MusicRadar

This is the best Vanquish yet - a well built and versatile guitar.

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• Review

Adrian Hardman's original Legend design put his fledging Vanquish brand on the map and picked up blues hotshot Ollie Brown as a signature artist. But over the past months, Hardman has taken his vision further with this new single-cut Mystique.

"I wanted to get a bit more resonance and a full-bodied sound, primarily in the low-end," he tells us. "I made the first prototype in August 2009 and have now made 15 or so. Interestingly, it's been twice as popular as the Legend."

Hardman started with the double-cut Legend design, slightly enlarging the lower bouts and adding the upper shoulder. "I wanted to get a mix of the Legend, a Les Paul and a Tele," he explains.

"The neck is cleverly inset into the body with an angled join that means the heel is all but sculptured away."

Yet like the Legend we get the angled top from where the neck joins the body to the bridge so the strings sit a pretty much uniform 12mm from the face before the body slopes down into the well shaped violin-like contours of the lower bout. "It's a little thicker overall too," he says, "53mm deep, as opposed to 47mm on the Legend."

It doesn't feel overly bulky though, helped by a deep ribcage contour and trim but not over-tight edge radiusing and a classic single-cut weight of 3.6kg (8lb). The mahogany back is chambered with numerous 25mm wide, 20mm deep slots with a solid centre.

"I did it for resonance, just to get a little more air into it, but to be honest the mahogany I have is very light and resonant," he notes.

The neck is cleverly inset to the body with an angled joint that means the heel area is all but sculptured away. Shape-wise we have an offset profile, fuller shouldered on the bass-side, slightly more sloped on the treble side, but still quite 'old Gibson' in size.

The big frets are highly polished, the fingerboard edges are bound with rosewood and very nicely rounded for a worn-in feel. The inlays are crisp - it's a thoroughly pro job, like the bone nut and overall set-up.

Oh, did we mention we have the Buzz Feiten Tuning System as standard? As a result it's one of the most in-tune and stable guitars we've played - especially for high fret chord work - and we barely had to use the Gotoh tuners during our testing period.

The spliced headstock - rosewood-faced with crisp Vanquish pearl inlay - gives a more contemporary appearance, but the overall design an appealing blend of old and new. Just like the hardware really, which mixes a recessed Tone Pro's tune-o-matic and a proprietary Vanquish tailpiece with its thru-body stringing and immaculately inset string ferrules on the back.