Guitarist (UK)

December 1998

Reviewed by Ben Bartlett

Courtesy Guitarist / Future Publishing

Price: £1,299

An explosive combination of tonewoods, custom manufactured bridge and pickups and out-of-this-world cosmetics.

Fury has managed to keep a very low profile for a company that's been producing guitars since 1962, and whatever the reason for this, I'm eternally glad that the Fireball has decided to burn its way over here from its Canadian home.

The company literally rose from the ashes of a tragic car accident which left Glenn McDougall, Fury's president and design engineer seriously injured. With his dexterity impaired for life. Glenn poured all his energies into the pursuit of guitar-building excellence, rather than playing. His reasoning was that as he couldn't play the way he wanted to any more, he'd produce guitars to satisfy the needs of those who could, something which becomes blatantly obvious when you observe all the custom-made components fitted. In fact, the Fireball's only concession to conformity is a set of Schaller tuning machines.

BUILD QUALITY

It's quite simply breathtaking to see quality engineering of this calibre. For example, the patented. specially-designed Uninut is machined from hard acrylic, rather than moulded. This is hardly cost effective, so why is it there? Well, the Uninut is supposed to marry the best features of a zero fret with those of conventional nut, claiming balanced, sustained open string notes and a tighter mechanical coupling to the neck. The bridge unit is unusual as well, all component parts of the high-mass vibrato are machined from mill-rolled brass, and it's designed to drop pitch with a perfect audio curve. This basically means that the strings stay in contact with the saddles throughout the whole pitch-dumping process.

The chunky tremolo arm is made of stainless steel for strength and immunity to corrosion, the whole mechanism rests on a neoprene stop- lock which serves as a silent return reference and prevents up-tuning if you break a string. Intonation and saddle height adjustment are straightforward, as the saddles are already fixed to a radius you need only adjust the overall height using the screws located at either side of the bridge.

Pickups are Fury's own, too, a 1950s Rocker at the bridge and a ZP-8 Type R in the neck position. The 1950s Rocker is an 85-90 percent hum-cancelling pickup, with each coil using different gauge wire and number of turns. Both pickups feature Fury's patented Zero Pole System - hollow pole-pieces, but there's a lot more to these pickups than meets the eye. Materials used are of the highest quality, and assembled with maximum bonding to eliminate any vibration or microphony. The mounting springs are terrifically powerful and the pickups themselves weigh a ton. The result is an extremely accurate sound that's nigh imperious to outside vibration. Nine hand-rubbed coats of nitrocellulose lacquer protect the gorgeous Emerald Green finish and only add further to the extremely high standard of build.

PLAYABILITY

The Fireball could well have been inspirational in the severe body sculpting of Parker's futuristic Fly, yet rather astonishing, this instrument actually predates the Fly by nearly 30 years.

Balance-wise, it's fine when seated, but stand up with a strap and you wouldn't even know you were wearing the guitar, thanks to its offset rear strap pin, which ensures a comfortable playing position.

The Eastern rock maple neck is beautifully made and lacquered to a high gloss, featuring a slab maple fingerboard and a straight T-style headstock construction, up at the body end, there's an ingenious "ledge" for your fretting hand's thumb to rest upon while executing wide bends in the higher registers. This works really well and makes you wonder why you've never seen the idea before. Sadly, the fret work is a little incongruous with the high quality work prevalent over the rest of the instrument.

While the fret-ends and crowns are finished exceptionally well, there are a few gaps visible under the tangs along the edge of the fingerboard and while this doesn't affect playability, it looks a bit off.

Its here that the Uninut reveals that it could've been set up a little better before being sent out. The problem is something common with zero frets, a glitchy noise when bending near the nut - that said, Glenn assured me that it wears in with time.

Fury's high mass bridge unit is a refreshing change from all the stock units on the market. It's solid as a rock and remarkably stable, even when abused, making it perfect for gentle rockabilly waggles and subtle tremolo effects. However, it doesn't lend itself so well top manic dive-bombs.

SOUND

In many respects the Fireball is the perfect example of what a good guitar should sound like. With oodles of high on tap courtesy of the Eastern maple body and a clarity that's typically single-coil rather than humbucker, the Fury gives the distinct impression that its a rock n' roller's guitar. There's no shortage of bass either, but the absence of a tone control means you'll have to adjust your picking position to gain access to it. Quiffs and beetlecrushers aside, the Fireball has a hotter than average output and works superbly with heavier styles and higher gain settings.

The Fury is such a lively instrument to play that every note sings with a tireless sustain and definition is excellent too. Eight tonal settings are available so there's plenty of variety and access is easy via the mini-toggle coil-taps fitted for each humbucker. With tones ranging from cutting "Tele"-type bridge pickup sounds to a humbucking raunch, you won't be disappointed. It's worth reiterating that even the fattest humbucking sounds have good, clear definition. Some of the in-between settings are perfect for funk styles, arpeggiated progressions and even a fairly authentic "strummy" acoustic sound.

VALUE FOR MONEY

Given the density of innovation ideas and quality components in the Fireball, its undoubtedly represents good value. Add that to the fact that it hails from the land of maple leaves and grizzlys, where it enjoys a well-respected history, and I don't think the L1,299 asking price is at all unreasonable. A hard case is included in the price, along with an 18 month "guarantee of perfection" to the original purchaser just one look at the quality of the workmanship will demolish any doubts you may have.

VERDICT

I was pleasantly surprised by the versatility of the Fireball. It proved itself to be a truly exceptional instrument in sound and playability and I'd imagine its appeal will be a lot broader than I first imagined due to its impressive high-gain performance. With Glenn's promised inclusion of a tone control on future models, this could be the guitar for those musicians after something that really stands out.

Out of 5 Picks	Build Quality	Features	Sound	Value for Money
Fury Fireball

GUITARIST SAYS: Superb, original build and sounds incredible. An incendiary performer all-round.

SPEC CHECKPRICE: £1,299

ORIGIN: Canada

BODY: Eastern soft maple wings

NECK: Eastern rock maple

FINGERBOARD: Maple (pau fero available). radius 9 inches

FRETS: 22 jumbo

SCALE LENGTH: 25.064 inches

WIDTH AT NUT: 1 11/16 inches

INLAY: Offset dot on fingerboard, dot on edge

BRIDGE: Extra-high mass tremolo

TUNERS: Schaller

PICKUPS: 1950's Rocker (bridge), ZP8 (neck)

CONTROLS: volume, three-way switch, two-coil tap toggle switches HARDWARE: Chrome (gold optional)

FINISH: Nitrocellulose and acrylic lacquer in 18 colour choices

OPTIONS pau ferro or maple fingerboard, high mass fixed bridge (L100 cheaper), gold plated hardware, matching color headstock

LEFT HANDERS: yes

CONTACT: Peach Music, Blake House Craft Centre, Blake End, Essex, CM7 8SH Tel: 01376 553016