Reprise – Introduction written by Josh Maxey
The idea of a great guitar getting made for the first time is a bit like an album. You have the raw material, your melodies, the forms, and where the solos will be. It all starts with a spark and once an aspect of the music takes shape, suddenly it has a life of its own and a beginning from which to proceed. If you?re lucky you might have another musician to work through the ideas with as they develop. In the bouncing back and forth, the album takes shape as a combination of the best of each musician.
Working with Freddy on the new Reprise model has been a special experience for me. It?s been as inspiring and creative as any album I?ve worked on. It started a year or so before production began with a question of if it were possible to take my DockStar which I love, and have it hand crafted and constructed like an arch top jazz guitar.
From everything I?ve seen, Freddy is always working behind the scenes on two main goals. One is that Phred customers have the best service experience possible. As a guitar teacher, I always want my students to have a great experience with the lessons. I know the study of music and a lesson time might be one of the highlights of a person?s day. I see that same adherence to caring about each individual with Phred Instruments. Phred guitars go out into the world and inspire people to take their next steps in music and no doubt bring joy to their owners and listeners. The other thing I?ve seen with Phred is a commitment to developing ideas and making the best instrument with the greatest value possible. Phred Instruments knows that we muciains need quality and inspiring instruments that are affordable.
The Reprise offers something new. It’s hand crafted by a small team of guitar makers. It has an arch top design with hand carved top and back, solid sides and striking mahogany binding. It is the realization of an idea. A hand crafted boutique guitar with a nod to tradition that is affordable for musicians.
Guitars are an extension of our musicianship. When we connect with an instrument it becomes a part of our sound. It vibrates with us and suggests the next notes or chords we play, along with responding to our imagination. The idea of a guitar being created to fulfill a dream is pretty exciting to me! There isn?t a guitar this size, shape and style with this quality of construction available from the big guitar companies.
Our idea was to create an instrument for all the musicians like myself that are looking for the best quality guitar with a nod to tradition while remaining its own individual instrument.
As the Reprise has taken shape, it?s form, themes and materials have added up to something more than their parts, just like a great album. I think having this guitar, with its concept and execution, is going to inspire many players to continue to realize their own musical dreams, write their next album, learn their next favorite song and take the next step in the unending path of music.
Josh Maxey
JoshMaxey.com
https://joshuamaxey.bandcamp.com
#Reprise2020
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Body
The fully hollow archtop body features a mahogany side, a solid spruce back, and a solid flame maple top, with a dual humbucker setup, discrete split coil switches and a 3-way pickup toggle for 8 different tone combinations! There is one master volume and one master tone knob for dialing in your tone. The guitar strings pass over a floating bridge that is not anchored to the guitar body. Similar to a violin, banjo or mandolin bridge, the bridge simply rests on top of the body and is held in place by string tension. The ebony tailpiece is attached to the end of the guitar, holding the strings in place. There is one 1/4″ standard guitar output jack on the side of the guitar body. Reprise ships inside a custom Hard Shell Case.
Neck
The maple core neck is set-in to the body with glue. The back of the neck contour is a C-shape that feels somewhere in between a strat and an LP neck, not too thin, and not too chunky either. The 2-octave ebony fingerboard has 24 medium jumbo frets which are leveled and milled here at our shop in Agoura Hills, California for a nice smooth feel along the edge of the fretboard and all around. The fretboard features a 15 inch radius which is perfect for soloing and playing chords up and down the fretboard. Topping off the fretboard are custom “powerful pill” pearloid inlays designed by PHRED instruments. At the top of the neck, you’ll find a bone nut for good sustain, with a tilt-back 6-inline headstock featuring our signature Phred Instruments logo. Under the fretboard is the adjustable double-expanding truss rod, keeping the neck stable in any climate.
The PHRED instruments Reprise gets its inspiration from Trey Anastasio’s Languedoc guitar.
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13-point Setup
Our 13-point setup and inspection ensures that every PHRED Instruments guitar we ship is professionally setup and ready to play when it’s delivered to you. Setup will include string-height adjustment, intonation, electronics inspection, and the frets are leveled, crowned, and polished, as outlined below.
Fretwork and Fingerboard
1. Debur Fret Edges
This process involves filing the edges of each fret such that the edge of the fretboard feels smooth as you play up and down the neck.
2. Level Frets
Leveling all the frets ensures that you can play at low string action and with clear and articulated notes on each fret.
3. Crown Frets
After leveling the frets, they are crowned. Crowning frets is a process by which the frets are rounded slightly at the top. This makes the frets feel nice and smooth all around, ensures smooth bends, and also makes it easy to slide up and down the fretboard.
4. Polish Frets
After crowning the frets, polishing makes them shine brightly. Polishing them also makes them even more smooth to the touch.
5. Condition the fingerboard
The fretboard wood is cleaned and conditioned using fretboard oil.
Setup
6. Adjust Truss Rod
The truss rod should be adjusted such that the neck is slightly concave.
7. Adjust Nut
The nut height is adjusted to the fingerboard, and the string slots are filed to a perfect height and width for the strings we install
8. Adjust the Bridge Height
As a part of setting the string action, the bridge height is adjusted to our standard measurement of 1.75mm above the 12th fret on the low E string, and 1.5mm above the 12th fret on the high E string. We leave a little bit of room if you want to adjust the bridge a bit lower than that.
9. Adjust the Bridge Saddles
Intonation is set by adjusting the bridge saddles. We tune up and stretch a fresh set of strings, and then adjust the bridge saddle position until the harmonic at the 12th fret compared to the note at the 12th fret.
Pickups
10. Adjust pickup height
The height of the pickup is adjusted such that the perceived volume is consistent between each of the pickups installed on the guitar.
Electronics
11. Inspect and test electronics
Whether you upgrade to our USA wiring option or go with the stock wiring and electronics, we are going to make sure all the electronics work properly prior to shipping. For guitars that have an OBEL jack, we wire it Tip=Send, Ring=Return.
Strings
12. Install D’Addario 10-46 gauge strings
We install D’Addario EXL 10-46 gauge strings on all guitars. If you prefer a different brand or string gauge, contact us and we can accommodate other brands and string gauges, and adjust the setup accordingly to the strings that you prefer to use.
Guitar Body & Hardware
13. Clean and polish the guitar body and hardware
Just before we package up a guitar for shipping, we clean and polish your guitar using StewMac Guitar Polish to make it shine.
Stephen Hunt –
I just want to let you know that this is one of the finest pieces of workmanship I’ve ever played. It’s smooth and clear right out of the box. I’m totally impressed with your attention to detail. Thanks for making such an outstanding instrument.
Ari Raskin –
I’m not a major expert on thinline hollowbodies, nor do I have a ‘Doc G2 on hand to compare this to, but I’ll say this — the Reprise is a winner, and in more than one way. I got my Reprise mainly for the purpose of recording, so while feel and looks are often major considerations for a lot of guitar buyers, the most important factors for me were sound quality and intonation. Both are beyond excellent. I ordered mine with maple top, spruce back, mahogany sides — all visually beautiful pieces of wood, and resonant as well. Excellent tiger striping on the top with very few, if any, inconsistencies on any part of the guitar (on the headstock “wing,” it has a small cut of maple which is much flamier than other parts of the neck, but it adds charm, and it isn’t a problem, not that anyone other than the player would notice anyway). Certainly the factory that does the wood work knows what they’re doing and are careful in their choices of using only quality cuts. I can’t speak for those with the standard Seymour Duncan ’59 pickup configuration, as I sourced a set of original NOS Schaller Golden 50s (which Freddy kindly installed for me instead), but mine sounds truly awesome (from what I understand though, there’s essentially no difference between Golden 50s and Duncan ’59s anyway). I have never loved the sound of a coil-tapped humbucker as it tends to sound dinky and nothing like a normal single coil, but in this case, the feature actually works very well and musically. Between all of the serial, parallel and single coil combinations available from the two pickups, you really get a great range of available tones, from thick and mean Les Paul vibes to pretty, gentle, delicate detail and anywhere in between. Regular humbucker configuration is sort of my favorite just because it sounds most familiar and most aggressive, but the other options are totally useful and not to be dismissed. Out of the box, the feel was a 10/10 (this thing feels like a quality instrument AND arrived set up wonderfully on top of that) and the intonation was a 9/10…so I nudged the bridge not more than half a mm. After spending a week being shipped across the country, I expected to have to do this to a solid wooden instrument — and now the intonation as close to spot on as any guitar is ever gonna get. Better than I expected. Not to mention, the bone saddle is split into two saddles and does not have the adjustability that a tune-o-matic has, but it doesn’t matter because it doesn’t need it — the intonation is great anyway. EXCELLENT fret work as well….Feels great running up and down the neck, super smooth, none of the notes fret out anywhere and everything rings 100% clean. This is one of the giveaways that this isn’t a toy and that some serious care was put into building this instrument. I have about 15 other pro-quality electric guitars and only one of them (a Custom Shop Gibson that cost 4x the price) plays as cleanly and as in-tune as this Reprise. I only have one other hollowbody electric, a 50s Gibson ES-225T (also a thinline), and this Reprise is an excellent alternative to that as it’s similar in basic design and size yet also very opposite. Whereas the Gibson has an old, mellow, smokey sound with its mahogany neck and shorter scale length, the Reprise’s Fender-esque maple neck and scale length make for a much crisper, clearer, more solid tone…also has a tad more of a Strat/Tele-style feel. The Reprise is really a great merging of two different guitar styles — slightly Gibson-esque in it’s pickup arrangement and hollow body build, but then slightly Fender-esque in its body shape and neck as well as its snappy tone. Nitrocellulose lacquer finish on the Reprise, thankfully. Nitro is the only way to go if you want an instrument that vibrates to it’s full potential, imo, based on all the guitars I’ve played and all I’ve researched. I have a feeling there’s some plasticizers in the lacquer, so it might not ever get that crazy weather checking that nitro is known for, but that’s pretty much par for the course in 21st century nitro finishes…Still way better looking, feeling and sounding than those thick poly finishes. I’ve had the guitar for about a month and really only have two minor gripes: The more modern-style nitro lacquer rather than that thin nitro found on vintage guitars, as mentioned, and the tailpiece. There’s nothing wrong with the tailpiece actually, not as far as I can tell, just that in comparison to the rest of the guitar, and in comparison to some other high-end hollowbody jazz guitars of a similar design, it looks to be a bit lower quality. I’ve seen more elegant-looking tailpieces is all I’m saying. Regardless, I can’t find anything wrong with what comes with the Reprise. It holds the strings in place, it looks and feels totally sturdy and it appears to be made from a nice piece of wood. The guitar resonates wonderfully, so I think this is purely a visual thing, to my eye. While the Reprise isn’t a cheap guitar, it’s actually a very fair value and a quality instrument. Sounds and feels great and certainly isn’t slapped together…it appears that the Reprise is built with care at all stages of the construction process. If you want a Languedoc, but don’t want to wait years and years and/or don’t want to drop absurd dough (IF attaining one was even possible), the Reprise is your best bang for the buck that I’m aware of. Alternatively, if you’re not after a Languedoc but just want a great guitar for most styles of music…Reprise, also a good choice. If you want mellow, woody, open and breathing jazz tones, it’s there. If you want some ultra-clean, pretty, bellsy vibes, it’s there. If you need a guitar for an R&B gig, the Reprise will more than pull through. If you want some mean and dirty rock, it’s there too. Oh yeah, added bonus: 24 frets, for those who like to climb the fretboard endlessly…and not just 24 frets — 24 nice, clean, smooth, useable frets. 2nd added bonus, the Reprise sounds nice acoustically and is great for practicing or for jamming unplugged. Thank you Freddy and all at Phred Instruments! Love my Reprise!
Steve Maxey –
I was excited to order the Reprise seeing early production pictures as the model was beginning to be made. The guitar is everything I hoped it would be. It is light and resonate. When I play a chord acoustically the whole guitar vibrates and single notes are surrounded by overtones. Plugged in it has bite and a punch to the notes while remaining woody and balanced through the strings and registers. It looks amazing and I’m tempted to leave it on the stand just to see it when I’m not playing!