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Steely Dan Tour Announced: Jon Herington Talladega Gets Buttoned up in Time for Rehearsals

Last time we checked in, Jon Herington's Talladega Pro was in the spray booth. Gary had applied a nice Ic'd-T burst (Yo) over an Oxblood back and then topped it with a clear coat dosed with a flattening agent. It was Jon's idea to give the guitar a patina that didn't scream "new" and I think that we did a pretty good job. Gary tried a couple different mix ratios until I felt we had just the right amount of gloss. It's funny—I had just posted a story about how hard we work to get super-gloss finishes, and here we are dulling one down!

The nice thing is that as it gets used it will polish up a bit is some areas to give it a real lived-in look without resorting to distressing or relicing.

Backing up a little, let's talk about the electronics. Jon had a working test-bed guitar fitted with different pickups at different times. His final preference was a pair of Fralin Unbuckers.

These pickups are unequal length tapped, which allows a single coil mode to be used that isn't just half of a humbucker. The tapped (or split) mode delivers a nice clean, snappy and articulate single coil-like tone that is ultimately usable. It was Jon's desire to wire the tone controls as switches so we installed push-pull tone pots to provide the single coil positions. 

The tone pots are first in line, then wired to the switch. The output from the three-way is fed to a master volume, leaving the fourth pot as a "dummy" in case we do something different later. I think this was a good move, as there's enough going on with al the coil switching that a master volume will vastly simplify things onstage.

I got quite a bit of time on Jon's guitar, and I have to say it was a very versatile setup. The Unbuckers in split mode did a good job of mimicking some Tele and Strat tones, especially in the middle position. The longer scale length (25.5") could really be made to cluck and twang. The bridge humbucker sound was fat enough for Bluesbreaker leads or classic Free tones with a welcome extra bit of "tap" on top of the note. Surprisingly, the neck pickup with the tone rolled back offered up some really sweet Joe Pass type jazz sounds. Overall, I thought that this guitar was a good balance of punch, girth and articulation—perfect for the wide span of material that Jon will be called to cover onstage.

And speaking of stages, Jon is heading into rehearsals with Steely Dan, so Todd got the whole thing buttoned up and out the door in order to be there on time. No matter how many times we do this, it's always like seeing your child walk out for their first recital, except the stage is a lot bigger!

Talladega Pro Guitar in Jazzburst

Just because we like to look at nice guitars... click on photo to enlarge!

Tommy Shaw Goes to Talladega

A few weeks back, I had a conversation with Keith Marks, who takes care of all things Styx, about Tommy Shaw. We were lamenting the fact that Tommy, whom I have known since our Chicago days, really should be playing a Hamer again. I suggested that Mr. Shaw take a look at the Talladega Pro for the big bad humbucking duties in the band's set. Keith (and Tommy) agreed. I grabbed the next Tally Pro out of the shop, put it in a box and out it went. We didn't do anything special as every one of our guitars gets the "pro" setup.

Yesterday, this photo arrived, along with a note telling us that the Talladega "ate the (insert other brand name here) for lunch."

There you go folks. From the bench to the box and right to the big stage—that's the way we do it here. When we say made to be played, we actually mean it! Thanks to Keith and Tommy for flying the Hamer flag again.

Talladega Pro Chamber Revealed

Since we showed you the Talladega internals, we've gotten some requests to see the Tal Pro chamber as well. Because each guitar was designed for a different character, they differ significantly in a number of ways. One of the first things you'll notice is that we haven't just taken a router and cut a pocket into the wood. Just like speaker enclosure design, there is an art and science to the shape in three dimensions not just two. The other component is the "undercarve" on the inside of the top. We don't just bond a flat piece of maple over the chambers, the top is sculpted to match the back—nobody said this was easy. Of course there are some builders who are content to just hollow out the back, but that's not our course. At some point I'll get a photo of that too.

Because the Pro is slightly thicker, we have more room to sculpt the chamber, and it follows the bevel of the back-side tummy rout as well. For this guitar, a gently curved shape is used, which helps the guitar's lower frequecies. The depth of the chamber starts out quite shallow in the foreground, and then slopes down to full depth behind the bridge in a kind of horn shape. Notice that there aren't any sharp corners. Once again, it is a combination of finding the right amount of resonance and taking vibrating mass out of the guitar. The result was a much more mid-range sound that suited the humbuckers for our purpose. The overall timbre of the guitar is not as dark as a solid instrument either. Our idea wasn't really to mimic another design as much as to expand upon it, and the chambering was the last detail in doing just that.

Jon Herington Talladega Guitar Progress Report

In the time since our last update, Dave and Tom have finished Jon's neck and prepped it for fitting into the body. The binding has been scraped down to the fingerboard in a time-consuming process that is best done entirely by hand.

Jon wanted the simplicity of a dot-neck marker look but with the signature Hamer "Victory" inlay at the 12th fret position.

When both neck and body are ready to be mated, the neck socket is opened up by hand wth a chisel and diamond files to match the neck exactly, in a snug fit. This is where no mistake can be made because our joint is the entire width of the neck. It's a "what you see is what you get" sort of thing. In traditional tenon designs, the "shoulder" of the tenon actually hides the joint, so there is a lot of "freeedom" available for the fit. Our joint process doesn't allow any gaps or tear-out because you'd see it. The benefit is that we gain about 25% more bonding area—which means more transmission of vibration for a more "alive" guitar.

Just look at the amount of contact between the parts! Also, because the neck part is tapered, the entire joint is a dovetail which provides clamping pressure on the sides of the joint not just the bottom as in most tenon designs. Again, more vibration can be shared between neck and body.

The parts are then joined, clamped up and left alone for a day. The next step is to apply a thin coat of danish oil to the guitar to penetrate and provide a solid grip for the first coat of finish which is a nitrocellulose clear coat.

Gary then puts three coats of clear on the guitar and lets it dry for a couple days. Then the entire finish gets block sanded with 400P until it is level. Gary can then lay on the base colors: Oxblood tint shader on the back and neck, and the Aztec Gold center color for the burst. Then, using a small touch-up gun, Gary layers on the shader that provides the burst.

Although he's masked off the sides, Gary will use a small blade to scrape the top edge of the binding clean after the color coats have flashed off.

After two more rounds of clear, each with a hand blocking in-between, Jon's Tally will dry for a week and then get buffed and assembled. It won't be long now!

Creating a Flawless Guitar Finish

One of the most difficult parts of instrument building is getting the finish just right. In the vintage years, guitars were compared mostly to other classical instruments in terms of appearance, which meant that buffed lacquers were just fine. Personally, I like that kind of look. I want a guitar to look and feel like a musical instrument, not a toaster. But as time marched on, builders and customers pushed the envelope of what I refer to as "appliance" cosmetics.

If you want to see how good a builder's finish is, look at the flat parts and try to read a magazine in the reflection. I even made the sides of our headstock straight and flat to show off our finishing. Curved surfaces hide flaws and imperfections.

 

Of course, we've been partially responsible for raising the bar. It's natural for a builder to try to push for better results—it's all part of the craft. With my love of performance and custom cars it's easy to understand why we'd get into making guitars that reflect a hot rod esthetic, both in look and in performance. As much as I enjoy getting "modern" results I also want the finish to serve the purpose of the instrument, which is to make sound.

It's pretty easy to glop on a ton of solids, let it harden up and then sand it flat. But to my eye, it looks somehow cheesy, like a bowling ball or a urethane table top in a sports bar. The trick is to get the finish flat while keeping it thin. The way we achieve our gloss and depth is to build the lacquer up in stages, with plenty of hand-blocking in-between. The sanding also reduces the final thickness.

Here's our man Todd, with the left-handed Artist Ultimate that Dave was applying shell purfling to earlier. Gary has sprayed the first base coats of nitro lacquer and colored it with a shade that we cal cognac. After more coats of lacquer are sprayed over the color Todd waits two days before taking the block to it. He'll spend about an hour flattening the clear coats and taking them down in thickness. Then Gary will put three more final coats on before it goes to our curing rack for a minimum of seven days. That time lets the solvents escape from the finish so that all the shrinking occurs before it gets the last sanding and buffing.

When it's done, the finish will be very thin—a maximum of about .010" which is like a fine acoustic guitar would have, but the careful layering and (more importantly) the relentless block sanding will give it a flatness that is usually associated with the best custom automotive finishes. With over four total hours of sanding and buffing in each guitar, it isn't easy, but the result is like having your cake and eating it too.

Tom Dumont Slings Vector with No Doubt on American Idol

Just a quick shout out of thanks to Tom for keepin' the Hamer flag flying on the No Doubt American Idol appearance. Just a few months after we started Tom's white Vector, there he was, cranking it out in front of tens of millions of viewers! While the rhythm section of Adrian Young and Tony Kanal held it down and Gwen Stefani prowled the stage; Tom was chugging out the trademark No Doubt guitar stabs on his brand-new guitar.

Here's a shot of Dos Hombres Dave and Todd just before we shipped the guitars to Tom. (Note the No Doubt platinum sales award on our shop wall).

Here's a photo Tom took of his rig and posted on his Blog.

Looks like Tom swapped out the Phat Cats for Humbuckers after all. Read more about the guitars on Tom's blog here.

Foggy Bottom Boys: 12 String Bass on a Spring Morning

Spring is a busy time in New Hartford. The rains have brought the lush greens that surround our workshop here in rural Connecticut. Everything is sprouting and reaching for the sky in anticipation of the sunshine that will soon break through the morning fog. Just a few yards from our back door, our lunch table is an island surrounded by the rushing water of the Farmington river—swollen from the early May downpour.

The wildlife is venturing out to feed. Deer, fox, coyotes, groundhogs, bears, porcupines, geese, wild turkeys and more, hunt for food in the woods surrounding us.

Inside, Dave is at work on a rare bird—a Chaparral 12 string bass. Right now he's adding the tummy rout and the cutaway scallops by hand. First he draws a line with the help of a masonite template that has been here for decades; then he dutifully hand sands to the line and blends that line smooth.

And just as it's busy outside the walls of our century old building, it's busy in the workshop. Our build and cure racks are stuffed with custom orders that are growing as we move towards summer. The crew is happy to have the work that brings joy to musicians and ultimately the world.

Is your dream guitar in there?

Transparent White DuoTone Custom Guitar

If you've been following Tom Dumont's blog, you know that we've built two new guitars for the No Doubt tour that is underway now. The third guitar is a refinish job on one of Tom's DuoTones. Because the tint is translucent, it was a little tricky to get the white to balance out between the spruce top (which is quite bright) and the mahogany back (which is dark) but Gary got it just right.

The DuoTone was originally conceived in 1991, which makes it one of the first workable "hybrid" guitars. The idea came to me in a dream... sort of. Styx/Damn Yankees guitarist Tommy Shaw had asked me to design and build a doubleneck that was half acoustic and half electric. It was the age of the "power ballad" and Tommy wanted to begin a song with an acoustic and then switch to electric part way through. 

I was working on an altogether different project for Ovation at the time—a solidbody acoustic guitar code-named Viper. I'd had really good success with a kynar sensor imbedded in a spruce topped and chambered body prototype. Rob Turner at EMG and I had developed the electronics and eq needed to produce a really great flat-top sound, but didn't make the connection as I worked on both projects.

Then it hit me in the middle of the night! I literally sat up in bed and realized that if I put a discrete magnetic pickup system on the Viper, Tommy could just flip a switch instead of having two necks. That day I called Tommy and asked him if he liked the idea, and he agreed. I set about adapting the concept (which included my "cantilever bridge" idea) to a Hamer double cutaway. We built the first prototype immediately, and sent it out to Tommy. The rest is history—the DuoTone was born, and adapted by a whole bunch of artists including Ty Tabor, Stone Gossard, Chris Cornell, Mike Keneally, Dwezil Zappa, Jeff Tweedy, Elvis Costello and of course, Tom Dumont.

Thanks to my good friend Tommy Shaw for allowing me to dream big, and good luck on tour to Tom Dumont.

Chambered Guitars: The Talladega

A few days ago, somebody asked me about the chamber on the Talladega. They wanted to know what it looked like, how big it was, how it affected the sound and how I determined how to shape it. That's a lot of questions. I figured the easy way was to just take a photo, so here it is.

The chamber exists for several reasons. First, it changes the way the guitar sounds and second, it makes the guitar lighter—which some people like. I like the way a hollow guitar vibrates—it gives an openness to the notes that I find very vocal. The way I determine how much to chamber any given design depends upon the effect I'm after. If I want to just open up the sound a little, I'll start small and make the chamber incrementally bigger until I get where I want. If I'm thinking about a really wide-open sound, I'll go as big as I can, then get smaller. 

In the case of the Talladega, I wanted the guitar to really sound sparkly and articulate, not boxy or just bright, so I went big on the chamber, or so I thought. Surprisingly, I found I needed more, so the second small chamber was added along with the part behind the tailpiece. Because the chambering was about the sound, it's mostly one large chamber as opposed to a series of small routs. Also, the shape and size of the Tally allows this kind of chambering without compromising strength.

We've also made a Tally that is full solid, and it sounds very different. It doesn't sound bad. In fact, it was pretty cool in a midrange-grind sort of way. The highs were a little brittle to most ears, and that wasn't the point. What we wound up with is a nice balance of airiness and full-bottom. It works for me, and a lot of other players too.