On the shores of the Farmington River in New Hartford, Connecticut, three legendary acoustic brands have amassed a formidable army of guitar-building talent that seems destined to take flattops into a new golden age.
Hang out with the folks who work at the beautiful brick factory in New Hartford, Connecticut, where Fender Acoustic Custom Shop, Guild, and Ovation flattops are built and, before long, the ghost stories start to fly. Tales of night watchmen, phantasmal apparitions in the corners, and whistling, invisible strangers in the wee hours, are traded readily. And it’s little wonder—the facility was erected on the shores of the Farmington River before the Civil War, and by various accounts has been a uniform mill and a sewing-machine factory, among others things. In short, a lot of industrious folks have walked these halls.
Since 1967, the New Hartford factory has been all about guitars. But even now it seems like a bridge between worlds—and it’s certainly no less industrious for it. Here, carbon-fiber guitars take shape alongside small-batch acoustics built with old-world and computer-based methods. And in the process, new chapters are being written in the annals of some legendary guitar brands.
After leaving Westerly, Rhode Island, almost two decades ago, Guild is back in New England. And the design team for this legendary brand is now helmed to a significant extent by the legendary Ren Ferguson, who spearheaded Gibson’s acoustic renaissance. Fender—which made its first concerted (if largely unsuccessful) foray into acoustics in the early ’60s with Rickenbacker design legend Roger Rosmeisel at the helm—has again dived headlong into the business of acoustic guitars, this time with Ferguson and acoustic lutherie veteran Tim Shaw overseeing the works. And Ovation—whose aerospace- and acoustic-electric-guitar-pioneering forefather, Charles Kaman, first made the New Hartford facility a guitar factory in 1967—stands poised to take the brand in new directions.
The creative energy and focus around the New Hartford facility is impressive. This is clearly not an operation designed to cash in on nostalgia or leverage famous brands in an effort to move mediocre instruments. Soon after taking the job in January of 2012, Ferguson had already designed and unveiled a whole new line of Guilds, the Orpheum series, which include—among other ’30s-inspired designs—a beautiful, sonorous, and barn-rattlingly powerful 12-fret slope-shouldered dreadnought
Meanwhile, Fender—intent on building more than rebranded Guilds—is designing flattops that honor the misunderstood and often underappreciated legacy of the Rosmeisel-era acoustics with guitars that, in some cases, are tailored specifically for those who primarily play electric. And from what we’ve seen, felt, and heard, the notion of fretting an E-major chord on a C-profiled Stratocaster neck and generating the booming, balanced output of a good dreadnought is a musical idea we could definitely get used to.
And Ovation is simultaneously looking ahead and capitalizing on its experience as one of the most consistently groundbreaking companies in the industry. Further, a young, eager musical freak of a brand manager named Jason Barnes is working with a veteran staff of guitar builders—many into their fourth decade of building Ovation and Adamas guitars—to keep the brand at the cutting edge of playability and exploratory design while also taking advantage of the materials, talent, and experience behind the new crew working on Fender and Guild guitars in New Hartford.
If this all sounds a bit like some kind of mad luthiers’ summer camp, well, that sentiment isn’t too far off the mark. This is a hardworking, spirited, often hilarious gang that hangs together, talks shop, and even launches into lunchtime jam sessions around the front office if you give them five seconds of breathing room. And as impressive as many of these guys are as luthiers, they’re killer players, too. But once they’re on the clock, this is a determined, inexhaustible bunch fired up about the new convergence of talent and the instruments it’s producing. At any given moment, you can find Ren Ferguson digging in the wood room, tinkering with inlay, or looking over the shoulder of a builder as they discuss a better approach to some minute step in the manufacturing process. It all adds up to a very promising future for three brands that deserve to remain acoustic industry fixtures. If you love the acoustic guitar in any measure, it’s not hard to be thrilled and intrigued about what might emerge from this buzzing hive of guitar-building energy.
See photos from our trip inside the factory:
The veteran Florida-born metalcore outfit proves that you don’t need humbuckers to pull off high gain.
Last August, metalcore giants Poison the Well gave the world a gift: They announced they were working on their first studio album in 15 years. They unleashed the first taste, single “Trembling Level,” back in January, and set off on a spring North American tour during which they played their debut record, The Opposite of December… A Season of Separation, in full every night.
PG’s Perry Bean caught up with guitarists Ryan Primack and Vadim Taver, and bassist Noah Harmon, ahead of the band’s show at Nashville’s Brooklyn Bowl for this new Rig Rundown.
Brought to you by D’Addario.Not-So-Quiet As a Mouse
Primack started his playing career on Telecasters, then switched to Les Pauls, but when his prized LPs were stolen, he jumped back to Teles, and now owns nine of them.
His No. 1 is this white one (left). Seymour Duncan made him a JB Model pickup in a single-coil size for the bridge position, while the neck is a Seymour Duncan Quarter Pound Staggered. He ripped out all the electronics, added a Gibson-style toggle switch, flipped the control plate orientation thanks to an obsession with Danny Gatton, and included just one steel knob to control tone. Primack also installed string trees with foam to control extra noise.
This one has Ernie Ball Papa Het’s Hardwired strings, .011–.050.
Here, Kitty, Kitty
Primack runs both a PRS Archon and a Bad Cat Lynx at the same time, covering both 6L6 and EL34 territories. The Lynx goes into a Friedman 4x12 cab that’s been rebadged in honor of its nickname, “Donkey,” while the Archon, which is like a “refined 5150,” runs through an Orange 4x12.
Ryan Primack’s Pedalboard
Primack’s board sports a Saturnworks True Bypass Multi Looper, plus two Saturnworks boost pedals. The rest includes a Boss TU-3w, DOD Bifet Boost 410, Caroline Electronics Hawaiian Pizza, Fortin ZUUL +, MXR Phase 100, JHS Series 3 Tremolo, Boss DM-2w, DOD Rubberneck, MXR Carbon Copy Deluxe, Walrus Slo, and SolidGoldFX Surf Rider III.
Taver’s Teles
Vadim Taver’s go-to is this cherryburst Fender Telecaster, which he scored in the early 2000s and has been upgraded to Seymour Duncan pickups on Primack’s recommendation. His white Balaguer T-style has been treated to the same upgrade. The Balaguer is tuned to drop C, and the Fender stays in D standard. Both have D’Addario strings, with a slightly heavier gauge on the Balaguer.
Dual-Channel Chugger
Taver loves his 2-channel Orange Rockerverb 100s, one of which lives in a case made right in Nashville.
Vadim Taver’s Pedalboard
Taver’s board includes an MXR Joshua, MXR Carbon Copy Deluxe, Empress Tremolo, Walrus ARP-87, Old Blood Noise Endeavors Reflector, MXR Phase 90, Boss CE-2w, and Sonic Research Turbo Tuner ST-200, all powered by a Voodoo Lab Pedal Power 2 Plus.
Big Duff
Harmon’s favorite these days is this Fender Duff McKagan Deluxe Precision Bass, which he’s outfitted with a Leo Quan Badass bridge. His backup is a Mexico-made Fender Classic Series ’70s Jazz Bass. This one also sports Primack-picked pickups.
Rental Rockers
Harmon rented this Orange AD200B MK III head, which runs through a 1x15 cab on top and a 4x10 on the bottom.
Noah Harmon’s Pedalboard
Harmon’s board carries a Boss TU-2, Boss ODB-3, MXR Dyna Comp, Darkglass Electronics Vintage Ultra, and a Voodoo Lab Pedal Power 2 Plus. His signal from the Vintage Ultra runs right to the front-of-house, and Harmon estimates that that signal accounts for about half of what people hear on any given night.
The Future Impact V4 is an incredibly versatile pedal with an exceptional range of sounds. In addition to producing synthesizer sounds such as basses, leads and pads, it can function as an octaver, chorus, flanger, phaser, distortion, envelope filter, traditional wah-wah, tremolo, reverb, etc., and even has a built-in tuner. It can potentially replace an entire pedalboard of dedicated single-effect pedals.
The very powerful signal processor of the Future Impact V4 is able to replicate the various oscillator, filter, amplifier and envelope generator blocks found in classic synthesizers. In addition, it contains signal processing blocks more traditionally used for processing the sound of an instrument such as a harmonizer block and audio effects such as chorus, distortion and EQ. These architectures complement each other in a very flexible way.
Setting the standard for the bass guitar synth pedals since 2015, together with an enthusiastic community and long line of great artists, the Future Impact V4 is the guitar synth platform for the next decade.
His credits include Miles Davis’ Jack Johnson and Herbie Mann—next to whom he performed in Questlove’s 2021 documentary, Summer of Soul—and his tunes have been covered by Santana and the Messthetics. But it’s as a bandleader and collaborator where Sharrock cut his wildest recordings. As groundbreaking as Sharrock’s music could be, his distorted tone and melodic tunes helped bring rock listeners into the jazz tent. Our callers let us know how much Sharrock meant to them and why he’s one of the “top guys of all time.”
Belltone Guitars has partnered Brickhouse Toneworks to create a one-of-a-kind, truly noiseless Strat/Tele-tone pickup in a standard Filter’Tron size format: the Single-Bell pickup.
The Single-Bell by Brickhouse Toneworks delivers bonafide single-coil Strat and Tele tones with the power of a P-90 and no 60-cycle hum. Unlike typical stacked hum-cancelling designs, Brickhouse Toneworks uses a proprietary ‘sidewind’ approach that cancels the 60-cycle hum without sacrificing any of the dynamics or top-end sparkle of a Fender-style single coil.
Get the best of both worlds with clear bell-like tones on the neck pickup, signature quack when combining the neck and bridge pickups, and pristine twang in the bridge position backed with the fullness and power of a P-90. Push these into overdrive and experience the hallmark blues tone with plenty of grit and harmonic sustain — all with completely noiseless performance.
Key Features of the Single-Bell:
- Cast Alnico 5 Magnet, designed to be used with 500k pots
- Voiced to capture that signature Fender-style single coil tone without the 60-cycle hum
- Lightly potted to minimize squeal
- Made in the USA with premium quality materials
The retail price for a Bridge and Neck matching set is $340.00 and they’re available directly and exclusively through Belltone® Guitars / Brickhouse Toneworks at belltoneguitars.com.