First, a disclaimer – I’m a huge fan of Rob Chapman. Andertons is probably my number one favorite YouTube channel. Rob is a trailblazer in the new music biz. I have nothing but respect for Rob Chapman.
That said, I had a chance to sit down with the Chapman Ghost Fret Pro, and I thought it was worth about $499. The problem is that it sells for $1,099. In no way, shape, or form was the guitar that I played a thousand dollar instrument. To be fair, I only tried one. It might have been a bad example. But let’s do the review thing…
The Good
This guitar has silky smooth steel frets and I really dug them. Bending notes should have been really easy on it (if not for the high action.) The pickups are hot, hot, hot. I understand why – Rob is a high gain player and this guitar screams high gain. I think the pickups sound pretty good, but maybe not anything super special. The neck through body design is very attractive when you look at the back of the guitar. The neck had a really good profile, if you like the back of your neck rather flatter than normal.
The Bad
The guitar I played had action that was set too high, and it still buzzed a teeny bit on the high frets, and I thought “uh oh.” Lowering the action would definitely have caused some buzzing on a few of the high frets, and the action was definitely too high for the type of player that would play this guitar. It could be that the instrument just needed a truss rod adjustment, but I’m not convinced of that.
The Ugly
The flat unattractive finish, the bad setup… this guitar felt mediocre. It felt like a $499 Ibanez. And it’s over a grand. C’mon now. I think it’s possible the neck angle on the instrument I played might have been messed up, and that’s bad, because it’s a neck-through design. That can’t be fixed. Maybe the setup was so bad that it confused me.
If you’re thinking about buying one of these, definitely try a few out and make sure you get a good one. I wouldn’t buy this model without playing it first. There’s a bunch to like, but the one I played will, I suspect, sit on the shelf for a long time… or until someone with deep pockets and a lack of knowledge buys it. I’m hoping it was just a bad one that slipped through.
