Link to the guitar (no affiliation): bit.ly/3tM654Q This is the Hartwood Fifty6 with vibrato. Is it any good? Let's find out! Please consider subscribing :)
Thank you for posting Åsgeir! This is how I like the guitar reviews. It doesn´t just sound nice but also makes it easy to find out what the guitar is like. Cheers from Sweden!
I have a Hartswood semiacoustic 335 copy. I found that the ceramic pickups were very weak and Muddy and didn’t cut through at all when playing live. I bought a set of Alnico magnetic pickups and it transformed the guitar. The only downside is that it now sounds a bit more single coil but it suits me perfectly and cuts through beautifully when playing live. Also, if you take the tuners off you will notice that they rattle horrendously. At the same time, I purchased some new tuners that Were Identical but without the rattle! Now at tunes and sounds beautiful.
I think that's quite often the downside to affordable guitars: pickups and tuners. They're often made beautifully with very minor flaws that can be easily remedied. I usually feel the need to change pickups and better tuners definitely improve the guitars!
Thank you! I however didn't really bond with it so it didn't stay with me for long. I managed to sell it to someone who's enjoying it a lot more than me, which is good!
The tremolo on my Ibanez AX230T Metallic Forest is better, but still not totally reliable at going back to where is was. So I have tried changing the tremolo spring which has made it much better.
Maybe you're right about dull but with sound treatment it sounds good. Frankly rather than the quality of the guitar what really changes it all is the pedals and the sound treatment. So, if any guitar is playable the rest is upgradeable.
I have a Gretsch Electromatic 5420 with a Bigsby it isn't that much better than the Hartwood. Very interesting guitars, especially the blue Speedway looks somewhat cool. I wish there would be more guitars with cool designs out there.
That guitar looks pretty nice.. I'm not entirely convinced on Bigsby's myself if i am honest and tone wise i can't say this really does it for me.. but I don't know if some nicer higher output pickups would make it sing for me! I enjoyed the video though fella!
Thanks man! Yeah a hardtail version of this would be cool and some better pickups. It looks really nice and feels good to play but I've already traded it out so I don't have it anymore haha!
The only tremolo that really holds the tuning is the floyd rose, both strat trems and bigsbys lose it after hard abuse. From what I hear, it does work as it should, also the roller tune o matic helps to get the tuning back. Then the guitar itself looks stunning, I was wondering if it would look that nice in person and it seems so, the pickups might sound a bit dull, but working the amp pedals might solve it, either way I think this would make a nice mod platform
Totally agree, it's a nice platform to mod. They do have one with a hardtail and there's other models that look pretty sweet too. I'll probably try out some other Hartwood guitar in the near future.
True. I have an old Washburn super-strat with a floyd rose tremolo and have tortured it with my EVH and Richie Sambora impressions and it never goes out of tune-it's great!
The roller bridge will help as will the locking tuners but in order to limit tuning issues you should replace the stock nut with a tusq nut... Tusq is much harder than bone and 1000 times more slippery than graphite which is already slippery... All my guitars and basses have these and they're stable, even the ones with Bigsbys...
I totally agree. I got this one in a trade but I looked at some of their other models and I'd love to try out the Charger, Revival and Speedway. Basically any other models without bigsby hah!
Thank you for posting Åsgeir! This is how I like the guitar reviews. It doesn´t just sound nice but also makes it easy to find out what the guitar is like.
Cheers from Sweden!
I have a Hartswood semiacoustic 335 copy.
I found that the ceramic pickups were very weak and Muddy and didn’t cut through at all when playing live.
I bought a set of Alnico magnetic pickups and it transformed the guitar. The only downside is that it now sounds a bit more single coil but it suits me perfectly and cuts through beautifully when playing live.
Also, if you take the tuners off you will notice that they rattle horrendously. At the same time, I purchased some new tuners that Were Identical but without the rattle! Now at tunes and sounds beautiful.
I think that's quite often the downside to affordable guitars: pickups and tuners. They're often made beautifully with very minor flaws that can be easily remedied. I usually feel the need to change pickups and better tuners definitely improve the guitars!
It is very beautiful indeed.
Cool ETID riff man!
The guitar sounds awesome
Thank you! I however didn't really bond with it so it didn't stay with me for long. I managed to sell it to someone who's enjoying it a lot more than me, which is good!
The tremolo on my Ibanez AX230T Metallic Forest is better, but still not totally reliable at going back to where is was. So I have tried changing the tremolo spring which has made it much better.
Maybe you're right about dull but with sound treatment it sounds good. Frankly rather than the quality of the guitar what really changes it all is the pedals and the sound treatment. So, if any guitar is playable the rest is upgradeable.
I have a Gretsch Electromatic 5420 with a Bigsby it isn't that much better than the Hartwood. Very interesting guitars, especially the blue Speedway looks somewhat cool. I wish there would be more guitars with cool designs out there.
Yeah I'm sure the Gretsch is way better. I'd love to try one myself!
That guitar looks pretty nice.. I'm not entirely convinced on Bigsby's myself if i am honest and tone wise i can't say this really does it for me.. but I don't know if some nicer higher output pickups would make it sing for me! I enjoyed the video though fella!
Thanks man! Yeah a hardtail version of this would be cool and some better pickups. It looks really nice and feels good to play but I've already traded it out so I don't have it anymore haha!
The only tremolo that really holds the tuning is the floyd rose, both strat trems and bigsbys lose it after hard abuse. From what I hear, it does work as it should, also the roller tune o matic helps to get the tuning back. Then the guitar itself looks stunning, I was wondering if it would look that nice in person and it seems so, the pickups might sound a bit dull, but working the amp pedals might solve it, either way I think this would make a nice mod platform
Totally agree, it's a nice platform to mod. They do have one with a hardtail and there's other models that look pretty sweet too. I'll probably try out some other Hartwood guitar in the near future.
True. I have an old Washburn super-strat with a floyd rose tremolo and have tortured it with my EVH and Richie Sambora impressions and it never goes out of tune-it's great!
I would buy the TOM version with no bigs and put a Les Trem on her. I have great luck with that trem.
Seems like I've found my guitar. Hopefully the roll o matic trem can do some deep dives. The distortion sound of it could be nice.
It's cool, just be aware of the tuning change when you use the bar. It's something you can get used to.
@@geirisk8 thanks for the heads up
The roller bridge will help as will the locking tuners but in order to limit tuning issues you should replace the stock nut with a tusq nut...
Tusq is much harder than bone and 1000 times more slippery than graphite which is already slippery...
All my guitars and basses have these and they're stable, even the ones with Bigsbys...
Hey how is the neck, the fret ends feel ok? Nice demo dude.
Sorry for the late reply. Yeah the fret ends are find, didn't bother me at all!
Hartwood has some beautiful designs. Charger is even better looking than Fifty6 imo.
I totally agree. I got this one in a trade but I looked at some of their other models and I'd love to try out the Charger, Revival and Speedway. Basically any other models without bigsby hah!
Hi! Is it well balanced when you stand up? Asian guitar tend to go down from the headstock
Thanks! Nice playing too
They are neck divy
Does it suffer from neck dive? I'm thinking about buying the hardtail version.
If you’ve played and Sg it’s like that
Sorry for the late reply but yeah I would think so although I didn't use it with a strap at all.
Can you confirm the scale length on this? Sounds great btw
Hey there! It is a 25.5" scale length!
A little grease on the nut.
Yeah!