Hagstrom Alvar
TOTAL GUITAR NOVEMBER 2019
102
HEAD TO HEAD
The battle for small semi
supremacy commences
T
hese four compact semi-hollow
guitars have lot of virtues in common.
They’re all resonant, comfortable,
playable – the Hagström is especially
playable – and when it comes to tone,
they each put their own spin on what a
semi-hollow could sound like. The G5655TG
surprised us. Those Broad’Tron humbuckers lay
down a formidable challenge to the prevailing
wisdom that Gretsch is just for rockabilly, with
enough high-gain muscle to shoulder sparkly
crisp, hard rock crunch. At high volumes, it
really comes alive. There is still some feedback,
a little noise, but you wouldn’t want a Grestch
to sound housetrained. Roll the gain o and
there is a little more denition in there, heaps
of bouncy rock ’n’ roll tone that pairs well with
valve-driven spring reverb and that Bigsby
wobble. The LTD PS-1000 is hotter still. Its
build and Seymour Duncan Phat Cat P-90 style
pickups make it a viable option for metal.
Metal? Absolutely. You’ll have no trouble
cutting through the mix with this, and you can
tease all kinds of harmonics out of the PS-1000
when the gain goes past two o’clock.
Nonetheless, players will be glad to know that
those pickups clean up nicely for some
wonderful, upfront cleans. The Hagström’s
tone sounds more classic semi-hollow, with a
little bit of an ES-335 vibe there. The Alvar’s
humbuckers have a do-everything quality,
from jazz and blues through rock, maybe even
metal. Meanwhile, there were no surprises with
the Vintera Telecaster Thinline, except maybe
that it so comprehensively follows through on
Fender’s promise to deliver a vintage
experience for today’s player. With that neck
prole, the high-gloss nish, and the rounded
7.25-inch ngerboard radius and thin frets, it
really feels of a dierent era. Of course, it is a
Telecaster; it can do pretty much anything, but
steel yourself for an articulate sound that
complements a rounded low end and upfront
mids and highs.
Fender’s 1970s Wide Range
‘buckers were designed by
Seth Lover, who invented
Gibson’s original humbucker
A Bigsby-loaded Gretsch
may be a familar sight,
but this model has
surprising muscle
THESE FOUR COMPACT
SEMI-HOLLOWS
GUITARS HAVE A LOT OF
VIRTUES IN COMMON
THE TG TEST
TGR325.gear_test.indd 102 10/10/2019 16:53