Tell me about british Fret King / Wilkinson guitars

kypdurron · Post by **kypdurron** » Mon Mar 29, 2010 3:58 pm

so I tried a bunch of Telecasters today, and one was a ~ 2001 sunburst Fret King "corona" by Trevor Wilkinson Tele, made in England. It was very well built and had a wonderful neck. But I know that shop-owner is sometimes telling you fairytales about pricing and values (what is funny as long as you know what he's talking about ...), and in this case I have no clue if he asks too much. I liked the guitar, but not as much to pay any price unquestioned.

He said the average new price 10 years ago was around 1600 â‚¬ (currently ~ 1400 GBP) and he's asking 950 (~ 850 GBP), including case. Is this a fair deal or not? Maybe some british based shortscaler can enlighten me about these guitars?

Overall condition was an 8 out of ten, with obviusly freshly leveled frets.

ekwatts · Post by **ekwatts** » Mon Mar 29, 2010 4:47 pm

That sounds pretty good, to me. Fret King guitars are fucking great.

chisa · Post by **chisa** » Mon Mar 29, 2010 5:03 pm

fret kings were started up a few years ago by wilkinson and then went out of business, over the past 3-4 years they have begun making them again split between england and the far east. i think all the earlier types (such as you have the chance to buy) were all english made. they are a bit like g&l pricewise i think

chisa · Post by **chisa** » Mon Mar 29, 2010 5:05 pm

have a look here,

it is in Deutsch too

http://www.fret-king.com/reviews/GB20011194[1].pdf

kypdurron · Post by **kypdurron** » Mon Mar 29, 2010 5:12 pm

Yeah, it's one of the older ones, and it's def. made in England. So you'd say that the asked price is not too far off? I mean, this is quite some money, still ... so it'd better be worth it ...

Bacchus · Post by **Bacchus** » Mon Mar 29, 2010 5:15 pm

I've heard that they are very, very good, and to be honest, I would trust nearly anything with Trevor Wilkinson's name on it. However, that is a lot of money. I dunno. Fran might be the man to ask.

ekwatts · Post by **ekwatts** » Mon Mar 29, 2010 5:34 pm

BacchusPaul wrote:I've heard that they are very, very good, and to be honest, I would trust nearly anything with Trevor Wilkinson's name on it. However, that is a lot of money. I dunno. Fran might be the man to ask.

This.

That price looks alright to me, though. I've seen a Corona go for very close to Â£2000 before.

Fran · Post by **Fran** » Mon Mar 29, 2010 5:50 pm

Yeah, Fret King are good. I tried a Fret King bass not long ago and it was in a different league to everything else in the shop, a proper solid guitar for life, great finsh and well made. I definitely agree with the G&L comparison.
Like most British guitars though they never took off in a big way, i always found this odd that most players nearly always gravitate towards the big names with long tradition. Still, they all start somewhere (think PRS and Ibanez), maybe a handful of big names using something like Fret King would be all it takes. Its a mindset, you see a Fret King for 700 quid and in the back of your head your thinking "i could get a second hand Gibbo or US Fender for that money..".

The 'Vintage' brand is another one Trev Wilkinson has had a lot to do with. The standard range is decent quality for the money and the pro series (i think it is) has quite a few fairly large names endorsing it.

MikeG · Post by **MikeG** » Mon Mar 29, 2010 8:30 pm

Some of the newer ones were going for around Â£499 in London last year.

I'd rather have a decent 50s/60s Classic Series, to be honest.

Fran · Post by **Fran** » Mon Mar 29, 2010 8:38 pm

The cheaper models are the imports i think. There are various models on ebay at sub-400.

benecol · Post by **benecol** » Mon Mar 29, 2010 9:12 pm

BacchusPaul wrote:... and to be honest, I would trust nearly anything with Trevor Wilkinson's name on it

Then be warned, young Bacchus, that Trev Wilkinson would put his name on a turd if there was a few quid in it for him: he's been behind some great stuff, but also some pony too. One of my local shops has a UK Fret King Esquire that was personally selected and primped by Trevor for none other than Jeff Beck: he didn't like the jumbo frets, and for that matter, neither did I. They are lovely guitars, but the resale value is pretty poor, as only guitar shop owners truly get boners over them, and we all know what excellent prices they offer...

So it's not the deal of the century: if you love it, buy it, but if you're looking to snag a bargain, look elsewhere.

kypdurron · Post by **kypdurron** » Mon Mar 29, 2010 9:50 pm

thx, that was my thought too. it may be worth the money, but if I ever decide to flip it the money would be basically gone ... like with a custom guitar. Unlike a used Fender. Guess you don't find anybody going wild about these outside the UK. So it just has to fit for, like, quite some time ... Guess I just won't hurry too much, as I could indeed nearly get a used Fender 52 AVRI tele for that money (or maybe 100 more), I suppose. Maybe it's gone by then, or I stumble across something else. Or I try it again and it stands.

BTW, the '50s Classic Teles have about as nice necks, but all I tried sounded like dead wood somehow ... The best (i.e. most vivid) sounding Teles I could try were a Squier classic Vibe Thinline, a Fender Highway 1 (though the neck finish sucked) and, well, the Fret King one. The others were a Road Worn (junk imho), 2 Am. Standards (nice, but not my cup of tea), 1 Mex. Standard (well built, but also dead wood), a Baja (didn't like the electrics, the neck was fine but again ... dead wood), the 2 '50s Classic and (not really in the competition today, as it was much too expensive) a used 52 AVRI. That was nice also, but the guy asked 1,8 k for it. A sought after production year he said. Ok, it was a quality guitar, but if it's a collectiblre, let the collectors have it ...

chisa · Post by **chisa** » Mon Mar 29, 2010 10:59 pm

benecol wrote:
BacchusPaul wrote:... and to be honest, I would trust nearly anything with Trevor Wilkinson's name on it
Then be warned, young Bacchus, that Trev Wilkinson would put his name on a turd if there was a few quid in it for him: he's been behind some great stuff, but also some pony too. One of my local shops has a UK Fret King Esquire that was personally selected and primped by Trevor for none other than Jeff Beck: he didn't like the jumbo frets, and for that matter, neither did I. They are lovely guitars, but the resale value is pretty poor, as only guitar shop owners truly get boners over them, and we all know what excellent prices they offer...

So it's not the deal of the century: if you love it, buy it, but if you're looking to snag a bargain, look elsewhere.

this is true

johnniespring · Post by **johnniespring** » Mon Mar 29, 2010 11:15 pm

anything is worth what you are willing to pay for it.
if we all said it was only worth Â£600 in this country but they rarely come up for sale would that make it worth paying Â£850 cos it's in a different country and even less available or not?

did it sound and feel like a thousand euro guitar to you? if so get it and you can afford it then go for it.
if not then don't.

benecol · Post by **benecol** » Mon Mar 29, 2010 11:33 pm

Yes, how dare you ask for advice on a guitar forum.

kypdurron · Post by **kypdurron** » Mon Mar 29, 2010 11:40 pm

johnniespring wrote: if we all said it was only worth Â£600 in this country but they rarely come up for sale would that make it worth paying Â£850 cos it's in a different country and even less available or not?

To me it would mean that this price is over the top. There is no wide desire for these here that justifies any stretching of a usual english price. I mean, I usually find average prices on google for any kind of stuff. In this case, I did not. Maybe because they only occasionally left England, and are basically out of production for quite some years.

johnniespring wrote:did it sound and feel like a thousand euro guitar to you? if so get it and you can afford it then go for it.
if not then don't.

Dunno. The only direct comparison was the Fender 52 Reissue Tele. It stood its part besides that one, apart from that I liked the Fender colour better it was a comparable quality. Definitely much more quality gear than the mexican Teles I played today, that, in Case of the Road Worn, come pretty close to that price point.

But I still am not sure if I need a 1000 â‚¬ Tele, the Squier CV Thinline was damn good, and the Highway 1 too. But I guess nobody can tell me that. Some may say get a job and then buy expensive gear ... but hey, I got that huge fiscal payback, why not investing in my new band.

benecol · Post by **benecol** » Mon Mar 29, 2010 11:44 pm

It's also worth pointing out, they were made in (I think) the Czech Republic for a few years, so I should imagine they do crop up outside of the UK with some regularity.

kypdurron · Post by **kypdurron** » Tue Mar 30, 2010 2:43 pm

so it turned to be obsolete, I went to another shop today and tried their Teles from the Classic Vibe up to the new American Special series, and they had one that blew all others away. Superb neck, light, resonant body, beatiful finish and all the punch you could ask for. The guy made me an ok price, so I just took it home. It's a mexican made '50s Esquire. I might get me a second pickup at some time, but the substance on this guitar is the best I found in 7 shops all over town. I liked it even better than the high price stuff this thread is about.