New (to me), from the surf side

[mad dog]

I do love trading. The latest brought me a guitar I've been curious about for years. The Hallmark 65 Custom. Which seems to be an enhanced, next gen tribute to the old Mosrite brand.



Mosrites are famous for narrow necks, low frets. This Hallmark is relatively narrow at the nut, but not so drastically as the old Mosrites. A zero fret. Ebony looking board, though it's probably not ebony. Frets on the small side. The guitar is on the heavy side. Guessing 8 1/2 pounds or so. Years ago I'd briefly picked up one at a shop, found it boat anchor heavy. So a relief that this one is better.

Came to me from the original owner. Essentially unplayed. Guitar, case and case candy look new. Needed a setup, bad. Much trussrod tweaking, getting the action down later, this is a surprisingly playable instrument. The big pluses here are the pickups. Powerful, loud, really good sounding. More than a little P90 in these p/us. Then there's the trem setup - the best I've ever come across. Smooth action, returns to pitch. All in all, an excellent guitar.

The best thing about it is that is seems to pull odd and useful music out of me. It's inspiring.

 

[GGJaguar]

Congrats on such a cool offset guitar! I think the Hallmarks are better than the Eastwoods and the Hallmark would have been my choice, too.

 

[walrus]

That's a vey cool looking guitar! Congratulations!

walrus

 

[Uke]

The positioning of that neck pu makes me curious. Is the pu slanted because it makes a difference with the bass side pole pieces pushed away from the neck and the treble side pieces shoved towards the neck? Or, Is it simply an aesthetic kind of thing?

 

[Walter Broes]

Nice!

 

[chazmo]

The positioning of that neck pu makes me curious. Is the pu slanted because it makes a difference with the bass side pole pieces pushed away from the neck and the treble side pieces shoved towards the neck? Or, Is it simply an aesthetic kind of thing?

I'm gonna' bet it's aesthetic, Uke. Note how the fretboard extension was cut to fit this. I think it's cool how little symmetry there is to this thing, and yet it doesn't look particularly awkward. One thing that comes to mind with that angled pickup could be fanned frets, but of course this guitar doesn't have them.

 

[Walter Broes]

I think it's cool how little symmetry there is to this thing, and yet it doesn't look particularly awkward.

The basic outline is a slightly modified flipped-over strat!

 

[mad dog]

The positioning of that neck pu makes me curious. Is the pu slanted because it makes a difference with the bass side pole pieces pushed away from the neck and the treble side pieces shoved towards the neck? Or, Is it simply an aesthetic kind of thing?

The p/u slant follows the fretboard slant. Both that slant and p/u positioning come straight from the original Mosrite design. My guess is it is a functional idea, as well as aesthetic.

And that p/u was part of a learning curve in checking setup. The trussrod is adjustable down at the body end of the neck. I assumed - without paying enough attention - that I'd have to pop the neck off to adjust relief. I pulled the neck attachment screws out, but the neck wouldn't move easily. It's in there pretty tight. So I pulled the neck p/u out, and could see the full story. The neck has a flat extension running under that p/u cavity. Two sizes on those neck attachment screws ... two of them are short, and go through that extension piece. (The other two are longer, go into the full depth part of the neck.) I hadn't been able to move it much because with the neck p/u still attached, the neck can only be pulled straight out from the body. And it was too tight for that.

Anyway, once I figured out the deal, it was easy to check the relief. Did it twice to get it right.

 

[Uke]

The basic outline is a slightly modified flipped-over strat!

Yes! Had not noticed that.