Koll Superior

Made in 2003 for me by Saul Koll of Kollguitars.com.
One piece swamp Ash body with a set maple neck (highly figured) and Rosewood board with abalone inlays. Spertzel locking tuners and custom wound Lindy Fralin P90s with extra pull on the tone control for out of phase sounds (awesome!!!). The bridge is a Hipshot Contour tremolo style.
The guitar is a true beauty, finished in a transparent Sonic Blue with cream binding on top and a pearloid pickguard with Saul's distinctive design. The colors is kind of like a Mary Kay "Blue" Blond with the highest quality nitro finish. The Superior is Saul's take on a Fender type guitar, this one is a sort of a hybrid of a jazzmaster and a Les Paul Special, an imaginative combination with a strong character of its own.

The guitar sounds even better than it looks, Saul Koll in my opinion is making some of the best guitars out there right now, he is a true perfectionist, and his guitars are set up perfectly, no flaws, dead spots, or any problems, just pure ringing tone. The P90's are surprisingly quiet, these are wound hot so they rock mighty, but with a gentle roll of the volume they clean up great without losing clarity or mids, a great feature for going between rhythm and lead. I can go from spacey clean tones, with the aid of the tremolo bar, to grinding rock with a slight guitar volume adjustment.
I am playing the guitar through a tweed Fender Super, a BadCat BlackCat 30R and a couple of old 1950's Magnatones, I've yet to find a bad match, it is especially sweet with the EL84 power BadCat and the Super.
The light one piece Swamp Ash body combined with the P90s yield a sound that is rich, open, and mighty balanced, it almost has a hollow body quality.

One word: FLAWLESS.
Saul's guitars have the best set up from any guitar that I have ever played, and I've played many, vintage and new.
I own two Koll's and they both have perfect set ups, finish and sound balance.

As I said previously, Saul makes amazing instruments, and that obviously translates into guitars that are durable, reliable and solid. I have gigged with my Jr. Glide plenty, and I can't wait to gig with the Superior as I know it will give me tonal Characters that are unique to it.

I can't say enough good things about this guy, Saul has some of the highest standards of professionalism of anyone I know. He is honest, friendly and he happens to be an extremely talented luthier, believe me, this guy is top notch.
When it comes to building the perfect guitar for his customers, he is completely committed to producing the instrument you need, I went back and forth with him about choosing materials, and its implications, Saul was patient and even enthusiastic about explaining the benefits of using some over others.
Not only that, but he backs his guitars without hesitation, if there was anything wrong with the guitar, I am sure Saul would make every effort to correct it.

I've been playing close to 18 years, I've owned my share of stuff, vintage and new. I have boiled down my collection to the bear and best minimum. My electric guitar collection is down to two Koll's and a Telecaster.
If you are reading this and you are considering a new guitar, I advice you to give Saul a try, he may be getting real busy soon if the good word about his talents keeps getting out there (a well deserved recognition).

Saul Koll lists various models in his catalog and Web site, but because Saul crafts each instrument to the owner's specifications it is often difficult to clearly state which "model" a guitar is. So it is with my "Superior". The Superior is Saul's take on the Strat type guitar. Mine is a set-neck solid body with three Lindy Fralin Vintage Hot pickups, 5-way switch, Fishman Powerbridge, and volume, tone, Fishman PowerBlend controls. Tuning machines are Sperzel Trim-Lok satin chrome. The cosmetics are a contoured black body, neck and headstock, ebony fingerboard with no markers. The neck and headstock are bound in white and the pickguard is a Strat shaped white.

I play everything from swing blues to classic rock to light jazz. For anything that a single-coil sound is appropriate for, this guitar is the tool to use. I have a second set of Fralin Blues Special pickups with a Steel Poled bridge pickup. (Saul will of course install any brand or configuration of pickups.) I have found that the Fishman PowerBridge is not worth running separately to an acoustic amp, but it adds interesting tonal qualities when blended in and fed to my regular amps. My amp collection includes THD Univalve, modify Fender Blues Jr., Clark Beaufort (Tweed Deluxe), Fender Bandmaster Reverb, and my own mix of a Bandmaster Reverb in a combo cab with Weber 15". (Fender must have also thought that this might be a good idea - see their '64 Vibroverb Custom.) Anyway this guitar sounds great with any of my amps. I've noticed that adding a BBE Sonic Maximizer (DI-100, DI-100X, DI-1000 or Stinger pedal) adds to the magic. This guitar has the sustain and feel in my hands that I desire. Mine are not noiseless pickups so they exhibit the normal single coil noise issues when used individually, but noise hasn't been a problem for me.

If you want your production guitar to play like a dream, you take it to Saul. So it should be no surprise that the guitars he crafts himself have no setup or playability issues. The action on mine is very low. At one point, I was getting a little fret buzz at the first three positions. Saul checked it out and adjusted the truss rod. Then we let is stabilize for serveral days and it was fine. If it had not been fine, Saul was prepared to reshape the fingerboard and perform a complete refret at no charge.

Saul can tailor the finish to the buyer's specifications, but lots of coats of the finest laquer and hand polishing make a beautiful finish with the best sonic qualities. Not a armor coating. Mine is holding up fine, but I'm pretty careful. I plan to just play it and if the finish wears or gets scuffed, I'll have Saul take care of it. I would only take a back up to avoid having to mess with an untimely string break.

See above. I don't think there are any manufacturers or single luthiers that offer any more than Saul Koll. If I every did something really stupid and damaged my guitar, I'm sure that Saul would make the guitar like new and at a very reasonable cost. A friend of mine had a Les Paul Standard come loose from its strap and destroy the neck (not pretty). Saul crafted a complete new neck, and my friend then had probably the best playing Les Paul ever. Saul will also patiently listen and discuss what a potential customer wants in a custom guitar. I have discussed various ideas, by email, phone and in person with Saul. He seems to be enthusiastic about doing anything from his standard models to what ever the customer wants. He has a wealth of knowledge and honest advice. My Strat-?Superior guitar was originally crafted to another customer's specifications. When this customer played this particular guitar, the reality wasn't exactly what he was dreaming about. Saul then marketed this guitar for him and began a revised custom. (Lucky for me because I wouldn't have specified these cosmetics, but I love everything else about this guitar and the conservative look has grown on me.)

I originally purchased a shopworn Superior with TV Jones pickups that was on display at The Twelfth Fret repair shop in Portland, Oregon. I had been playing for several years and that guitar was the easiest playing guitar I had seen. Then this black beauty appeared in the shop at a great price. After taking it home to play with my amps, I consigned my Fender Custom Shop '54 Stratocaster and bought this one. I know about working with Saul because he fixed my Guild X-700 that experienced shipping damage. I am awaiting the finishing touches on a custom Duo Glide with P-90 pickups that has a wider than normal nut so I can explore some fingerstyle electric guitar possibilities. Saul has endured discussions with me on this one for a year now. (Look for a future Duo Glide review.) I have owned a Guild Bluesbird and an X-700, several Fenders and a G&L, and I've tried A LOT of others. I have way too many fine acoustic guitars and ukuleles that I won't bother you with. At this point, I would say that I will only make future electric guitar purchases from Koll Guitars. The next will likely be Saul's 12-string Spectro Glide. I plays so easily and the sound is something to be experienced. So I'm now looking for some type of music that lends itself to an electric 12-string. Maybe DADGAD tuning Celtic?