Check out the Probett Rocket III

Great luthier from England, who has ingested the Fullerton and Kalamazoo influences and produced a cool melting pot of an immigrant to FL.

It arrived yesterday and if I had to sum up its ancestry, I'd say it's the product of a family of Fenders that hooked up with a Gibson family. Fender ancestors include a Strat and Tele. Gibson family includes an Explorer, Les Paul Standard and an LP Special.

Wood, finish, fret work, feel are pretty spectacular...in the same exalted neighborhood with the Swedish and Canadian small builders I adore. With back carve, arm contour and deep cutaway...best access and playability of about anything I own. What most surprised me was the balance between the pick ups, expected a significant drop in output from PAF to P90, not so.



Mr Probett does some pretty cool finishes on these; a great Pelham Blue, translucent white, TV yellow...seen them with PAFs, P90s, gold foils. This fellow is a hugely talented luthier, and his pricing seems very reasonable versus the quality.

Beuatiful guitar, and Damien is a master of his craft :dude:

I bet that spits out a Live at Leeds tone!

A couple of years ago, Matte Henderson sent me his down for a test drive. It was a KILLER guitar!:dude:

CDaughtry said:

A couple of years ago, Matte Henderson sent me his down for a test drive. It was a KILLER guitar!:dude:

Click to expand...

Thats what I like to hear! Did you get to test drive a Rocket 59 too?

Re: Check out the Probett Rocket III - Jam session tested

Proof is in the pudding, that is, a guitar needs to be played in a band setting for hours to assess it true character...and the R3's is quite a character!

Test of tone: Blues jam with a 1959 Tweed Deluxe and 1963 Brown Fender Reverb tank...no other effects, just 7 tubes and a speaker. A couple of very experienced pro players, bass and guitar, and guys with ears said after this week's 3 hours of jamming, "man, that is one sweet sounding guitar...like it's tone as much as or better than others you have brought with same rig".

The others include: Bartlett Retrospec; 1958 and 1963 Strats; 1959 ES 345; JG BM, BM-S and Astrocaster; Collings I35 Deluxe...not bad company.

Need to mention how incredibly accessible the frets north of 12 are on the Rocket...no fighting, all there and easy to play and each note rings like a bell. No choking, just tone. Very, very cool.

Always wanted a Pelham Blue guitar, ever since cool friend lent me his 1965 SG when he went to college in mid 1970s...a three P90 stop tail might just do the trick! But that TV White and korina color are such classic looks.

Like I need another guitar! That's how good these are.