Leaderboard

A very special instrument arrived yesterday. My pics aren’t as good as Wolfe’s but,….so what. Plays wonderfully easy and sounds full and lush. Floating Heritage #3 pickup is good, maybe a little thin/bright for me on the high E and B strings. Kind of like a Joe Pass tone with amp at lower gain. A little more electric sounding at higher gain/volume, but still has more brightness, pick percussive sound and treble than my guitars with built in pickups. Even with a smaller body, the acoustic tone is still pretty full and bass is plentiful. The 25.5 scale neck adds a lot of snap and articulation to the sound. I thought I might miss some bass at 16 inches, but it delivers tight articulate bass on the low E and A strings. I’m very happy. I did notice a couple of small surface dings (not through the finish, and you really have to look to see them) that the guys at Wolfe may not have caught or worthy of note. But like i said - small and not noticeable unless you are really looking. Grain on the top is super tight, finish is beautiful and the back, sides and neck are all super flamey. The ebony board and bridge are gorgeous. The Heritage floater is fine (my first floating pickup and I love the way you get a completely different tone-feel than with built-in). I like it better than I thought I would, but I know what sound I am after (fatter, more organic), so I am going to put a Kent Armstrong single coil on it to get a closer to a Dearmond Rhythm Chief vibe.

Probably my favorite guitar to play live. Of all my H guitars it has the best neck/nut width combination for me. Just feels right in my hands. Sounds great through just about any amp and super versatile. Straight ahead jazz KB tone, getting jazz-rock/funky, it really can do it all. Rarely feeds back even at volume/loud drummer/horns. Looks good too! Anybody else have a crush on your 550? I love my other Heritage and other guitars too, but for playing in a band that does a lot of different things, this one gets the call most often. Indoors, outdoors, even in the studio I’d put it up against just about anything for tone and feel. Link to a recording: https://on.soundcloud.com/6SVD2MkCr2E14HyaEE

I had a similar problem with the H tailpiece on my 550. I replaced it with a Benedetto style ebony tailpiece, and the problem vanished. Neck on 550 is a little wider and chunkier than most and i love it. I think the ebony tailpiece suits it well. I also added ebony volume and tone knobs. Below is before and after…