This afternoon’s experiment was less about finding a winner and more about hearing what each of my five home guitars actually does when everything else is kept as constant as possible.
I took them in this order:
- AZ-10
- Faith
- Joy
- Lady
- Faith
- Joy
- Regent
- AZ-10
Each guitar went through the same fast-beat 12-bar blues in E–A7–B7, using the neck pickup with volume full and tone around 7–8. Dorcas provided the same Infinite slapback, with the JHS Bender set low: volume around one-third, tone around one-third, attack around half.
I wasn’t really interested in the blues itself. The real test came at the end of each session.
I held an E major and simply let the notes sustain for as long as my fingers could keep them ringing.
That was when the personalities became obvious.
The AZ-10
The AZ-10 was the king of sustain and feedback.
Her notes rang longer than the others, but it wasn’t merely about duration. The sustained note developed a little wobble, then some swirling movement, and eventually that wonderful interaction with the amplifier: feedback.
And this is something that has changed for me.
I used to regard feedback as something to control or avoid. With the AZ-10, I’m embracing it wholeheartedly. I’m beginning to learn where to stand, how to hold the guitar, how the note changes, and how to let the guitar and amp start talking to each other.
She doesn’t simply sustain.
She sustains into something.
Regent
Among the solid bodies, Regent was clearly next.
But Regent is Regent.
Her P90s give the sustained note a kind of command and authority that the others don’t quite have. There is power behind the note. She doesn’t merely hang onto it; she seems to insist that you listen to it.
In the overall progression, she remains in a league of her own.
Faith, Joy and Lady
Faith and Lady were remarkably similar in their sustain. Both held their notes for roughly the same length, which wasn’t surprising given that both have DiMarzio neck pickups, although they’re different models.
Joy surprised me.
Her flat-pole neck pickup sounded thicker than both Faith and Lady. I wasn’t expecting that. It was a useful reminder that pickup design, guitar construction and the player’s interaction with the instrument can produce results that aren’t necessarily obvious from the specifications.
And then I returned to the AZ-10 at the end.
That second encounter confirmed the first.
Five guitars, five voices
I’m glad I did this.
I didn’t need to compare them on paper. I didn’t need to measure sustain with a stopwatch. I simply gave each guitar the same little musical situation and listened to what happened when I stopped playing and let the note live.
The result didn’t make me love one guitar and dislike another.
Quite the opposite.
I love all five.
Regent remains the P90 authority.
Lady remains Lady.
Joy is the Strat in the house.
Faith is Faith.
And the AZ-10 has now established herself as my hollowbody home.
That last part is official.
For now, no Gretsch, no Peerless, nothing else.
If I eventually try another hollowbody, she’ll have to give me something more intimate than what the AZ-10 already gives me.
Because that’s what I have been looking for without quite knowing it.
Not merely a great hollowbody.
A guitar I can get close to.
And somehow, this enormous Framus has become that guitar.
From today, she is Alma.