chrome hardware, including a fixed bridge with adjustable saddles, guitar string ferrules, a two-way adjustable truss rod at the headstock, and both a 1/4" output (for audio-to-amp; located at the traditional placement for Stratocaster guitars) and DIN-to-USB connector for Fretlight data. The S-S-H pickup configuration is one that we prefer on Strats as you get both single-coil and humbucking sounds. The 5way pickup selector allows you to join the neck and middle single-coils, or the humbucker with the middle pickup. We found the sounds to be useful and diverse enough for Blues, Rock and Country. They interacted very well with a variety of pedals. The review model included the N-Tune system (www.ntune.com) built into the volume knob, where by simply pulling on it, you activate a built-in tuner. It’s an option when purchasing the guitar, but proved to be a really handy feature for a quick tune-up. The playability as a guitar was decent, good for an instrument in its price range. Maybe a bit stiff at first for some people’s playing style, but less so as one gets used to it. Allen commented that the FG-421 was a bit heavier than a standard guitar in this style, probably due to the added electronics. For us, following the red LED dots worked better for learning scales and chords than for playing songs with the suggested fingering, because if you’re fretting a note correctly, you’re very likely covering up the visual guides. But you can always
RECORDING MARCH 2012

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Recording - March 2012

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