As you’ve probably read before, I’m a sucker for a semi-hollow...and that goes double for thinline Tele style guitars. Something about the design reaches deep down into my soul and makes my heart skip a beat. So when Rondo recently added the Douglas Gravity NT FMP90 to its inventory...well I simply had to get my hands on one.

The Douglas Gravity NT FMP90 is an OEM guitar manufactured by Saien in China and offered in a black or 3 tone tobacco sunburst with a flame maple laminate top. This review is for the latter which, as the name implies, features dual P90 pickups and a fixed bridge (similar to those on hard tail Strats rather than the typical Tele bridge plate) on an platform inspired by Fender’s Thinline Tele. Cosmetically, the guitar is an absolute stunner with it’s 3-ply tortoise shell pickguard, bound top/f-hole, and deep sunburst. The interior of the f-hole is even painted black to accentuate it’s binding. With the exception of an extremely sloppy nut (very rough cut with glue overfill marks on the end of the fretboard and above the nut on the headstock) and some slight roughness on a small section of a pickguard edge, the axe presents itself that denies its extremely affordable herritage. The advertised specs indicate a 3 piece basswood body and a 25.5 scale 13.7 radius rosewood on maple neck with 21 jumbo frets.

From a construction point of view, things feel solid. With the exception of the aforementioned sloppy nut, the attention to detail on the neck is pretty high with very nicely dressed fret ends and smoothly polished crowns. The neck has a chunkier and slightly wider feel than those who dig Fender spec instruments will appreciate, but personally I found it extremely comfortable. This is a high gloss affair though, so if you’re one who enjoys a satin neck finish you’ll need to look elsewhere or get to work with some sand paper (being the tinkering type, I find the latter a very easy and worthwhile mod). Factory setup was admirable and with the exception of lighter string gauges than I prefer the instrument was playable straight out of the box. I didn’t love the tuner’s gear ratio making fine tuning a bit of a chore (though this is typical for instruments at this price) and the the nut job was poor enough to bind the stings making tuning less stable than it could be.

I auditioned the Douglas Gravity NT FMP90 using a POD HD500, VHT Special 6 Ultra, and Zt Club. The bridge pickup offered solid tones which were much closer to a traditional tele than I had anticipated with just a touch less twang and slight midrange bump. Clean tones were nice and spanky with good definition and attack while upping the gain resulted in a nice smooth midrange crunch with a tight low end. I felt equally comfortable performing chicken picking licks as chunky hard rock riffage, quite a feat in my opinion as I’m typically the type to dedicate several guitars to specific tonal genres. The hum cancelling middle position yielded some very cool and interesting sounds with a tonality somewhere between the cluck of a Strat 2/4 position and balanced warmth vs brightness you might find in a Tele or P90 equiped LP. Unfortunately, the neck pickup’s output dwarfed the bridge. As such it came off sounding muddy and unrefined requiring significant tweaking compared to the settings used with the bridge pickup. Things sounded most balanced using a rig with a tight low end, but a sweet happy medium was hard to find. Slight bummer, but even considering the price of swapping the neck pickup (or both) the instrument is still quite a bargain.

I had always been curious about the Douglas line of guitars carried by Rondo as all of the Internet buzz seems to gravitate towards their SX and Agile Brands. If the Douglas Gravity NT FMP90 is an example of their typical quality, I’d say Douglas gives you a slightly more refined instrument with a greater attention to detail than the SX brand but doesn’t quite measure up to the material quality and craftsmanship of the Agile line, which is a direct reflection of its pricing among the instruments available at Rondo. The Douglas Gravity NT FMP90 offers a nice playing experience, fantastic looks, and some very good bridge tones at an extremely low price point to those looking to add some P90 spice to their tonal stew.

Price USD $159.95
Pros: Good playability with impressive bridge tones.
Cons: Neck pickup muddiness, poor nut work