Cole Clark Fat Lady 3

Superior look , very awkward to play – I have a FL3 14/15 yrs old. Pros: Best pick ups in acoustic guitars. Exquisite look. Cons: So heavy an action to play . Nothing easy about it. Major hand workout every time. Slightly out of intonation on Bass e string is now majorly out and no luthier wants to touch them as they are old school outdated inferior design . Inside is messy finished at best and a luthiers nightmare. Quality control is lapsed . I have played and taught guitar for over 40 years and play rhythm and lead and this is the hardest guitar I have ever played . Maton blows it out of the water in playability but not even close in looks and pickups. Taylor crap all over CC in play ability but lack a ton in looks and CC have better pickups. I love the look so I persist. Martins are the best.

CC FL3 Flop – I purchased the Fat Lady 3 in June 2020. I wanted to get the Maton Messiah but as I already had a Maton em235c I was thoroughly convinced by good sales tactics to broaden my horizons. I was over the moon when I received and unboxed the CC, looked incredible, smelt fantastic and played terribly. When side by side with the Maton the CC comes unstuck performance wise, judging apples with apples. It’s different in store when you’re comparing FL3 to FL3, you actually become tolerant to mediocre and believe it’s more than it really is. When you compare the CC against a similar instrument you soon discover without the 3 way pickup it’s just an extroverted pile of sticks. The playability of the CC is difficult as it allows no tolerance or freedom, be slightly out and it will ring and buzz like a $50 online beginners guitar. I find the ap5 on the Maton is far simpler and sounds superior to the CC pickup, and to be fair the 3 way pickup is ingenious but on this axe it’s wasted. In a nut shell the Maton you can pickup and get a tune out if it with little effort and it sounds brilliant plugged or unplugged. The CCFL3 seems to have focused on looks of the rig and the pickup system and forgotten musicians need easy playing plugged in or out. $3k+ on a Cole Clark Top of the line guitar and I’m gutted, it’s honestly not worth half that money if your wanting performance over a name brand hanging on your wall. Next time I will listen to my heart and not the salesman trying to peddle sub par top priced merchandise, should have got the Messiah.

Cole Clarke Fat Lady 3 – I originally was after a second Maton cutaway A80 and during that process for what ever reason I ended up buying a FL3. It's a great sounding guitar, love the pick up " BUT " it chews through Duracell 9volt batteries and for me that's a big negative. Since buying the FL3 I have started looking into building my own guitars more so as a hobby and through watching numerous video's on youtube and talking to Luthiers I've started to see things about the FL3 that maybe might have pushed me back towards the Matons custom build. The reality is I just paid $3K + for this guitar and then simple things like the pearling that when you look at and I should of realized are just stickers. So if I could turn back time I'd buy the Maton and I find I still play the Maton more than the FL3.

Great Australian made product – I purchased a new Cole Clark FL3AC in mid 2008 and it gets played every 2-3 days. It sounds so much better when put through a good quality acoustic amp. Made from Bunya, Blackwood and Maple its sound has changed over the years, Elixer strings have been the pick of the bunch for getting its overall best sound. I have owned some top shelf guitars over the years but won't part with the Fat Lady, it really is a joy to play.

Excellent – My brother-in-law brought a FL3 AC (and an FL2 with a new - yet to be released - pickup system) over last night to try out and we put them through their paces in my studio. My first impression of the FL3AC was, "Wow! What a beautiful guitar." We first recorded the FL3AC acoustically via my Neumann U87 through a Focusrite ISA430MkII without any EQ and it sounded great! It has a full, open tone with great balance of highs and lows. I have a Sigma DR28 (Martin made under licence in Japan many years ago). I have often had other guitarists and recording engineers speaking in glowing terms in regard to the tone of my Sigma. The FL3AC sounded just as good (and looked much nicer with all the abalone inlays and has a great pickup system - my Sigma has none). Then we recorded the FL3 via its internal pickups. The first thing I noticed was how snugly the jack plug was held in its socket (nice attention to detail). The sound was still excellent, although, for recording purposes, I preferred the sound captured by the U87. However, if you don't have a nice mic and a room to record it acoustically, the pickups sound very good indeed. After all, the U87 with the Focusrite Preamp together are worth about three times the retail price of the guitar. For live use, (and even for recording purposes), the pick up system is one of the best I've heard. The bridge pickup gives a brighter sound with lots of top end harmonics (which is what an acoustic guitar is for, after all). The face pickup gives a warmer sound. There is a slider that allows you to choose one or the other or a variable blend of both. For solo guitar work, the extra warmth of the face pickup would be very useful. The other controls for the pick up are volume, treble, middle and bass. We recorded the instrument with the tone controls (EQ) set flat and I was very happy with the outcome. It didn't need any sculpting of the EQ to produce a great tone.

The FL2 with the new pickup system was pretty good too. The particular guitar (FL2) we had was finished with a brown sunburst matt finish which, especially compared to the FL3, was not terribly attractive (well not to our taste anyway). The sound from the pickup system lacked the top end harmonics of the FL3 and we had to turn the treble EQ up full to get close to the same sort of sound that the FL3 produced with its EQ controls set flat. Probably not a fair comparison given the FL3 is about twice the price of the FL2, but if you have the money and are looking for a great looking and great sounding instrument. I would definitely put the FL3 high my list of guitars to test. If your budget won't stretch that far, the FL2 is also a worthy contender. Beautiful looking guitar, excellent tone, great sounding pickup system with very useable tone variation.