Steven Holst Jim Hall / D’Aquisto mini review part II

Up Front – I am not an endorser for Holst nor have I received remuneration for this review.

I wanted to give an update after using it on my gig last night.

I can now say conclusively that it’s the best sounding guitar I’ve ever had. 

Here are some of the guitars I’ve used on this long running gig.

• Gibson Barney Kessel,
• Heritage Eagle,
• Gibson 175 (2013 & 1989),
• Gibson L4CES,
• Ibanez Benson GB10,
• Ibanez Metheny PM120,
• Gibson 335,
• MJT Strat, (yeah, I know…),
• Steven Holst – Jim Hall / D’Aquisto

The Holst is just in another league. The sustain is wonderful, the lilt of the note’s attack is just beautiful, and I could get lost in it alone. And there is just some “je ne sais quoi” that makes it incredibly satisfying to play and lends itself to playing in a lot of different styles. Part of it may be the dynamic range. It’s got a wider dynamic range than any Gibson I’ve played in years. I have the action pretty low, so it buzzes a tiny bit if I dig in but even the quality of that buzzing is sweetness to my ear. 

It’s able to reproduce a very wide range of tones based on hard I pick, whether I pick with my thumb or use a cellulose or plastic pick, etc.

It’s the first laminate guitar I’ve ever owned that sounds fantastic for octaves. And it’s interesting because on my heritage eagle, which is a solid spruce top, of course octaves sound good on it because it has that Wes-thing going on. However, the Holst sounds equally good with octaves but does not sound exactly like Wes’. I realized a few days ago that the note separation is fantastic and better than anything else I have, which – along with the dynamic range – allows octaves to just jump out as if they were fired out of a cannon. And likewise, the same with block chords.

I will post more thoughts later along with another demo. I spent about 15 takes yesterday trying to record something but my mind was not clear, so I didn’t get anything I liked. Hopefully today!

All the best,

Jack Zucker

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.