Reply To: N(O)GD!!

#1216
tadol
Senior Moderator

    Had to give it a few days – it came from Hawaii, had that musty smell that was a combination of humid Hawaii, old bar room, and too long in a case.  Strings were green, but still sounded strangely good. Had intended to let it sit and acclimatize for a couple weeks, since I’ve had a couple guitars come from Hawaii, and the extra humidity doesn’t do anything good for them, tone-wise.  But – I’m just too impatient. So I threw on a set of SC lights and tuned it up – ehh, ok, not great – its buzzing all over. Needed to give the neck a bit of relief – it was dead flat. That helped alot. Give it another couple days – yup, sounding better, but still needs to dry out a bit more. And it could use a little love – dress the frets, clean it up, new saddle thats a less loose fit. Its got an active undersaddle pickup, sounds pretty good, but maybe it’d sound better without it? Can’t wait to see if I can get Stephen or maybe Gerard to do a little tweak on it – might try Bruce, who knows –

    But – its a wonderful H – such a great size, and the koa/sitka has a really nice warm tone. Not something that would rank on anyones top 10 list, but the kind of guitar you would feel privileged if you were stuck on a hawaiian island with it. And, this may be one that doesn’t love the SC strings – I’ll try another kind in a few months. And its got all the wonderful characteristics of an almost 30 year old SC – can’t tell you exactly what those are, but its a feeling when you pick it up and play it – hate to say it, but if new ones felt like this, I’d be so much more inclined to buy new – but too many like things “perfect” – 

    Now, I guess I’ll really have to try and sell one of the koa top Hs – my wife is bound to balance the Paypal account one of these days  –