Murray Kuun, South African luthier and designer, has recently completed two custom builds for an American dealer. Murray comes from a furniture design background that has evolved via violin making into making guitars. Congratulations on these beautiful instruments! They feature EGS hardware, EMG pickups and plain, curly, and birds-eye maple. The wings are hollow to achieve a light-weight design. Scale length is 635 mm. For more information, be sure to visit www.murraykuun.com and...
Learn MoreMark Davis, from outside Melbourne, Australia, had a busy last winter building a very interesting and innovative carbon fiber guitar. He recently purchased a second EGS bridge, so I am looking forward to seeing what is in store. Mark is active at the Aussie Guitar Gear Heads forum and has a thread documenting this whole build there. This guitar has a core of Australian pine-like wood King Billy and is fully carbon fiber. It has several fairly unique features, such as pickups mounted out of view from behind (to give an un-interrupted CF top) and glued on frets (again to not ruin the fibers of the CF weave). Mark writes: The total weight of this guitar is 1.3kg or 2.875lbs. Pickups are Adeson Icendiary in the bridge and a Fenton Weill in the mid position. Switching is single / single and split h/b in series , and bridge h/b. Frets are hardened SS and glued on. Nut is home made to suit purpose as are the knobs. I new exactly what I was aiming for from the beginning with the hidden P/U’s this was due to the fact that I wanted uninterrupted fibers running all the way to the bridge This creates the problem of getting the strings close to the body so...
Learn MoreChris Letchford has purchased #5 (which has been in the works for some time) and taken the opportunity to have it built to his specifications. He insisted on having a wenge top, although I had run out building #3. I was lucky to find some just a few kilometers away thanks to a tip from SwedishLuthier over at Project Guitar Forum. It has been in store for over 20 years, making it about as old as my previous batch. When this is bookmatched, it should give a result very similar to #3. I bought enough for at least 4 instruments. I also got some incredibly light Sapele Mahogany: I have never used this before, but am very excited. It is very resonant and this particular piece felt like Swamp Ash in weight but with a very even color close to maple. I also cut up the neck blank for #5 and #6 today. This has been the subject of a previous post. The original intention was to make #6 an 8-string, but I might make both of these 7-strings in order to leverage working on several instruments at a time. #5 (Chris Letchford) specs: 7 strings headless EGS design Mahogany back with maple neck-through-body center Wenge top Semi-hollow construction Belly carve...
Learn MoreI met up with one of my customers, Gareth Parry, in London the other day. His band, Monkey See Monkey Do, had a gig at the Roxy Bar and Screen with a live re-score of the 1966 surrealist Czech film Daisies. It was a very fun (albeit hot) evening, the music blending with the film perfectly. Gareth took #3 for a spin and enjoyed it a lot. His own project, featuring a Klein-type body, chunky Tele-style neck and EGS tuners, is all but ready. I hope to have pictures here soon when it is completed. Next up is Washington, DC. I will be there between 13 and 17 of June. Please let me know if you are in the area and would like to meet...
Learn MoreI was fortunate enough to be in the neighborhood of Watson Guitars, who I have mentioned before the week that passed and Alex and Tere made some room for me and my family in the middle of the final crunch of NAMM preparations. We had a wonderful lunch, and a nice drive up and down the mountain although we didn’t have much luck with the weather. Idyllwild is situated in the most amazing surroundings, but due to fog, we didn’t see much farther than our noses reached. I did get to see the customer build that Alex is finishing: Above it, you can see the second EGS tremolo build for Alex – a fitting operation for a customer. In the above picture, you can almost see how stunning the inlay and finishing work is. In addition, there are so many nice touches on Watson Guitars’ instruments that you have to see to believe. For example, custom pickup covers cut from the top to match the grain, ditto control covers on the back, inlays, and so on. Watson Guitars are, like I said, exhibiting at NAMM so make sure to pay them a visit. The guitar pictured featuring the EGS Tremolo will be there, so it’s a great opportunity to try...
Learn MoreI am happy to be able to present another customer project, this time from Toni Stosic from Zagreb, Croatia. Toni saw David Thorn playing a Klein guitar in a Hendrix tribute on TV more than 12 years ago and has been dreaming about one since. The body is ash with a maple/ebony neck. Pickups are hand-made by a friend of his. (Feel free to post back here with more details about the pickups, Toni!) Toni reports that it sounds great and holds tuning perfectly. The trem stopper was installed as a personal preference and adds to the tone. Congratulations...
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