
With a little help from his friends, a West Virginia musician builds a blue-and-gold 6-string replica of his home state.
Name: Don Staats
Hometown: Parkersburg, West Virginia
Guitar: The Mountaineer
I manage a group of radio stations and have been in broadcasting for 49 years. I've been a weekend musician since I was 16, performing in a trio called Henrie Lane, and an oldies band called Insured Sound that has been a continuous band for 45 years. I read Premier Guitar cover to cover every month and have for
yearsāI don't miss an issue.
Reader Don Staats and his West Virginia-inspired axe. Yes, it required a custom case.
Naturally, if you're a musician and guitar collector for this long, eventually you'll get around to building your own. Having built a few guitars from kits, I decided to go all in at building one based on the state shape of West Virginia. Those of us in this state are very proud of our heritage and all things that are "Mountaineer." If you live in Kansas, or Nebraska, or some of the other Midwestern states, building a state-shaped guitar might not be too difficult. But, if you live in West Virginia, that can be a challenge!
I started the project with a basic Strat-style body shape and then enlisted the services of a friend of mine named Charlie Eaton, who is much more skilled in woodworking, to fill out the unique contours of the state of West Virginia. Once the body shape was completed to my satisfaction and it was properly sanded and sealed, I contracted a local body shop and had it sprayed in mountaineer blue. With the state colors being blue and gold, it was imperative that I added all gold hardware to the mix: pickups, bridge, tuners, output jack, and even the back plate. The pickups are as close to the old Danelectro lipstick pickups that I could find. I then finished it off with a gold "Mountaineer" custom-made decal on the headstock.
After the usual guitar setup and adjustments, the guitar plays and sounds great, and it's not any heavier than a typical Les Paul-style guitar, since we used lighter wood and made careful attention to keep it balanced. With that, I present to you, "The Mountaineer!"
One other thingā¦. With the unique body shape of the Mountaineer, a case could not be found that could house it. So, another friend of mine, John Kelly, who also happens to be a delegate in the West Virginia Legislature, custom-built a case for me that fits it perfectly. The Mountaineer was truly a statewide effort!
Send your guitar story tosubmissions@premierguitar.com.
- Reader Guitar of the Month: Larry Fine - Premier Guitar āŗ
- Pedal Alley 2021: Reader Boards - Premier Guitar āŗ
- 5 Tele-Style Builders You Should Know - Premier Guitar āŗ
Kiesel Guitars has introduced their newest solid body electric guitar: the Kyber.
With its modern performance specs and competitive pricing, the Kyber is Kiesel's most forward-thinking design yet, engineered for comfort, quick playing, and precision with every note.
Introducing the Kiesel Kyber Guitar
- Engineered with a lightweight body to reduce fatigue during long performances without sacrificing tone. Six-string Kybers, configured with the standard woods and a fixed bridge, weigh in at 6 pounds or under on average
- Unique shape made for ergonomic comfort in any playing position and enhanced classical position
- The Kyber features Kiesel's most extreme arm contour and a uniquely shaped body that enhances classical position support while still excelling in standard position.
- The new minimalist yet aggressive headstock pairs perfectly with the body's sleek lines, giving the Kyber a balanced, modern silhouette.
- Hidden strap buttons mounted on rear for excellent balance while giving a clean, ultra-modern look to the front
- Lower horn cutaway design for maximum access to the upper frets
- Sculpted neck heel for seamless playing
- Available in 6 or 7 strings, fixed or tremolo in both standard and multiscale configurations Choose between fixed bridges, tremolos, or multiscale configurations for your perfect setup.
Pricing for the Kyber starts at $1599 and will vary depending on options and features. Learn more about Kieselās new Kyber model at kieselguitars.com
His credits include Miles Davisā Jack Johnson and Herbie Mannānext to whom he performed in Questloveās 2021 documentary, Summer of Soulāand his tunes have been covered by Santana and the Messthetics. But itās as a bandleader and collaborator where Sharrock cut his wildest recordings. As groundbreaking as Sharrockās 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 heās one of the ātop guys of all time.ā
Belltone Guitars has partnered Brickhouse Toneworks to create a one-of-a-kind, truly noiseless Strat/Tele-tone pickup in a standard FilterāTron 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 āsidewindā 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 ā 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 theyāre available directly and exclusively through BelltoneĀ® Guitars / Brickhouse Toneworks at belltoneguitars.com.
Making a quiet, contemplative album allows Isbell to reflect on the material in a new way and to really explore the relationship between his guitar and voice, which heād recently lost and reclaimed.
With his new album, the Americana hero faces the microphone aloneāsave for a 1940 Martin 0-17āand emerges with an album full of nuanced emotional touchstones framed by the gentle side of his virtuosic musicianship.
Imagine, just for a moment, that youāre a successful, internationally recognized singer, songwriter, and guitarist. (Nice dream, right?) Youāve been in the public eye nearly a quarter-century, and for all that time youāve either been a band member or a band leader. Then one day you decide the time is right to step out on your own, for real. You write a bunch of new songs with the express intent of recording them soloāone voice and one acoustic guitar, performed simultaneouslyāand releasing the best of those recordings as your next album. No overdubs. No hiding behind other musicians. No hiding behind technology. For the first time, itās all you and only you.
Would you be excited? Would you be petrified?
This is the challenge that Jason Isbell voluntarily took on for his 10th and latest album, Foxes in the Snow. There were some extenuating circumstances. He was sorting through the aftermath of a very public breakup with his longtime partner in life and music, singer/violinist Amanda Shires, and the new songs reflected that situation, sometimes uncomfortably. Music this personal needed a personal approach. And so, when Isbell entered Electric Lady Studios in New York City for five days of recording last October, none of the members of his regular band the 400 Unit were there. He was accompanied only by co-producer/engineer Gena Johnson, whoās worked with him regularly for the past eight years.
Soundstream
āIt was difficult to pull off,ā Isbell acknowledges via Zoom from his Nashville homebase, ābut it didnāt require me to look for ways to make the record sound weird. And thatās important to me, because what I donāt want to do is write a bunch of songs and then go in the studio and intentionally try to make them sound strange, just so they donāt sound like things Iāve done in the past. It made sense to me to just walk into a studio with a guitar and a notebook and make a record that way. First of all, because I can, and Iām grateful for the fact that I can. And I also thought that it would be really hard. And it was.ā
Although Foxes in the Snow is Jason Isbellās first solo acoustic album, acoustic guitars have long been a part of his onstage 6-string regimen.
Photo by Tim Bugbee/Tinnitus Photography
Making it especially hard was Isbellās insistence on not overdubbing his vocals. āI didnāt want [the album] to sound like anything that could have been replicated or fabricated,ā he explains. āI wanted it to sound like somebody playing a guitar and singing. To me, the only way to do that was just to go in there, sit down, and play it. And itās hardto play the guitar and sing at the same time in the studio. Normally, thatās something you wouldnāt do; youād be in a really controlled environment with mics on the guitar, everything would be isolated, and youād have to play very carefully, not the way you play live. The idea of doing that while singing master vocal takes ⦠well, it was tough, because if you screw up, well, you just screwed up. But the good news is you donāt have to make everybody else start over, and I liked that. I liked the fact that if I messed up, I could just stop and immediately try another take.ā
āI brought an old D-18 into the studio, like a ā36 or ā37, and it sounded beautiful, but it didnāt sit in the right spot. It ate up so much space, and it was so big.ā
Being aware of the difficulties and doing it anywayāthat canāt help but be a vote of confidence in oneās own ability as a musician. And it should come as no great surprise that Isbellās confidence was well-founded. Foxes in the Snow shines a bright spotlight on his guitar playing, and the playing proves eminently worthy of such a showcase. From the bluegrass-tinged solo on āBury Meā to the Richard Thompson-esque fingerpicking at the end of āRide to Robertāsā and the bouncy, almost Irish-reel-like hook of āOpen and Close,ā Isbell always gets the job done, coming up with tasty parts and executing them with panache. Itās been easy to forget in recent years amid all the critical accolades and Grammy wins that when Drive-By Truckers brought Isbell into their fold in 2001āhis first major-league gigāthey didnāt do it because of his singing or songwriting, which were still unknown quantities at the time; they did it because of his considerable skills as a guitarist. By putting those skills on display, Foxes in the Snow helps rebalance the Isbell equation.
Isbell says his new album was ādifficult to pull off, but it didnāt require me to look for ways to make the record sound weird.ā
Jason Isbellās Gear
Acoustic Guitars
- 1940 Martin 0-17
- Martin Custom Shop 000-18 1937
- Two Martin OM-28 Modern Deluxes
- Martin D-35
- 1940s Gibson J-45
- Fishman Aura pickup systems
Electric Guitars
Amps
- 1964 Fender Vibroverb
- Dumble Overdrive Special
- Tweed Fender Twin
Strings, Picks, & Capos
- Martin Marquis phosphor bronze acoustic lights (.012ā.054)
- Ernie Ball Regular Slinkys (.010ā.046)
- Dunlop Tortex 1.14 mm picks
- McKinney-Elliott capos
And it does so while employing one guitar and one guitar only: an all-mahogany 1940 Martin 0-17, purchased within the past couple of years at Retrofret Vintage Guitars in Brooklyn. āMy girlfriend [artist Anna Weyant] lives in New York,ā Isbell notes, āand I didnāt want to keep bringing acoustics back and forth. Iāve got a lot of old Martins and Gibsons, and I donāt love to travel with them and subject them to air pressure and humidity changes. So I needed a guitar that could just stay in New York. As far as pre-war Martins go, itās about the least special model that you could possibly find. But it sat perfectly in the mix. I brought an old D-18 into the studio, like a ā36 or ā37, and it sounded beautiful, but it didnāt sit in the right spot. It ate up so much space, and it was so big. The sonic range of that guitar was overpowering for what I was trying to do, and with the little single-0 I could control where it was in relation to my vocal.ā
āThereās Bon Jovi and Bruce Springsteen and Paul McCartney all staring at me, and I knew that I had to sing in front of them with a busted voice.ā
That control was important, because Isbellās voice is spotlighted even more brightly on the new album than his guitar work. If you hear more strength in his singing these days, itās not your imagination; he hired himself a vocal coach last yearāout of necessity. āMy voice failed,ā he says simply. āI didnāt have any nodules or anything, but for some reason, anything above the middle of my range was gone. It was painful and embarrassing. I was doing the MusiCares tribute to Bon Jovi [in February 2024] and my voice was gone and I knew it. I was singing āWanted Dead or Aliveā on stage, and I looked down and thereās Bon Jovi and Bruce Springsteen and Paul McCartney all staring at me, and I knew that I had to sing in front of them with a busted voice.ā He pauses and sighs. The sense of humiliation is palpable.
āYou know, I did it,ā he continues after a few seconds. āI did my best, and it was not good. And then after that I started working with this coach, and it made a huge difference. I figured out that I hadnāt been singing in a way that was anatomically correct. Iād been squeezing and pushing all these notes out, and [the coach] was good enough to manage to keep my vocal quality the same; I didnāt have to change the way I sounded, I just gained a wider range and a lot more stability. Now Iām able to sing more shows in a row without having vocal trouble. Itās been really, really nice.ā He pauses again, this time to laugh. āAnd I made fun of people for so many years for blowing bubbles and, you know, doing all the lip trills and everything backstage ⦠but here I am doing it myself.ā
While recording sans band, Isbell said, āI liked the fact that if I messed up, I could just stop and immediately try another take.ā
Isbellās voice has made gains in both upper and lower range, as the Foxes in the Snow ballad āEileenā demonstrates. In a clever touch, he pairs an unusually deep vocal part with a high, chimey guitar line, produced by placing a capo on the 0-17ās 5th fret. āNow that Iāve learned how to sing after just hollering for my whole career, Iāve got the ability to support a vocal in that low a key,ā he says. āHaving a vocal coach made it possible for me to sing a song like that. And the 5th-fret capo is a little tricky sonically, too. People usually go between two and four [the 2nd and 4th frets]. At least I do. Matter of fact, when I was a kid, my grandfather didnāt like for me to capo up over the third fret. I remember heād tell me that would damage the guitar. Iāve never found a way that it would damage the guitar,ā he adds with a grin. āI think it just irritated him.ā
āMy grandfather didnāt like for me to capo up over the third fret. I remember heād tell me that would damage the guitar.ā
Growing up in northern Alabama in the 1980s, Isbell took to music in large part because of his multi-instrumentalist grandfather. āHe was a Pentecostal preacher, and he played every day. When Iād stay over with him, heād play mandolin or banjo, fiddle sometimes, and I would have to play rhythm guitar. And then my dadās brother, whoās a lot closer to my age, had a rock band. He taught me to play the electric guitar and rock ānā roll songs. I feel like I just got lucky that I loved it so much. Thatās really at the heart of itāthe fact that Iāve never had to sit down and practice because I just think about it all the time.ā
Isbell is typically found onstage with his fleet of electric guitars, including vintage Telecasters, Les Pauls, Stratocasters, and his ā59 Gretsch Jet Firebird with a Bigsby.
Photo by Matt Condon
This is not to say that Isbell doesnāt practice; quite the contrary. Indeed, one of the most moving segments of Sam Jonesā excellent 2023 documentary on Isbell for HBO, Running With Our Eyes Closed, is when he recalls just how crucial practicing became to him as a child. The guitar was a refuge, a way to literally drown out his parentsā vicious arguments in the next room. (Another poignant aspect of Jonesā film, shot mostly in 2019 and 2020, is the delicacy with which it captures the often tenuous state of the Isbell/Shires relationship, prefiguring their breakup.)
When asked what exactly it is about the guitar that makes it so special to him, Isbell doesnāt hesitate. āThe guitar is the best instrument,ā he says. āItās the smallest, most portable instrument that you can make full chords on. You canāt take a piano to a dinner party, you canāt accompany yourself on a clarinet, and you need something thatās big enough to where the volume of it can fill a room. In the days when everyone had acoustic instruments, like in the 1920s, there was nothing else like the guitar that you could carry on your back and travel from place to place and entertain people with."
āI realized pretty early on in the solo experiment that when youāre playing with the band, you donāt have a chance to work with tempo or volume in the same way.ā
With that question answered, all that remains is to inquire, now that Isbellās done the solo acoustic thing onceāboth in the studio for Foxes in the Snow and live for his tour to promote the albumāwhether heād ever consider doing it again. āI donāt see why not,ā he responds. āItās not in any kind of plan right now, but I enjoyed the challenge of it. And I think anything that makes me turn off the āDonāt fuck this upā switch is good for me, because if you sit there and spend the whole time thinking, āDonāt fuck this up,ā youāre not ever gonna get into that zone where youāre communicating with the work, and youāre not ever gonna get to a point where you can deliver it comfortably. This has been a really good opportunity for me to just practice letting all of that go.
āObviously I miss the horsepower of the band,ā he adds. āI miss the people individually, being on stage and communicating musically with them. But I realized pretty early on in the solo experiment that when youāre playing with the band, you donāt have a chance to work with tempo or volume in the same way. Usually youāre just trying to count a song off at the same tempo you recorded it in or the way youāve been playing it lately, but when itās just me, I can intentionally speed up and slow down within a song. And with respect to the volume, I can drop the bottom out soquickly, whereas itās more like steering a ship when Iāve got the whole band up thereāit happens more slowly, no matter how good they are. I would not enjoy this as much if I had to do it all the time,ā he concludes. āBut itās nice to have both sides.āYouTube It
In this version of āRide to Robertās,ā Jason Isbell demonstrates the flexibility of playing solo by picking up the tempo of this song from Foxes in the Snow.