Here's one I had long been curious about. The 27" scale Swan built by Jim Soloway. Pricey and rather exotic, so never figured I'd even see one. But a recent trade (Kingsley D30C) brought one my way. It's orange!!
Maple cap on maple neck, medium jumbo frets. Chambered ash body with maple cap, with several well placed comfort contours. String through. Rather light, 6 pounds something. The pickups are Lollar Firebird minis. Pull the tone knob to run them in series. The build quality and little design touches are remarkable. It's quite beautiful and elegant in person.
The promise of a 27" scale holds great appeal, but I was hesitant at first. Recent experience with a super comfortable 28" JJ baritone erased any concerns on playability. In the hands, playing it, it's a non-issue. You can feel the scale on the lower frets, and at first in fret tension. (Coming up with my own custom string set, slightly downsized treble strings, made a big difference there.) The pluses of this scale are claimed to be bass clarity, overall note articulation in chords. Damned if it's not true. The Swan has a unique feel. Big spank and bounce on the low end, impressive clarity everywhere. The other big joy here is the pickups. These Lollars are sweet. They twang like tele p/us, but turn up volume and roll off the tone to start getting the sweetest minihum type overdrive. Beautiful sounds, especially through the brownface fender pro, using a 2x12 extenstion cabinet too.
Respect to Mr. Soloway and Mr. Lollar. These guys know what they're doing.
Maple cap on maple neck, medium jumbo frets. Chambered ash body with maple cap, with several well placed comfort contours. String through. Rather light, 6 pounds something. The pickups are Lollar Firebird minis. Pull the tone knob to run them in series. The build quality and little design touches are remarkable. It's quite beautiful and elegant in person.
The promise of a 27" scale holds great appeal, but I was hesitant at first. Recent experience with a super comfortable 28" JJ baritone erased any concerns on playability. In the hands, playing it, it's a non-issue. You can feel the scale on the lower frets, and at first in fret tension. (Coming up with my own custom string set, slightly downsized treble strings, made a big difference there.) The pluses of this scale are claimed to be bass clarity, overall note articulation in chords. Damned if it's not true. The Swan has a unique feel. Big spank and bounce on the low end, impressive clarity everywhere. The other big joy here is the pickups. These Lollars are sweet. They twang like tele p/us, but turn up volume and roll off the tone to start getting the sweetest minihum type overdrive. Beautiful sounds, especially through the brownface fender pro, using a 2x12 extenstion cabinet too.
Respect to Mr. Soloway and Mr. Lollar. These guys know what they're doing.