Poling Highland

hreboredo · #1 03-02-2010, 12:54 PM

Not a build thread as this guitar is already built, but I am very exciting to receive my Poling Highland later this week. The Highland is Brock's take on a Gibson AJ dreadnaught. This one has beautiful cocobolo with an adi top that has a vintage sunburst on it. Brock had this guitar at a few of the shows and I played it at Healdsburg. I venture some of you also played it either at Healdsburg or Miami or Montreal. A brave man for bringing a dread to a show that features fingerstyle instruments, this guitar stuck out to me as one of my favorites at the show. It was amazingly responsive and full both fingerstyle and as a flatpicker.

So when I started thinking about adding a big dread to my collection I ventured over to Brock's site to see about ordering one and was very excited to see he still had the very guitar I had played. A call to Brock the next day and I knew the guitar had to come live in NYC.

Here are a couple of pics Brock had since no thread on this forum about a guitar is complete without pics. I'll give this guitar a full run-through this weekend and will post additional pics and some sound clips with my review.

riorider · #2 03-02-2010, 01:51 PM

That's a beautiful guitar - and yes, I did see it at Healdsburg, and one of the reasons I went ahead and asked to get on Brock's build list! Brock does very nice work and I'll look forward to hearing your review and seeing more pictures!!

Thanks for posting!

rr/Phil

hreboredo · #3 03-02-2010, 02:03 PM

I was really impressed with Brock's work at the show. The Sierra I played was also very nice.

I see in your signature he'll build you another "Tree" guitar. If it's the set I've seen him post that is going to be something out of this world. Pretty special wood and it will be interesting for you I'm sure since you'll have 2 to compare.

I have a "Tree" guitar on order from Hank Mauel that I think is coming some point later this year, though I went with Adi for the top -- but that will be another thread later this year.

More to come...

hreboredo · #4 03-04-2010, 09:22 PM

The new guitar has arrived! Started to warm up after dinner and it sounded great. Really looking forward to hearing it tomorrow after being here overnight.

I'll take pictures and record sound clips this weekend. I want to give the guitar a couple of days in its new environment before I record it. Even from when I first tuned it up to an hour later the difference was stunning.

As a preview...this is a heck of a dread, and might also be the best fingerstyle instrument I own.

Humberto

riorider · #5 03-04-2010, 09:36 PM

Excellent! Really looking forward to it, Humberto!

rr/Phil

Martin_Nut · #6 03-05-2010, 01:06 PM

Humberto,

What a dazzling beautiful guitar. You lucked out in picking this one up - I'd be shocked if it didn't turn out to be one heck of an all around amazing guitar. Thanks for the thread, as I have always been interested in Brock's work, and may be coming around to trying a slope D after sometime without any dreads in my stable at all.

cpabolting · #7 03-05-2010, 02:58 PM

I love his guitars. Maybe a Poling Slope D is in my future too...or a McNight Slope MacNaught hollowback!

hreboredo · #8 03-05-2010, 03:35 PM

Thanks guys. I'm dying to run home and play it. I'm not a dread guy generally (my prior dread was a great Walnut Taylor that is more all-around than a dread), but my 20-month old convinced me I needed something I could boom chuck. I've have my father-in-law's hot-rodded HD-28 on loan since Thanksgiving to play a bluegrass gig in December and my son loves the sound more than my Mauel or Taylors. I remembered how great the Poling was at Healdsburg and it all came together pretty quickly.

In case you're wondering, yes -- my 20 month old is a guitar afficionado :-). He tells me which one he wants to hear and what songs to play. My wife and I find this absolutetly hilarious.

More to come on this story. I'm telling you Brock may make me a dread guy after all.

Humberto

Steve Kinnaird · #9 03-05-2010, 09:25 PM

Congrats, Humberto! I love that sunburst...just perfect.

Steve

ChuckS · #10 03-09-2010, 10:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hreboredo

The new guitar has arrived! Started to warm up after dinner and it sounded great. Really looking forward to hearing it tomorrow after being here overnight.

I'll take pictures and record sound clips this weekend. I want to give the guitar a couple of days in its new environment before I record it. Even from when I first tuned it up to an hour later the difference was stunning.

As a preview...this is a heck of a dread, and might also be the best fingerstyle instrument I own.

Humberto

Very nice looking guitar; congratulations!

I'm very interested in hearing your recordings, hopefully soon. It would be nice if you gave a description of your recording gear, setup, and any effects that you add. Thanks.

hreboredo · #11 03-09-2010, 10:44 AM

Thanks. I was finally able to do a little recording last night but I need to fix some software issues before I can post. For the moment I'm using a Zoom H4 connected to my PC as an interface and using Reaper for the recording. The goal is to record dry to give you the best representation of the guitar. Don't have the space I used to so I can't break out the big condenser mic and do a better placement job.

I am very much enjoying the guitar. It's been a treat to hear the guitar change over the last few days. It's amazing how the progression is. You think the guitar is awesome and the next day you wonder how it got better. To me this is one of the great things about wood -- it's not a static item.

hreboredo · #12 03-09-2010, 06:23 PM

Ok, I think I got this to work. Below is a clip using the Poling on a song I wrote called the Journey Home. It's rough but I think it gives you a pretty good sense of what the guitar sounds like finger picked -- though I'm not doing the guitar justice. As I said in my prior post, this was recorded with a Zoom H4 and no effects.

http://soundclick.com/share?songid=8863706

I'll try to get some flatpicking recorded. Just hard to do in an NYC apartment at night!

Enjoy.

ChuckS · #13 03-09-2010, 07:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hreboredo

Ok, I think I got this to work. Below is a clip using the Poling on a song I wrote called the Journey Home. It's rough but I think it gives you a pretty good sense of what the guitar sounds like finger picked -- though I'm not doing the guitar justice. As I said in my prior post, this was recorded with a Zoom H4 and no effects.

http://soundclick.com/share?songid=8863706

I'll try to get some flatpicking recorded. Just hard to do in an NYC apartment at night!

Enjoy.

Your playing and the guitar sounded very nice. Thanks for posting it!

riorider · #14 03-09-2010, 08:14 PM

Very nice Humberto! I hear (even through my little laptop speakers) a lot of separation and note clarity.. not a lot of the new term I heard today "cross-talk" between the strings, which I particularly like.

Thanks for posting!

rr/Phil

Kitchen Guitars · #15 03-12-2010, 04:27 AM

Hey! I took those photo's!
That was a sweettttttt guitar! I stopped in on Brock and did an interview that never got completed (someday I hope) and I snapped a bunch of photo's.
Those were some of them! Congrats on a great guitar

Brock has some great stuff!