Donner HUSH-C Silent Nylon | Review

Donner HUSH-C Silent Nylon | Review

MSRP: (UK) £320 / (US) $TBC

Silent practice just got a whole lot easier thanks to the Donner HUSH-C. This ultra-compact nylon-string guitar is designed for players who need to keep the noise down without sacrificing playability or tone. Plug in your headphones for a surprisingly natural playing experience, and take it anywhere. Sam Bell reviews.

Donner has brought us a new addition to the HUSH range of travel guitars. The HUSH-C is a headless, nylon-string guitar designed for silent practice (or amplification)—perfect for travel!

The guitar features an active piezo pickup, built-in tuner, and low/high EQ controls. The body and neck are made from solid okoume with a satin finish. The neck is a C shape, featuring a high-pressure laminate fretboard with rounded stainless steel frets. There is an adjustable truss rod at the bottom of the neck, and the neck itself is reinforced with dual carbon fibre rods for stability. The guitar narrows down and fits neatly into its included gig bag, which is super convenient. The main body of the guitar can then be attached to the quick-release carbon fibre frames, giving the guitar a more natural feel when sitting. Altogether, it weighs approximately 2.5 kg—which is nothing at all!

The pickup is housed inside the body—a HUSH Custom Piezo with Donner HPS-II preamp—giving you volume, low and high EQ, plus a convenient built-in tuner. This is all powered by an easily accessible 9V battery. There are two outputs on the guitar: the main one is a ¼-inch jack for plugging into a desk or amp, and the second is a 1/8-inch headphone jack for silent, on-the-road practice. There's also a 1/8-inch aux jack if you want to plug in a phone, laptop, or other audio source during silent practice.

In previous issues of GI, I've checked out other iterations of the HUSH series from Donner, so I was curious how they would present a travel guitar with nylon strings. The headless design means the tuners are positioned behind the bridge. On turning the guitar over, you'll find classic-style nylon string tuner gears, but the machine heads are presented as twistable knobs that also lock the strings in place. There's a convenient magnetic Allen key in the back of the guitar for unlocking these machine heads when it's time to change strings. The other end of the strings passes behind the nut of the guitar and out the back of the 'non' headstock. You're encouraged to create a 'tie' at the end of the string to hold it in place. It's a pretty unique approach and it works great!

Considering this isn't an acoustic instrument, the piezo does a good job of representing the nylon tone. The EQ is fairly interactive, and with a bit of tweaking you can get a solid nylon tone for practice or recording. I'd imagine if you use this with an outboard amp or PA, a little reverb could add some magic. It would have been great to have reverb as part of the preamp, but I quite like the simplicity of this travel guitar—it does the job well, and at a very reasonable price point (£329).

Whilst I'm not a fingerstyle player, I can say that the fretboard feels very good. However, the action out of the box was quite high past the 7th fret. I noticed this with a few of the HUSH guitars. This can be adjusted via the truss rod, and if you know how—or have a luthier friend—the HUSH-C's compensated bone saddle could be adjusted or adapted. Aside from this, the stainless steel frets felt great, the neck felt very nice, and there's something about the lightness of this guitar that makes it feel very 'free' to play. The carbon fibre frames add comfort, and I forgot I was holding a travel guitar after playing for a while. Super work, Donner!

If you're looking for a compact travel guitar that allows you to practice silently with nylon strings, the Donner HUSH-C is excellent. It ticks all the boxes—perfect for travellers, commuters, students, or anyone looking to take those Bach Cello Suites on the road!

For more information, please visit:

donner-music.com