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The Building of Peavey's PG/Dallas International Guitar Festival Custom Guitar
by Premier Guitar
THIRTY YEARS AGO,
the inaugural Dallas International Guitar Festival got
underway in a Texas hotel basement. Meanwhile, Peavey founder and innovator
Hartley Peavey was busy refining his first guitar, the revolutionary T-60.
As the first guitar made using CNC machinery, the Peavey T-60 bridged the
gap between the vintage and modern eras in guitars. Hartley Peavey wanted
to build instruments that feel as good as they sound. The problem with pre-CNC
guitars, he maintains today, is that consistency among instruments was always
an afterthought. You never knew what you were going to get.
So when Peavey launched its new Custom Shop earlier this year, we knew it
would be an event. We stepped into the Peavey Custom Shop with an experienced
group of luthiers to collaborate on a commemorative model of its HP Special guitar
for the 30th anniversary of the Dallas International Guitar Festival. That this event
coincides with another major milestone in guitars is mere serendipity.
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Wood Selection and CNC
The Peavey HP Special guitar is an exercise
in precision and expertise that can achieve a
healthy range of humbucker and single-coil
tones. It’s also a model of craftsmanship – a
combination of the machine precision, thoughtful
design and hand finishing that Peavey
brought to guitar making thirty years ago.
As all great instruments begin with a premium
cut of wood, for our commemorative
guitar Peavey hand-selected a basswood
body with a Birdseye maple neck and premium
ebony fretboard from its extensive
collection of domestic and exotic woods.
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Hand Detailing
In the modern era of guitar making, the craftsmanship
is all in the details. Hand-operated pin
routing carves the bay for the body binding. Then,
using a high-grade epoxy, the builder carefully
sets the binding by hand, helping achieve the
striking, professionally appointed look and feel.
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Fretting
The first neck cut is made by a CNC router
to make room for the truss rod and dual
reinforcement rods, specially made of graphite
to strengthen and add rigidity to the
Birdseye maple neck. Peavey adds these
supports prior to shaping the neck so it
doesn’t bow in the building process. During
this step, Peavey also adds its trademark
neck shape, a distinctive asymmetrical neck
curve with compound-radius fretboard that
adds additional comfort and playability.
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Crowning and Filing Frets
Design experience and genuine craftsmanship
come together to shape the fretboard
into a comfortable sonic palette. The builder
uses a hardened stainless-steel straight
edge to level the frets to the proper playing
height, then crowns them to a perfect
shape. One last round of hand sanding
and buffing around the neck and fretboard
ensures the finish is flawless.
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Logo Placement
Meanwhile, the guitar body is base-coated
and prepped for decal application. The artisans
in the Peavey shop were painstakingly
accurate with the detailing of the Dallas
International Guitar Festival and Premier
Guitar logos. They chose to set the red,
black and white logos against an ivory palette
to make them pop off the guitar nicely
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Gloss Coating and Buffing
Once our commemorative guitar gets a top
coat, it’s ready for a three-stage sanding
process that goes all the way down to a 15-
micron paper to achieve an ultra-smooth finish.
For reference, a single micron equals one
millionth of a meter! Buffing refines the sheen
and deep, creamy gloss of the ivory finish.
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Guitar and Electronics Assembly
In the setup stage, Peavey installs its
custom-voiced pickups, which they wind
in-house to match the guitars in their line.
These HP Special pickups are wound using
two different wire gauges so you get a
true single-coil tone when you use a coil
tap – a stock feature on all HP Special USA
models. Tremolo adjustments, stringing
and intonation are also integral parts of the
setup process.
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Final Inspection
The Peavey Quality Assurance Team
tests every instrument built in the Peavey
Custom Shop to ensure that it embodies
the feel, tone and attention to detail prescribed
by Hartley Peavey. Every nuance
must exceed expectations—from the voicing
of the pickups to the comfort of the
asymmetrically shaped neck, and down
to the gleaming luster of a lovingly built
instrument.
Premier Guitar’s commemorative Dallas
International Guitar Festival edition of the
Peavey Custom Shop HP Special guitar is
certainly an expertly crafted modern classic.
Like our guitar? Build your own today at
peaveycustomshop.com!
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Peavey
866-443-2333
peavey.com
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