Lentz Custom HSL

Scott Lentz and Scott Lentz Jr. are the father and son team behind Lentz Guitars, and together have more than 60 years experience making electric guitars. But it is not just their experience that matters, it is the passion and meticulousness of these master luthiers (to wit: the obsession) that has forged their well deserved reputation for building world class instruments. They made their name creating some of the best S and T style guitars ever produced, but it should not be surprising that over the years they would develop some of their own ideas. The HSL is one of those ideas, and a particularly stellar one.

CR Guitars has been carrying the Lentz Reserve instruments almost since we opened, which are S and T guitars made with the finest materials and hardware they have, including woods that have been carefully aged in the Lentz shop for more than 25 years.

In 2012 I asked the Lentz team to make a personal guitar for me, an HSL with the same premium woods and hardware used on the JR Reserve guitars—basically a Reserve style HSL. The idea began with my vision of a black body and maple neck. Black is a difficult finish to pull off well, but I had complete confidence because of the legendary finishes of Lentz Guitars. Too, for many years they have been the go-to shop for refinishing highly valuable vintage instruments. So I wasn’t surprised when my HSL arrived and the finish had the black depth of the ocean at night. If you have even been out in a boat in the middle of a dark night and stared into the depths, then you know what this finish is like. A silver pick guard completes the aesthetics of the body, like a shimmering light reflected in the blackness.

The guitar resonates acoustically… like a Lentz Reserve! You can feel the balance of the tone in your body, and the overtones give the guitar a particularly singing quality. It goes without saying that a great sounding solid body electric guitar begins with great acoustics. In other words you can’t fix a poor sounding guitar with pickups, and this guitar has a very strong acoustic voice as a platform for amplification.

The pickups were wound specifically for this guitar and include an L90 in the neck position and a B’Kaster in the bridge. This is an excellent combination that gives the guitar a tremendous range and versatility, having no trouble covering jazz, country, blues or rock music. Rather than the typical volume and tone controls found on a T style guitar, the HSL has a master tone, and a volume for each of the pickups, giving you the ability to blend the two pickups when the toggle switch is in the middle position (both pick ups on). I love this feature, which really expands the tonal nuances and range of the instrument. Moreover, the volume can be set for each pick up so that you can have a rhythm tone, say, with the neck pickup, and then flip to the bridge pickup for lead tone that adds a boost from the guitar. This works especially well with an amp that is slightly overdriven.

The neck is classic Lentz, beautifully accomplished and fantastically playable. A full soft V profile, almost a C, but not clunky at all. It simply feels like your hand has come home with the first chord. I continue to be amazed at the consistency of Lentz necks (and guitars!). The Lentz attention to detail is astonishing, and with this guitar in your hands you can truly follow your muse to any musical landscape.

This wonderful guitar has remained largely in its case at CR and is essentially a new instrument, nearly in the exact condition as when I first opened the case. Seems like it is time for a new home, so I am offering this rare instrument to CR customers.

If you'd like to find out more about this item, just call or e-mail me. It would be my pleasure to talk to you about it.

ABOUT LENTZ GUITAR
Scott Lentz has an enduing reputation as a legendary guitar maker and restorer of vintage guitars. In fact, before he opened Lentz guitar in Southern California, he had restored hundreds of vintage instruments and had become widely known as "the" guy for vintage finish restorations. Lentz guitars are known for being deeply resonant, uncannily vintage in feel, and for having an expanded tonal pallet. Scott believes that the tone of great vintage guitars is due to the accretion of thousands of tiny details from (of course) the finest tone woods to the interaction of fretboard and neck materials. He is also one of the few electric guitar makers that takes the trouble to use hide glue in his guitars. He counts his vast experience with vintage guitars as the key to developing his ear for guitar tone, and for teaching him what a great guitar is all about. Scott is a restless spirit, ever in search of perfection, never content to rest on his laurels. He is the quintessential guitar maker as artist, passionate about bringing artful and musical guitars into the world. His son Scott, Jr. has now worked with his father for 20 years, and together they are the force behind some of the most finely crafted guitars you will find anywhere in the world.

ABOUT LENTZ SPECIAL RESERVE BESPOKE BUILDS
CR Guitars is incredibly fortunate to have Scott Lentz and his son Scott Jr craft a very select reserve line of classic S and T style guitars. Each one is built using only woods that have been cabinet aged a minimum of 25 years or more. These guitars are built with the deepest knowledge of what these legendary models could and should be. Decades of experience have gone into discovering and executing the elements that give the best of the vintage Fenders their magic. Scott's obsession with every detail has helped him unraveled all the nuances to the magic imbued in vintage Fenders. A Lentz is truly what a Masterbuilt guitar should be. Everything is just is as you'd dreamed it would be. No detail is overlooked, from the chemistry of the lacquer to the handwound pickups, every part and procedure is done for a reason. It's really exciting to be able to share Scott's vision and creations with you.