Bill, The Fernandes FAG 170 guitar was a very close copy ("Fernandes Alembic Guitar" FAG)) of a series guitar using a similar circuit board but with more readily available standard components and all non Alembic parts. It also used an external power supply. It sounds much more 'hi fidelity' to my ear. They also made a bass model, the FAB.

My RS850 has the hum canceller, preamp, low pass filters, and Q switches.  More Alembic-like than any of my other, non-Alembic guitars.  It has a full sound with a lot of presence in the lower end.  Never heard of the RS1000.  The RS850 came in two different versions: one with a Fender-like 6 in line headstock, the other with a Gibson-like 3+3 headstock. Mine is the 6 in line.  Great guitar, one of the few of mine that makes its way on stage now and then.

I also have a Fernandes Alembic copy, the MH-110 Masterhand.  The body isn't a direct copy, like the FAG 170, being more Strat like.   Unfortunately the electronics were lunched when I found it.   I replaced everything with Alembic PUs and guts.  I have another couple of Masterhands that I hope to put together into one complete one, one of these days.


Bill, tgo

Quote from: gtrguy on August 22, 2026, 11:21:20 AMBill, The Fernandes FAG 170 guitar was a very close copy ("Fernandes Alembic Guitar" FAG)).

You've got to love the choice of acronym.

Quote from: Nova Constellatio on August 22, 2026, 11:29:19 AM

Quote from: gtrguy on August 22, 2026, 11:21:20 AMBill, The Fernandes FAG 170 guitar was a very close copy ("Fernandes Alembic Guitar" FAG)).

You've got to love the choice of acronym.

Cigarettes, to our British friends. (as I understand it... still trying to sort out the language barrier)

The early eighties Fender Stratocaster Elite is somewhat similar to the Aria 850. I had 3 single coils with a fourth dummy coil pickup under the pick guard and complex active electronics and is a fantastic sounding guitar. It got great Les Paul and Strat tones. however, it turned out Fender strat players were more traditionalists then the Fender company realized and the players did not like it. The whammy bar was also kinda problematic.

Quote from: gtrguy on August 22, 2026, 12:35:37 PMThe early eighties Fender Stratocaster Elite is somewhat similar to the Aria 850. I had 3 single coils with a fourth dummy coil pickup under the pick guard and complex active electronics and is a fantastic sounding guitar. It got great Les Paul and Strat tones. however, it turned out Fender strat players were more traditionalists then the Fender company realized and the players did not like it. The whammy bar was also kinda problematic.

I was working at (oh, the shame of it!) Guitar Center in '83 when they got in the first shipment of Squiers - and the first Stratocaster Elite.

The $150 Squiers played great & sounded decent right out of the box.

The $1500 (IIRC) Elite I tinkered with every spare moment for 3 weeks and could not get it close to as good as the Squiers, and the only thing that could have fixed its tone would have been a large fire......

And it wasn't just that it didn't sound like a Strat - which it didn't, and which I do want a Strat to sound like.  I've come across Teiscos that weren't half so tinny; in my estimation, it was a really lousy instrument - at 10X the price of the decent ones.

Peter

Quote from: cozmik_cowboy on August 23, 2026, 12:33:56 AMThe $150 Squiers played great & sounded decent right out of the box. [snip...]


Peter

I have one of those Squiers, from '85, but never knew what they cost. I think so well of it, that in the great downsizing I sold the other Strat-types and kept it. A few years ago, another Club Member here wired me up an old set of Seymour Duncan Hotstacks (the brick-red ones) onto an old tortoise pickguard. I had both it, and the original equipment fitted with a modular plug to the jack so they are easily interchangeable. I need to get that thing out for a while.