When this guitar builder couldn’t find the EVH-style guitar he wanted, his solution was to create one—designed with a quilted maple top and tremolo system inspired by the legend.
My “super strat with a twist” project began in 2021, as I wasn’t happy with my heavily modified Wolfgang Special. I was looking for more versatility, better comfort (less weight, more contours), as well as a more old-school EVH-style vibe. I soon realized that no such guitar existed, and that I would have to build one.
The name “Coffee,” which is laser-engraved on the headstock, was inspired by the look of the roasted parts of the guitar, because the color reminds me of an old coffee pot. My original vision was that when I have the blues, I can grab my Coffee, and everything will feel good again.
Coffee is equipped with a Schaller LockMeister 6 tremolo and EVH D-Tuna.
The roasted swamp ash Warmoth Soloist body has a quilted maple top (with copperhead dye and gloss), with a belly cut, forearm contour, and contoured heel. The Warmoth Warhead maple neck (roasted maple, no finish) has a 24.75″ scale length with a 12–16″ fretboard radius and 6150 stainless-steel frets. The tremolo system is made up of a non-recessed EVH-style Schaller LockMeister 6 equipped with an EVH D-Tuna.
There is only one pickup, a Pariah Pasadena White humbucker, located in the bridge position, and wood-mounted. However, one of the things that makes this guitar special is the rest of the hardware, which includes a 3-way super switch and three pots, as well as a separate “mini-pot” component. The knobs are MeisterWorks Luminlay knobs.
“Damn good coffee—and hot, too!” —Agent Cooper, Twin Peaks
The main pots (excluding the mini-pot), available only in position 3 in the 3-way switch, are as follows: a master volume (Seymour Duncan Yngwie Speed Pot 500K, with added treble bleed), a no-load master tone (500K), and a no-load spin-a-split “tone” (500K). The spin-a-split is stepless and controls the output of the second coil of the humbucker.
The preset positions of the 3-way super switch (for the single pickup) are:
1. Solo/Rhythm: There is only a fixed 500K resistor to tame the tone a bit, before the signal goes to the output jack.
2. Bluesy Solo: The signal goes to the output jack through a “mini-pot” component (Schatten Pickups Thumbwheel Controls), hidden in the guitar cavity. The mini-pot has the volume on 10, and the tone on 5.
3. Rhythm/Clean: The three main pots are in use, and I can use the volume knob, the tone knob, and the “spin-a-split” knob to adjust the tone.HeGe had the name of his guitar laser-etched onto its headstock.
A special solution? Sure, but it allows me to create a wide variety of sounds, and the presets are easy to use. As an example, the switching solution and the presets mean that if I set a specific sound in position 3, I can play “Hot for Teacher” by switching between position 1 and position 3, or “Still Got the Blues” by switching between position 2 and position 3. Only proper guitar skills have to be added! Or, if I want to play Coffee like a “normal” guitar, I´ll just stay in position 3 and fiddle with the knobs.
The guitar weighs 7.8 pounds, which, compared to my old guitar’s weight of 11.9, is very comfortable—and it sounds great! All in all, I am incredibly pleased with the outcome!
“Damn good coffee—and hot, too!”—Agent Cooper, Twin PeaksAfter a California wildfire destroyed his home and all his instruments, a guitarist took matters into his own hands and started building for the future.
So, I came up with a new plan for my newfound free time: start building guitars. I started off with the basics—I found myself an inexpensive guitar that I could modify without fear of damaging it. My theory was that 90 percent of the tone is due to the electronics, so this would be my prototyping unit.
I spent $150 each on boutique pickups, settling on a Curtis Novak Gold Foil in the bridge position, (thanks to a demo by PG’s John Bohlinger: “You can’t get a bad tone with these pickups”) for those awesome-sounding distorted tones, and a TV Jones Classic in the neck for that sweet Gretsch-like clean sound. I used a Seymour Duncan Liberator volume pot, since it has solder-free connections which allow for easy pickup swaps. I used top-notch push-pull pots, capacitors, switches, and jacks. The gold-foil pickup sounds great but has lots of treble, so a good tone-knob circuit is essential. I’ve never been a fan of the tone knob on any of my guitars, so I figured I needed to do something different. I tried ’50s wiring, along with a lower capacitance “warmth knob” (both with guidance from PG’s Dirk Wacker). For the first time ever, I loved using the tone knob!
With a background in the aeronautical industry and Malibu beaches, I wanted a body shape with hints of surf, space, and aerodynamics. I took a napkin sketch and started plotting it using Excel. That quickly got out of hand. Next thing I knew, I had a full design spreadsheet, complete with pulldown menus for scale length, pickups, tremolo, body thickness, etc. I was even calculating guitar weight and center of gravity because the last thing I wanted to do was invest all my hopes and dreams into this guitar and find out that it constantly falls off my lap.
After iterating on the design for far too long, I got to work. I wanted the first prototype to be cheap; I knew there would be mistakes. I got the cheapest body blank I could find (poplar) for $60. I wanted a Jaguar-like 24"-scale neck, but those aren’t cheap, so I got a 25 1/2"-scale Mighty Mite neck for $100 and will do the 24" version next time. The first bolt-up revealed that the body and neck resonated shockingly well when I tried them acoustically, but the body required some reshaping for better upper fret access. I finished the body with Rust-Oleum spray paint: primer, metallic blue base coat, blue sparkle, and clear glaze on top. This cost $40 and I’m very happy with the result.
I went with a Staytrem bridge, a Jazzmaster-style tremolo (placed relatively close to the bridge to minimize string buzz), and Steinberger tuners. Finally, I added two additional push-pull pots with solder-free connections for future exploration and wiring adventures.
I love the sound of this prototype, and it fed into my other Covid project, which was to release my first ever EP under the name “Plectromatics.” I learned so much on this journey and can’t wait to see how the 24"-scale version comes out, and what songs it will inspire!
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Battling a scary health diagnosis during the pandemic, a guitarist set out to conquer some bucket-list items and learned how to build his own pickups. He’s built 13 guitars and counting.
I’m an avid reader of Premier Guitar and have been modding Fenders since I can remember—way before the name “partscaster” was ever used. I’ve been battling bladder cancer the past few years. Little did I know just how important my love for single-coil Strats was going to change my life. Due to the Covid-19 shutdown, I couldn’t have surgery for five months until hospitals opened surgical wards again. I was going through chemo treatments and cancer was consuming my life. I had to find a way to keep myself and my mind busy. I couldn’t be around anyone, so what was I supposed to do? It seemed like every waking moment was being consumed by thoughts of cancer, cancer, cancer.
Believing I had very little time left, I decided to tackle some “bucket list” projects. Two things I’d never done: 1. Learn how to paint guitars, specifically vintage nitro paint jobs on unfinished bodies, and 2. how to make pickups.
Jobe Jude holds one of his handwound pickups.
And so, it began. I contacted Gary at Branzell Guitars in Nevada, a luthier originally from my area. He told me there was a learning curve (boy, he wasn’t lying) and started guiding me through the ins and outs of making great pickups. He recommended a Mojotone Pickup Coil Winding Machine for me. My favorite vintage Fender pickups are the ’57/’62s, but they’re lacking a RWRP (reverse wound, reverse polarity) middle pickup, which really gives you that Fender quack in position 2 and 4. So, if I could get in the ballpark of the Fender ’57/’62s and Mojotone 59s, I would be a very happy builder. After trying three types of wire, my favorite tones came from vintage Formvar wire and the plain enamel. I only use Remington wire. It will unwind from the spool with no issues and the wire sounds the same, spool after spool. I soak my flatwork in lacquer and let it dry overnight before winding.
If you’re a player that has no issue dropping $400 to $500 on some handwounds, I encourage you to buy a pickup winder and learn to make your own pickups. It takes time, but you’ll learn faster than you think. You can make them get the tone you’re after. Just about any handwound pickup will beat any factory pickup. One reason I think is in the tightness. It’s all about the feel you get when doing the windings. Once you have it down, you can make the same spec pickups time after time.
Now to find unfinished bodies for painting. I ended up with six new and one used. The used body was a 1999 MIM Fender I purchased from a young lady named Julie. This was a gift from her father. After many years, she decided to repaint it. She was unhappy with the results, so she sanded it down, all the way back to unfinished wood. I bought the body and painted it shell pink. My first question about paint was: Do I buy a sprayer, or can I do it from a can? My friend Frank Harrison, who owns a hundred Strats, (he says the number is much lower) told me to find Gracey’s paint. And yes, the can works. I added a rosewood neck and named her Julie, of course. It is one great guitar.
Jobe Jude’s “paint locker.“
So far, I have seven paint jobs and 13 other “partscasters” going at once. Screw you, cancer! I am keeping busy. I have learned more in the last two years than I have in 50 years of playing and working on guitars.
In 2022, I had a setback with the cancer and several rounds of treatments. On August 26, 2022, I had retesting to see if it had worked. My closest guitar warriors gathered for a cookout the following day. Good or bad news, we were all going to be together. Good news! No evidence of disease found. I’m not out of the woods; it’s cancer. But I have hope.
I hope my story can help someone. Special thanks to PG for letting me share it and everyone who helped me through this pathway.
Send your guitar story to submissions@premierguitar.com.