Rhythmisking
New Member
Oh boy oh boy oh boy!
Found an '08 HB Spruce on my local craigslist and picked it up last night. Looked like a Cherry Sunburst in the CL pics, but it's Tobacco baby! It seemed a very reasonable price, although finding current comps is really difficult. This one is straight up -no piezo- with a perfect (!) top and only a few tiny edge dings here and there.
It's the lightest guitar I've ever had: 4.8 pounds?!?! Ridiculously light. So light it's almost scary; like I'm afraid I might break it putting the stiff leather strap over the buttons.
It's had very little play so there was a bit of corrosion on the frets, with ancient strings, but she's restrung, setup, and all shiny and sparkly now.
I have an SE HB Standard, and I guess I was expecting the construction to be similar, but since this one is all solid wood, the "soundpost" as it's called isn't really a post. The body is a solid chunk of mahogany routed out to form the sides and back with the area under the bridge left full depth. Likewise for the carving of the top. A full thickness piece is left at the bridge point, which then mates perfectly with the mahogany. I thought this was really cool. I'm sure most of you know this already, but I didn't. So for the unfamiliar, here's a pick through the pickup route:
This is maybe the most unusual electric I've ever owned. It's physically somewhat akin to an Eastman El Rey that I used to have, but that guitar had horrible neck dive and somehow this Spruce doesn't. It also has a much more comfortable neck shape for me. I hope it likes it's new home, where it's going to get played a lot more than it's accustomed to. I thought it might sound similar to the SE HB Standard, but it's nothing like it. The SE is much darker, and surprisingly quite a bit heavier.
Found an '08 HB Spruce on my local craigslist and picked it up last night. Looked like a Cherry Sunburst in the CL pics, but it's Tobacco baby! It seemed a very reasonable price, although finding current comps is really difficult. This one is straight up -no piezo- with a perfect (!) top and only a few tiny edge dings here and there.
It's the lightest guitar I've ever had: 4.8 pounds?!?! Ridiculously light. So light it's almost scary; like I'm afraid I might break it putting the stiff leather strap over the buttons.
It's had very little play so there was a bit of corrosion on the frets, with ancient strings, but she's restrung, setup, and all shiny and sparkly now.
I have an SE HB Standard, and I guess I was expecting the construction to be similar, but since this one is all solid wood, the "soundpost" as it's called isn't really a post. The body is a solid chunk of mahogany routed out to form the sides and back with the area under the bridge left full depth. Likewise for the carving of the top. A full thickness piece is left at the bridge point, which then mates perfectly with the mahogany. I thought this was really cool. I'm sure most of you know this already, but I didn't. So for the unfamiliar, here's a pick through the pickup route:
This is maybe the most unusual electric I've ever owned. It's physically somewhat akin to an Eastman El Rey that I used to have, but that guitar had horrible neck dive and somehow this Spruce doesn't. It also has a much more comfortable neck shape for me. I hope it likes it's new home, where it's going to get played a lot more than it's accustomed to. I thought it might sound similar to the SE HB Standard, but it's nothing like it. The SE is much darker, and surprisingly quite a bit heavier.
