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A superbly crafted electric guitar.

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• Review
• Manufacturer's Description

We get many requests to review instruments from unknown makers. Sadly, a fair number of them don't come up to scratch. Adrian 'Ade' Hardman was just another hopeful earlier this year.

He had a couple of guitars that showed great promise but seemed to us to be a little lacking in certain areas. Rather than walking off in a huff, Ade hunkered down to address those issues and surpassed merely fixing them. He still wasn't happy though, so he went off again and produced the Legend Classic - £1,695 of pure class.

Ade's a big fan of the Gibson SG and you can see that in the design: a 24.75-inch scale, all mahogany instrument with a double-cut symmetrical shape and seemingly long 22-fret neck that, like the SG, allows easy access to the top fret.

The one-piece mahogany body has a well-shaped, carved top and, thanks to a fairly deep ribcage contour, appears thinner than its 47mm depth.

The edges are nicely rounded, and with the handrubbed oil and wax finish there's a beautifully smooth but tactile feel to the instrument that's really classy yet nicely understated - especially in this blood red stain.

Of course, if you'd prefer a conventional nitro-cellulose finish, or indeed a different colour stain, Ade can cater for that.

The neck joins the body with an unusual angled set-neck tenon joint "ensuring a full contact between the body and neck wood for maximum tone transfer," says Ade.

The rounded heel is part of the neck, not the body, the jointing appears complex and Ade is unusual for a maker of his standing by using a CNC router to cut out the parts.

It's a clever and very tidy joint, as is the virtually invisible headstock splice at the other end of the neck, added here to prevent the possibility of a break.

The single-action truss rod is designed to minimise metal content and the neck shape, a nicely rounded deep 'D', means we have plenty of wood.

It's a very stable neck too, with virtually zero flap, and for such a long unsupported length that's unusual - in fact, trying to evoke any neck-bend vibrato on this guitar is pretty difficult.

The fingerboard is beautifully executed too with neatly rounded edges, a classic 12-inch camber and perfectly fitted and polished medium gauge frets that might be a little low for some players but, again, Ade can alter that to suit.

There's no edge binding but the fret tangs are notched and the slot stops just before the fingerboard edges.

The bone nut is perfectly cut and the square pearl inlays and the pearl side dots are very cleanly inlaid; you'll notice more dots by the controls and on the top of the body, by the edge, to indicate the position of the recessed barrel jack socket - very handy when you're putting in your lead with the guitar strapped on and can't see that socket.

There are plenty more fine details. There's the engraved, chromed, thick metal electronics coverplate held to the body with slot head bolts that thread into metal body-inserts; a heavily screened electronics cavity that's a work of art in itself; the Buzz Feiten Tuning System, the Musitrac microchip for "complete peace of mind in case of theft or loss".