In this age of personal expression,
where everything from
a temporary bumper sticker to a
not-so-temporary tattoo offers the
world a glimpse of our inner reality,
it’s no surprise that many guitarists
see an opportunity to make
an artistic statement by dreaming
up a custom guitar. Depending
on your builder, there is an almost
endless array of possibilities. But
for this column, I’ll limit the
discussion to custom inlay work
and describe some of the projects
we’ve done over the years.
Huss & Dalton serial #63
boasts this custom inlay,
which was commissioned
by owner Jodie Davis
when he bought the flattop
in 1997. “The center of the
design is from the ancient
ying-yang symbol representing
balance,” says
Davis. “It’s surrounded by
a sunburst, which represents
limitless energy, and
that in turn is surrounded
by black ebony, representing
the unknown.”
Photo
by Jodie Davis |
When we were just getting
started, one of our first commissions
was one of those projects
that all parties now look back
on with a bit of regret. It began
with a group of engineers who
worked for a large electronic
research and manufacturing
facility. All outdoorsmen, they’d
formed a club to blow off a
little of the steam that inevitably
builds up in a high-pressure
setting. These engineers did a
lot of weekend camping with
fireside jam sessions as part
of the program. They called
themselves the Loyal Rectified
Order of Ridge Runners and
Skunk Callers Society (or
LRORRSCS), and they all had
club nicknames. Two of the club
members, Possum and Derf,
made their way to our shop with
custom guitars in mind.
They brought a drawing of
their club mascot—a skunk that
looked like a cross between the
Warner Bros. cartoon character
Pepé Le Pew and Angelina Jolie—that they wanted inlayed on the
pegheads. They also wanted the
abbreviated club name running
down the fretboard, complete
with nameplates engraved with
their nicknames. We were young
and hungry and glad to have the
work, but the resulting guitars
were not something that we show
off in our portfolio. Some 16
years later, Derf—who paid for
his guitar with a paper bag full
of $2 bills—still has his guitar,
but Possum eventually gave his
instrument to his son and got a
“normal” guitar for himself.
Perhaps a more well thought-out
plan came from a young
man who was married and
had a baby on the way. He
had designed a very nice set of
Chinese-looking characters that
were actually English letters if
you new what to look for. He
wanted to have his wife’s initials
on the peghead in this design,
but he also wanted to honor the
baby—and any more kids to
come in the future. As his family
has grown over the years, we’ve
inlayed similarly styled initials for
each of his children on the guitar’s
bridge wings and fretboard.
One of our more recent
projects was ordered by a group
of people as a gift. Dr. Francis
Collins is a local of Staunton,
Virginia, who has gone on to
great things. He earned a BS in
chemistry from the University of
Virginia and a PhD in physical
chemistry from Yale. He followed
that up with an MD from the
University of North Carolina. He
returned to Yale and began working
in the field of genetics, and
then continued at the University
of Michigan until 1993, when
he was named director of the
National Center for Human
Genome Research. It was there
that Collins headed up the team
that first successfully mapped the
human gene code. The team’s
discovery has given researchers a
guide to studying hereditary contributors
to such common medical
conditions as heart disease,
cancer, and mental illness.
Custom guitar inlays offer a wonderful opportunity for personal expression.
Rendered in gold
mother-of-pearl, this double helix appears on
a guitar we built for Dr. Francis Collins, who
headed the team that first
successfully mapped the human gene code.
Collins is also an accomplished
guitar player. When he
announced his retirement from
the Human Genome Project,
his co-workers pooled their
resources and arranged to have
us build him a custom guitar
as a retirement gift. Central to
the design was a graceful, gold
mother-of-pearl double helix that
flows down the fretboard. We presented
the guitar to him at a party
that included a few speeches and
a spirited jam session that went
late into the night. His retirement
did not last long, however, as he
was then appointed by President
Obama as the Director of the
National Institutes of Health.
With a staff of some 19,000 and
a budget of $34 billion, he probably
doesn’t have as much time as
he would like to play his guitar,
but then who does?
From cartoon skunks to
family history to genetics,
custom guitar inlays offer yet
another way to let the world
know a little bit about who
you are. Maybe you’ll consider
it for your next instrument?
Jeff Huss
co-owner
of Huss & Dalton Guitar
Company, moved to
Virginia in the late ’80s to
play bluegrass. He and
his business partner, Mark
Dalton, formed their company
in 1995. Since then they’ve earned
world-wide recognition for their high-end,
boutique guitars and banjos.