The newest Healy sibling to join the pack - this solidbody Redwood Forager - brings a touch of class with its German carve body, ivoroid-bound body and neck, and rich Sunburst gloss finish.

Why We Love This

It's like Christmas morning here at TME every time a new Healy build arrives. What will Trevor & Co. come up with next?!? That's the beauty of working with a small and local builder who has such a creative force behind each guitar that comes out of the Easthampton MA shop.

Our newest micro-batch of handcrafted electrics includes a pair of guitars we've yet to have in the shop - the Forager.

Healy's newest model carries with it some influence from the lovely sofftset (yes, I made that word up) Healer design, but evens out the lower bout along with reshaping both bass and treble side horns. Think tele on the bottom and a little dash of Rickenbacker 360 up top, but still slim and slender the way many great offsets shape out. With its flat top and slightly radiused body edge along with an almost invisible back contour for added comfort, it's supremely comfortable.

This particular Forager has some amazing specs that really elevate its aesthetic. For one, it's got a gorgeous gloss Sunburst finish with some reddish brown hues that play off of the solid Redwood body's natural colors. The more dramatic german carve top and back edges combined with top-only ivoroid binding adds sleekness, elegance, and contrast all in great balance.

The solid Redwood body offers up not only a different look than more common woods Mahogany, Ash, and Alder, but a different tonality and EQ. It's delicate and nuanced in its dynamic response while being slightly more forgiving than some denser woods. Its natural resonance is quite impressive as well, and pairs up perfectly with the handwound pair of PAF-esque humbuckers made right in the shop by Ohad Barbibay. It's sonically quite rich while remaining open and vocal - not too unlike a great thinline semi-hollow or hollowbody, even as a smaller solidbody guitar. The combination of a Mastery bridge and Bigsby B5 allows for some smooth light vibrato action that also feels very stable and balanced. If you picked up the guitar with your eyes closed and felt its weight, you'd never think a Bigsby was attached. We hear elements of old Gretsch Duo Jets along with some early 60s SG influence - chimey and open, but with enough focus to handle gain or drive without getting mushy or lacking definition.

The neck specs remain consistent with other Healy guitars we've had in the shop, hitting a sweet spot between the short-scale Kalamazoo-made and long-scale Fullerton-made guitars. A nice medium C carve with a nice comfortable taper allows for some near-effortless playability. The continuation of the binding from the body to the fingerboard (an amazing slab of Indian Rosewood on display, I might add) and extending to the headstock is in keeping with that added touch of class as well. The Ebonized Mahogany neck appears almost like Rosewood itself, contrasting quite artfully off of the fingerboard and headstock veneer grain.

There's a feeding frenzy around these guitars for a reason, folks! Incredible craftsmanship, unique designs, and standouts in the playability and tone departments. We're lucky to have such talented friends making incredible guitars right in our home state!