Nashville, TN (August 4, 2010) -- The Dave Navarro Signature Acoustic/Electric was built to cover all Navarro’s tonal and performance needs. Top quality solid tonewoods and first-class Epiphone construction ensure that the Dave Navarro Signature begins with the emphasis on acoustic, while the pickup and preamp system developed by Epiphone in cooperation with Shadow of Germany lets the player take it all electric. It comes complete with an ebony finish with multi-ply binding and abalone soundhole rosette, custom engraved pickguard, and custom mother-of-pearl "unicursal hexigram" inlays on an ebony fingerboard.
Solid bookmatched Sitka spruce is used for the soundboard (top) of the Dave Navarro Signature Acoustic/Electric. A solid mahogany back and select mahogany sides add warmth and depth to the spruce. Its electronics include Epiphone’s eSonic preamp system with the NanoFlex under-saddle pickup. Designed in cooperation with and made by Shadow of Germany, the eSonic is a small, lightweight preamp powered by two long-lasting Lithium batteries.
The guitar features a built-in chromatic tuner that allows you to "mute" the output of the guitar while tuning or while "unplugging" to avoid any loud "pop." Other controls include Master Volume, Treble and Bass EQ, a Dynamics slider that acts as an EQ frequency shifter, and a "phase" switch to help eliminate feedback. Under the genuine bone saddle is Shadow’s Nanoflex pickup. Not a piezo, the NanoFlex design utilizes 7 highly sensitive and ultra-responsive layers of sensor material to not only sense the vibrations of the strings but the vibrations of the guitar body as well. This produces results equivalent to a condenser-microphone mixed with an under-saddle pickup. The Nanoflex is the first pickup to incorporate active amplification directly at the pickup. As a result, the signal does not pass through even a single millimeter of the wire and therefore, the signal quality is uncompromised. Combined with its 100% shielding, the Nanoflex is noise free.
Epiphone has included a deep, rounded body cutaway for upper-fret access, a comfortable SlimTaper "D" neck profile, and a full 25.5" scale length and slightly wider nut width of 1.725" for easy, precise fingering. It also features a bone nut, high-efficiency Grover tuners, and a rosewood "moustache" bridge. Lastly, the guitar comes with a limited lifetime warranty and Shadow's 5-year warranty (electronics) and is backed by Gibson Customer Service.
MSRP: $999
For more information:
Source: Press Release
The 2018 CCL Deco Custom, in all its Pelham blue glory.
Anyway, we became friends and I started working on him pretty early—my 40th birthday was approaching, and that meant it was time for us to start designing his first solidbody build. If you stopped on this page, it’s because the photo of the finished product caught your eye. Beautiful, right? The 2018 CCL Deco Custom: Never shall there be another.
Old National Glenwood guitars were my design inspiration, but I wanted a slim waist like a PRS and the like. We used a solid block of korina to start, routed like MacGyver to get the knobs and switches where I wanted them. Dale builds all his own lathes and machines (usually out of lumber, y’all), as the task requires. This beast took some creativity—it’s tight wiring under that custom-steel pickguard. Many were the preliminary sketches. Four coats of Pelham blue, 11 coats of nitro. Honduran mahogany neck, Madagascar ebony fretboard with Dale’s signature not-quite-Super-400 inlays. He designed the logo; I just said, “Make it art deco.”
We sourced all the bits and bobs from StewMac and Allparts and Reverb and the like, mostly to get that chrome look I so adore. Graph Tech Ratio tuners, Duesenberg Radiator trem (had to order that one from Germany), TonePros TP6R-C roller bridge. The pickups were a genius suggestion from the builder, Guitarfetish plug ’n’ play 1/8" solderless swappable, which means I have about 10 pickups in the case to choose from: rockabilly to metal. And both slots are tapped, with the tone knobs serving as single- to double-coil switches. I put the selector on the lower horn to accommodate my tendency to accidentally flip the thing on Les Pauls—definite lifesaver.
Reader and guitar enthusiast, Cody Lindsey.
Dale offered to chamber this monster, but I said what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. It weighs in at 11 pounds, if it’s an ounce. We carved the neck to match a ’60s SG, so it’s like the mini bat you get at the ballpark on little kids’ day. Easy peasy. 1 11/16" nut, 25" scale, jumbo frets, just 2 1/8" at the 12th fret.
Delivery in its lovely, hygrometer-equipped Cedar Creek case actually happened a month or two shy of my 41st, but hey, you can’t rush these things. We ended up with a studio Swiss Army knife; it does a bit of everything and does it effortlessly. A looker, too. Dale didn’t spend his career doing this kind of thing—he was in IT or some such—and I imagine he’s winding this “hobby” of his down these days, enjoying retirement with a bottle of Killian’s and a lawn chair at Duluth Blues Fest. But this guitar will live on as a marker of his skill and otherworldly patience. It sits at the head of the class in my practice room, welcoming any visitors and bringing a smile to my face every day. And Dale, my friend, I’ll be 50 before you know it....
Cody requested that Dale design an art deco logo for the guitar’s headstock.