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Hey guys,
Brian emailed me that there was some talk about the Hallmark sweptwings
so I thought I'd join the discussion and throw in my 2 cents.
I've had one of the new ones for a couple months now. I like it. I had
to have a little work done to get it in good shape, though.
Structurally, it's really solid. The hardware's great. The finish is
beautiful. I had trouble with the bridge pickup cutting out. I took it
to a highly regarded guitar tech here in Detroit, Mike Koontz. He opened
it up and said the wiring was kinda sloppy and the pots were pretty
cheap. So he replaced the pots and rewired some of it. He also replaced
the nut because the G string kept popping out. He also adjusted the neck
and leveled the frets to eliminate some fret buzz. I got it back and the
pickup was still cutting out. I contacted Bob Shade at Hallmark and he
sent me a new pickup. That took care of the problem. I had Mike set it
up for .013s with a heavier vibrato spring that Bob sent me. Now it's
great.
I don't know if the problems I had were flukes or if this reflects the
quality level of the line. Bob was very responsive about taking care of
them.
I'v only had a chance to use it live once, so far. I played for half a
set with the Hellbenders. It performed admirably. I've been using it at
practice and it plays great. The pickups sound a little like Mosrite
pickups, not exactly, but similar. There a little hotter than what I'm
used to on my Jazzmaster. They're different from the pickups on my
original Hallmark. Considerably brighter.
So, I like it so far, but I feel I need to get it on stage more before I
can give a better judgement.
Rick Mills
