MusicRadar

Another step towards the higher-spec market for Crafter.

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• Review

Crafter was once a predominately budget acoustic name and there are still models, such as the Lite and Silver Series, that occupy these lower price points.

Inexorably, however, the brand has been moving upmarket, exemplified not least in recent years by the all-solid-wood TV Series and the thin-line Slim Arch hybrid electros.

The most significant jump towards the pro sector came in 2007 with the launch of the GLXE cutaway grand auditorium electros, where high-grade all-solid timbers and specs were the order of the day, and whose ongoing 3000 and 4000 models nowadays retail over £1,000.

Upward evolution continues with the flagship GLXE-6000/ RSB, carrying a price tag just shy of £1,499. An appreciable sum of money, then, but the presentation is appropriately in the luxury mould, strikingly conveyed by the guitar's back and sides.

Rather than simply the rosewood of its cheaper stable-mates, the 6000 adds a centre portion of lighter-hued bubinga to the back and across the end-block, the two timbers separated by coach-lined fillets of maple: very tasty, as is the quality of the body's gloss livery and the instrument's overall standard of build and detailing.

Decoration on our sample's super-clean, reassuringly cross-silked German spruce top includes rosewood-bound abalone purfling, a sound-hole rosette of similar shell surrounding a central ring of back-matching bubinga, and a wing-style ebony bridge carrying a small bird-in-flight inlay at either end.

This theme is continued for the position markers along the ebony fingerboard, which is smartly edged in two-ply black/white binding. Up on the ebony overlaid headstock sit a set of gold Gotoh 510 deluxe tuners.

Gearing is 18:1, which provides very smooth adjustment; although some players may feel they're a little low-geared. They do look the part, though.

Quite a few Crafters come with semi-wide finger-style necks, and this is what we find on the 6000. Kicking off at 44.5mm across the nut, the satin-finish one-piece mahogany affair broadens a fair bit further up, but thanks to a reasonably moderate-depth 'C' profile and a gentle fretboard camber, it's a comfortable, fast playing handful, fulfilling the requirements for both accessible strummage and spacious, well-defined picking.

There are, however, a couple of aspects on our sample that merit a bit more attention: the fret ends feel a tad sharp, even if the fretting is otherwise nicely fitted and dressed; similarly, the front corners of the bone nut need rounding off to eliminate slightly painful contact against the side of your hand when moving back to open-position playing.

Arguably, and despite a speedy, lowish overall action, the nut slots would benefit from being cut lower to reduce the risk of finger-pressure intonation wobbles, which occur occasionally at low positions on the A and bottom E strings. These, though, are all things that can be easily sorted as part of a final pre-buy set-up.