GW’s Paul Riario and Alan Chaput dive into the Baldacci Bighorn, Cort Gold-A6 Bocote and Gold-OC6 Bocote and ESP LTD Deluxe SN-1007HT Baritone guitars
It might only be the middle of winter, but 2022 is already heating up with plenty of awesome guitars, amps and accessories. To see just how hot it is, we welcome you to Guitar World’s New Year New Gear guide.
In this fourth installment, Guitar World’s Paul Riario and Alan Chaput select another slew of super six-strings that are guaranteed to get 2022 off to a red-hot and rockin’ start.
First up for this go ‘round is the Baldacci Bighorn, a new flagship solid body model constructed, in the words of the Arizona-based builder, “at the crossroads of vintage and modern.”
(Image credit: Baldacci Guitars)
Features include a mahogany body and carved maple top, with a mahogany neck and rosewood fingerboard. From there, Baldacci offers plenty of options, including 22 and 24 fret designs and either a single 12th fret mountain inlay or a 12th fret mountain inlay plus Hollow Dot fret markers. There’s also three different neck carves with a 12-inch fretboard radius.
Pickups-wise, the Bighorn comes loaded with Baldacci’s Darkmoon crafted Mountain humbucker set, which offer fat articulation and unmatched clarity, and are specifically voiced to pair with the Bighorn series guitars. Controls include master volume, 3-way pickup selector and a neck coil split mini switch for even more tonal versatility.
Other features include a 25.125-inch scale length, Top-Lock Buffalo Tuners, upgraded 550K CTS pots, a hand-cut bone nut, either a MannMade 6-screw VintageVibrato or Gotoh 510 Wraparound bridge, and a choice of eight finishes.
(Image credit: Cort Guitars)
Next up is Cort’s Gold-A6 Bocote and Gold-OC6 Bocote, two new acoustics that use bocote, an exotic tonewood known to be tonally similar to rosewood, for their backs and sides. In addition to sounding great, bocote is aesthetically stunning, with a majestic wood grain pattern in yellow, orange and dark brown with distinct black lines.
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On the new models, Cort matches the bocote back and sides to a premium grade solid Sitka spruce top which has undergone the company’s ATV (aged-to-vintage) torrefaction process to produce the big, open tone of a decades-old acoustic right out of the box.
The Gold-A6 sports an Auditorium-sized body, while the Gold-OC6 is a classic OM orchestra design with a cutaway. Both acoustics are loaded with a Fishman Flex Blend System, and feature hand-scalloped X-bracing, a 20-fret Macassar ebony fingerboard and a walnut-reinforced neck connected by Cort’s DoubleLock dovetail neck joint, among other premium appointments.
(Image credit: ESP Guitars)
Finally, Paul and Alan plumb new depths of tone with ESP’s new SN-1007 Baritone HT. The seven-string, 27” baritone model is the first extended scale guitar in ESP’s LTD SN Series, and it looks as cool as it sounds, with a sandblasted Black Blast finish on a swamp ash body.
Other features include a bolt-on roasted maple neck with a compound radius, as well as a Macassar ebony fingerboard with extra-jumbo stainless-steel frets, mother-of-pearl dot inlays, and scalloping from the 17th to 24th frets.
You also get a 48mm black bone nut, brushed black pickguard, dome control knobs, LTD locking tuners and a Hipshot hardtail bridge with string thru body.
As for tone, the SN-1007 is loaded with a set of Fishman Fluence Modern Humbuckers – alnico in the neck position, ceramic in the bridge – with a push-pull control to activate each pickup’s second voicing for added versatility.
To find out more about ESP’s SN-1007 Baritone HT and all this amazing gear, check out the video above.
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