I recently bought one of your guitars from Nick Fisher Music in Hereford, who gave me your address. My intention had been to buy a modest standard acoustic for teaching purposes(please dont feel insulted) since so many students attend with faulty instruments.Having got it home and played it,I felt I had to contact you with my thanks and admiration. It is not one of your most expensive, but I have to say its one of the most rewarding guitars I have ever handled and that includes Martin,DeAngelico & DeQuisto. The finish and setup are excellent. I used to demo for Ibanez and good setup was one of their features.A badly setup but otherwise great guitar may as well be a cheap nasty thing if it cant do the job due to sloppy finishing.I dont believe the state that Gibson and others allow to hang on shop walls for sale these days. Anyway getting back to yours, the balance and neck profile are as good as it gets, intonation right on the money and tonal range from near the bridge to over the soundhole is amazing.The instrument projects a full sound surprisingly strongly. I am an electric jazz guitar player myself but like most players I appreciate a quality acoustic sound and we all have the influence of django somewhere in our heads. The electrics are a lot better than my experience of Ovation, the Yamaha APX series and Gibson. All in all its a delight and I have been playing and enjoying it for lots of hours. Thanks again for a very pleasant and unepected surprise.

I recently bought a Freshman FA500DCE and I absolutely love it. I have been looking for a new electro-acoustic for a long time and have played many guitars from all the major manufacturers, but have not been able to find the acoustic sound that I have been looking for. I tried the 350 series a couple of weeks ago and was impressed with it’s sound, and wanted to try the higher range models. I then read the review of the new 500 series in AcousticMagazine and arranged with Freshman to have one sent out to “Guitarguitar” in Edinburgh for me to try. As soon as I played it I knew it was the sound I had been looking for. The sound is bright, but also has a wonderful rich resonant tone, well balanced with a lot of volume. It has the dual Schertler pick up which sounds great. The guitar looks, sounds and feels wonderful – thank you. Jon Farrimond

Hi, My name is Alan St. John. I’m 66 and registered blind. I have 5% vision in my left eye and the other is totally blind. I have been receiving “Acoustic” since it came out and think it’s fantastic. I manage to read some of it with my Jodrell sized magnifier and my wife reads me the rest. In issue 3 (Apr ’05) you reviewed a Freshman Guitar and, as it was my 65th birthday that month, my wife surprised me by buying me a FRESHMAN FA400J/F. It’s amazing! I have played guitar on and off most of my life but over the past 18 months I must have improved 300%! I now go out singing and playing in a duo called “Donkey Stone” (it’s a Lancashire thing!) and have just finished doing a series of theatre dates with Fred Dibnah’s widow in a tribute show for which I wrote four songs. But I digress. This letter is just a wake up call for all those people who would love to play guitar but for a variety of reasons (excuses) never get round to it. Your editor once said, in his column, that you should buy the best instrument you can afford and he’s absolutely right! My guitar has given me self confidence, hope and, above all, joy. Pure unadulterated joy. Thank you for a wonderful May. Yours sincerely, Alan St. John. p.s. My wife bought herself a Freshman and is currently learning to play also!
Many thanks for the recent info regarding the Freshman FEPBC Electric Guitar. As a result of this report and the opportunity to actually play the guitar, I am now the extremely pleased owner of this guitar.
As well as the Freshman, I also played four other guitars from different manufacturers- some cheaper in price and some more expensive. Result- subjectively, I found the Freshman to be the guitar for me- I think it looks great, feels good, gorgeous neck, playability, versatile sounds from Blues to Jazz to Rock.
On the downside however, it has become increasingly difficult for me to walk by the guitar and not stop for a quick play- this tends to develop into an extended play!
Regards, Dik Morgan