Carvin Guitar: Allan Holdsworth Signature HH2

For a number of years, acclaimed guitarist and Carvin artist Allan Holdsworth had challenged the Custom Shop to develop a headless guitar, as he wanted the improved tone and playability of his Holdsworth H2 and HF2 signature guitars, but in a more compact version. Carvin is excited to respond to his request with the new Allan Holdsworth Signature HH2 headless guitar. Although headless guitars have been around since the 1980s, the HH2 is much more than just another version of the design. Carvin has engineered this guitar from the ground up, with the specific goal of meeting Allan’s exacting demands for sound, playability and weight. Months of design and prototyping, along with real world “on the road” testing by Allan have resulted in the best USA-made headless guitar available today. And unlike the original Steinberger™ guitars and similar models of the 1980s, the HH1 is constructed from wood, not composites, so it sounds like a guitar should. The HH2 is made in the USA, and loaded with features, along with having Carvin’s full compliment of Custom Shop options available. It’s boutique instrument, without the boutique price, because Carvin eliminates the middleman markup by selling directly to you. You can build your Holdsworth HH2 exactly the way you want it, and be the proud owner of an instrument that will last you a lifetime. 

Carvin Guitar: Allan Holdsworth Signature HH2

For a number of years, acclaimed guitarist and Carvin artist Allan Holdsworth had challenged the Custom Shop to develop a headless guitar, as he wanted the improved tone and playability of his Holdsworth H2 and HF2 signature guitars, but in a more compact version. Carvin is excited to respond to his request with the new Allan Holdsworth Signature HH2 headless guitar. Although headless guitars have been around since the 1980s, the HH2 is much more than just another version of the design. Carvin has engineered this guitar from the ground up, with the specific goal of meeting Allan’s exacting demands for sound, playability and weight. Months of design and prototyping, along with real world “on the road” testing by Allan have resulted in the best USA-made headless guitar available today. And unlike the original Steinberger™ guitars and similar models of the 1980s, the HH1 is constructed from wood, not composites, so it sounds like a guitar should. The HH2 is made in the USA, and loaded with features, along with having Carvin’s full compliment of Custom Shop options available. It’s boutique instrument, without the boutique price, because Carvin eliminates the middleman markup by selling directly to you. You can build your Holdsworth HH2 exactly the way you want it, and be the proud owner of an instrument that will last you a lifetime.

The HH2 is unique among contemporary 6-string guitars. It has a chambered body made from alder, which is a high-quality tone wood used by many manufacturers because of it’s relative light weight and and fine resonating tone. Alder has a subtle and attractive grain that looks great in any of Carvin’s many finishes, including solid colors, translucent finishes and our new metallic solid finishes. Chambering the body reduces the overall weight of the instrument, making the HH2 comfortable to play for hours on end. Optional body woods such as mahogany, walnut and koa are available, all of which have their own tonal characteristics. Premium white birch is used for the top, or you can add exotic top woods, such as AAAA flamed maple, AAAA quilted maple, flamed koa, and California Claro walnut. All of Carvin’s neck and fingerboard woods undergo a long conditioning process in our de-humidification chambers to remove any stress in the wood and prevent future warping or twisting, and our woods are carefully hand-selected and inspected to ensure your new HH2 will be free of natural defects.
The neck of the HH2 is made from Eastern hardrock maple, and has a gloss finish standard. The neck is precision set into the body, for optimal sustain and playing comfort. If you like, you can choose from many of Carvin’s optional woods for the neck, such as koa or mahogany, as well as an optional satin or gloss finish on the back.

The HH2 features a standard 25.5″ scale ebony fingerboard with white pearl dot inlays, and a semi-flat 20″ radius with 24 jumbo nickel frets. You can choose from a wide assortment of fingerboard options, including rosewood, maple, birdseye maple or flamed maple fingerboards and dot or block inlays in mother-of-pearl or genuine abalone. Carvin also offers a number of fretwire options, including low-wide and stainless steel. Carvin’s “Rapid Play” low action neck assures effortless playability throughout the entire fingerboard, while the lower cutaway and minimal neck heel allows easy access all the way up to the 24th fret. The fully-adjustable dual action truss rod allows you to set the action exactly the way you want it.

A JCustom Headless Research hardtail bridge with knob tuners is standard, or you can select a JCustom Research XS Tremolo, which has a locking lever to convert the tremolo to a hardtail. The JCustom bridges are finished in matte black, for classic looks and ease of care. The HH2 has a strap button on the back of the neck, and two lower strap buttons, allowing the guitar to stand safely leaned against an amp. The innovative combination headpiece allows you to use double-ball end strings, or your favorite conventional strings. Elixir 1046 strings are standard.

The HH2 comes equipped with our Holdsworth H22 humbucking pickups. Carvin uses vintage plain enamel magnet wire and seasoned Alnico-5 magnets to achieve Allan’s tone. Each coil has 11 polepieces, all of which are fully adjustable to customize individual string volumes. The H22N neck pickup is rated at 7.3k ohms, and produces fantastic singing characteristics, while the bridge position H22T, rated at 8.6k ohms, produces smooth sustain. Standard pickup colors are black coils and bezels, but any combination of black and cream coils and bezels can be chosen. Electronics consist of a master volume, master tone and 3-way mini pickup selector.

Carvin also offers the Holdsworth Headless HH1, which has all the features of the HH2, in a single- pickup configuration. Like the HH2, the HH1 can be fully customized with Carvin’s complete selection of Custom Shop options.

The Allan Holdsworth Signature Series HH2 Headless guitar is built at Carvin’s Custom Shop in San Diego, California.