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Topic: Dinky Hilo on ebay... |
Chris Drew
From:
Bristol, UK
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Posted 26 Jul 2007 11:51 pm |
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This looks identical to the 3/4-size Hilo in the Noe & Most's Chris J Knutsen book...link
All mahogany ( the seller lists it as Koa ) and in really good shape going by the photos.
My wife would gut me for buying another guitar right now  Oh well! |
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Ben Elder
From:
La Crescenta, California, USA
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Posted 27 Jul 2007 1:19 am
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| But it's a Hilo (as I've informed the seller) and therefore cr@p. Be happy you're not (no one here is, is s/he?) the poor wretch who made reserve on the 670. I bid on it first, for fun, and that was too much. |
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Brad Bechtel
From:
San Francisco, CA
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Chris Drew
From:
Bristol, UK
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Posted 27 Jul 2007 10:41 am
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Yes Brad, I put the link in my post.
All solid mahogany, still solid & crack free, ladder-braced ( I think ) & made in the 20s to quite a high standard of construction ( it ain't no RadioTone! )
So why would this be crap?
Did you hear a bad Hilo or something?
I can't see a reason why it shouldn't sound sweet, & would make a nice travel-sized "Weissenborn-Style" steel for backyard noodling & camping trips ( it would fit a tenor banjo gig-bag. )
I'd buy it myself if I wasn't so skint ( even though the $ is SO weak, I'm sorely tempted! ) |
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Brad Bechtel
From:
San Francisco, CA
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Posted 27 Jul 2007 11:40 am
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Sorry, I didn't see your link. I'm used to people posting the whole long eBay URL and me having to go in and edit it. 
Ben, why do you say this is crap? Just wondering.
_________________
Brad’s Page of Steel
A web site devoted to acoustic & electric lap steel guitars |
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Cartwright Thompson
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Posted 27 Jul 2007 2:11 pm
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| Maybe Mr. Elder has designs on this guitar?!? |
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Chris Drew
From:
Bristol, UK
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Posted 28 Jul 2007 7:54 am
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| Yeah Ben, fess up! |
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Matt Johnson
From:
California, USA
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Posted 28 Jul 2007 8:42 am
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I think two different guitars are being discussed here. I believe the one Ben is referring to(the Hilo style 670) is this one:
auction on ebay |
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Ben Elder
From:
La Crescenta, California, USA
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Posted 30 Jul 2007 9:23 pm
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Hilos are crap--especially for what they're bring (sometimes up to 80% of a similarly-trimmed Weissenborn). $1000 for the top model maybe, but not a grand of my money. There are lots of better ways to spend less money--several current Hawaiian RIs, Epiphone Madrid and Navarre of the 30s, Gretsch Model 40. Even a lowly Mastertone Special or Martin 2-17H (likewise presumably an 0-17H) kicks the snot out of most Hilos. That Harmony Sovereign dreadnought that's been sitting in your closet for years because the cost of a neck reset runs more than the blue book price of a mint Sovereign? $5 for a riser nut and the Hilos aren't even visible in your rearview.
One of two notable Hilos I've played was labeled as a 625, even though it was solid koa (knotty, crack-ridden koa) with body binding. Unfortunately, even with the factory Hawaiian nut, it had a back bow that caused the bar to bottom out at the seventh fret. Nice effect if you're playing "Mother's Little Helper," but no small distraction otherwise.
Hilos are riduculously overregarded and overpriced. |
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Gary Lynch
From:
Creston, California, USA
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Posted 31 Jul 2007 5:10 am
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Ben,
Interesting review of the Hilo. I gave up playing vintage guitars 30 years ago when they started getting expensive. I was having them worked on as much as I was playing them.
A Lazy River to my door with case was $1400. It will last the rest of my playing career. |
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Colin Brooks
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Posted 1 Aug 2007 1:54 pm
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I have a Hilo 625. It stands me at about the equivalent of $450 for purchase and basic repairs.
No Weiss style copy I can buy here for twice or thrice that holds a candle to it. To describe all Hilos as CRAP seems very small minded to me. |
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Ben Elder
From:
La Crescenta, California, USA
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Posted 1 Aug 2007 6:27 pm
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Not that I regret (at ALL) what this entry previously stated, let me revise a bit.
I've played numerous Hilos across the model range and in varying conditions of originality and repair. They are uninspiringly put together (if there was a corporate committee knockoff instrument of the twenties and thirties, Hilo certainly is that.) Construction is boxy, straight-braced and free of any tension that would lead to dynamic projection. Notes just kind of bounce around Hilos's soundbox aimlessly until their early dissipation, with no tonal mystery or zing as is witnessed in their more illustrious contemporaries (and some latter-day imitations). Paying--or suggesting that someone else fork over (as many dealers shamelessly do) for a Hilo a large fraction of the going price for a Weissenborn, Knutsen, Bear Creek, Asher, Lazy River (etc.; even a small multiple of a Superior/K&S) or otherwise worthy instrument is what is small-minded. (Or sans-eared.) If it costs a few hundred, fine, but $2000 or $3000? Utter lunacy. |
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Darrell Urbien
From:
Echo Park, California
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Chris Drew
From:
Bristol, UK
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Posted 18 Aug 2008 11:37 pm
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Yes, it was one of those.
If I recall correctly it didn't go for megabucks, a few hundred dollars.
Shame on me for "overregarding" Hilos - I've only heard one "in the flesh" & it sounded sweet.
Albeit a different voice compared to a Weissenborn (less percussive) but full & warm.
Maybe it's my "sans-eared" attitude to tone being hugely subjective & largely in the hands of the musician! |
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Chris Walke
From:
St Charles, IL
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Posted 19 Aug 2008 7:13 am
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Looks like a cool little guitar to me. Fortunately, I can fit a guitar for a couple hundered bucks into my budget as easily as one for a couple grand. So the quality debate is no issue. Doesn't cure the GAS though. |
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Ben Elder
From:
La Crescenta, California, USA
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Posted 19 Aug 2008 5:58 pm Let there be no misunderstanding:
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WEISSENBORN DID NOT MAKE HILOS--OSCAR SCHMIDT DID...
(...for middling or worse.) |
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Graham Griffith
From:
Tempe, N.S.W., Australia
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Posted 22 Aug 2008 12:52 am
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| Oh well, I've never played a Weissenborn but I still have fun and enjoy the tone of my Hilo 625 ... so light and responsive ... a joy! |
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