Although he has no intentional appetite for destruction, our columnist worries about trashing his rather fragile Yamaha SA-15D.
Football is certainly a game of attrition. The team started out with around 60 players, and now that number ranges from 40 to 50, depending on the week and amount of injuries sustained. I think I passed along some of my caveman sensibilities to the boy, but thankfully my wife passed on her smarts, so he’s not a total meathead like me. However, the arrival of football season has got me thinking about breaking things (I’m really good at accidentally damaging stuff) and how I feel about guitars.
I’ve mentioned many times before how I avoid guitars that are mint, for fear of finish damage, and guitars that have overly complex features that I might accidentally destroy. There’s also a third category I try to avoid: fragile guitars. So for this column, I’m going to examine a guitar I truly thought I would crush: the Yamaha SA-15D.
In a strange design choice, the pickguard on the Yamaha SA-15D is raised off of the body on foam-like spacers.
There were two types of SA-15s in 1969: the SA-15 and the SA-15D. They were both basically gone from the Yamaha catalogs by 1970. The SA-15D guitars featured celluloid neck binding, side fret-position markers, and black-and-white checkerboard-pattern binding on the body. The SA-15 was simply more plain with regular ol’ circular fretboard dots. The guitars were aesthetically beautiful, with elongated, sweeping lower horns that were accented by a flowing pickguard and soundhole. Totally cool, and in typical Yamaha fashion, no corner-cutting. Basically, all the early Yahama guitars were over-engineered and everything from the pickups to the tremolo to the bridge were all in-house designs and exclusive to the late 1960s era.
The pickups were described as being “noise-free” and “high-sensitivity,” and, of course, they sorta deliver. Yamahas almost always have great-sounding pickups, and in playing my own SA-15D, I discovered that these units are no slouches, but they are a little noisy at the extreme settings. The pickups are single-coils featuring anisotropic ferrite magnets. (Look that up if you want an education in magnetism!) To my ear, the pickups sound a bit more chunky and full than other single-coils, and this model does have a warmth to its sound that I very much like. The electronics feature your typical 3-way switch and volume/tone knobs for each pickup.
At least the headstock seems solid!
The scale is 23¾", like a Gibson, with 22 frets and a zero fret. These SA-15Ds are super light and that’s the first reason I was wary. The construction is superb and I don’t really think I could crush one of these, but they are so well-balanced and featherweight that it almost felt like the guitar had fallen off the strap! Seriously.
The biggest concern I had when I got the guitar was the pickguard. See, it’s raised off the body with little foam-like spacers, and the knobs and switch are mounted on the raised pickguard. It really spooked me! It was a rare Yamaha design mishap that might have led to the demise of the model. Who knows, but it is kind of a shame since the guitars play so well and sound so good. But soon, I started to notice how the foam seemed to be chemically reacting to the white pickguard, further weakening the already troubled area. So, alas, just like football and attrition, the same can be said for guitar collections. It’s a long season, peeps!
The exquisite BilT Brothers collaborative guitar: a Frank Brothers Ultra Light in BilT eggplant sparkleburst with Arcane 3x3 Gold Foil Humbuckers and loaded with a Caroline Custom Cannonball Distortion.
It was like any other random day at work: We had customers coming in, items shipping out, services on the bench. I was simultaneously working on a pedalboard for a customer and making plans with some vendors. I was on the phone with Brandon Darner of BilT Guitars when DHL dropped off our latest Frank Brothers guitar. Now, I’m never shy about talking up builds from any of our vendors. Spec’ing guitars for our shop, seeing their execution exceed my expectations, and then getting it into the hands of its new owner is one of my absolute favorite parts of my job. So, naturally I mentioned that we just got a new Frank Brothers in. Brandon told me how much he loved their stuff—sort of a “game recognizing game” kind of thing.
After we unboxed the guitar, I called Tim Frank to let him know how we continue to be impressed with their work and how much we loved the new arrival. I also mentioned Brandon had some very nice things to say about their work. Tim’s response was something like, “Oh wow! That’s really cool. Their stuff is amazing and we have a lot of respect for those guys.” At first, I thought he was just being polite, but I’ve gotten to know him pretty well. I knew that the compliment and sentiment was genuine and past the point of his wonderful Canadian pleasantness. One thing led to another, and I started a group text. Very quickly, they became friends. In fact, Brandon even ordered a Frank Brothers shortly after the introduction.
The Frank Brothers and BilT team, left to right: Tim Frank, Tim Thelen (BilT), Nick Frank, and Brandon Darner (BilT).
My last call of the day was to Philippe Herndon from Caroline Guitar Company. As we talked, he was glowing about the pedal building community and how friendly and collaborative it is, and obvious questions popped into my head: “Why aren’t guitar companies like that?” “Why can’t we do a collab guitar?”
Long story extremely short, with tons of excitement, I got Brandon and Tim on the phone and proposed the idea of doing a guitar together. Without hesitation, the response from both was “Hell yeah, let’s do it!” and it was time for us to spec it. We decided on a Frank Brothers Ultra Light. BilT would apply their world-class fit/finish as well as their signature effects treatment. I picked my favorite finish in the BilT repertoire called eggplant sparkleburst, selected Arcane 3x3 Gold Foil Humbuckers, and tapped Philippe on the shoulder to ask if he had any Custom Cannonball Distortions—the first pedal I bought from Caroline in 2013—that he could provide for the build, to which he happily obliged.
A year or so later, the BilT Brothers was born. Of course, it is exceptional beyond words and is a true testament to the results of these incredible companies working together to produce something truly remarkable. We decided, with custom shirts and all, to proudly debut our creation at Fretboard Summit in Chicago. The reaction from everyone exceeded our expectations and showed me that the level of mutual respect and admiration in this business can lead to phenomenal results.
This project has opened a lot of doors that I’m not sure anyone knew existed. For me, the most exciting part of all of this is the fact that, like the smaller pedal companies, there is an actual community here filled with like-minded, pure enthusiasts who also happen to be master craftsmen—and who truly geek out over each other’s work.
Never was this more evident than at the Wood Wire Volts show this January, where not only did the BilT and Frank Brothers crews travel and stay together, they were also often in deep chats with fellow luminaries Sacha Dunable (Dunable Guitars) and Carlos Lopez (Castedosa Guitars), discussing the trade, the work, and ideas for the future. If the vibe is any indicator, we can safely assume that while the BilT Brothers was, by all accounts, the first ever collab guitar of its kind, it will not be the last.
This entire experience is reminiscent of the DIY community ethos that I’ve clung to and has inspired me for most of my life. There is a cliché about the journey being greater than the destination, and while the destination in this case is one of the finest guitars I’ve ever laid my hands on, I’d have to say it holds true
