The Enlightened 55 is an ultralight electric guitar with unexpectedly large tone. The core of the 55 is its humbucker and mini-humbucker pickup combination, enhanced with the use of the Great 8 Mod to give you 8 different tone settings ranging from double humbucker to focused single coil. All are just a click or two away. The pickups are specially voiced to maximize the sonic performance of the Enlightened design.
With all Enlightened models, Michael Kelly have implemented an approach to making a lighter electric guitar that was carefully developed over several years as they focused to make the best sub-6 pound guitars on the market. This was achieved by changing the wood and making multiple modifications to the body and parts to deliver something special.
The primary body wood on the Enlightened 55 is red cedar. This member of the mahogany family is used because it delivers classic and full tonal performance but at a much lighter weight than typical tone woods. To enhance the appearance it is topped it with quilt maple, to make it visually striking. The weight was reduced further by thinning out the body and adding ports to the butt-end of the body. The Enlightened 55 also has been upgraded with an aluminium bridge and control plate for added weight relief along with enhanced tone.
Often, light weight guitars are hard to play with a guitar strap because they are neck heavy, leading to neck-dive. For the Enlightened collection, they developed a new combination for strap-button placement to deliver improved balance - and it works so well!
Tone, balance, versatility and comfort are all hallmarks of the Enlightened 55.