doglooseAcoustic-electric guitars, which are essentially amplified acoustic instruments, are commonplace these days, but the electric-acoustic (or hybrid) guitar, which is an electric model with a special bridge or...

Acoustic-electric guitars, which are essentially amplified acoustic instruments, are commonplace these days, but the electric-acoustic (or hybrid) guitar, which is an electric model with a special bridge or pickups that also produce amplified acoustic guitar tones and textures, is a much rarer beast.

While a hybrid guitar is ideal for a primarily electric player who also needs immediate access to acoustic tones while performing onstage, these instruments long enjoyed only modest growth in popularity mainly because hybrid guitars are usually more expensive than their standard electric equivalents.

The Michael Kelly Guitar Company broke the price barrier 10 years ago with the introduction of their Hybrid Special chambered body model, and now their Hybrid line has expanded to offer the Hybrid 55[1] solidbody, which offers boutique-quality features, design and construction.

FEATURES
The Hybrid 55 has the same T-style single cutaway/bolt-on neck design of Michael Kelly’s 1950s Series guitars as well as the Rockfield Mini humbucker (neck) and full-size Rockfield SWC humbucker bridge pickup configuration of that series’ 1955 models. The body is a gorgeous slab of lightweight korina topped with a layer of flame maple with a glowing, deep amber-hued Tiger’s Eye Burst finish.

The neck is maple with a rosewood fretboard featuring a compound 10 1/2- to 16-inch compound radius, 22 medium jumbo frets, dot inlays, modern C profile and 25 1/2-inch scale. In addition to the Rockfield humbuckers, standard electric electronics consist of master volume and master tone controls that also activate push-pull coil tap functions for their respective pickups, a three-way blade pickup selector switch mounted on a chrome T-style control plate.

A Fishman Powerbridge is the source of the Hybrid 55’s acoustic tones, and its controls include a master volume located below the bridge along with a three-position toggle switch for selecting electric,

Read more from our friends at Guitar World