I was recently shown the Halo guitars website and I have to say their Custom Shop is incredibly appealing. You can select 6, 7 and 8 string guitars as well as 4, 5, 6 and 8 string bass guitars. So many options. For this weekly article series however I need to focus on one guitar. It was difficult, but from the Halo catalogue I have to say the Goliath Baritone 8 string guitar appeals to me a lot. A Les Paul style guitar with 33% more string? Awesome.
According to the website this current model is out of stock. I can understand why. Check out the inclusions this guitar comes with.
- Solid Alder body
- EMG 808 pickups (neck and bridge)
- Black everything (paint, hardware and fretboard)
- GraphTech TUSQ nut
- Single volume control, single tone control and a three-way pickup switch
- Halo Tune-O-Matic bridge
Did I mention it has 8 strings? That’s two strings per finger! Thumbs aren’t fingers so they don’t count. Easy right?
I love how simple the guitar’s design is. There are no fretboard markers on the playing surface. There are only two knobs. There’s no fancy bridge. There are no unnecessary colours. What you see is what you get. And what you get is only what you need. What you clearly need is to be playing this guitar in its F# glory. Unless I’m mistaken, that allows you to tune this guitar to F# B E A D G B E.
As I mentioned earlier, the Halo Guitars website also has a custom shop. You could build your own 6, 7 or 8 string guitar using this very guitar shape or any other shape from their extensive range. You can even create 9 or 10 string guitars there. Insane. Interested in designing your own version of the 8 string Goliath? Try out the custom shop and go nuts!
Disclaimer: I’ve not played this guitar. I have not experienced the sound or feel of this guitar. That doesn’t matter. It looks awesome, it’s obviously played by winners and I want one.
