Mention a hollowbody electric and
most players will think of a thick jazz
box with heavy strings. But Jim Soloway
has few qualms about turning those preconceptions
on their heads. Over the years,
Soloway has pushed the boundaries of guitar
construction with his innovative designs
that focus on playability as much as sound.
The Single 15" is the latest hollowbody creation
to come out of his Portland, Oregon,
workshop, and with options like the fingerstyle
string spacing on our test model, it’s
a fine example of how Soloway is bending
convention to build a better playing—and
potentially more expressive—guitar.
First Impressions
Soloway is all about options. Just about
every part on the guitar from pickups to
nut spacing to scale length is customizable
for the individual. Soloway stands behind
his guitars too—so much so that he even
makes a few models available for a test-drive
for the cost of return shipping.
Like many Soloway instruments, the
Single 15" represents an evolution of earlier
designs. And in this case, it’s a fresh take
on his signature Full Hollow shape with a
larger lower bout that extends the body further
past the bridge. Our Single 15" came
in a beautiful Loarburst finish. Soloway says
he developed the finish after coming across
some pictures of Lloyd Loar mandolins,
and it’s a perfect match for the lovely one-piece
maple body, which features a remarkable
flame pattern that spans the width of
the body. The back is made of swamp ash
and has a more subtle grain. Elsewhere,
African blackwood abounds, and Soloway
uses it for the bridge, the Master Volume
and Tone knobs, and the pickup selector,
which switches between DiMarzio 36th
Anniversary humbuckers.
When I first picked up the Single, I
immediately noticed how comfortable the
guitar is to hold. When you’re seated, the
contours on the back and front where you
place your forearm make the body feel
smaller than it is. And because the guitar is
rather thin compared to other hollowbody
axes, you can really feel the resonance when
you strum it. The other thing you notice
right away is the neck and string spacing.
Our review guitar’s neck is built around
what Soloway calls fingerstyle spacing,
which goes from 1 13/16" at the nut to 2
3/16" at the bridge (standard spacing is also
available—1 11/16" at the nut and 2 1/16"
at the bridge). And if you aren’t used to this
wider spacing, you’ll instantly feel like you
just hopped into a king-size bed after sleeping
in a twin-size bed for years. But with
the wide neck and big frets, bends are about
as smooth as can be.
The radius of the neck is a rather flat 16",
which is standard on all of Soloway’s guitars.
And when combined with the 25 1/2" scale
length, you have plenty of room on the fretboard
for everything from complex chords
to intricate fingerstyle passages. Soloway uses
what he calls an American Standard profile
for the neck shape—essentially a C shape
that feels very comfortable and smooth.
Tones and Tones
Eager to explore the Single 15" in realms
beyond just its jazz roots, I lined up two
amps. First I plugged the Soloway into an
Egnater Tourmaster (a 100-watt beast boasting
eight 12AX7 preamp tubes) fired up
the clean channel and set the tone controls
flat. With the pickup selector switch on
the bridge pickup, the tone was warm and
beautiful, if a little too bright, so I backed off
the Tone knob on the guitar until I found a
sweet spot that was darker but with plenty of
clarity, a little like George Benson’s tone on
Cookbook. One of my favorite things about
hollowbody guitars is how much definition
they give chords with tight intervals. The
Single was no exception, and as I played
through some cluster-type chords I was able
to discern each note at the highest volumes.
The middle position moved me into
faux-Strat territory, which lent itself nicely
to some percussive funk grooves. But even
though the sound begged for some old-school
Leo Nocentelli moves, the neck made
playing syncopated patterns a little difficult.
Indeed, it almost felt like there was
too
much room at times. I wanted to see if this
guitar could hang when things got a little
dirty, so I turned up the amp enough to get
a little break up when I dug in. And as my
pick attack became more forceful, the tone
became more defined and punchy, but with
plenty of the breadth you’d want and expect
from a well-built hollowbody and well-selected
humbucking pickups.
Solid as a Rock
Solid-state amps are common in jazz
circles for their clear tone (they’re also the
basis for many classic jazz recordings),
so I also ran the Soloway into a Tech 21
Trademark 60. The Trademark 60’s first
channel is designed to replicate a Fenderstyle
amp without the tube noise. Running
through this channel, the Soloway felt
right at home with the Bass control at
about an 8 and the Treble at 4. And with
the Tone control all the way up on the
neck pickup, the Soloway delivered the
delicious mellow-yet-lively tones you’d
associate with Grant Green and some earlier
Jim Hall recordings.
On the second channel, I dialed up a
slightly dirtier tone than I used with the
Tourmaster. The added distortion sounded
a little muddier than the tube amp, but the
tone cleaned up a little bit with the Volume
knob rolled off to about 50 percent. It was
obvious this guitar is designed to shine on
the lower gain side of the spectrum. But
even at higher volumes, I didn’t feel I was
fighting the feedback issues that plague
other hollowbody guitars, and there’s no
reason this guitar couldn’t hang with say, a
good Gibson ES-335 for more out or rock-inspired
jazz explorations.
The Verdict
The Single can cover more than just your
weekly jazz gig. It lives in that area between
a jazz-dedicated box and a jack-of-all-trades.
It’s very comfortable to play both
sitting and standing, and Soloway’s work
in shaping the contours and optimizing the
guitar ergonomically speak to a thoughtful
and evolutionary design sense that’s
unencumbered by the shackles of tradition
and inspired by the real needs of players.
The long scale length and wide string
spacing aren’t really for your average blues-rocker,
and in many ways, this is a guitar
for exploring the outer limits of technique
and sound. But the range of tones it produces
makes it capable of beautiful—and
beautifully defined—tones beyond archetypal
round-and-wooly jazz sounds. If you
want to take your playing somewhere way
beyond, the Soloway Single 15" is a great
place to start.
Buy if...
you need a guitar that can handle
blues to bebop and beyond.
Skip if...
high-gain tones are more your bag.
Rating...
