ODD BIRD The Goldfinch Noir
Review by Pete Prown
VintageGuitar.com
Where isn't much else out there that looks like the Goldfinch Noir. Built in China by a company based in Philly, the Noir falls in the same category as the Music Man St. Vincent and Fender Meteora — a modern guitar with a bold look for players who want to break away from the traditional old-school shapes. The Noir's double-cutaway body is art-deco-influenced, evoking a stylized tulip and finished in gloss black with yellowed binding on the body and neck and chrome hardware. The Goldfinch is made all the more tantalizing by three ceramic humbuckers and a reverse headstock. Standard controls are simple: '70s-style speed knobs for master Volume and Tone (think Norlin-era Gibson), and a three-way toggle activating each pickup, one at a time. The bridge and tailpiece are also Gibson-esque.
The Noir has a mahogany body and set neck with a 25.5" scale and dot inlays down its 21 frets. The fingerboard material is an "engineered" wood — one might assume a laminate judging by the parallel grain lines — in place of in-creasingly hard-to-get rosewood. The axe has a fast, super-low action on the D-profile neck. The frets are nicely finished and the Noir stays in tune like a champ.
Plugged in, the guitar exhibits the Fender/Gibson persona you get by combininga mahoganybodyandset-neck with a Strat scale. Neither fish nor fowl, it's a rockin' machine that covers a lot of bases. Better still, the middle humbucker doesn't get in the way of picking motion as third 'buckers often do. The jury is still out on whether the configuration is truly functional or just cool-looking, but on the Noir, it works. In fact, for looks, tone, and playability on a budget, the Noir is one of the more glamorous figures in town.