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I wanted to write up a small review of this guitar. It’s a 16” laminate archtop, 2pc mahogany neck, ebony fingerboard, ebony bridge, tailpiece, single PAF style humbucker, 24.75” scale. Neck is somewhat of a medium C, a tad less depth than a late ‘90s 175. The 2pc mahogany is welcome as so many 175s end up with truss rods maxed out and washers under the nuts. This neck is very stable and will likely remain so for years to come because of the design. Top and back are custom, 6 ply maple (a bit more about this in a couple paragraphs), sides are solid maple , duncan SD-59 pickup.
It was custom made (2 buyers ago) inspired by the d’aquisto that Jim Hall played for years. (Later, re-made in Japan by Aria as a Sadowsky Jim Hall model).
Like the D’Aquisto and unlike the Sadowsky, this instrument is totally hand-made from the ground up, including custom laminate plates similar in style to what Borys uses. Incidentally, some folks may not know that D’Aquisto used Borys’ plates for his laminate top guitars.
Front and back are laminated plates with 6 alternating grain hard maple plates. This is different than gibson who uses 3 ply maple/poplar/maple with the 2 outer maple layers being really thin and the poplar being thick. The soft/thick poplar is partially what gives gibson archtops that thuddy/nasally/thunky tone. The upper bout of the holst gently flattens out so he can do different cutaway types. The raw plates on the back and sides are identical to start out with.
Construction, attention to detail, and implementation are all flawless. It’s simply the best built guitar I’ve ever owned.
I bought this guitar thinking it would sound like a ‘60s 175. IT DOES NOT. Instead, it sounds like a $50,000 d’aquisto (which is even better). In the ‘70s, Slight sidebar - I met Jimmy D’Aquisto and got to hang out with him, hear his philosophies on “tone woods”, “tap tuning” and the like and play some of his guitars. I’ve owned a reissue d’aquisto jazz line and a Jim Hall and I think the holst has a sweeter and warmer tone. I think it’s hard to beat a hand made instrument and the mahogany neck on the holst vs the maple neck of the aria guitars makes a difference too.
This Holst guitar is the closest I have ever played to a real d’aquisto and it’s about 1/10 the price!
I am using it Wednesday on my steady gig but used it for a rehearsal yesterday and it’s simply an incredible instrument.
It’s currently strung up with Thomastik JS112 strings.
Unlike a 175, it’s got incredible sustain and has a bright clear top end with just a hint of plywood thunk. It does *NOT* have that middy/dead thunk that dominates the 175 tone, and the slight bump in top end combined with a subjectively “better” neck pickup placement makes for a real sweetness in tone that I couldn’t possibly get with any 175 I’ve ever owned.
It’s super responsive to pick placement too. I find that on the 175, if I pick slightly over the fingerboard, I get a somewhat gnarley tone but on the Holst, it sounds beautifully mellow tone, no matter how far up the fingerboard I pick.
OK, I’m going to stop the mini review for now and go back to playing this guitar but look for some clips and perhaps a video review soon.
Last edited by jzucker; 11-11-2024 at 07:12 PM.
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11-11-2024 09:33 AM
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I'm happy for you Jack!
And looking forward to hearing more. It looked like a great guitar and I'm not surprised.
S
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Nice review Jack and you didn't have to spend a small fortune for a top flight guitar.How do you find the acoustic voice on that guitar?I love the acoustic voice on my Borys but wish it were slightly louder.
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Acoustic voice is nice. It's pretty loud. Not as loud as my heritage eagle but louder than my kessel and probably my 175 but I don't have the 175 anymore to directly compare them. It's got a much better acoustic voice than the 175 which seems nasally by comparison.
Originally Posted by nyc chaz
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Great review - thanks, Jack!
[When building a guitar from the start, Steve is incredibly detailed with the customer so both parties know exactly what the final product will be! Highly recommended!]
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That got there pretty fast!
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I designed that guitar to honor my friend Jimmy D.
Steve is a great guy and will basically build anything you want.
Glad you like it Jack. May it serve you well Sir.
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I paid for next day / saturday shipping. Didn't want it getting bounced around. Originally Posted by Woody Sound
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Awesome, thanks for the info. Can you tell me any more about the original specs, pickup, choice for the 2pc neck, etc?
Originally Posted by vinnyv1k
I designed that guitar to honor my friend Jimmy D.
Steve is a great guy and will basically build anything you want.
Glad you like it Jack. May it serve you well Sir.
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Both of my current archtops have 'hog necks, and I love the resonance. I doubt I'll every go back to maple. Unless a guitar I REALLY like in all other ways has maple. Originally Posted by jzucker
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The pickup is a SD 59 which was Steve’s recommendation. Jescar 47104 frets. Single action trussrod. 16x31/4 body. Water based acrylic lacquer finish. The original case was too small and put too much pressure on the top so I bought a 175 case for it which was a perfect fit. I wanted it kind of on the simple side hence the single ply binding. Holst is a great guy but unlike Campellone his train doesn’t run on time. My 4 month wait turned into a year and 8 months.
His prices are unbelievably good. It cost me $3300 brand new.
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Vinny, that's a great picture! You two sure look lean and youthful! Do you have a picture of the guitar Jimmy built for you? Thanks for posting that shot. What a piece of history there. I've only handled one of his guitars, and I'll never forget it. It's really great that Jack grabbed this one. Keeps it in the family.
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update from Steve Holst
Front and back are laminated plates with 6 alternating grain hard maple plates. This is different than gibson who uses 3 ply maple/poplar/maple with the 2 outer maple layers being really thin and the poplar being thick. The soft/thick poplar is partially what gives gibson archtops that thuddy/nasally/thunky tone. The upper bout of the holst gently flattens out so he can do different cutaway types. The raw plates on the back and sides are identical to start out with.
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Well Jack Z hopefully your laminate Archtop search is over. Now for solid bodies and thinlines? Lol!
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updated with a video demo, quick run through
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I'm a searcher. It's never over. lol Originally Posted by jads57
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Jack, I think that tone was better than Jim Hall got with his D'Aquisto on many of his recordings, at least for my tastes. Congratulations on a beautiful guitar!
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The arrow finds the Inj
...archer.
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JZ, glad you are enjoying the Holst. That guitar was with me for over a year and I never owned it!
Vinny sold it to my old friend Doug (Gitpicker on this forum) and Doug lives in China (He is from the Bay Area and is a world class jazz guitarist). Doug asked me if i could pick up the guitar from Vinny and hold it for a month until he came back to the States. Well, I picked it up and Covid hit. China locked down and Doug was not able to get back to the States. In the meantime, Doug had ordered a Borys and had Roger ship it to me, so i had that guitar with me for quite awhile as well. As I never owned either of those guitars, I only took them out about once a month and played a few tunes on them just so they would not tighten up (do laminate guitars even tighten up? ).
Being primarily a 175 guy, I could never bond with the neck feel on the Holst (The Borys was no problem). I liked the pickups on both (The Duncan 59 on the Holst is great and the 12 pole handmade Kent Armstrong on the Borys was great too though it was a bit airier probably due to being unpotted). The fit and finish on the Holst was superb (though I have reservations about Poly finishes, I don't think you can fix the dings or buff out the scratches as easily as you can with nitro). The fit and finish (and setup) on the Borys was not to my liking (and the Borys cost Doug way more than the Holst cost Vinny). I think of these guitars as the D'Aquisto take on the 175.
I am so used to the Gibson neck profile and I like having two pickups because on some gigs, I find dialing a bit of the bridge pickup helps cut through, so the one pickup D'Aquisto style laminate guitar is not for me and having the Holst and Borys around saved me the money and trouble of buying them (to try out). But I am glad that Holst has found a good home. It is a beautiful instrument and needs a good home. I hope you keep it!
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Wow, that's awesome. With this lineage of ownership, it makes me feel even more connected to the guitar. I also hope I keep it. It was sort of an impulse purchase, knowing that the big guitars like this are painful for me to play these days. It's arch seems less pronounced than the 175 so it's not quite as bad.
I agree with you regarding the tone and feel. It's not really a viable 175 copy. It really sounds like a d'aquisto. Moreso than the borys which seems to be about halfway between the 2. Apparently, borys also uses 6 hard maple laminates instead of the thin-maple/thick-poplar/thin-maple that gibson typically uses. On the gibson, I believe the soft poplar and more quick absorption of sound waves is probably what gives it the thunky, short sustain. The holst sustains much more and doesn't have a lot of that thunk.
I have a chance to buy a borys but I wouldn't keep both and I'm not sure if it would satisfy my 175 jones either so I'll probably hold onto the holst.
I appreciate the comments. Right on as usual!
Originally Posted by Stringswinger
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JZ,
Doug kept the Borys and sold the Holst. I get that. Between the two, the Borys was more to my liking as well. And that is about feel more than sound for the most part. Somehow the 1 3/4 nut on the Borys does not feel too big. On the Holst, I really noticed it. I think cats who like a wider nut would prefer the Holst.
I have also played Trenier's version of this style of laminate archtop guitar. The one I played was made for forum member Oomphcyclops and is now owned by forum member ZephyrRegent (I have played that guitar at each of their homes). I liked the Trenier version the best by far (That is truly a great guitar, smooth, even tone, great fit and finish and a perfect neck feel). But for me a laminate archtop is a gigging guitar (at home I mostly reach for a carved top archtop). And at 10K or so, the Trenier is too valuable for me to comfortably take to most gigs. Frankly, so is the Borys (at 5K or so). I have three 175's and the most I am into any of them is 2.6K (though at present climbing values, they may soon become too valuable to take to a $200 gig. I need to ignore present values on those I suppose. LOL!). Forum member QAman has both the Borys and Trenier versions. Perhaps he could chime in on which he prefers? Back in the 70's, I studied with Allen Hanlon (one of New York's top studio guys) who was featured on Bory's advertisements. In the 50's Allen had been featured on Gibson's advertisements. Allen shared a studio with Sal Salvador and Barry Gailbraith (in retrospect, I wish I had taken a few lessons from each of them). Barry played the Borys (I believe he had a hand along with Jimmy D'Aquisto in designing that guitar). Allen was into his Gretsch Van Epps. I never saw Allen's Borys. In his studio, he used to let me play his 50's Gibson L-5CESN (with P-90's). Now that was an amazing guitar!
I have never played an actual D'Aquisto version. Some years ago, I had the chance to play the one owned by Joe Pass. The guitar was owned at that time by Joe's adopted son Joe Pass Jr. and he was living in Portland, Or. Joe jr. offered to let me play it, but by the time I got up to Portland to visit friends, Joe Jr. had moved. He had since died and i have no idea what happened to that guitar. Seeing as the value on those is astronomical, perhaps it is best that I never play one (truth be told, I regret not going to Portland sooner to check that guitar out).
For the money that you paid for the Holst, it is a great gigging guitar and IMO, compared to a D'Aquisto, Trenier, Borys or even a Gibson ES-175, the Holst is the best value for the money.
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You’ve never sounded better Jack! Originally Posted by jzucker
And I’m all for more ballad playing! And yes, I’m digging the Brim and shades!
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