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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     (June 2009)

 Standard six-string solid-body custom    

The lovely piece of flame Maple on the top of this guitar looks even better in the flesh than it does in the pictures.  Along with a White Limba body and neck, the overall effect is rather striking.  The whole guitar is finished in a Vintage Amber tint, to give it a classic, mellow look.  It has a  Brazilian Rosewood fingerboard inlayed with a pair of Koi fish cut from curly Maple.  I've used Tortoise shell binding all around the guitar. 

It has a pair of Amalfitano humbuckers with a coil tap on the volume control, Grover tuners with Ebony buttons, and a TonePros bridge.  The control knobs and truss rod cover are made of Ebony. and the control cover plate is a piece of White Limba to match the body.

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(May 2009)

Pair of Baritone Acoustic six-strings 

     I don't make many acoustic instruments these days, but I had an order two of them which were built almost side by side.  I used almost the same materials on both instruments, but using Englemann Spruce on the guitar to the left, and Sitka Spruce on the one to the right. 

    Both bodies were made from the same piece of old Honduras Mahogany, and both necks were made from the same laminated block of Mahogany, Maple, and Blood Wood.  

(June 2009)

    Both fingerboards are Indian Rosewood with Abalone line inlays.  The scale length on both is 27 1/2 inches.   The guitar on the right has an L.R. Baggs M1 Soundhole pickup.  Both guitars have Gold Grover Rotomatic tuners and are strung with La Bella acoustic baritone strings.  I have to say that they do sound tremendous...

Wendy Melvoin - Girl Brothers / Wendy&Lisa  - formerly  guitarist for Prince's band Revolution - with her new baritone

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   Custom Thru-neck, all Mahogany  
          
    Although this guitar clearly borrows influence from a famous vintage instrument, it is a very unique and new shape (supplied for the most part by the customer).  The construction method is the same as the vintage guitar in order to achieve the same tonal response, which includes having tuners in the reverse position.  The neck pickup is a Kent Armstrong Vintage Firebird and the bridge pickup is also a Kent Armstrong but a PAF with a coil tap on the tone control.  I used a Pigtail Aluminum wraparound bridge and Steinberger Gearless tuners.   The guitar sounds great and sustains for days....                                                            

(May 2009)
 

  Standard Hollow body, Figured Walnut top  
  
    Walnut is a highly decorative wood that I don't use very often, which is a pity because it looks amazing and is a very good tone-wood.   The Mahogany body and neck on this guitar was stained Walnut color to match the front which also looks great.  I may have to do another one like this.  It has an Ebony fingerboard with Abalone line inlays, and also an Ebony head veneer.  It has a Tonepros bridge and a set of Gotoh's super smooth 510 Delta tuners.  I used Lollar Imperial humbuckers with coil taps.  I also used a CAE Jangletone preamp and a Stellartone tone control.  The guitar has a great range of sounds using these systems.  

   Model T Deluxe, Gold top   
          
       Borrowing ideas from a classic vintage guitar, this Model T is a good blend of old and new.  The Amalfitano P90s give it that typical vintage sound that many players are looking for, and the TonePros bridge eliminates the tuning problems that the vintage guitars had.   It has a classic Gold top/Honey back finish, and the cream binding and cream plastic parts are true 50s style.  Sometimes it's fun to re-visit the past, after all, they got it right then, so why not now..
                 

                                                                        (available at Guitar Adoptions)

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(Feb 2009)

 5-string Medium Scale Bass, Oil&wax finish       
   
     Here is a rather nice and highly playable bass.  The 32 1/2 inch scale neck makes fingering a whole lot easier than the long scale basses - but without losing too much sustain.  Along with the pretty quilted Maple top, I used figured Honduras Mahogany for the body wings.  I used the same Mahogany for the thru neck along with some curly Maple and Blood-wood  for the laminates.  The fingerboard is Indian Rosewood with my standard Abalone line inlays.

     I used a pair of Bartolini Humbucking Jazz Bass pickups running through one of their 2-band EQ pre-amps.  It has Hipshot tuners, and instead of the usual Hipshot bridge, I used one of their individual string bridge systems.  This is a really neat bridge which allows for either string-thru body or top string mount.  It gives great sustain.  The finish is natural oil and wax which really brings out the wood grain nicely!  A very rich sounding bass!                 

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   Model T Deluxe, Burl/Curly Maple top              
    
This guitar looks great!  The Maple on the top is most odd, but in a nice way - a mixture of burl and curl.  The highly figured Black Limba body and neck are super light-weight and very, very resonant.   I used a pair of Seymour Duncan "Seth Lover" pickups which give it a wonderful vintage tone.  The fingerboard is Indian Rosewood and the head veneer is a piece of Maple, from the same piece as the body.  It has Grover tuners and a TonePros bridge.  The guitar is cream bound and finished in a clear natural gloss.  Great instrument. 
 (Please note: The protective plastic covering was still on the pickups when these pictures were taken)
                                        

 
(Dec 2008)

  Here is a very pretty Standard with a Black Limba body and neck.  The curly Maple top is quite gorgeous.  The Amalfitano pickups made this guitar sound really sweet.  I used Macassar Ebony for the fingerboard and the head veneer.  It has a TonePros bridge and Gold Grover tuners. The guitar is bound in cream and finished in a Caramel burst.

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   Standard six-string with pearl binding, Emerald top        
    
This custom ordered Standard has one of the nicest pieces of quilted Maple I've seen in a long time.  The Emerald green stain in the wood gives it a completely three dimensional appearance.  I waited for at least a couple of weeks for a bright but cloudy day to get some good outside shots, but this particular period was unfortunately sunny the whole time, and the guitar had to be shipped (..who said it's always raining in Oregon?), so the shots are not all perfect - the full front and back are a bit dark.  However, it's a beautiful looking instrument with cream/black and Abalone binding all around.  It has a 25 1/2 inch scale book-matched Brazilian Rosewood fingerboard and a matching book-matched piece for the head veneer.  I've used a Wilkinson bridge, Gotoh 510 machine heads and a pair of Voodoo 59 Humbuckers with a coil tap on the mini switch.  The back of the body and the neck are Honduras Mahogany which is finished in a clear, natural gloss.  This makes a very nice contrast to the Emerald Green top.  A very special guitar!

  Click on Thumbnails !

(Dec 2008)

It took me a while to find this piece of Burl Maple.  I was searching for a particular look and this was the piece!  Burls present unique problems in that they always have holes and knots, but this is part of the character.  The end result is usually very pretty. 

This Standard is a hollow body without  F-holes which I sometimes prefer on a guitar that has a very busy figure in the wood.  I've used Lollar Imperial humbuckers with a coil tap on the mini switch.  They sound really sweet on single coil.  The guitar has Grover tuners and a TonePros bridge.  All the hardware is gold.  It's finished in a honey burst.