 See the video review of Cole Clark Fat Lady FL2AC Dreadnought
From Christmas in the summertime to hopping marsupials, things are done a little differently in Australia. And if the Cole Clark Fat Lady FL2AC is any indication, acoustic guitars are no exception. Adam Cole and Brad Clark, the latter a former CEO of Maton Guitars, founded Cole Clark in 2001 with the intent of applying their expertise in state-of the-art construction to the use of Australian woods. Since then, Cole Clark has found fans among such high-profile performers as Jack Johnson and Ben Harper.
The FL2AC's standard body profile and dimensions do little to suggest how unique this guitar is. But a few minutes spent investigating its construction details and playing the dread reveal an abundance of personality, character, and innovation that make this guitar equally at home with a singing strummer or fingerstylist.
UNCOMMON CONSTRUCTION TECHNIQUES
A cursory inspection is enough to reveal that the FL2AC is built differently than your average dread. The dramatically carved, art deco headstock and diamond-shaped inlay pattern on the fretboard, which tapers to a chevron shape between the soundhole and 20th fret, are bold, signature touches. But Cole Clark's design ingenuity goes beyond overt aesthetic flourishes.
The eye-catching top, with varied grain and wheaty hues, is cut from bunya, an Australian timber with stiffness and vibrational properties similar to spruce. A back and sides of subtly flamed Queensland maple—a wood that's actually more similar in tone and looks to mahogany than to American or European maple—are also of Australian origin. The grafted headstock is reinforced with a volute. Instead of the more common dovetail or bolt-on joint, the neck is joined to the body by means of a variation on the integrated-heel concept—similar to the Spanish foot found in most classical guitars—which mates the sides to the neck via slots in the heel block.
The Cole Clark's bracing is an unusual alternative to the time-tested X-bracing pattern found on most production dreadnoughts. Instead, a simple and elegant opposing-A formation based on two intersecting sets of diagonal braces runs from the heel block to the bass bouts and from the tailblock to a point just forward of the soundhole. A single, offset lateral brace is situated a bit forward from the bridge.
The FL2AC, like most Cole Clark instruments, also features a CNC-carved top and back.
WIDE TONAL PALETTE
From the first strum the FL2AC sounds great, and even simple first-position shapes reveal a panorama of tonal color. Though its bunya top shares material properties with spruce, its sonic signature seems more akin to cedar—warm, responsive to a light touch, and supersensitive to flatpicking dynamics. The bunya top also works beautifully with the snappy, crystalline character provided by the Queensland maple back and sides.
While languid, bend-heavy blues runs were sweet and resonant, the guitar's exceptional picking responsiveness and dry cedar-like character also made country-flavored flatpicking sound barky and precise. A percussive, aggressively strummed take on Neil Young's "The Loner," in double-dropped-D tuning, highlighted the FL2AC's projection in the high end and midrange and demonstrated its impressive bass sustain.
When lightly fingerpicked, the Cole Clark remained toneful and dynamic. Droning, raga-like runs in double-dropped-D were rich with sustain and color and compelled me to try slow, simple melodies that let each note breathe and gently decay. Treble notes, which conveyed the warmth and response of the bunya top, had a volume and clarity that invited high E-string bends deep into the FL2AC's cutaway.
ABLE WHEN AMPLIFIED
When you plug in the FL2AC (via a jack on the side of the lower bout), the guitar exhibits the same range and versatility that makes the acoustic experience a delight. The pickup system combines three proprietary elements: an onboard preamp with controls; Cole Clark's Face Brace soundboard transducer, which runs along almost the entire length of the top's bass side; and a bridge-mounted piezo pickup. This bridge pickup is not a standard undersaddle transducer. Instead, it relies on six cylindrical piezo elements that are mounted below the bridge plate and reach through the bridge itself to connect with the saddle. This configuration makes the pickup similar in general concept to Takamine's popular Palathetic pickup.
I played the guitar through a 400-watt Yamaha PA and a Fender Acoustasonic 30 amplifier, and the system proved adaptable to both amplification methods. With the onboard bass, mid, and treble EQ controls set flat, and the pickup blend evenly split between the soundboard and bridge transducers, the guitar remained warm at a volume high enough to be heard over a drum kit and electric bass. In general, the lively Face Brace soundboard transducer remained resistant to feedback, though too much bass or a blend that favors the Face Brace can induce some howl. At high volume, the FL2AC worked best by fine-tuning the PA's equalization controls with the guitar's EQ set flat.
Playing through the Fender Acoustasonic and setting the amplifier's controls close to flat, with a little bump in the bass, gave me the headroom to toy more freely with the preamp's EQ and blend controls. That helped bring out the guitar's acoustically warm character. I found that I preferred a pickup blend that favored the piezo, using the soundboard transducer to lend a little breadth to the piezo's clarity.
My only complaint was with the preamp interface. It's rare to a see a preamp-equipped guitar in this price range without a built-in tuner, and the all-black slider control set was virtually invisible in the dark.
THE WRAP
The Cole Clark FL2AC is a great package for a versatile guitarist. The guitar's acoustic range is impressive and it brims with unique tones that range from dry and precise to chimey and harmonically rich. Amplified, the FL2AC was a forgiving, plug-and-play performer—capable of delivering warm, clear, and balanced sounds for strumming or subtle fingerstyle without constant preamp tinkering. The guitar's unusual synthesis of construction techniques and tonewoods suggests that Cole Clark has put a lot of time into creating a signature voice.
Photo, top, courtesy Cole Clark |
