Huss & Dalton CM 12 Custom Englemann / Katalox ('Central American Royal Ebony')

Brand New Huss & Dalton CM 12 Custom, a 12 frets to the body, easy playing short scale (24.9") beauty, one of the more popular offerings at the Huss & Dalton booth at a recent winter NAMM! 

This CM 12 features an Engelmann Spruce top and a Katalox (AKA 'Central American Royal Ebony') back and side set. It is dressed up beautifully with Maple body and neck bindings; the tuners are butter-smooth Huss & Dalton branded gold Gotoh 510's. 

The Katalox  back and side set (Swartzia Cubensis is the scientific name) is lovely to look at! Tonally, it brings a lively bass, bright and clear trebles, and good overtones with excellent sustain. Compares well with African Blackwood and Ziricote with it's sonorous ring! A strong midrange makes for an overall well balanced guitar. 

This midrange quality is largely the result of the unique approach that Huss & Dalton take to building a radius into their tops. Best to use the company's own words to describe how they build their radiused tops, and the result:  "On all of our Standard Series models, we build a 25 foot radius into the guitar's soundboard. We create the radius by sanding an arch into the braces, and also preparing the guitar's sides with a matching radius to accept the soundboard. A positive by-product of the radiused soundboard design - other than increased load-bearing capacity - is a boost in the mid-range, going our guitars more perceptibly balanced tone than that of our strictly traditional designs..."

The cutaway on this CM 12 allows access to the higher frets, while the 12 fret design maintains the power. When the neck is moved two frets toward the body, the sound hole and bridge must follow it's trajectory and the bracing must be rearranged to suit. These 'adjustments' drive the top more efficiently and produce volume and projection that many players are looking for in a smaller bodied guitar. 

Our thanks to our good friend Doug Yeomans for the demo video!