Truly Strings

The Defender Silver Skys are looking mighty fine. Which color catches your eye? I'm digging the Arles Blue for the cores and Sedona Red for the SEs.

The two latest Dusty Dogs coming down the line. I can’t decide on inlay for the non-cutaway. Sometime I like leaving the board plain but this one may need some flair. What do you think?

The musicians who visit teach me so much. For example I did not know a 70’s Jbass pickup spacing is 4” apart which scooches the treble pickup towards the bridge about 3/8ths of an inch compared to modern 3.625” spacing. My compute power is occupied with info on router bits which comes in handy when coming up with a creative solution to retrofitting a modern 5 string with 70’s pickup spacing. The one condition I gave myself was no additional screws. Although I’m sure this has been done before, I call this hot rod mod a “pickup guard”.

There used to be a website I would surf that hosted archived concerts listeners could stream. The audio quality was poor but the price was right. Mostly classic rock shows, Greatful Dead, country and three or four Dolly Parton shows. “Do I Ever Cross Your Mind?” was the tune that roped me in followed by “Coat of Many Colors” of course. The girl could write a song. Catchy melodies, authentic lyrics and acrylic nails scratching the mess out of a pickguard. Behind the makeup, wigs and b***s, Dolly was as real as they come.

Machines are only as accurate as the person operating them. Here’s an example. Check out the placement of these tuners. Compared to the binding/side of the headstock they’re clearly favoring the bass side. It’s not a make or break it for the instrument but off enough to bug the observer once noticed.

I think the clamping mechanism holding the neck in the CNC or the jig drilling the tuners wasn’t set up correctly and this happened on more than a few. Rather than scrape the guitars, the manufacturer decided this batch was going to feature a custom full translucent tint finish which does help conceal how off the tuners are while simultaneously looking very cool. Normally that white biding is scraped back and frames the headstock/hardware nicely highlighting the placement of the tuners.

The only question now is whether or not to point the discrepancy to a musician who loves their guitar.

Running out of work bench for this Kirk Hammit V. I like the inlay. Reminds me of the gravitational pull of a black hole. The sparkle flake finish looks very outer-spacey too.

Dear Fender,
Before lawyers, there were luthiers.
Before Fender, there was Bigsby.
Before Bigsby, there was Stauffer.

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MIJ Greco single cut arrived for a new tune-o-matic bridge and set up. The original bridge was made from various alloys and cast, functional and cost effective but prone to collapse under tension. The aftermarket TOM is milled from solid metal, offers a brass saddle option, and features a relic finish matching the patina of the tailpiece and pup covers. Now this guitar plays beautifully, just like its stunning burst.

Evertune assembly took some head scratching and deep belly breathing but this one does in fact djent once again. Not much holding the mechanisms in place other than spring steel and intonation screws.