Judas Priest in the Workshop
With all the projects that we have going on at any given time, it's hard to spotlight all of them here. After all, we're guitar builders not webmasters. Here's one job that's been in the shop for a while.
Right: Back in the day... Glenn Tipton and Jol Dantzig in the studio during the recording of Judas Priest's "Turbo" album
It's no secret that we've worked closely with the boys in Judas Priest for over two decades; every album and tour since 1984 has bristled with Hamer-tone. Since one of our readers asked, I'm going to jump the gun on a special post series that we've been holding close to our chest.
After talking to Glenn Tipton over the course of a few weeks, and receiving the basic idea for his new guitar, Dave set to work building a mahogany neck with a curly maple fingerboard. We've elected to use the old "six on a side" Hamer headstock shape, because it matches Glenn's other Hamers, and goes more with the feel of this guitar.
The scale is 24.75" and it calls for block inlays. We selected some nice chunks of "black" pearl and cut them into rectangles. Here, Tom has routed the pockets for the pearl and is gluing them in.
Then, based on the outline provided by Glenn, Mike starts to rough out the body from a mahogany blank. In this photo he's placed the neck over the body to get the cutaway, pickup and bridge locations locked in.
We've collected all the parts we need, including a NOS (new old stock) original Kahler from the '80s. Mike will create templates for routing, and then do the pocketing on the pin router. There's a few bumps in the road, but we always figure it out in the end. Stay tuned for more...
Very cool stuff, Jol! Always love the custom work. Thanks for the heads-up - I'll keep an eye out for these if they make the summer tour!
Posted by: cmatthes | June 30, 2008 at 01:06 PM
Jol- Thanks for posting the sneak peak for me! I appreciate your time. It's good to know the Priest/Hamer legacy is still alive and continues in 2008.
Keep us updated on this special little project please.
Posted by: Serial66 | June 30, 2008 at 04:04 PM
will you more pics of glen's guitar
Posted by: Rich hopkins | July 01, 2008 at 02:44 PM
I have always been fascinated by how a guitar is built! You have quite a beautiful history behind you, don't you? I guess memories with Judas Priest are something to always remember and tell.
Posted by: Ovidiu - GuitarFlame.com | July 03, 2008 at 04:14 PM
The Raising Hell entry shows the Hamer legacy. That the guitar holds up after something like 5,200 gigs with just a locking nut screw hole stripping says "quality" in big, bold letters. And the fact that rock stars still rely on Hamer to get their tone says that you're 100% in the game.
Posted by: Evan | August 27, 2008 at 07:08 PM