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Indie Designer Union Jack Electric Guitar

 

Review of the Indie Designer Union Jack by The Man in the Jar

It's obvious who's shoes this little fella is trying to fill, and big shoes they are indeed.

Features of the Indie Union Jack 

Tuners - Sealed chrome mini-tuners with tulip knobs. Smooth and accurate in use.

Headstock - Three-a-side headstock has a slight Dutch-gable shape but is less fussy than Epiphone equivalents.

Nut - The specs say the nut is graphite. Can graphite be white? Anyway everything appears clean and accurate.

Neck - The set neck is maple and slightly less chunky than you'd find on a Gibson. It's the perfect proportion for this style of guitar and very comfortable in the hand. The neck is finished in the same white lacquer as forms the base for the design on the body.

Fretboard - The rosewood fretboard is bound on both edges with ivory binding, the binding on the top edge carries small black position markers. The markings on the fretboard are the classic Gibbo crown shape inlays. This type of guitar just doesn't look right with anything else!

Frets - The 22 jumbo frets are supremely well polished and simply scream out for outrageous bending (!).

Action - Excellent straight from the box. Korean guitar makers are getting so good at set-ups these days.

Body - A lovely, weighty chunk of solid mahogany with the sexiest bulge of carving on the top. There's no mystery where the inspiration for this body shape comes from, and the weight and feel of this body do full justice to that legacy. The back of the body is finished in white lacquer and the Union Flag design on the front is fabulous. If you play any Who numbers in your set it's worth buying this for the Townsend kudos alone. 

Bridge - Tried and tested Tune-o-matic and stoptail with each saddle individually adjustable for intonation. Action (string height) is adjusted using a screw at each end of the bridge. If you're new to this game be aware that these components are held on by string pressure. So if you ever need to take all the strings off at once, do it very carefully!

Pickups - There are two covered humbuckers that are Indies own brand but claim to ape the classic '57 PAFs from Gibson's golden age. 

Controls - Standard layout of Volume and Tone for each pickup.

Strap-buttons - Monster strap buttons in the usual places.

Output Jack - On the lower edge in a square plastic plate.

Finish - Excellent throughout.

Accessories - None.

 

Sound of the Indie Union Jack

By now you'll know I'm an old fashioned boy and when faced with a lump of mahogany loaded with PAF's I take the opportunity to drop into Lizzy mode. The Indie's bridge pickup delivered on cue with that fabulous hard rock grind that still makes my blood tingle. The sound is less throaty than you'd expect from a similar guitar loaded with more modern spec pickups, less dark than you'd expect from a similar guitar with a mahogany neck. But for me it was an absolute bulls-eye and I played the guitar a lot longer than was really necessary to write this review. Flicking to the neck pickup revealed a lot more of the mahogany darkness and, leaving the amp on overdrive, I was able to have a smokey, chokey blues session, all the time being egged into better and more bitter expression by those love fat frets. And all of the time I was aware that the guitar looked almost as sexy as I felt.   

 

Overall Impressions of the Indie Union Jack

Wow!   I had the wrong idea about Indie. I'd assumed they were just another me-too copy company. But the sheer quality of this guitar makes the fact that it's a copy completely irrelevant. Of course the headstock says the "wrong" thing, but when's the last time you played the headstock. If you care about sound, feel, looks and quality, then the right guitar is the right guitar whatever its name might be. Suffice to say if I'd ordered a Gibson and this turned up instead I would not be disappointed.       

Buy the Indie Union Jack

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