Concert patrons noticed
with surprise that this Langcaster has a body of Swamp Kauri.
What? Never heard of it? Kauri (Agatha Australis) is of the family
of Aurakarie bush, which only grows in the North Island of New
Zealand. It is known as the dinosaur of the flora. After harvesting,
it has been preserved since 1940 in a natural conservatory.
The tree can grow to 50 meters in height and may have a diameter
of 4 meters and the age can be between 150 and 2000 years old.
Archaeologists have found centuries old petrified Kauri trees
in the swamps of Northern New Zealand. Some of the dug out Kauri
even still has the needles intact. This supports the theory that
the trees were taken down by ancient glaciers.
In other places they found trees all lying in the same direction,
which indicates a volcanic eruption. Based on the low oxygen levels
in the inside sap, the trees have been preserved for more than
30,000 years.
Most of this visually impressive material is mainly used for lounge
tables. But Joh Lang uses it for his guitars of which only small
numbers are produced annually.
So, the Strat style body of our test guitar is made of wood, which
according to university analysis is more than 35,000 years old.
In words, thirty five thousand years old! And you can't see its
age at all. It is almost impossible to describe this wood; grain,
structure, colours and 3D effects. Yes, at some points it looks
like Agathis.
Construction
From the archaeology excursion
back to our test.
The Langcaster, which has the simple name #1, is not only visually
stunning, it also has hardware, pickups and switching which give
it a gloriously exotic image. So we continue.
The Strat shape body has, of course, its natural rich colour.
The openings and small cracks are filled with acrylic or epoxy
transparent lacquer and polished to a mirror like finish for a
really impeccable job.
At the back a plastic plate covers the rear electronics department,
which is carefully shielded with thick copper foil. An oval plate
contains the output jack in the lower area. Four wood screws and
a cover plate with plastic underlay and two graphite rods ensure
that the reinforced rock hard maple neck is held it in its place.
A little gap shows in the neck placing. That could be finished
more precisely. If you tighten the screws, the connection is absolutely
rock stable.
With a radius of 15 degrees the ebony fret board is slightly rounded
and has 22 medium sized jumbo frets, which are perfectly rounded
and polished. No unevenness; all is round and fluent. The perfectly
placed and aligned nut is from the "Earvana" company
who are specialists for compensation nuts.
Differently aligned bridge rollers for the strings enable perfect
tuning in all frets. Above the nut a chromed plate covers the
double action truss rod by which the neck can be adjusted. A tilt
back headstock with a Maori carving design breathes life anew
into the exotic image. For the inlaid company logo, intensive
green and blue shining Paua shell is used. A jade string tree
ensures straight running of the strings.
Schaller locking tuners guarantee precise tuning and on the body
is a three dimensional (including string spacing) adjustable Schaller
bridge.
The pickups are Langcaster made and designed with vacuum wax impregnation
utilising copper shielded chromed covers.
Ten (10) magnetic poles ensure that with severe string bending,
the sound of the string is always even. A bypass capacitor and
ferrite choke keeps RF noise and hum away.
The switching offers very sophisticated
possibilities:
Firstly, the three height adjustable pickups can be conveniently
selected with a 5-way switch and can then be controlled by a volume
and tone control.
A third pot mounted on the switch plate allows continuous mixing
or blending of the pickups.
So there are together with the switch positions full up blend/mix
control the following pickup combinations.
Position 1: Neck pickup.
Position 2: Neck and Middle pickup.
Position 3: Middle pickup.
Position 4: Middle and Bridge pickup.
Position 5: Bridge pickup.
With the blend/mix control the
following pickup combinations are possible:
Position 3: Middle and Bridge pickup (Mix).
Position 4: Middle/Bridge and Neck pickup (Mix).
Position 5: Bridge and Neck pickup (Mix).
In this way, combinations of all 3 single coil pickups or bridge and neck pickup are available.
Practice
Based on the perfect fretting,
the Langcaster #1 plays very comfortably. Although to my personal
taste, the very flat D profile fills my hand too little. I have
the feeling that I have the sides of the neck in my hands. For
me that is normal, but small hands will certainly love this profile.
It appears to me that hanging the guitar around my neck a little
head heaviness is noticeable. But as soon as my playing hand is
on the body and I touch the strings, everything is in order.
Who had thought that Swamp Kauri should be such a good wood for
tone? Its resonance characteristics are really unbelievable. Every
stroke sounds with an intensive string sustain.
The pure acoustic sound is powerful, loud and present with complete
evenness. It has rich overtone spectrum and offers long and even
sustain.
With its direct, bright response and good tone setting, the Langcaster
has a sound full of detail and a meaningful tone. Is very dynamic
and it also supports every form of chord formation. I am also
enthusiastic about the Earvana nut, which lets you forget all
conventional tuning problems. The guitar also intonates very accurately
due to the rounded frets, which give the strings perfect pitch
accuracy.
Electrically connected, the Langcaster single coils prove to be
more powerful than vintage pickups. Regarding sound characteristics,
they are very 60's sounding. With presence and having straight
well-dosed highs and overtones, they are in some way more rocking
than 50's single coils. In the lower frequencies they show a remarkable
clarity and transparency.
Hum seems to be a strange word especially in the neck position,
even in the in-between position. The bridge pickup is not so sharp
and harsh as the original. It is noticeable that a single coil
at the bridge has relatively less output although the distance
toward the string is the same. While the middle and neck pickup
have the same output, the bridge pickup has less output. So the
coupling with the middle pickup has less output too. Three further
sound variations are provided by the blender/mixer, which in the
switch position 3, 4 and 5 (middle, middle + bridge, bridge) each
respective pickup can be combined. This allows pickup combinations
(all three, or bridge and neck pickup), which are not possible
with standard switching to produce the additional bell-like semi-hollow
tone of the mixed sounds.
Let's crank up the amp.
Directly it shows that the Langcaster single coils are clearly
less sensitive to hum than corresponding single coils. Okay, it
hums a little because there is no noise gate built in, but there
is much less hum indeed!
How this guitar handles! Overdrive and Distortion sounds are really
the cream on the pudding. No fumbling and mismatch of tones; instead,
an open tone, every quantity of punch cutting through with power.
Lead sounds can be bitingly sharp or butter soft all carried with
a long sustain.
Even the many combinations can be easily used without any problem
= Sound of a very special guitar art. When you like to control
the expression with the volume pot, feel free. The model #1 does
that courageously.
RESUME
A Strat version without
vibrato that you don't see that much.
The Langcaster # 1 is not only a feast for your eyes, but is convincingly
rich sound-wise in every way. The New Zealand made guitar has
the neck setting and the bridge pickup output as the only points
of criticism.
But on the positive side, we see eight different sound presets
of which three are variable. Authentic noiseless 60's vintage
sounds come with top class manufacturing, first class components,
spectacular visual aspect and numerous accessories with a good
guitar case.
Has this fantastic instrument a chance in view of its price in
these hard economic times?
We surely hope so.
Plus:
Sounds.
String swing.
Compensating nut.
Shielding.
Manufacturing.
Playing comfort.
Impressive aesthetics.
Minus:
Neck has a little too
much clearance space.
Volume difference of the pickups.
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NOTE
After reading
this review, Joh Lang of Langcaster guitars had the following
comments to make.
Thanks G&B
magazine for this unexpected test report.
I have hurriedly sent two Langcaster guitars to guitar Ace Jan
Akkerman for his Jimi Hendrix tour with Steve Lukather on request
of Cees Bakker guitar, journalist for Dutch magazine "GuitarPlus".
Two weeks before the tour started, I still had to assemble the
guitars for this unexpected request. I had no idea at all that
G&B magazine in Germany would review one of the guitars after
the Hendrix tribute tour. If I had known, I would have explained
a little more about the setup and pickups to the reviewer. But
as it is, I am grateful that my Langcaster was tested for a review
by this prestigious guitar magazine.
The points missed are that my pickup in the bridge has a different
output to make the tone less harsh and can be mixed well with
the neck pickup when in the mix mode.
Only the neck pickups have 10 magnets in it, the middle, and bridge
have only 6 magnets as have most pickups.
The neck is bolted in with two screws below the neck plate and
four screws in the neck plate.
I also use a treble by-pass filter on the volume pot in all models
and a capacitor and ferrite bead on all pickups to stop RF frequencies.
The bodies are all hand carved and covered with thick clear epoxy.
When this runs off into the neck pocket it needs to be scraped
out by hand and that sometimes creates a miniscule space between
the neck and body. Point taken! But a little more time to assemble
would have corrected this.
Thanks G&B
for this great review and Cees Bakker for submitting my guitar.
Joh Lang
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