Harden Engineering is a small Chicago store that focuses on hand-made devices in a wide range of sizes and shapes and goals to deliver a customized strategy at reasonably priced costs. Its Muddy Waters mannequin is a single-cutaway with a physique product of paulownia. Let’s dig in.

The Muddy’s medium-C formed neck is maple capped by a 14″-radius rosewood fretboard adorned with catseye inlays and 22 jumbo frets over a 25.5″ scale.

For electronics, search for two hand-wound Harden pickups. On the Muddy Waters, they’re single-coils, however the bridge slot can accommodate any standard-sized humbucker (together with Harden’s personal). Different particulars embrace a steel emblem plate on the headstock, hand-etched steel armrest, and lightweight relic’ing on the sides and again. The end known as Distressed-Barn Brown.

Amped up, the Muddy Waters impressed proper off the bat with a mix of its gentle physique and fast really feel due to the neck carve and setup. In a phrase, it was “energetic,” with a vibrant persona emanating from the resonant paulownia and Harden single-coils. It’s definitely not a conventional Telecaster, owing to the unusual physique wooden and customized pickups, however it’ll cowl a number of the identical floor – rock, blues, nation, and all mixtures thereof. Clear, the Muddy Waters delivers a number of sparkle, whereas dirtied up, it cuts by means of a mixture with its potent high finish. No query, it likes to rock and roll.

Shipped with a tough case, the Muddy Waters is competitively priced and affords depraved customized touches in a guitar that appears old-school and performs like a contemporary plank ought to. There’s loads of worth right here and it could behoove any guitarist to take a look at Harden as a substitute for the tried-and-true solidbodies in the marketplace.

This text initially appeared in VG’s December 2024 subject. All copyrights are by the creator and Classic Guitar journal. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.