Description
Review of the Hinkler Electric Blues Box Slide Guitar Kit (EBB)
The Hinkler Electric Blues Box Slide Guitar Kit is a small cigar box style slide instrument sold as a package with a CD of backing material rather than as a conventional guitar. It has a plastic body, a piezoelectric pickup, a fixed bridge and nylon strings, and it measures roughly 25.6 inches long. It is aimed at curious beginners, at players who want to explore slide and open tuning blues without committing to a full instrument, and at anyone buying a novelty gift with genuine playing potential.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Very small and light at 2.48 pounds and around 25.6 inches long, so it is easy to keep on a desk and pick up in spare moments.
- Piezoelectric pickup, which senses physical vibration rather than magnetic movement, so it works with the nylon strings fitted.
- Fixed bridge, the simplest and most stable arrangement, which suits slide playing where consistent string height matters.
- CD with over 20 tracks included, giving something to play along with from the start.
Cons
- The listing contradicts itself on string count. The product name says 3 string while the specification table says 4. A buyer should confirm this with the seller before ordering.
- The listing does not enumerate what else is in the kit beyond the CD, so it is unclear whether a slide, a cable or any hardware is supplied.
- No scale length is published, so the fret spacing and string tension cannot be worked out from the data.
- Nothing in the listing states that an amplifier is included, and a piezo pickup needs one to be heard at any volume.
Detailed Product Description
The body is plastic. On a conventional acoustic guitar that would be a significant compromise, because the body is what turns string vibration into sound. Here the pickup does most of that work, so the body material matters mainly for durability and weight, and plastic performs well on both counts. It also means the instrument is not affected by dry winter air or damp storage in the way a wooden guitar is.
The pickup is piezoelectric. This is a different technology from the magnetic pickups on a standard electric guitar. A magnetic pickup only responds to a ferrous string moving through its field, which is why nylon strings produce nothing on a normal electric. A piezo element instead responds to physical pressure and vibration, so it picks up nylon strings without difficulty. Piezo output tends to be bright and immediate with a slightly compressed character, and it usually benefits from having some treble rolled off at the amplifier.
Nylon strings under a slide behave differently from steel. They are lower in tension and softer, so they need a lighter touch and produce less of the ringing metallic sustain associated with steel string slide playing. Slide technique on any instrument relies on the strings sitting fairly high off the frets, so that the slide can rest on the string without clattering against the fretwire.
The included CD carries more than 20 tracks. The listing does not describe whether these are lessons, demonstrations or backing tracks, so a buyer should treat the count as the only firm detail.
What Comes with the Product
- The Electric Blues Box slide guitar, model EBB
- A CD containing over 20 tracks
The listing does not name any other contents. No amplifier, cable, slide or spare strings is specified, so anything beyond the two items above should be confirmed with the seller rather than assumed.
Who It Suits
This suits someone curious about slide and open tuning blues who wants a low commitment way in. It suits a player who already owns a guitar and wants a second instrument with a completely different character sitting on the desk. It also suits a gift buyer looking for something more interesting than an ornament, since the kit format and the included CD give a recipient somewhere to start.
It suits less well anyone who actually wants to learn guitar. A first time player is far better served by a standard six string, because chord shapes, scale patterns and tuning all carry forward to other instruments while box guitar technique largely does not. Someone drawn to the slide blues sound on a full size instrument would be better off with a resonator such as the Pyle PGA500BR resonator. A young beginner wanting a genuinely simplified guitar would do better with a three string instrument built for that purpose, such as the Loog Mini. Anyone who wants structured instruction alongside a first instrument should consider a method book like the Ernie Ball How to Play Guitar Phase 1. The wider selection sits in the full guitar review index.
How to Maintain
A plastic body needs very little. Wipe it with a slightly damp cloth and avoid solvents, which can cloud or craze plastic surfaces.
Nylon strings do not rust, but they collect skin oils and go dull. Wipe them after playing and replace them when the tone flattens out or the strings start to look grooved where the slide travels.
Tips and Recommendations
Learn an open tuning before anything else. Slide playing is built on tunings where the open strings already form a chord, which is what lets a single straight slide across the strings produce a usable sound. The guide to how to tune a guitar covers the basics of getting there accurately.
Rest the slide on the strings rather than pressing down. Pressing pushes the strings onto the frets and produces a rattle. The slide should sit directly over the fret wire, not behind it as a finger would.
Mute behind the slide with the trailing fingers of the fretting hand. Unwanted ringing from the length of string behind the slide is the single most common reason beginner slide playing sounds messy.
Product FAQ
How many strings does it have?
The listing is inconsistent. The product name says three strings while the specification table lists four. This should be confirmed with the seller before ordering.
What kind of pickup does it use?
A piezoelectric pickup, which responds to vibration rather than to magnetic movement, so it works with the nylon strings fitted.
Is an amplifier included?
The listing does not state that one is included. A piezo pickup needs an amplifier to be heard at volume.
