Review of PHRED Guitars

Phred Instruments is a company in Los Angeles, California that is producing Jerry Garcia and Trey Anistasio style guitars – much cheaper than other custom luthiers. I believe the guitars are manufactured in China and then shipped to LA. I was curious to see how an inexpensive Chinese guitar would look, sound and play compared to a custom guitar built by the various luthiers doing the same kind of work. Unfortunatley I do not have any one of the custom luthiers guitars, so I will just give a review of the Phred Liger and not compare it to any other guitars.

Upon receiving the liger guitar from Phred Instruments, I was immediately impressed with the neck. I picked it up and from the first few licks I knew this guitar was going to be a keeper.

The guitar is very well built. It is a set neck guitar with a 25 fret neck. The body shape is very similar to Jerry Garcia’s Tiger guitar, built by Doug Irwin and Tom Leiber. I have always loved the shape of Tiger. It was a cool psychedelic look with the horns of the guitar appearing as two dog ear flame type tips. The body itself is solid and painted. I would have loved to see the liger with a natural wood finish, but the color is pleasing as is. The tune o magic bridge and stop tail piece are standard and durable. The electronics are wired perfectly and the jacks, switches and pots work great.

The neck is my absolute favorite part of the guitar, though. It plays so nicely and feels wonderful. I have been told that the neck of the current run of liger guitars is slightly different. [insert differences here] the tuners are solid and smooth. The inlays are similar to the Irwin Tiger on the neck as well as the headstock. Very nice looking guitar!

The pickups are a knockoff of the Demarzio super 2 model pickup. I have Demarzios in my other warmoth tiger and these sound just as good, if not better. I have heard that pickups can loose some tone over time, and my Demarzios are 10 years old! The liger pickups are humbuckers with a coil tap switch for each pickup. They sound absolutely amazing, crisp and clean. There is a buffer installed inside the liger that is a replica of the Waldo buffer circuit that Mike Wald copied from Jerry’s original Irwin Tiger guitar. The guitar sounds like the real deal. The tone is just right.

Keep in mind that I have built a custom Jerry Garcia amp rig. That is definitely a part of the sound. 

The one thing that I didn’t like about the guitar is that it came with a plastic nut (current shipping model has a bone nut), plastic individual pickup rings and no switch plate cover. I had Leo at Scarlet Fire guitars build me a brass pickup ring and switch plate cover. I will probably add a brass nut at some point as well. I also added strap locks, which I feel should come on every guitar. 

The guitar plays and sounds better than my Warmoth custom tiger. I will be using the Phred Liger at The Garcia Projects next run of shows, starting September 14 at worm town music festival.

If you are looking for a decently priced guitar that has the look of the Irwin tiger, please do not hesitate in purchasing a Phred Liger. I am very interested in trying out his Wolph and Ernesto guitars as well and will most likely get them as soon as I can.

Feel free to ask any questions or comment if you have a Phred guitar as well.