NGD Daniels Guitars Pugilist

earwighoney

Not strictly a NGD, as I've had this guitar for a few weeks now, this lovely looking and playing Pugilist from this forum's very own, Darren aka @Danielsguitars ;

Here's a picture of the front

Here are the specs, some measurements too.  I know they aren't for everyone, but I get a little geeky about these things, maybe others do too?

Specs

Neck - Obeche

Fretboard - Madagascar Rosewood

Body - Obeche

Neck Pickup - Mojo Firebird (A5)

Bridge - Mojo Staple Bucker (A5)

Wiring - CTS 500k in 50's wiring

Dimensions

Weight - a bit over 6lbs

Width at nut - 43.2mm

Width at 12th fret - 52.9mm

Width at the end of the fretboard - 57.0mm

Depth of neck at 1st fret - 22.2mm

Depth of neck at 12th fret - 24.0mm

Neck shape - C shape

Contours - front and back

How does it play?

The guitar body is a touch smaller than a Strat, it's quite a small instrument.  It sits well in the lap, and also good balance when played on a strap too.  I've got a late 60's SG which is about the same for it's weight, but the SG has terrible neck dive, no such problems with this guitar even though it's incredibly light.

One of the neck joint, this is one of my favourite features for this guitar.  I don't go to the high end of the frets that much, but it's very easy to do when I am around the 21st/22nd fret.

How does it sound?

The guitar is incredibly light, and acoustically it has a very interesting sound.  It's a lively instrument played acoustically, fairly loud.  @Mojopickups did a superb job with the pickups here.  The Staple Bucker is an interesting one, it's the humbucker take on on the staple P90.  It has superb clarity, I'd say it reminds me a little of a good AWG42 Alnico 5 Telecaster bridge pickup, that similar kind of bite and it works really well with my favourite fuzz pedals (eg Green Russian, Red Llama), which not all humbuckers do.
The Firebird pickup in the neck is a little brute of a pickup.  I've heard it compared to a Strat Pickup on steroids, but I'm not sure I agree with that description, I find the FB to have a lot of the clarity of a A5 Strat pickup, but with more everything (bass, treble, midrange).  I found it a bit much to begin with, it's very sensitive to string height.  Once I dialled it in, it's truly wonderful. 

The 50's wiring took me a bit of time to get used too, especially with the CTS pots.  I've said it before here, but I'm not the biggest fan of CTS pots.

Final thoughts.

It took me a bit of time to get used to the guitar.  Like most people, I was used to playing a Strat/Tele/LP/SG, and this guitar is very different to those.  The ergonomics of the body shape, and the neck profile, but once I got used to them, I can't really go back to my other guitars.  Plugged in, it doesn't really sound like any other guitar I own or have played, it has it's own character.  I will try to record something down the line and upload it.  Expect pointless Grouper/Earth drone worship at sometime!
I've been in discussion with Darren about ordering another one sometime down the line.

If you made it this far, thanks for reading.  If not, then I hope you liked the pictures.

TLDR version - I love this guitar.

Gassage

Pugilist eh?

Punchy....

grungebob

That’s really nice. The neck heel looks fantastic.
Just my type of thing this. I’m guessing out of my price range sadly. 

Sunburst

Congratulations, that's a great review of a fabulous looking guitar. Enjoy!

Philly_Q

Nice to see an NGD thread with such a detailed review.

earwighoney said:
Like most people, I was used to playing a Strat/Tele/LP/SG, and this guitar is very different to those.  The ergonomics of the body shape, and the neck profile, but once I got used to them, I can't really go back to my other guitars.  

I hope you will be able to go back to them in time, and also carry on enjoying this one.

Danielsguitars

Philly_Q said:

Nice to see an NGD thread with such a detailed review.

earwighoney said:
Like most people, I was used to playing a Strat/Tele/LP/SG, and this guitar is very different to those.  The ergonomics of the body shape, and the neck profile, but once I got used to them, I can't really go back to my other guitars.  

I hope you will be able to go back to them in time, and also carry on enjoying this one.

I can't, ever since I came up with this everything else feels, in shubs words like strumming a brick, I've got a Murphy lab in for a back refinish and it's bloody horrible now, heavy brick is a perfect description, lol.

I'll be making a new telepaul pugilist for me next.

roberty

Congrats @earwighoney. You're right, there is something special about the ergonomics on these

kelpbeds

A wise choice. Darren's guitars are simply sublime.

Gemsdals

Very nice 

Teyeplayer

Tried one of these yesterday, oh my word! Literally spent the drive home trying to work out what I could move on to fund one. The one I played at Darren’s @Danielsguitars had a wonderful full neck and sound wise was pretty much the guitar to end all guitars. The pickup combination of firebird and staple was sublime. I’m not sure I can afford one right now, but if I could I’d be driving straight back down to get one. Fantastic guitar if any one is looking up the Pugilist and tempted. 

Danielsguitars

Teyeplayer said:

Tried one of these yesterday, oh my word! Literally spent the drive home trying to work out what I could move on to fund one. The one I played at Darren’s @Danielsguitars had a wonderful full neck and sound wise was pretty much the guitar to end all guitars. The pickup combination of firebird and staple was sublime. I’m not sure I can afford one right now, but if I could I’d be driving straight back down to get one. Fantastic guitar if any one is looking up the Pugilist and tempted. 

I'm really pleased you like this model, it's not easy coming up with a new design but I knew I wanted an offset LP and that's what I've done here and I won't be playing much else from now on, it's lightweight, comfortable and sounds fantastic.

Danielsguitars

Here is Keith from Xander and the Peace Pirates playing his pugilist 59, what a great player.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C55gcEcseNA/?igsh=MWM2Y251cjM4bmJjYg==

Offset

Danielsguitars said:

Here is Keith from Xander and the Peace Pirates playing his pugilist 59, what a great player.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C55gcEcseNA/?igsh=MWM2Y251cjM4bmJjYg==

Wow - that's pretty incredible.  Better technique with a prosthetic forearm than most of us could dream of with the original equipment.

I must admit when the video first popped up I thought it was Dave Hill from Slade!