I haven't been active in the music field since the mid 1990s. It's very hard to work as a builder or repair tech alone with no reputation. I build guitars now as a form of therapy. I don't really think about what I'm going to do with them when they're finished.
This is the latest guitar I've built. I call it Blue Hawaii, and it's actually the second of a set of three guitars. The third one is still in my head.
Blue Hawaii is a tribute to 1960s import guitars with a nod to the surf scene. The pickups are my own version of the old Danelectro lipstick tubes but without the tubes. I used 42-gauge wire wrapped directly onto alnico 6 bar magnets. The metal interferes with the magnetic field, so I leave them open. These pickups are handwound, as in bobbin in left hand and wire in the right hand. They have a very tight and snappy kind of sound, not much low end—think Fender with a bit of Rickenbacker mixed in. I made a set of these for my 12-string, too.
Each pickup has a volume, tone, and on/off switch with a master volume as well. The pickup covers are white PVC, the bridge is a salvage, the tuners are Gotoh, and the neck is a Chinese import. The guitar's body is a solid slab of poplar. The finish is nine coats of Rust-Oleum Lagoon. That's it, no clear coat. This guitar took about three months from start to finish, including finish-drying time.
I don't use many power tools, mostly because I can't afford the good ones. I just have a cordless drill, belt sander, jigsaw, and palm sander. I source most of my parts through Amazon. What I can't find, I make.
I've always loved the '60s and early-'70s imports and this series is my take on the various makers. The surf vibe of this guitar is because that's what those guitars were primarily used for. I decided on a set of three guitars like this, in primary colors. First is red, then blue, and finally yellow. The yellow guitar is still in R & D.
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Reader Tucker Christine and his Shadow-inspired instrument named Larry Fine.
Fast forward a few years: I'm sitting in the waiting room for my daughter's voice lesson and the proprietor of the store (Kevin Coyle, Richboro Music in Richboro, Pennsylvania) is hanging a beautiful handbuilt custom guitar of his own design. I immediately asked if he'd be interested in helping me recreate my dream guitar. We got to work right away.
The shape is based on the Shadow but is not exact. Some adjustments were made for comfort as I do most of my playing seated. The body and neck are mahogany, with an ebony fretboard. There is something about Kevin's fretboards that make them a dream to play. A pair of Lace Alumitone Grillers and a Duesenberg Steel Saddle Piezo Bridge make for some versatile tone possibilities. My band, Pleated Gazelle, plays everything from jazz and blues to prog to gothic soundtrack music for a local library/museum, so versatility is very important.
The Duesenberg Radiator Tremola is the most comfortable and stable in my arsenal, and it looks stunning. We gave it banjo tuners just because I like them. And Kevin even recreated the Shadow logo with his own name. We've joked that this guitar is a work of art and should be a museum piece, but it's also so much fun to play that you never want to put it down.
All of my customs are named for characters from The Three Stooges. Moe is a black and white Triple-T-style with Brian May-inspired wiring/switching. Shemp is a Les Paul with Jimmy Page-wired lipstick humbuckers. Besser is an SG-style guitar I built with my son. Being that Larry was the violin-playing Stooge, we named this one after him. I haven't found Curly or Curly Joe yet, but Kevin Coyle will certainly get the call when inspiration strikes.
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