Carvin Allan Holdsworth Signature HH1 and HH2 Headless Guitars

The Carvin Allan Holdsworth H2 and HF2 Fatboy Signature guitars were fine instruments, and Allan was playing them exclusively when they were introduced in 1996 and 1998 respectively. 

But in recent years, I noticed that he had started to use his Bill DeLap custom guitars again, his main guitars before the Carvins.  A likely reason being that DeLap's headless design made them more compact and able to fit into an airplane's overhead compartment, an important consideration especially with all the restrictions to carry-on luggage these days.

With the recent introduction of the Carvin Holdsworth Signature HH1 and HH2 Headless Guitars, Allan Holdsworth fans can finally get their hands on something very similar to Holdsworth's DeLap without the long wait or hefty price tag.

The HH1 comes with a single humbucking pickup at the bridge -- long Holdsworth's favorite configuration -- while the HH2 comes with two humbuckers for more tonal versatility.  Both models feature chambered alder bodies, birch tops, Eastern hard rock maple set necks and a 25.5 inch scale.  The 20 inch radius ebony fretboards are a carry over from the original Carvin H2 and HF2 models, making for an extremely flat playing surface, allowing extremely low action for effortless legato playing. 

Both the HH1 and HH2 come standard with a JCustom Headless Research hardtail bridge, with an optional upgrade to a JCustom XS-Trem tremolo system.  

Carvin also offers its huge array of wood options, allowing further customization of the Holdsworth Signature HH1 and HH2.

Check out this link to my earlier article on Allan Holdsworth's Ibanez AH10 Signature model.

The Les Paul Quest Part 3

In my last couple of posts I talked about my buddy Sherman's quest for his ultimate Les Paul.

And I was surprised when he told me someone on one of the guitar forums was selling a Sid Poole Les Paul!

Another guitar collector friend of mine had bought a Poole Les Paul off of Bernie Marsden in 1998.  His story was that he was in the UK for business where he happened upon a blues festival featuring Marsden's band.  So enamoured was he with the tone of Marsden's Poole that he offered him top dollar for it right after the show.  Pretty crazy I know, but that's the story.  And I've seen and played that Poole guitar myself. 

And it was through this same collector friend that I met Sid Poole in Singapore in 1999.  Over dinner in an Indian restaurant (Sid's preference), the three of us spent about two hours talking guitars. I remember him mentioning how he started out building 1959 Les Paul replicas for a select clientele in the UK, and the subsequent 'Cease and Desist' letters from Gibson that followed.  Changing the headstock design and putting his own name on it didn't stop his customers from coming back, however.

Sid was a really good bloke.  Sadly, he passed away a couple of years later in 2001.

The Marsden-owned Poole became a benchmark for me as to what a great Les Paul could be -- or should be. 

Light and resonant, the whole guitar seems alive in your hands.  Heck, when I played it sitting down I could hear the fabric of my jeans rustling against the thin nitrocellulose finish through the amplifier!  And the Tom Holmes humbucking pickups perfectly complemented the instrument giving an airy twang without a hint of a mud. Everything I would imagine an authentic 1959 Les Paul to be.  Finish off the whole deal with a stunning quilted maple top and you had what was basically, quintessential Sid Poole.

The only thing missing was the familiar headstock with every guitar player's favorite bluechip 'G' brand. 

I swear, if someone were to scarf-join a Gibson headstock onto a heavily flamed Epiphone Les Paul some mook will gladly fork out big bucks for it.   And where is Epiphone getting all that amazing flame maple for their tops anyway?

But back to our story.

When Sherman sent me the pics of the Poole Les Paul he was considering, certain alarm bells went off.  It looked like a decidedly new guitar and didn't have the vibe of an original Sid Poole-built guitar.  A quick search revealed a Poole successor of sorts who was custom building guitars and this particular axe appears to be one of them.

The seller wanted about $2200 for it, well below what an original Poole would go for these days.  If you were lucky enough to find one.

For Sherman, the quest continues.

Check out Part 1 and Part 2 of The Les Paul Quest.

And take a gander at the Poole Custom Guitars site.  Besides their standard models, they're also building guitars to custom specifications.

The Les Paul Quest Part 2

In Part 1 of The Les Paul Quest  I wrote about the Provision Les Paul my friend was contemplating on getting.  But you know, contemplate on something for too long and it'll grow legs and walk away.

With the Provision Les Paul snapped up by another buyer, Sherman sent me an email with pics of a Les Paul from the far, Far East -- Thailand! 

Thai-made guitars are a fairly recent entry into the guitar market and I'd tried a couple of bolt-on strat and tele-style guitars over the last couple of years.  Both were made by one Prasit Pariyarungsri. 

The guitars were pretty well-made and the attention to detail was definitely there.  But because they used indigenous local woods, they tended to be extremely heavy -- imagine a tele-style axe with a bolt-on neck weighing in at almost 9lbs! 

That would be on the heavy side even for a regular Les Paul.  And at that kind of weight a guitar is just not going to resonate.  The two guitars I tried felt like the pickups were speaking directly to the strings, with no contributing acoustic resonance from the body and neck at all.  Which is fine, maybe even desired, for heavier rock and metal, which would appeal to a sizeable chunk of the Thai guitar-buying market. 

From what I understand, Prasit apprenticed under another Thai guitar maker -- whose name eludes me now -- who also made a variety of solidbody guitars in the style of Gibson, Tom Anderson, Fender and PRS and marketed under the brand 'POT'.  And browsing the NNG Guitars website -- Prasit's current guitar company -- it looks like they are taking a similar approach.

This particular Prasit-built NNG Les Paul copy comes upgraded with woods more traditionally associated with the Gibson family.  The description in the email from Prasit himself is as follows:

********
Neck Joint : Set in (Long neck tenon type)    

Neck : One piece mahogany
Fretboard :  Rosewood with Mother of Pearl trapezoid inlays
Headstock shape : Les paul standard shape with real ebony wood veneer
Body :  Almost one piece Honduras mahogany (the one piece has 90% of total width body jointed with another piece has 10% of remainder).  However I ever found original Les Paul jointed same as this, everybody can be called that one piece body
Body top : Book match highly curly flame maple(4A grade)
PUs. : 2× genuine Alnico V magnet

********

And I appreciate the guy's honesty about the ratio of wood that makes up the body joint. Try getting the Gibson Custom Shop to openly offer up that kind of information!

Prasit's current approach, now that he has access to Honduran mahogany, is to bring his Les Paul guitars in at between 7.5 to 8lbs. 

I'm really digging the real mother of pearl inlays!  Why Gibson continues to use cheap pearloid plastic for the inlays on their Les Paul Standards continues to elude me. 

And it looks like NNG Guitars is getting their own Alnico humbuckers custom made as well.  Interesting.



 
Check 'em out -- http://www.nngguitars.com/

The Les Paul Quest Part 1

A good buddy of mine is on a quest for his ultimate Les Paul and he has kindly agreed to let me document his ongoing research and correspondence with the various luthiers, pickup makers and hardware manufacturers. Thanks Sherman! 

And having owned several Gibson Les Pauls in the past, he initially had his sights set on one of the obscure Japanese manufacturers.

Like this Provision Les Paul.

Largely unknown outside of the US, Provision makes mid to very high-end Les Paul copies in limited runs.

From Ishibashi Japan's U-Box listing of used instruments, this axe features a nicely flamed, solid maple top, mahogany neck and body and comes equipped with Seymour Duncan 59N and JB pickups.  It was listed on Ishibashi's U-Box for 140,952 yen  or US$1854.  This was Provision's mid-level model, so the price brand new would have been in the US$2500 region.  Pretty crazy I know.

So why would anyone want to pay that much for a no-name guitar?  Folks, it's all about attention to detail and looking past that unfamiliar name on the headstock. 

Gibson's quality began to flag in the early '90s.  My theory is that one Saul Hudson aka Slash suddenly drove demand for Les Paul guitars through the roof and Gibson were caught off-guard and were unable to crank them out fast enough.  In the process, quality was sacrificed. 

And thanks to Slash's popularity, almost overnight Gibson guitars appeared with dodgy craftmanship -- sloppy finishing, rough fretwork with sharp fret ends and misaligned pearloid fingerboard markers inlaid into oversized slots with a huge amount of surrounding wood filler.

What better conditions for a high-end Les Paul-copy market in Japan to suddenly fluorish and prosper, appealing to a culture that is positively fanatical about details.



This particular guitar sold out pretty quickly from Ishibashi's listing despite the numerous dings and dents that pervaded the headstock, sides and back.

Stay tuned for upcoming instalments of the Les Paul Quest!