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TCM Royal Review
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Comes complete with a deluxe hardshell case and limited lifetime warranty.

Chamber
Music

Guitar Player "Bench Tests"
By Matt Blackett
March 2000

High-End Semi-Solidbodies

Guitarist have always been better at adding than subtracting: attaching extension cabs to amps, putting additional pickups on guitars, expanding pedalboards with more and more stompboxes, and so on. But the Gibson Les Paul Elegant and McInturff Royal buck this trend by removing something in their designs—wood.

Both guitars feature chambered bodies that not only make instruments lighter and more comfortable, but also affect their tones in interesting and musical ways. Both instruments were tested onstage and in the studio through a Vox AC30, a Marshall DSL 2000 401, a Mesa/Boogie Nomad 55, and a variety of Roland amps.

Snapshot

Two high-end guitars featuring different takes on the chambered-body theme. The Gibson Les Paul Elegant ($5,320) offers classic Les Paul looks and playability in a lively sounding, relatively light-weight package. The McInturff Royal ($2,495), a carved top design with a ported sound chamber, boasts stellar cosmetics and workmanship. The Royal receives an Editors' Pick Award.

The Ratings Game

Tone

Playability

Workmanship

Materials

Vibe

Value

Gibson Les Paul Elegant

3.5

4.5

McInturff Royal

A relative newcomer to the world of guitar building, Terry C. McInturff makes impeccably crafted instruments that are designed to straddle the Strat/Les Paul line. The Royal ($2,495) puts an interesting spin on the double-cutaway theme with a hand-carved top and an unique, ported sound chamber.

Construction

This is one solid guitar! It almost seems as if the entire instrument was carved out of the same block of wood. The body is perfectly smooth-even all the bevels and arches. The frets are beautifully dressed-with not a jagged end in sight-although the 21st fret was high enough to cause the E and A strings to buzz. The single volume and tone controls are positioned ergonomically, as is the 3-way switch. The control cavity is as clean as I've ever seen, and McInturff shows his repairman roots by thoughtfully labeling the solder points on the pots. All McInturff guitars sport an uncommon 25.125" scale and feature a novel neck-reinforcement design that uses graphite rails running from the 9th fret to the body joint, in addition to a standard trussrod. (McInturff feels that this lends extra stability to an area of the neck where trussrods don't have as much effect.)

The Royal's most obvious feature is its round chamber port. This tone chamber is tuned to enhance the entire range of the instrument, without emphasizing any particular note. It also makes for a lighter guitar, and the Royal tips the scales at a reasonable 8.16 lbs. Like everything else on this guitar, the port is very clean, although a thin bead of glue can be felt (but not seen) inside the cavity. Aside from that, it's near impossible to find a flaw on this instrument.

Sounds & Playability

The optional '57 neck carve (no extra charge) is beefier than McInturff's standard shape, and it feels great-full, but not fat. The fretwork is stunning, with each fret dressed to a perfect triangular shape. This not only looks slick, but also helps the Royal intonate beautifully. The factory setup is so amazing, that even though the guitar shipped with .011's, it played easily. Kudos to McInturff for such a ballsy move-many manufacturers ship their guitars with .009's to ensure that they play almost effortlessly right off the rack.

Through an amp, the McInturff produces lively, zingy tones with great presence. The optional Virtual P-90 pickups are very quiet and sound like high-tech versions of the real deals. Pairing the Royal with a Vox AC30 was especially satisfying, as the duo produced sparkly clean sounds and detailed, articulate crunch tones.

The volume knob has an excellent taper. Every spot on its rotation produces musical tones, making the Royal a great match for a single-channel amp. Dial up a loud, dirty tone and clean things up by backing off the guitar volume. The Royal's tone control is fairly subtle throughout most of it's range-a nice change from the extreme circuits found on so many instruments. Things get a little honky in the low-mid area when you roll the tone all the way off, but even those tones worked well for STP-style rhythms or Santana-approved leads.

The nature of the pickups is idiosyncratic, however, and like most guitars with unique personalities, the Royal isn't an all-around player in the recording studio. For example, while the guitar exhibited a rather cold, hard midrange on a rhythm part in a synth-based track, it sounded perfect when layered over a P-90 loaded Les Paul.

How much of the Royal's tone comes from the chambered design is impossible to know, but this guitar defenitely has an airiness that your average solidbody can't touch. If you're looking for something unique in a world of copycats, you might just want to swear allegience to this royalty.

Pros: Editors' Pick Award winner. Top notch craftsmanship with cool styling. Plays great. A wide range of cool sounds.

Cons: Midrange response can be somewhat clinical.