If you’ve ever considered a monkish withdrawal from pedal maximalism, Ananashead’s Cream Amp is a fine place to start your journey. It’s a low- to mid-gain distortion derived from the legendarily simple Electra Distortion, a gain device built into Electra guitars in the 1970s, which later found favor among DIY pedal builders and modders. In this Barcelona-built take on the circuit, it’s easy to hear why this simple circuit maintains such enduring appeal.
The distortion characteristics of the Cream Amp are quite different from a clean boost. It’s generally dirtier, and at higher pedal-gain settings, where the Cream Amp is happiest, it has a treble-forward tone profile that makes it a fantastic companion for PAF pickups, which balance and flatter the edgier output. Single-coils sound awesome, too, though I gravitated toward the way the Cream Amp fattens a neck-position pickup rather than bridge-position tones, which can sound comparatively brittle. The Cream Amp also works agreeably with other overdrives and Big Muff-style fuzzes that aren’t too peaky in the top end. But I derived the most joy from the Cream Amp when it was the only pedal between my guitar and amplifier—a role that highlights its dynamic and touch-responsive characteristics. If you’re similarly interested in uncomplicated, organic routes to dirty tones, the Cream Amp is a reliably satisfying way to get there.
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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.