Hufschmid Guitars – H6 Electric Guitar Review

This review was submitted by Guitar Jar contributor: Kit Garcia

I had seen Patrick’s work years prior to eventually placing my order with him. I remember seeing one of his guitars and being completely taken back by the attention to detail, the choice of woods, every aspect of the guitar seemed to be meticulously crafted with an attention to detail that you just don’t see these days.

However, I just wasn’t in a position to order a custom guitar.

…the neck is by far one of the most comfortable I have ever played on…

Fast forward to 2012, a close friend of mine is showing off one of his new picks at one of my shows, he pulls out the business card and I immediately recognized the logo.

That night I went home and started researching Hufschmid guitars, the more and more I looked at his guitars, I noticed they were exactly what I looked for in an instrument; string through hard-tail designs, natural finishes, beautiful woods. I emailed Patrick immediately.

Features:

• Spalted and Flamed Maple Top (most beautiful piece of wood I’ve seen any guitar)
• Sapelli Mahogany Body
• Hand Carved-Mahogany Neck (custom fitted from pictures of my hand)
• Ebony Fingerboard
• Custom Wound Kent Armstrong Pickups
• Hipshot Bridge
• Sperzel Tuners
• Dunlop Strap Locks
• 25″ Scale
• 24 Frets
• Momentary Kill-Switch

Ease of use:

One of the first things I was asked for was a picture of my hand, so as Patrick could hand carve the neck to a custom size.

The neck is by far one of the most comfortable I have ever played on, a nice rounder shape by the first frets for doing chord shapes and rhythm work, and gradually becomes slightly more flat towards the upper frets to allow for easier lead work and single note lines.

The arm bevel makes resting my arm on the edge of the guitar extremely comfortable, and the guitar is balanced PERFECTLY, the neck doesn’t dive at all, but the body isn’t so heavy to where you feel it is dragging you down – in fact, the entire guitar is very thin and lightweight.

The fret-job allows for criminally low action, I can pull of some of the more difficult riffs in my “library” with ease on this guitar.

The entire guitar is just built for “me” and it couldn’t be more player friendly.

Sound Quality:

This is honestly where the guitar really shines. Even when unplugged this guitar is the loudest and most resonant guitar I’ve laid hands on, it almost sounds like a semi-hollowbody it’s so loud.

When I first plugged the guitar in, I was really amazed at just how huge the guitar sounded.

Normally sacrificing weight and thickness of a guitar means you are sacrificing bottom end and the overall “hugeness” of a guitar, but it literally felt like I was plugging into a 10lb + Les Paul, yet it’s this thin super-Strat shape.

The clarity and sustain is unbelievable, chords just ring out for forever and the guitar resonates and vibrates extremely well. This is also due to the custom wound Kent Armstrong pickups.

I described in detail what sound I was looking for and Patrick nailed it; perfectly balanced, high output but still remaining excellent clarity, harmonics just jump from the guitar and despite being higher output, large chords ring out perfectly clear with incredible note separation.

Reliability:

I’ve waited a while to post this review just because of this subject and while I’ve only owned the guitar for a few months it has quickly become the most stable guitar I own.

Once doing some slight tweaking to my personal tastes, the guitar literally hasn’t dropped in pitch at all in the last few weeks and that’s going from rehearsal, to shows, back to my home, flopping around in the case, it’s solid as a rock.

I can’t comment too much more on this subject as I haven’t owned it for an extended period of time, but the build quality is unlike anything else I own (PRS, Gibson, Music Man), and I don’t foresee having any issues with this guitar for years to come.

Overall Rating:

Patrick is an amazing artist. His guitars are on a completely different level from anything else I’ve experienced and it’s honestly nearly impossible to “compare” his guitars to anything else – they are just in a different league.

Patrick’s communication throughout the entire process was stellar; I was kept up to date with daily progress reports and pictures and was consulted on through every step of the process.

When you purchase a Hufschmid guitar you are also gaining a great friend and someone who cares about your instrument even after he ships it out.

If you are looking for something different and are tired of all the other builders out there, do not hesitate to contact Patrick. I can assure you that he will build you something that you will take to your grave.

I honestly just feel lucky to be able to say I own one of his pieces of art.

This review was submitted by Guitar Jar contributor: Kit Garcia