RickP
Established 1960, Still Not Dead
Final Report:
Amplified:
As it was with the McCarty Hollowbody I, this didn’t take a lot of work. The 58/15LTs don’t sound their best on HXDA settings developed for the archtop pickups of the HBI, but a touch more gain and slight EQ adjustment and they are roaring. They clean up particularly nice, and I’m looking forward to running them through a Deluxe Reverb that George Alessandro “blackfaced” for me some time back, which I am sending through a pair of Celestion Alnico Blues in a Morgan cab. The HBI sounded beautiful through it, and the clarity of the HBII should really suit it nicely.
I am somewhat frustrated that I can’t find a pair of 58/15LTs to put in the HBI for a reasonable cost. I might try a set of Fralin Pure PAFs or SD Antiquity pickups at some point. The Archtop pickups are fine, but using them together with 58/15LTs is going to mean amp resets at every change. This sounds like justification for a second 594 HB II in the works...
Anyway, I’ll cut if off there. The new guitar is a perfect melding of everything I loved about my favorite two McCarty models, the HB I and 594. And less. It weighs comfortably under 6 pounds.
Floats like a butterfly, stings like a bee.
Amplified:
As it was with the McCarty Hollowbody I, this didn’t take a lot of work. The 58/15LTs don’t sound their best on HXDA settings developed for the archtop pickups of the HBI, but a touch more gain and slight EQ adjustment and they are roaring. They clean up particularly nice, and I’m looking forward to running them through a Deluxe Reverb that George Alessandro “blackfaced” for me some time back, which I am sending through a pair of Celestion Alnico Blues in a Morgan cab. The HBI sounded beautiful through it, and the clarity of the HBII should really suit it nicely.
I am somewhat frustrated that I can’t find a pair of 58/15LTs to put in the HBI for a reasonable cost. I might try a set of Fralin Pure PAFs or SD Antiquity pickups at some point. The Archtop pickups are fine, but using them together with 58/15LTs is going to mean amp resets at every change. This sounds like justification for a second 594 HB II in the works...
Anyway, I’ll cut if off there. The new guitar is a perfect melding of everything I loved about my favorite two McCarty models, the HB I and 594. And less. It weighs comfortably under 6 pounds.
Floats like a butterfly, stings like a bee.