Okay, this guitar gets the big thumbs up. I've wondered about the string tension with the closer tailpiece spacing on the later S-100's and I gotta say it's not as extreme as I thought it would be. I think it's similar to the reissues (which have the tailpiece further back but come with a Gotoh G*bson-style tunematic bridge), but I don't have one anymore to test them side by side. I'll have to play all three of these '70's models back to back (to back) and see how different they feel. But I can say for sure that the string tension is
definitely not as tight as the S300-A. That one has the same bridge-tailpiece spacing but for some reason feels much stiffer. There's the difference in frets (24 vs. 22) but the scale length is the same. Hm.
Wow, I'm really repeating myself. C'est le pensée out loud, non?
Anyway, no surprise with the sound - basically the same awesome HB-1 sound as the other two. Which begs the question why I feel the need to own multiple guitars that sound alike. And the answer is: No reason. I must hoard them. More! More! More! :lol:
Still need to rip this one apart for some intense cleaning and do a setup. Maybe try to lower the action a bit as it's higher now than my other two. Although the higher action may help keep a looser feel. It certainly isn't difficult to bend the hell outta the strings and I don't want to change that too much. But it's pretty damn dirty. I hate to pull the strings off of it now though because they aren't bad. So I guess I'll just have to play it for awhile before I delve into that project. :darn:
(psst.......I think the '73 is still my favorite though. Shhh!) :lol:
