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Holloways are shipping!

Lucky for me, Scott had the batch at his new Pasadena office rather than at his giant San Clemente facility – so it was a short 30-minute drive for me to scope them out.  These are the first batch of 50 production prototypes, and he informed me that the next wave won’t be coming for a bit longer than first planned.  So anyone on my Want List, act fast!  He only spared me a few, as he has his own extensive list, so who knows when I’ll see the next ones, how they’ll compare, or what the price will be.  As mentioned, he’s selling these as prototypes at a discount price.  I’ll mention more on a short listing tomorrow, but they are great!  Some “prototype” features may be improved, some may be changed, but for all I know, these first 50 could turn out to be gems and collector’s items (so, sorry, I’ll probably keep one for myself – I can’t resist!).   I won’t have enough to go around for a while yet, and if you’re not on Scott’s list already, don’t worry – more will be coming.

The first thing we did was get a reality check with just how good they sound by comparing to my new Merrill (for sale at HGM) and my c.1899 Knutsen Symphony, which Scott, Frank and I consider the holy grail – a $10k vintage harp guitar with $50k tone.  As usual, Scott (left) couldn’t stop playing it.  Not surprisingly, Merrill vs. Holloway remains apples and oranges – I’m speaking strictly quality of tone.  We agreed that we’d own the Merrill (if we had the cash), but players are definitely gonna love the Holloways.  Especially all you Lark in the Morning owners.  These are equally loud, but with incredible bass, and more professional overall tone.  Very “open,” but not harsh like the LIMs.  Needless to say, budget Chinese factory quality or not, they still blow the LIM workmanship and aesthetic out of the water.   The Dan LaVoie-style harp guitar crowd may actually prefer these over other HGs for the louder, brighter lead soloing options on the high strings/frets.  Some players will make these sound wild and woolly, others will make them sound gorgeous.

Here’s Scott signing the certificates (he’s inspecting and playing each one).  We were killing ourselves because after all his year-long micro-managing of every last detail to get these going, he literally had one last step – add the model/ser # to the labels and sign the certificates – and he can’t draw an “H”!   He was about to sign them all “Scott Burwell,” but I said, “But dude, you printed ‘Scott Holloway’ on them!” (he’s in the process of a legal name change to his original H surname).  So, with guitars ready to ship, he’s gotta sit and practice his new signature.  Hilarity ensued.

He was busy and didn’t see me take a pic of his practice sheet – c’mon, this is a future historical document!

And finally, before I could take my small inventory, he had to write the model name and serial number through the soundholes.  So we de-tuned all the guitars again so he could get in there (he’ll have to invest in much longer writing implements).

Deal done, I left the Knutsen with Scott as incentive to jump-start his solo CD project, which he’s been anxious to get going.

Tonight I’ll shoot those I’ll be offering, so they’re ready for the feeding frenzy.

It is a momentous day indeed for the “forgotten” harp guitar.