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Talladega Onstage With Steely Dan's Jon Herington

In the beginning of this year, Jon Herington visited The Designer's Workshop to nail down the specifications for his new Talladega Pro. We covered that visit on this blog and followed the build right through to delivery at the Steely Dan rehearsals in New York.

When the band played in our neighborhood, Jon returned the favor by inviting Jol down to the show. With the band's blessing, our camera followed Jol and Jon up onto the stage for an impromptu demo of Jon's gear and a few SD related guitar lessons. Here's a little bit of what we saw.

Don't forget to pause the "Jukebox" in the right-hand column before playing the video!

Thanks to Jon and the guys, and check back for some more episodes.

Beach Boys Promo Photo features Hamer Monaco

Readers of this page will be familiar with Scott Totten who is the Musical Director (MD) for The Beach Boys. Scott has been featured here before, and has been a tireless supporter of our work over the years. 

Apparently, the band has just produced a new promotional slick, and Scott has managed to get his little darlin' Monaco III into the shot. Way to go Scott!

If you get a chance to see the band, don't pass up the opportunity because the musicianship is first rate. Thanks again to one of our friends in the trenches.

Night Falcon Bass with Jack Blades

Last Saturday we visited Jack Blades at a Night Ranger show and checked up on the Night Falcon bass in its natural habitat—rocking the stage. Here's a little taste of what we saw.

Limba Double-Stacked Guitar Coming along

As the August temperatures rise outside, it's cool and dry inside the shop—perfect for making guitars. Checking in on the double-stacked binding project finds good progress being made. Tom has finished the neck and the transitions are really beautiful.

There are a lot of ways to do this, and no single technique is necessarily the "best". We've always perched the nut on top of the headstock binding, so that's the traditional Hamer look we're sticking to on this build. It gets a little complicated to stack everything up, but we've never shied away from doing things the hard way.

Speaking of the hard way, a lot of you have written in to ask how we managed to lay the under-purfling flat around the body, so here's the answer. Here's Dave using the spindle sander to shape the inside outline (does that make sense?) of the piece that gets glued to the body first. He makes a tracing on a sheet of the cellulose material, then rough cuts it on the bandsaw (note the entry cut at the neck joint area). Then using the sander, he brings it to a very close fit.

In this shot, I'm checking the fit and marking where more needs to be removed. It's a matter of going back and forth until the sheet slips right down into the bottom of the binding channel. I like the way this looks when we're done, as the grain of the material reveals itself differently all around the body. It's a nice contrast to the top layer which follows the curve of the body as usual.

Bill Collings does a similar sort of thing on his headstock bindings, but I believe they cut the shape out on a laser. Sanding it by hand takes a lot longer, but that's OK as ours is only a single guitar. There's a lot of work in a one-off, but the results are going to be great.

Designer's Workshop Visits Steely Dan Stage

Jon Herington has proven himself to be a top-drawer player—filling some big shoes with Steely Dan since 2000's "Two Against Nature". Jol goes onstage with Jon to explore some of the techniques he uses to cover the band's wide range of material.

Here's a taste of what's coming in future episodes:

Be sure to pause the jukebox in the right hand column first!

Nite Bob. The Legend Speaks

During the making of our workshop video, Mike Brady's video crew tracked down numerous industry folks to provide historical perspective to the story. In this clip, Nite Bob talks a little about the first days of Hamer from the view of a working pro engineer, producer and house sound mixer. His experience on the road, in the studio and as a salesman on 48th Street in New York also lend much to his perspective.
Be sure to pause the audio player in the right hand column first. Enjoy!