Warm and Multifaceted
The Hollow Baby is a super light guitar—our review model weighed a mere 6.4 pounds—and comfortable to hold in both seated and standing playing positions. The neck is very comfortable as well, C-shaped and slim but not overly so. It has a Fender-style 25.5" scale length, but a relatively flat radius of 12"—more commonly encountered on Gibson guitars—allowing for wide bends without any danger of notes fretting out.
The Hollow Baby sounds loud and resonant before it ever meets an amplifier, thanks to its chambered build and thin nitro finish. Chords in all registers ring out with clarity, and single notes sound thick and snappy, with a pronounced midrange. The vibrato works well for adding subtle pitch-bending effects without disrupting the tuning.
With the neck pickup engaged and the tone rolled down, the guitar provides a warm Grant Green–like tone….with the tone turned up and the bridge pickup selected it has the twang of a Tele.
Plugged into a Fender Pro Junior, the guitar really comes alive. Overall, the guitar sounds warm with a great deal more sustain than that of a traditional hollow body guitar, and the pickups are indeed nice and quiet.
The P-90–equipped Hollow Baby sounds at home in a range of styles. With the neck pickup engaged and the tone rolled down, the guitar provides a warm Grant Green–like tone. In contrast, with the tone turned up and the bridge pickup selected it has the twang of a Tele, with both pickups engaged it has a Strat-like spank. The guitar also works well for rootsy type stuff from riffs in the manner of Elvis Presley’s Scotty Moore to slack-tuned strumming à la Creedence Clearwater Revival leader John Fogerty. One application that the Hollow Body might not work well for is in situations calling for ultra high-gain, but then again, shredders wouldn’t necessarily be drawn to this guitar.
The Verdict
Cole Clark’s Hollow Baby is a smartly designed chambered electric with a unique vibe that typifies the whole Cole Clark range. The guitar combines elements of Fender, Gib-son, and even Bigsby design in a unique hybrid. Best though, it’s featherweight and highly playable and offers a really wide range of hollow- and solidbody tones. And whether you’re a working pro or a weekend guitarist trying to cover as much stylistic ground as possible—short of metal shred—you can’t go wrong with a Hollow Baby.
Buy if...
you want a stylish chambered guitar that excels in a number of different contexts both in terms of playability and sound.
Skip if...
you're staunchly loyal to either Fender or Gibson.
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