NGD: 2019 Halland DC-H Spruce / AB

[Cincy2]

I have had the pleasure of owning guitars made by the premier luthiers of my generation (Yes, I'm a Boomer). The best news I could report for those multitudes that are younger than I am is that there is a new generation of artisans building unbelievably beautiful and musical instruments. Greg Halland is one of these.

There is a thread in the Custom Shop forum that has some excellent video/audio clips of this guitar. Dream Guitars has the professional photographs and a demo that despite the inherent limitations does a great job of representing the essence of this guitar's tone. My review will fill in some of the gaps and compare it to a guitar made by another pair of wunderkinds, The Casimi boys of South Africa.

First the workmanship. I cannot find a flaw. Nothing that even comes close. I cannot understand how anyone can perfectly miter the ends of purfling so small and delicate I need eyeglasses to see it. I show a picture of the inlay on the body bevel below. The rosette too is a masterful, multicolored work of art that invites long, loving stares. The total package makes superlatives useless. Check out the pictures. Greenfield taught Mr. Halland well.

Construction: This is the heaviest flat top acoustic I have owned. It weighs in at an ounce under 6 pounds. The source of that weight is not obvious. The bracing under the soundboard looks pretty standard from what I can see with a mirror. I have to presume that the sides and perhaps the back are doubled. It may be coincidence but the classical and acoustic guitars I have loved the most have all had doubled sides/backs. I still believe that an exceptional luthier will make an exceptional guitar despite the construction technique used but I'm starting to believe doubled bits and pieces helps.

When I first took the guitar out of the case, I was surprised that the neck profile was thin. With the weight of the guitar i was expecting a deep V or D. The neck is a relatively shallow C that I felt comfortable with right away. No balance issues or grip problems. This instrument has fan frets which I have come to love for DADGAD. The bass/treble scale length gap is one inch. This is the perfect differential for me to make adjustment a non issue. My Greenfield used a slightly smaller difference. I fell in love with it. The bridge is a pinless design just like Greenfield uses. I love it for its simplicity and cosmetic beauty.

In my experience some of the cliche's you hear about guitar construction and woods never turned out to be true. When compared to my Casimi C2s in Redwood / Pernambuco. They did.

The 12 fret to body Casimi had softer overtones the the 14 fret Halland
The basses on the Spruce Halland had a faster attack and crisper tone
The Redwood Casimi had sweeter trebles, the Halland brighter (both in a very good way)
The volume and sustain on the Halland were greater than on the smaller bodied Casimi.

After an hour of switching back and fort between these two, the only conclusion to draw is that they are both excellent (but decidedly different) examples of the next generation of luthiers best work. I was drained from trying to pick a favorite. I love them both.

Not much more to add. I wish Mr. Halland a long and prosperous career. Without his type of skill and dedication, we would not be able to enjoy the wonderful age of guitar production we are living through today.

Cincy

[Goodallboy]

That’s a lovely instrument! Congratulations!

[marty bradbury]

Beautiful guitar! Enjoy,

[Dru Edwards]

Stunning! Just Wow. I'm sure it sounds amazing. Congrats and enjoy.

[gitarro]

That guitar looks ready to let loose some serious covering fire - it sounded from the dreamguitars clip like it had a incredible degree of power on tap.

[gitarro]

Cincy2, you mentioned in another thread that the Halland tone is more aggressive than the Greenfield tone. I am curious about how thye differ and how they are similar. What I seem to hear from the clips on the internet is that the fundamental of the greenfield seems to be almost fused with the overtones so that the overall note appears thicker and Fatter to the ear. However for the Holland the fundamental is even biggerr, more punchy and louder than the fundamental for the green field but its overtones are not fused to the fundamental as in the case of the greenfield. Instead they hover around the fundamental like a cloud which is how a conventional guitar usually behaves.

This is why I believe the greenfield sounds a little more sophisticated as how you had described it because when the fundamental is fused with the overtones it sounds more like a piano than a guitar. Also one of the reasons why the halland sounds like it has more overtones is because the Halland's overtones are more separated from the fundamental and are therefore more perceptible van the overtones for the Greenfield.

As one off the very few people who have played ans owned both guitars, would you agree with this summation off the differences between the ir respective tone?

[Cincy2]

Originally Posted by gitarro

What I seem to hear from the clips on the internet is that the fundamental of the greenfield seems to be almost fused with the overtones so that the overall note appears thicker and Fatter to the ear. However for the Holland the fundamental is even biggerr, more punchy and louder than the fundamental for the green field but its overtones are not fused to the fundamental as in the case of the greenfield. Instead they hover around the fundamental like a cloud which is how a conventional guitar usually behaves.

This is why I believe the greenfield sounds a little more sophisticated as how you had described it because when the fundamental is fused with the overtones it sounds more like a piano than a guitar. Also one of the reasons why the halland sounds like it has more overtones is because the Halland's overtones are more separated from the fundamental and are therefore more perceptible van the overtones for the Greenfield.

As one off the very few people who have played ans owned both guitars, would you agree with this summation off the differences between the ir respective tone?

I think your assessment is very accurate. You have a great ear for tone. I would characterize the Greenfield as having a larger "signal to noise ratio" with the signal being the prominent fundamental and the overtones being the noise. I find both presentations (Greenfield and Halland) to be intoxicating but as you say quite different. For someone concerned with articulating each and every note like you would want when playing Bach on a classical guitar, the Holland's oceans of overtones would create the need for a ton of damping of open strings. Some folks might not like that. I love having that whole ocean wash over me.

The other major difference is the low E and A strings. The Halland has much more punch, like you would hear from a big Dread being played with a pick. To get that barking sound with a fingernail without any effort makes me giddy.

Having played both now, if I were forced to pick one, it would be the Halland for the truly marvelous basses, the abundance of overtones and the sustain of each and every note beyond that which was possible with the Greenfield.

Cincy

[gitarro]

Thanks cincy for those observations and confirming my impressions.

[pandaroo]

Thanks for the review. The DCH caught my attention as soon as it went up on his instagram feed. This particular one is gorgeous in every way!!

I have some questions if you don't mind, will send you a DM shortly.