Nik Huber Orca Jubilee #5 of 20 Faded Amberburst (USED)

Number five of twenty: a limited-run Nik Huber Orca Jubilee with a flame maple top, Brazilian rosewood fingerboard, and Häussel humbuckers in Faded Amberburst.

Nik Huber built his first guitar in 1993, founded his shop in 1996, and introduced the Orca a year or two later, and in the decades since it has become the model most players picture when they hear his name. Built in Rodgau, just south of Frankfurt, by a small team working one instrument at a time, the Orca takes the familiar carved-top recipe of mahogany and figured maple and refines it in ways you notice the moment you pick it up: a body slightly thinner than the vintage single-cuts it nods to, a 25" scale that lends the humbuckers a bit more snap and definition, a 10" to 14" compound radius that stays round and comfortable for chords near the nut while flattening out for bends higher up, and Huber’s sculpted heel, which carves away enough wood behind the neck joint that the upper register feels open and easy to reach.

This one is rarer than a standard Orca (which are no longer available in the U.S. for copyright reasons). The Jubilee was a limited run of just 20 guitars, and this is #5, built with appointments a step beyond the everyday Orca. The flame maple top if finished in a gorgeous gloss Faded Amberburst, and the fingerboard is Brazilian rosewood, a wood that has become increasingly scarce in new builds and that gives the guitar a dark, rich look against the warmth of the burst. Pickups come from Häussel, the German pickup maker whose PAF-style humbuckers have been a core part of the Orca’s voice for years, and a coil tap gives you single-coil tones on top of the full humbucking sound, so the guitar covers a lot of ground without leaving its classic character behind - making it an ideal "grab one guitar" for the gig or rehearsal instrument.

We've loved every Orca that's passed through the shop and this one is no exception. While they are inspired by the iconic Les Paul, the Orca is very much its own instrument - it simply shares that body silhouette. In hand, it's a far more refined build that nudges it in a decidedly modern direction, which is certainly not a bad thing if you prefer extremely high attention to detail build that's simply effortless to play. Wonderful stuff!