McCartney bass

Custom bass for Paul McCartney

With Paul McCartney coming to Salt Lake for his July 2010 concert I decided to really think big and build him a custom bass as a gift. My hope was that I could somehow find a contact that could make it happen. A friend of a brother later and it was accepted as one of 2 or 3 gifts to be presented to Paul. He got it just before the show and sent down a personal thank you letter to me. What a blast! I’m a huge fan. I've liked this guy and his music since I was 10. I built this bass for him to have it and as a way to say thanks. That’s happened and I’m a happy guy.
The body top is made out of the most outrageous piece of wood I've ever used. It's bookmatched 1/4 inch thick curly cottonwood. It was from a salvaged tree in Cache Valley that was headed for the dump! The amount of flame in this wood is unsurpassed. I've hand-made the various parts, the bridge, the tailpiece, and the pickguard, out of ebony. The knobs are made from ebony and maple topped with mother of pearl. The pickup is a gold plated Hofner 500/1 bass pickup. The body and neck are clear coated with lacquer.

I hollowed out chambers in the body for lightness and resonance. Instead of a traditional f-hole, I carved in these designs in the upper and lower bouts. The area behind them is hollow and painted matte black. The body's edges are triple bound with black-white-black.

This curly cottonwood is amazing! I love the black ebony against it.

The fretboard is a 30 inch Hofner bass scale. I profiled the back of the neck to match the Hofner. The fingerboard is ebony.

The fret markers are hand inlayed brass, black mother of pearl, white mother of pearl, and abalone. A Wings logo for Paul, psychedelic glasses for John, a Hindu om for George, an abalone star for Ringo and a lava lamp in memory of his late wife Linda. She loved lava lamps. They were always present on her keyboard in their Wings days.

The glasses are made from brass tubing with abalone inset into it.

The neck is 3 piece maple and black walnut with a 2 way adjustable "Hot Rod" truss rod.

I did a British flag on the back using tinted lacquer.

All of the hardware is gold plated. The headpiece is bookmatched curly cottonwood to match the body.

The Black Jet

I’ve been wanting to build my older brother Mike a guitar. He’s done a million things for me over the years. We both share a passion for music, guitars, and The Beatles. As we talked over what to make we kept coming back to a Gretsch Duo Jet. Great guitar. It would give me some challenges that I’ve never faced before. Mike’s band back in High School used to haul their equipment around in an old Packard hearse. It was black and they had written their band name, My Friends, on the side in white block lettering. That was the first thing that popped into my head was to make the guitar black with the band name as it was on the hearse.

We wanted to theme the guitar around his band. I did the traditional Gretsch hump block fretboard inlays in pearl and engraved all the names of the people who’ve been in the band in chronological order. The fingerboard wood is ebony.

I put the logos of the band influences on the pick guard. 

The body and neck are mahogany with the neck being a five piece lamination of mahogany and maple. On the back I did a water slide decal taken from the poster that My Friends used back in the sixties. The finish is nitro lacquer.

I carved the Gretsch logo out of pearl for the head piece and added a small nod to guitar hero George Harrison on the truss rod cover.

Joe's Ferrari

I built this guitar for my son Joe. He’s become a really good guitar player and it was time to make him a custom electric. Joey and I have been Ferrari fans for some time. His job is a car handler and detailer at the Salt Lake Ferrari dealership. This body style is one Joe has really liked and I had a great piece of curly cottonwood to use. The finish is red tinted nitro lacquer. It really looks good on that cottonwood.

I put various Ferrari touches on it and added some carbon fiber accents. The Ferrari lettering is made from white pearl and black pearl with the black used as kind of a reflection.

I made the bridge out of stainless steel pins. I just wanted something sleek and different. The volume and tone knobs are also stainless and exit the body through the side. 

RINGO

So, I'm building my Fab Four Beatle tribute collection. What do I do for Ringo? A drummer?  A banjo. A six string banjo.

I wanted to experiment, so I replaced the regular banjo head with a piece of spruce guitar top. The white that you see is white nitro lacquer covered spruce. Amazingly, it still sounds like a banjo. A more woody banjo. I like it though. Beatle logo like on Ringo's bass drum head of course. I also located some black oyster pearl drum wrap to go around the rims. Looks good. Also a hand built aluminum tailpiece and an ebony bridge.

Boy, have I looked at that drum head a few times over the years.

A single white mother of pearl star in the 12th fret. Ebony fretboard. 24 3/4 inch scale. 

Using a piece of brass and a waterslide decal I made this truss rod cover. Zero fret. I like zero frets.

On the back is a clear coated and polished Sgt. Pepper drum head logo.

This really pops in person.

 JOHN, GEORGE, and RINGO.
PAUL is under construction. Hope to finish it this summer. Hofner shape, curly cottonwood top, walnut back and sides, fretless ebony fingerboard.

JOHN

I've mentioned before in my blog about my goal to build my FAB FOUR tribute guitars. These are just for me to pass on to my kids. GEORGE, my saffron orange 12 string, is already in the blog. I finished JOHN about 4 months ago. It had to be a Ric 325 clone, but I wanted it white as a nod to Lennon's white piano. 

Gold hardware. Gold Diesel brand toaster pickups.

Gold Bigsby vibrato. Gorgeous piece. That Ric relief in the guitar top is a challenge!

I wanted it to feel like John's did just for the vibe of it, so it has the amazingly short 20 and 3/4 inch scale length. It really is a tiny guitar. My research also told me heavy gauge flat wound strings were correct. I love em! White nitro lacquer finish. Ebony fingerboard. Chambered alder body. Very fun to play, but tiny.

I hand painted this replica of John's self portrait on the back then cleared and buffed it out.

Lennon's initials with some abalone inlay in the truss rod cover.

This is my favorite inlay that I've done yet. Lennon's glasses in brass and abalone, with a psychedelic burst of white pearl and abalone.

Another nod to John's piano. Plastic pickguard material with real ebony keys.

The Red Doctor

I got an  email from a gal living in Georgia who was interested in a gift guitar for her husband who was graduating from medical school in 2 1/2 years. That was 2 1/2 years ago, so it's finally time for her husband to get his gift. Fortunately, I get to present it to him! Very satisfying for an artist. It's been a long time to work on one, but it's been very fun. Whitney gave me lot's of freedom on what I was going to do on the guitar. This has been kept a total surprise from him this whole time. Impressive!

 I was given a little direction. Whitney had walked through a couple of guitar stores with her husband and while he commented on what he liked, she took mental notes. Red, thin, humbuckers, black hardware. 

The body is a gorgeous piece of book matched curly cottonwood. Not a traditional guitar wood, but with the curl it ends up about the density of maple.  And it's beautiful. I have a very limited amount of this wood. The finish is nitro lacquer with a cherry red tint.

This was Whitney's idea. She wondered if I could somehow get her newborn daughter's footprints on the guitar. This is a water slide decal. I love it.

The position markers are genuine rubies. It has Paul Read Smith wiring with a master tone and volume and a 5 way rotary pickup selector. ( Thanks Brandon, my wiring guru).

I inlayed the husband's initials into the truss rod cover in mother of pearl.

Whitney and I came up with some personal inlay ideas for the finger board. Ute's logo, 49er's logo, SLC temple, Russia map with LDS mission location, medical symbol, boxing gloves, kids names, Whitney's name, wedding date.

ALZHEIMER"S auction

A few months ago our Beatle band was hired to play the annual Utah Alzheimer"s Association fund raiser at the City Creek Mariott in Salt Lake. As we talked with the gal in charge of the night I was so impressed with her passion to provide service to the Alzheimer cause. I started thinking that this would be a good opportunity to build a guitar for a great organization. She was really happy with the offer and 2 months later I had it done. They received a good price for it at the auction and our band had a blast playing. It might not be the end of the story. The man who bought it said that he was a musician from Chicago and that he planned to take the guitar around and have it autographed, then bring it back to me and have me clear coat over the names. Then he wanted to put it in the auction again. Cool idea! Hope it happens. 

The guitar is basically a Les Paul shape. The top is a beautiful piece of curly maple and the body is mahogany that is heavily chambered. It's very light with a great resonance.

In the 12th fret I did the Alzheimer's logo in mother of pearl with some added flourishes. I did some cutouts in the top similar to what I did on the McCartney bass. They're a bit of a pain to do but I think they look great. 

The neck is three piece maple walnut maple with an ebony fret board. The back has a line of purple heart with a strip of walnut to each side.

 The hardware is gold plated with mini humbucking pickups. I inlayed more mother of pearl into the control knobs.

Good project. It plays and sounds great and they loved it. Thanks Wynne at Alheimers!