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Topic: Superior Hawaiian Guitars |
sliding bill
From:
UK
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Posted 8 Nov 2000 3:49 am |
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I spotted these wheilst hunting for information on Ken Emerson.
Anyone know anything about them ?
They look nice and the price seems very reasonable.
I have been looking at the possibility of a weissonborn type guitar for a while so....
If not these then ??
Bill
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Aspiring to mediocrity |
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Steve G
From:
San Leandro, CA, USA
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Posted 8 Nov 2000 7:03 am
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Superior Hawaiian guitars are sold through Berkeley Musical Exchange in Berkeley, CA. I live in Hayward which is about 15 miles away and had the opportunity to check them out and eventually buy one. In my opinion they are great! I have also played some of the very expensive Hilos and Weissenborns in the vintage stores and to be honest with you there isn't a whole lot of difference. Sure a 60 or 70 year old guitar will have good sounding wood because of the age but I'm not sure that they sound better. I paid $625 for mine and the vintage guitars cost about $2500-3000. IMHO it is a "no-brainer". How can you loose?
Good luck on your quest
Steve G |
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Matt Hutchinson
From:
London, UK
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Bill Leff
From:
Santa Cruz, CA, USA
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Posted 8 Nov 2000 11:20 am
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I own a spruce top model with rope binding. I was able to play all the ones they had when buying and this was my favorite. It's a great guitar for the money, but you should remember it is made in Mexico and the details are not going to be as polished as say a Bear Creek, which is easily 3-4 times the price. Also the wood is not koa, which is what the Weisenborns were made of.
Bob Brozman has played mine and liked it but suggested that I trim the nut (they leave it flanged outwards for some reason) and also thinks that the bridge should be replaced with a rolled steel bar.
I have noticed that the finish is somewhat fragile and you need to be careful about hitting the bar on the outside of the neck when doing "hiccups" as it will chip the finish.
I A/B'd my guitar with one of Brozman's old Weisenborns and preferred the sound of the Superior, but Weisenborns do vary.
One other thing to consider...there are the newer "Superior" guitars and the older "K&S" models, the latter being the original venture of the owner of Berkeley Music and Mark Silber (who now sells guitars under his own name). I played several examples of both the K&S and Superior. The Superiors are indeed superior (better tone and louder) to the K&S guitars I played.
As always, the above opinions are mine alone and your mileage may vary.
-Bill
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topo
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Posted 9 Nov 2000 5:18 am
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| I like the sound of my K & S guitar but I've got a problem with it. The matter is that the bridge tends to get up deforming the top, so that I can't use any gauge that 012-054 |
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