Tonefox Guitars Elcaster | A luthier-assembled Telecaster Thinline w/ P90s for €1,699? Review & Demo

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This is the Tonefox Elcaster! Tonefox is the more affordable line from Uwe Schoelch of Tonfuchs Guitars fame, and the Elcaster – a semi hollow Telecaster Thinline-esque model fitted with Ray Gerold P90s – is the first model to be released.

You’ll have seen Tonfuchs Guitars before – they’re built in limited numbers by Uwe by hand in Karlsruhe, Germany, and they’re extremely exclusive. You can order anything you want (within reason!) and the prices start at around €3,000.

Check out Tonfuchs Guitars here:

With Tonefox, though, Uwe is giving buyers the chance to enter the world of luthier-assembled guitars for less. The Elcaster costs €1,699 (including a very decent hard case) and is put together by Uwe in Germany. However, the bodies and necks are bought from high-end neck and body builders, as opposed to being fettled from scratch by Uwe himself, and he then ages them and puts together the rest of the guitars. They feature a pair of custom-voiced Ray Gerold P90 pickups, Wilkinson hardware and high quality pots and electronics.

Thinline Telecasters are generally pretty versatile guitars, and in this video I put the Elcaster through its paces playing some pop, indie, folk, rock, punk, and even some Drop D metal riffs. Will it handle them all? And will the Elcaster come out of this representing good value for money? It’s time to find out!

Here are some links to the various playing samples and info bits:

00:00 Hello!
00:41 Introduction to Tonefox and the Elcaster
01:49 Elcaster specs and info
04:51 Today’s rig

Clean Sounds
05:28 Clean tone reference chords on all pickups
05:51 Poppy barre chords
06:07 Ringing open pop chords
06:21 Country lead sound
06:30 Country ballad arpeggios
06:44 Strummed country cowboy chords
07:05 Strummed chords with tone control test
08:26 Indie pop picked chord arpeggios
08:45 Strummed indie pop chords
09:00 Indie folk droning chords
09:18 Atmospheric indie chords
09:39 Bluesey southern rock riff

Light/Medium Crunch Sounds w/Greer Lightspeed
10:03 Airbourne inspired classic rock riff
10:16 Hendrix inspired classic rock riff
10:34 AC/DC inspired classic rock riff
10:52 Another Hendrix inspired classic rock riff
11:08 Groovy classic rock riff
11:36 Greta Van Fleet inspired classic rock riff
11:49 Classic rock rhythm riff
12:06 Southern rock picked arpeggios
12:17 60s pop rock chords
12:28 Indie rhythm chords
12:59 Edgy indie rock riff
13:13 Indie droning palm muted riff
13:25 Indie rock barre chords with volume control test
14:22 Indie octave chords riff
14:51 Indie rock rhythm chords

High-gain overdrive sounds (amp’s Lead Channel)
15:08 Hard rock rhythm sound
15:23 Classic hard rock riff
15:41 Hard rock riff
15:57 Glam rock riff
16:12 Foo Fighters inspired modern rock riff
16:29 Modern alt rock riff
16:44 Chunky alt rock chords
17:11 Ascending palm muted alt rock riff
17:32 Indie rock ballad arpeggios
18:05 Pop punk riff
18:19 Punk rock power chords
18:34 Green Day inspired punk rock riff
18:49 Progressive rock riff (Drop D tuning)
19:05 Modern rock palm-muted power chords (Drop D tuning)
19:30 Rage Against The Machine inspired groovy riff (Drop D tuning)

Clean Channel w/Revv G3 Distortion Pedal (all in Drop D tuning)
19:47 Hardcore chugging riff
20:02 Hardcore punk riff
20:17 Mastodon inspired metal riff with country twang
20:30 Thrash metal riff
20:40 Lead sound
20:53 Classic heavy metal/sludge riff

21:27 My thoughts on the Elcaster
21:46 First impressions: looks, finish and feel
22:55 Build quality and hardware
24:45 Playability and the neck
26:15 Sounds
31:01 Who is the Elcaster for and what is the competition?
33:23 Could you build a Partscaster that competes with the Elcaster?
35:21 Final conclusion and goodbye


Check out my video on the Tonfuchs Dyna here:

And my interview with Uwe Schoelch here:


I ran the Elcaster into my Hughes & Kettner Black Spirit 200 head, using my Greer Lightspeed for the overdrive and my Revv G3 for the heavy distortion sounds. The amp went from the Red Box DI straight into my Focusrite Scarlett 2i4, which went into Logic Pro X. That's it. No post-processing on the sounds was done.

Here’s some links to those bits of gear:

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H&K Black Spirit 200 head:
Greer Lightspeed:
Revv G3:
Focusrite 4i4 (this is the newer equivalent of my 2i4, which they don’t make any more!):
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Enjoy!


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Backing music from the YouTube Audio Library: Dusty Fingers – DJ Williams.

#Tonefox #TonFuchsGuitars #CustomGuitar #Luthier #CustomGuitars


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