Huss and Dalton TOMR Custom

This guitar is a 2004 model made in Virginia. It is a 14-fret OM with an ADIRONDACK spruce top upgrade, which makes it a custom. It has Waverly nickel tuners and a 25.4 inch (long) scale.

This guitar has a very tight sound with lots of projection--it sings in the middle and upper registers. It has a very forthright sound on the five highest strings. The bass is not as pronounced as on a Martin, but as this guitar is breaking in, the bass is coming into its own (I have a Martin that suits me well for when I want to do some real window rattling). For some reason, strumming the guitar with your fingernail sounds louder than picking. Because I'm a fingernail "picker," this suits me very well. It has very nice volume when fingerpicked, as well.

The set-up is fantastic on this guitar. The nut and saddle are perfectly ground to give nice action. The neck is very comfortable to play. It is 1 3/4 at the nut, and the neck profile is low, but with the slightest hint of a "V". The Adirondack top is very high quality. There is good spacing on the grains, and there is no hint of dark sap/stress lines that you'll see in Adirondack tops of other builders. The guitar has a beautiful Brazilian headstock veneer and an un-dyed ebony fingerboard, which very uniquely displays some of the interesting streaking in the ebony (a feature I like very much).
There are a couple of flaws with the woods. First, the Rosewood has a handful of tiny white speckles about the size of a grain of salt that detract from the otherwise beautiful chocolate color. Second, the Adirondack top has some slight grain runout. Third, there is a slight green tint to the top near the 28-style rosette, presumably from a reaction between the wood top and the rosette material.

The hardware on this guitar is great--the Waverly tuners are the best on the market, in my opinion. The finish on this guitar is also first rate--far smoother and more substantial than the Martin finish. A look inside also reveals tiny braces on the Rosewood sides of the guitar that should increase durability. Rock solid guitar.

This guitar would have a life time warranty, had I bought it new. But because I bought it used, I don't get the warranty (industry standard). However, I hear that H&D is glad to fix their instruments bought used, and they treat owners well, regardless of from whom you bought your instrument.