(Oct 2009)

Standard Hollow-body Spruce top, Bigsby model   New!
  
    This Standard is a departure from my regular model.  It's a Spruce top with a Mahogany body, but instead of the wraparound bridge, it has a Bigsby and a separate Ebony bridge.  This setup gives the guitar a very warm and mellow, jazzy tone.  The upper end of the Rosewood fingerboard is cut off right behind the 22 fret in order to place the neck pickup pole-pieces right under a harmonic point.  The Amalfitano P90s are wired through two volume controls and two tone controls like a traditional Les Paul wiring. 
   The guitar is bound in Tortoise Shell with a white inner line.  I used a set of Gotoh Delta 510 tuners in gold as is the rest of the hardware.  It's a very pretty guitar and sounds considerably different to my other hollow bodies.
                                                                                                                                                                           

   Standard 6-string, Redwood burl top    
    
    It makes a nice change to sometimes use a very unusual top on a guitar.  The Redwood burl top on this one really glows under a slight Caramel burst.  Redwood burl usually has a uniform, overall figure, whereas this piece is a mass of individual swirls.    It makes for a dramatic look without loosing balance and beauty.  For the body and neck I've used Black Limba with a Caramel finish.  The fingerboard is Cocobolo, highly figured and devoid of any inlays as I felt that this fingerboard was figured enough as it was.  I used a pair of Amalfitano Full-buckers, Grover tuners and a TonePros bridge.  Redwood is a lot softer than Maple and therefore gives the guitar a warmer tone.

(available  at Willcutt Guitar Shoppe)   

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(Oct 2009)

Model T Deluxe, Faded Cherry Sunburst   
  
    This drop top Model T has a one-piece Mahogany body which I wish I could do more often.  The Chevron patterned Tiger-flamed top really glows under the pale cherry burst. The guitar has a Indian Rosewood fingerboard with Abalone line inlays, and the whole guitar is bound with cream celluloid.  It has Wolfetone humbuckers, a TonePros bridge, and Gotoh 510 tuners. Stylish and traditional!  Sounds great too!

                                                                                                    

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   Valiant,Tiger Eye finish     
    
    Here is a new Valiant with an unusual Tiger Eye finish.  The colors are the same as the regular Tiger Eye except that the hard curly Maple top soaked up less of the dark color than we're used to seeing.  The result is a very pretty golden orange/brown.  The back of the body is figured Honduras Mahogany which is stained with the same color so you can see how dark it really is.  It's a great contrast to the front.  It has an Indian Rosewood fingerboard and head veneer with abalone line markers and cream binding throughout.  The pickups are Lollar Imperial humbuckers running through a CAE Jangle Tone preamp.  I've used an ATB wraparound aluminum bridge and Sperzel Solid Pro tuners.  This is a great, punchy sounding guitar!

  (available  at Terra Guitars)   

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(Aug 2009)

Standard Hollow body Quilt top, Natural finish    
  
    Here is another of those instances where Mother Nature supplied the color scheme. This Quilted Maple top runs from white to rich golden tones that look so good under the clear gloss. The Mahogany I used for the body also has a lot of striking natural color, so that is also finished only in clear gloss.   I used a Macassar Ebony fingerboard with my standard pearl lines, and also a book-matched Macassar head veneer.  The pickups on this guitar are Wolfetone Marshallhead humbuckers with double cream exposed coils.  Needless to say, these sound tremendous.  As on most of my guitars, I've used a TonePros bridge and Grover tuners.  I added Ebony buttons to the tuners to match the fingerboard.  Beautiful instrument!
 

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   Model T Deluxe, Clear top     
    
    This Model T offers a very nice contrast between the front and the back.  The Tiger flame top has a completely natural finish, but the Black Limba body and neck are finished in a Caramel color.  It's quite a dramatic effect.  I used an old, dark Indian Rosewood fingerboard  with my standard vertical Abalone inlays.  The guitar has Seymour Duncan "Seth Lover" pickups which gives the guitar that very open and airy sound one gets from unpotted pickups.  It has  a TonePros bridge and Grover tuners.  Uncluttered and classy-looking guitar!                                                                                                     

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     (July 2009)

 Model T, Deluxe, Emerald green  

Here is another of those amazing pieces of quilted Maple that defy description.   You can almost feel a texture to the wood, despite the fact that the top is flat.  3D hardly describes it.  The body and neck are Honduras Mahogany which have been finished in a clear, natural gloss.   The Mahogany used for this guitar is also very lightweight, so it ended up being one of those really toneful instruments.  The Amalfitano humbuckers sound great on this guitar.

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   Standard solid-body, Wine Red finish      
    
    Here is a nice solid body with a deep red finish over a Curly Redwood top.  The naturally dark color of the Redwood lends itself rather nicely to a dark red finish.   The Curly Redwood top gives this guitar a slightly more mellow sound than a Maple top, with less attack and a warmer mid-range tone.  Sometimes this makes  a pleasant change.  The guitar has a Brazilian fingerboard and head veneer as an upgrade.  It has  a pair of Amalfitano Full-buckers which are PAF spec pickups which have a wonderful vintage sound to them.  I've used a set of Gotoh Delta tuners, a Tonepros bridge,  and metal control knobs, and of course, all the parts are gold plated.

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     (June 2009)

 Model T, Flat Top, Walnut    

I found this lovely piece of Claro Walnut in my  wood pile, and the customer for this guitar snapped it up in a hurry.   It looks really good on the Walnut stained figured Mahogany body.  The guitar is a little unusual in that it has black outer binding which gives it a bit of a subdued appearance, but the grain of the Walnut is so wild that it still hits you straight between the eyes.  I used an Ebony fingerboard to match all the black plastic parts, and the chrome on the bridge and the tuners are the only exceptions to the dark theme.   The guitar has a pair of Amalfitano Vintage P90s with that authentic, "old" sound.

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The Giffin Valiant six-string solid body, Amber burst          

 For the guitar shown here, I used a one-piece Honduras Mahogany body which sadly, I can't often find these days.  It's a slightly thicker body than I use on my regular Standard 6-string double cut-away. The neck is laminated Mahogany and hard Maple with an Indian Rosewood fingerboard.  I used a Maple top that is somewhere between quilt and flame which looks very pretty with the Amber burst finish.  Cream celluloid binding finishes off the whole thing very nicely. 

Pickups are Amalfitano PAFs with Alnico2 magnets for a real vintage sound.  The bridge is a TonePros AVT2 and the tuners are Sperzel Solid Pros.   The sound of this guitar has all the depth and richness that one has come to expect from an instrument of this type.          

                             (July 2009)

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     (available from Destroy All Guitars)

                             (June 2009)

Valiant Baritone, Goldtop    
 
Here is my very first single cut which ended up as a baritone.  It's an awesome sounding guitar with a sound that will shake the glass out of your windows, but as it was a long-scale baritone, I didn't  want to show this as the first example.  I do, however, want to include this here as it does show the body shape very clearly.  The gold finish isn't too shabby either! 

There is a Maple top underneath that gold paint and the body and neck are Mahogany.  The guitar has a 27 1/2 inch scale Rosewood fingerboard which is perfect for the low B tuning. 

The pickups are a pair of new old stock Gibson P90s with magnets which came from a pair of 1964 pickups.  These things sound absolutely authentic vintage.  I used a TonePros bridge and a set of Sperzel Solid Pro tuners.  The wiring on this one has two volumes and one master tone.  Very cool guitar.        
       
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   Standard hollow-body "long-scale," Tiger Eye finish      
    
    This guitar is considerably different from my regular hollow bodies in that it has an extra deep body without F-holes and a 26 1/4 inch scale neck.  This extra long scale in combination with the thicker body results in quite amazing sustain.  The body and neck are Honduras Mahogany, and the top is Curly Redwood.   The fingerboard and head veneer are Ebony.

    It's got Lollar Imperial humbuckers which run through a CAE Jangletone Preamp and a Tonestyler rotary tone control.  The two mini switches on the front of the body are an on/off switch for the preamp and a coil tap which operates both pickups.  It has a TonePros bridge and Gotoh 510 series tuners.  As always Tiger Eye works well on any figures wood and gives this Redwood a warm glow.  The back of the body and neck are stained to match the dark part of the burst on the front.

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