Late in April 2015 I lowballed a Hard Luck Kings Southern Belle on eBay and became the new owner. The previous owner posted in a Facebook group that the guitar was used only at home and never taken it out of the house. He also said he was satisfied with the guitar but was selling it only because he was moving. Inspection of the guitar revealed nothing to cast doubt on his claim. The seller treated me fairly and I have no complaints about the transaction. The Hard Luck Kings (hereafter: HLK) Southern Belle sells for $199 plus $29.95 shipping at the company’s web store and is available in matte black, matte green or alpine white gloss, with a left-handers model available in matte black only.
HLK’s website promises that these guitars will come with “21 medium-jumbo frets, all immaculately dressed and polished”. My example lives up to the promise. The frets were perfectly level, glassy-shiny and smooth.
HLK advertises the nut to be bone. Claims like this can be outright false on many imports, but this string nut has the look and feel of real bone and the slots are surprisingly well cut. String action at the first fret is perfectly slick & and even across all strings and as a nice touch the ends & edges of the nut are beveled and rounded nicely.
The neck is listed as a modern ‘C’ shape with an 11” fretboard radius and a width of 42mm at the nut. The current American Standard Telecaster comes equipped with a 9.5” radius and a 42.8mm nut width. This fretboard feels flatter and wider than a Tele, but the published specs show the Fender to be wider in fact. When I pulled the neck (more on that shortly) I found that the neck on the Southern Belle fits very snugly in the pocket. This guitar could be used as an example of how tightly a neck & pocket should bond. The neck feels a bit chunky in my hand but not unmanagably so.
The meaty neck and the deliciously snug pocket joint together suggest a very resonant guitar. In reality the Belle's unplugged resonance is pleasing if not stellar, able to hold its own with more costly guitars.
Many players will feel that the joy of the above-average fret work is partially counteracted by the semi-chunky shape.
Decor includes matte black paint covering the body, neck and headstock: Gibson-style black knobs with skull-and-crossbones and large proprietary “X” fingerboard inlays. The fingerboard inlays, like the frets, are smooth and well executed. The skull & crossbone knobs ooze baby-goth-wannabee cutesy to me, but at least they have numbers on them. I do miss numbers on traditional Tele chromedome knobs. The matte black paint covering the neck lends the guitar a very cheap beginner-ish visual vibe IMO.
In the only modification of this used guitar the factory b/w/b pickguard has been replaced with a cutout from classic SRV vinyl on the Epic label. It looks funky-cool now and I dig it, but I expect it would get pretty gnarly in short order if used on stage.
HLK claims every guitar ships “professionally set up”. This was point of contention #1. OOTB the neck relief was nearly perfect, but although the 6th string saddle in the 3-saddle toploader bridge was smack down on the deck the string action was about 3/8” at the 12th fret! Supposedly professionally set up, yet it shipped in desperate need of a simple neck shim. Ths left me with an initial bad impression of the instrument.
The bridge itself was well adjusted.
I got lucky adding a neck shim. I hate the trial-and-error aspect of shimming a neck but with a handy scrap of medium celluloid pick material my neck alignment was nearly perfectly on the first try! *knocks on alder* I usually have to fiddlefart shims at least twice - not this time.
After a very minor saddle adjustment the guitar now plays well with very low action on a 10-46 set. The 11” radius and the slick frets make for successful string bending while the sustain is acceptably Tele-ish: more than most Strats and nearly as much as many Les Paul style guitars.
The hardware is the weakest point on the Southern Belle. The die-cast tuners feel sloppy and vague. The pots are dime-sized imports and the PC selector switch feels flimsy. The switch action is very stiff with indistinct detents.
Being fond of string-through hardtails I was unimpressed to find a toploading bridge on the Southern Belle, but in all honesty the guitar’s unplugged sustain and resonance are pleasing.
The “HLK high-output alnico 5” pickups are a mixed bag. The bridge pickup is moderately beefy and not shrill but the neck pickup sounds dull & muted - the vintage (aka: useless) "wooly" Tele neck pickup sound that many of us avoid studiously. Bone-stock Southern Belle has one useful selector position out of 3. Neck pickup replacement to follow, and soon. I have something waiting in my boneyard that will help.
Value? Ehh. This from HLK’s website:
“After Jason Boland & The Stragglers guitar player Roger Ray played the Southern Belle we asked him what he thought it would sell for and he replied "its got to be somewhere around $600+".
Roger must have a lot more money than I do, because I’d feel very ripped off if I paid 600 for this. Today’s much-improved Taco Teles street @ $499 and are much better overall than the Southern Belle.
This being a $200 guitar, however, lets compare it with other $200 guitars.
It competes well in the Squier/Xaviere/XS bracket but I wouldn’t venture to declare a clear winner. I’d hesitate to choose between this and a Squier Standard. Even a particularly shining example of a Squier Bullet will sing with this much resonance, but won't have this great fingerboard. HLK's clear advantage in this price range is the quality of the fretwork.
I think of the Southern Belle as the Anti-Xaviere. If you bought a Xaviere IME you probably got a guitar with a very pretty finish and sparkling voice but some nasty frets. The HLK looks and sounds like it was found in the mud, but the fingerboard itself is a joy. IME both guitars needed work OOTB, but I’d rather shim a neck than level and dress frets.
From HLK’s website: "GUARANTEE. If you are not totally satisfied with your purchase please return it for any reason."
So maybe you have little to lose by trying one. My advice: don’t rush to buy one - maybe lowball it on eBay. Even at a lowball price I’m marginally satisfied with the instrument itself. After I get a decent neck pup in place maybe I’ll feel closer to it.
I’m thinking it has the right visual groove to be wearing a hodgepodge of decals, or (this is not a joke) maybe I should take the neck shim back out and have another try at learning slide.
Either way - get the burn cream Mama, 'cause Mr. Weller is comin' out to play!
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