North Carolina artist Matthew Nowicki taught himself how to build guitars five years ago and hasn't looked back.
Ash Top Custom Atomic
Shaped like a Tele but with much more than meets the eye, this mahogany-body Atomic is topped with intensely figured ash that's been finished with a vintage 'burst and then dressed with a thinline-style parchment pickguard. Going with flame maple for the neck, Nowicki outfitted it with a bocote fretboard that's adorned with white mother-of-pearl for the top and side dots. The pickup trio is made up of a TV Jones T-Armond in the neck, a Lindy Fralin reverse-wound Strat-style in the middle, and a Lindy Fralin overwound P-90 in the bridge.
After a busy decade of concentrating on marriage, work, and kids, Matthew Nowicki came to the frightening realization that somehow he didn’t have a guitar in the house anymore. For someone who started playing at the age of 12, that just wasn’t a good sign. He decided to get back into it, but couldn't afford the pricey guitars he was digging at the time. So when he saw a banged-up vintage Tele with a snapped neck and no pickups for $100, he grabbed it. In just a few months, he taught himself the art of guitar repair while working it back into shape.
A friend of Nowicki’s loved the results of the Tele project so much that he offered to buy the guitar. Nowicki sold it to him and bought another broken instrument. After completing this cycle a few more times, Nowicki began designing and building his own guitars from scratch, starting with a batch of five. When he put up a website touting his wares, within a few months he had enough orders to build guitars full-time, which the North Carolina-based luthier has been doing for five years now. “It was kind of an accident that it turned into a career,” he says.
The self-taught luthier has been making art as long as he can remember and says it seemed natural to start building guitars. “I've always loved working with my hands and creating beautiful eye-catching objects,” says Nowicki, whose college major was sculpture. “When I was repairing broken guitars, I kept having ideas for interesting finishes, details, and shapes. There is a huge amount of information out there to learn how to build guitars, but like most things, the majority of the learning happens by just keeping on building with the attitude of trying to make the next one even better.”
In this quest, Nowicki notes the importance of sourcing quality components. “I like the standard woods like mahogany, maple, and rosewood, but I really believe that every guitar has a unique voice,” he says. “Two guitars made from the same materials will still have slightly different tones because every piece of wood is different.” The luthier likes using wood in interesting combinations to create unique voices and looks, but says the quality of the wood is always the most important thing. “Beautiful wood is wonderful, but it has to sound good, too.”
When it comes to electronics, Nowicki has tried most pickups on the market. “Smaller boutique builders really do create a superior product,” he says. “Lindy Fralin, Jason Lollar, Pete Biltoft and TV Jones make some of the best pickups I've used.”
Most of Nowicki’s customers have very specific ideas, so almost all of his builds are custom. It can be time consuming since unique jigs and tooling are needed for almost every instrument—but, of course, it’s worth it. “Working with clients to figure out their dream guitar is loads of fun and always results in something interesting,” says Nowicki. “I love thinking up new combinations of colors, wood, and sound, and seeing the instrument emerge at the end into something that has a life of its own.”
Red Rocket Guitars' StyleSonic, which features a body carved from solid, black limba, adorned with cocobolo binding and checker purfling.
Pricing and Availability
Nowicki can be contacted directly through his website, which also provides information for the dealers he works with. Nowicki makes approximately 30-40 guitars a year, but he plans to expand and recently took on a part-time assistant in the shop. The current build time for a Red Rocket guitar is approximately five months. Builds average about $2,950 and Nowicki contends that his guitars are rarely more than $4,500.
For more info:
Red Rocket Guitars
Grez Guitars has introduced the Grez GrandTour Bass, a short scale semi-hollow carve-top instrument available in 4-string format.
The Grez Grand Tour Bass, designed in collaboration with bass powerhouse Ian MartinAllison is, like all Grez instruments, a modern sleek interpretation of the classic instruments from the 50’s and 60’s.
The instruments feature a carved Spruce top, Honduran Mahogany body and neck. The 30" scale construction includes a Macassar ebony fretboard, 12” radius with 21 jumbofrets. Each bass comes equipped with a Halon bridge, Grez string anchor and LaBellaDeep Talkin’ long scale 45-105 flatwound strings. Electronics include Curtis Novak Bisonic/Darkstar pickups with coil tap.
The Grand Tour bass features a nitro finish and is available in a variety of colors(pictured here in custom Toasted Marshmallow).
Grez Grand Tour Bass with Ian Martin Allison
Barry Grzebik explains: “I love process of design instruments, marrying acoustical,electrical, visual and ergonomic engineering with industrial and artistic design. In this case creating something that artfully balances the desire for a robust acoustic voice with the need to hold up to professional touring and stadium stage volumes. One small notable detail is that although this is a short scale instrument, because of the after-length of string past the bridge, it uses standard long scale strings which dramatically increases sting options and availability.”
Ian Marin Allison shares, “I’m inspired by the unique character of vintage hollow andsemi-hollow basses, but they don’t always live up to our modern expectation of stability, playability, versatility and QUALITY. I’m proud to have helped create something that does”.
The Grez Grand Tour Bass, is available now from Grez Guitars and their dealers with astreet price starting at $5,999. Light customization is welcome with delivery times aslittle as 8 weeks.
$149
Marshall 1959 Super Lead
The very definition of classic, vintage Marshall sound in a highly affordable package.
There’s only one relevant question about Marshall’s new 1959 Super Lead overdrive/distortion pedal: Does it sound like an actual vintage Super Lead head? The answer is, simply and surprisingly, yes. The significant difference I heard within the voice of this stomp, which I ran through a Carr Vincent and a StewMac Valve Factory 18 kit amp for contrast, is that it’s a lot quieter than my 1972 Super Lead.
The Super Lead, which bore Marshall’s 1959 model number, debuted in 1965 and was the amp that defined the plexi sound. That sound is here in spades, clubs, diamonds, and hearts. Like the Super Lead, the pedal is easy to use. The original’s 3-band EQ is replaced by a single, rangeful tone control. The normal dial and the volume, which together mimic the character created by jumping the first and second channels of a plexi head, offer smooth, rich, buttery op-amp driven gain and loudness. And the high-treble dial functions much like the presence control on the original amp.
The pedal is sturdy and handsome, too. A heavy-duty metal enclosure evokes the classic black-with-gold-plate plexi look and a vintage-grille-cloth motif. Switches and knobs (the latter with rubber sides for slip-free turning) are ultra solid, and—refreshingly—there’s a 9V battery option in addition to a barrel-pin connection. Whether with single-coils or humbuckers, getting beefy, sustained, historic tones took moments. I especially delighted in approximating my favorite Super Lead head setting by flooring the high treble, normal, and tone dials, and turning back the tone pots on my Flying V, evoking Disraeli Gears-era Clapton tone. That alone, to me, makes the 1959 Super Lead stomp a bargain at $149.Two guitars, two amps, and two people is all it takes to bring the noise.
The day before they played the coveted Blue Room at Third Man Records in Nashville, the Washington, D.C.-based garage-punk duo Teen Mortgage released their debut record, Devil Ultrasonic Dream. Not a bad couple of days for a young band.
PG’s Chris Kies caught up with guitarist and vocalist James Guile at the Blue Room to find out how he builds the band’s bombastic guitar attack.
Brought to you by D’Addario.
Devilish Dunable
Guile has been known to use Telecasters and Gretsches in the past, but this time out he’s sticking with this Dunable Cyclops DE, courtesy of Gwarsenio Hall—aka Jordan Olds of metal-themed comedy talk show Two Minutes to Late Night. Guile digs the Dunable’s lightness on his shoulders, and its balance of high and low frequencies.
Storm Warning
What does Guile like about this Squier Cyclone? Simple: its color. This one is also nice and easy on the back, and Guile picked it up from Atomic Music in Beltsville, Maryland.
Crushing It
Guile also scooped this Music Man 410-HD from Atomic, which he got just for this tour for a pretty sweet deal. It runs alongside an Orange Crush Bass 100 to rumble out the low end.
James Guile’s Pedalboard
The Electro-Harmonix Micro POG and Hiwatt Filter Fuzz MkII run to the Orange, while everything else—a DigiTech Whammy, Pro Co Lil’ RAT, and Death by Audio Echo Dream 2—runs to the Music Man. A TC Helicon Mic Mechanic is on board for vocal assistance, and a TC Electronic PolyTune 3, Morley ABY, and Voodoo Labs Pedal Power 3 Plus keep the ship afloat.
Ernie Ball, the world’s leading manufacturer of premium guitar and bass strings, is proud to announce the release of the Pino Palladino Signature Smoothie Flats, the newest innovation in flatwound bass strings.
Developed in collaboration with legendary bassist Pino Palladino, these signature sets are engineered to deliver an ultra-smooth feel and a rich, warm tone that’s as versatile as it is expressive. Available in two gauges—Extra Light (38–98) and Medium (43–108)— Smoothie Flats are crafted with a precision-polished cobalt alloy ribbon for low tension, flexible playability, and deep vintage-inspired sound.
Ernie Ball: Pino Palladino Signature Smoothie Flats Bass Strings
Product Features:
- Precision polished for an ultra-smooth feel
- Cobalt alloy ribbon winding for a rich, deep sound
- Flexible, low-tension design for superior playability
- Trusted by Pino Palladino for studio and live performance
Pino Palladino Signature Smoothie Flats bass strings are available at Ernie Ball dealers worldwide.