More New Pictures

This one has been done for a while, but only recently got pics of it. It's for an upcoming Advanced Electric Guitar Building DVD.
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New Pictures

Finally got some decent shots of quasi-recent builds.
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Shot with Actual Amp

Here’s a shot of the headshell with the actual amp in it before it goes off to Carlos. Got to play it too, and it sounds amazing! Brandon is a great amp builder to say the least.
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Santana's Amp Complete

The head shell for Santana's newest Bludotone amp is done. The amp that's in it in the pictures is not the one that ended up in it. The one in there is a brand new model, and is on display at the LA amp show right now, then it's on its way to Mr. Carlos.

It's Black Walnut and Curly Maple; some walnut for a local lumberyard and some from the Fitzgibbons farm in NY.

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More Work for Bludotone and Santana

Doing another inlay for Santana’s next Bludotone amp. Same design as the last one, but I’m building the head shell for the amp as well this time.

Santana Amp Inlay

Just finished up this inlay. It was commissioned by Bludotone Amp Works for Carlos Santana's newest amp. Mr. Santana has several Bludotone amps. The inlay is nickel silver, ebony, and abalone.
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Phantom Inlay

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This inlay went on a Treesong guitar, by Denver luthier Mike Boggess, and was built for Ramin Karimloo, star of Andrew Loyd Webber's Love Never Dies, which is the sequel to Phantom of the Opera. The guitar is quite beautiful itself, but I neglected to get a picture of it in its entirety.

Face Inlay

This is an inlay I recently did on the headstock of one of Dave Karnell's guitars. Dave is a friend of mine/former student/current TA at Red Rocks. Aside from being a wonderful person, he's also a wonderful guitar builder.
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Fish Inlays

Fish related inlays have been very popular lately. These went out to Chicago, Texas, and Seattle, and one stayed here in Colorado.
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Jimi Buckle

Finally made a real buckle for myself. My pants are happier now. Jimi's face is gold and black mothers of pearl, headband is pipestone, shirt abalone, pickguard and pickups are white river shell, guitar strap is tiger eye, and the neck of the guitar is a rare wood that I forget the name of but looks similar to maple on this scale. Oh yes, and his teeth are white mother of pearl.

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More Pics of Model S

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New Model S Flat Top


Quick photos of a newly finished Model S Flat Top. Figured Mahogany body, burled Walnut pickguard, Macassar Ebony fingerboard, Paduak and Curley Maple neck, Gotoh 510 tuners, Schaller roller bridge, Snider handwound pickups, nickel silver and Paduak inlay. I believe this was actually the first time I've ever included a pickguard on a guitar, other than the clear ones on all of my steel strings.
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Testbot 5000XJP9000DDSR1.2

Tried out the newly wound pickups in the TestBot 5000XJP900DDSR 1.2. This is a testbed guitar I designed to easily switch out various pickups that seat in acrylic templates. Each pickup is easy to slide around and test in various positions. You can also switch between 250k and 500k pots, and toggle back and forth between two different capacitors. Patent Pending.
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Pickup Covers


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Made some pickup covers. The Soapbar covers are solid wood (curly maple and walnut). The single coil covers are actually plastic covers over which I laminated maple veneer. Finished all of them to a nice low gloss sheen. Available for $40-$60 depending on wood and type. Email me if you'd like some.
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Pickup Winding

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Wound a small batch of pickups. One single coil with alnico Vs and plain enamel wire, one with alnico Vs and Formvar wire, and two with alnico Vs for the wound strings and alnico IIs for the plain strings, with plain enamel, as well as a Soapbar with alnico V bars and plain enamel.