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First Photos: Earthen Talladega in the Sun

If you've been following the construction of our twenty-five, Earthen Maple Talladega guitars you know we're getting to the final stages. Indeed, as soon as Mark was finished with number 22 I took it outside to snap some photos to share with all of you.

I walked out the shop's back door and took a few steps towards the Farmington River that rushes past our lunch table. By the side of the cascading water, I gingerly placed the guitar next to a tree and fired off a few snapshots. As I peered through the viewfinder, I had the same thought that many of you will have after seeing these photos; how soon can I get one for myself?

Each one of these guitars is distinctly different. The unique grain and mineral streaking makes certain that you'll never mistake your guitar for any other. Everyone who has played them in our shop has remarked about the clear, crisp top end and warm bottom. The combination of the mineral-laced tops with a mahogany neck gives these twenty-five guitars a special tone.

Here's a nice touch, the individual series numbers are laser etched into the lacquer (but not the wood like the serial number) to protect and confirm the originality of the finish for future collectors.

As much as I hate to see 'em go, I can't wait to hear from the new owners and hear the music that they make.

Earthen Talladega in the Home Stretch

Today found Mark buffing and wiring one of the twenty five Earthen Talladegas. It's a good thing they're moving along, because we just got word from the NAMM show in Nashville that most of them were sold by mid-day.

Mark has already spent about three hours sanding the lacquer down to a fine grit—taking care to block all the surfaces flat with a hard pad. Then it takes him about an hour to do the final polishing. We use a 4 inch wide wheel that spins about 1100 rpm, with a fine abrasive compound. Then he'll move to a second set of wheels to glaze the finish and seal it.

After buffing, Mark shields the control cavity with a nickel-based conductive paint that we import from Belgium. It costs a ton, but it's the best there is—that's why we use it.

Then it's over to the assembly bench for hardware (another hour) and onto the wiring bench to hook up the electrics. In this photo, Mark is stripping the old-school, cloth insulated pickup wire before making all the connections. The legendary Sprague "Orange Drop" tone cap is clearly visible on the soldering mask that protects the back of the instrument from tools and hot solder splatter. We're using lead-free solder to keep in line with worldwide environmental practices too. It won't be much longer before I can play-test this one and snap some photos to show here.

Sunbursting the Earth

Now that our Earthen Talladega guitars have been block sanded smooth, they are ready for shader, which is what we call the transparent lacquer that creates the color. When we built the run of twenty-five Earthen Studio guitars I asked Gary to come up with a new sunburst color that evoked the origins of the special wood we were using. After some discussion and testing, Gary came up with a color I liked. It had a hint of brown earth tone, while still capturing the vintage fade we are known for. Of course, we named it "Earthen Burst."

This time around, the opportunity to depart from the obvious use of the special color was overruled by my desire to create the other bookend to the series—so Earthen Burst it is. It's our intent to shelve the color after we finish these twenty-five Talladegas in order to give them even more of a special identity.

One of the adjustments we made to the Earthen Talladega was to use Honduras mahogany for the body and neck. Because the Earthen maple has a bright snap to it, the maple neck of the Talladega would have emphasized just too much high end. The use of dense mahogany will offer balance. This creates a challenge to Gary, as the darker wood will require a reformulation of the shader for those parts in order to match the first run of limba guitars.

Here's the shaded (colored) guitar hanging in the paint room. The masking tape has been removed from the sides of the guitar, but as you can see the burst color is still present over the binding on the face of the guitar.

The next step is for Gary to scrape the color off of the top, revealing the ivoroid binding. For this, he uses a little knife that he's made from pieces of cellulose and an xacto blade. The amount of blade that protrudes from the handle will determine the maximum amount of width that can be scraped. Because the thickness of the binding will vary slightly (we're talking about thousandths here) Gary will angle the blade when needed to reduce the width of his cut. The object here is for the color to come just to the edge of the binding in a clean, crisp line. The easy and quick way to do this is to leave an overlap. There's always a little, but to us that looks shoddy unless it's really close. When you inspect a guitar, look at how close the color's edge comes to the edge of the binding. That's a pretty good way to judge how much care has gone into the building.

Here's the result, ready to go back for some topcoats of clear. The lacquer goes on over the color, then it dries for two days before being block-sanded again. Then three more light coats before drying a final seven days. That's a total of fifteen days for applying the finish and drying. The last sanding will bring the lacquer down to a thickness of about .011" before it's buffed out. We'll come back for that later.

Talladega Earthen Guitars Shape Up

As readers of this blog know, we were lucky to find a small log of figured maple that had been submerged in mud. The resulting mineral staining gave this wood a unique character that we dubbed "Earthen" maple. We were able to get just over fifty pieces for guitar tops, the first twenty five of which we used for our original Earthen Maple Studio edition guitars. We documented their construction here, in the run-up to their official debut at the winter NAMM convention in January of this year. Those guitars were sold in less than ten minutes after being announced!

If you didn't get to see those guitars, here's a photo of the first one:

The guys in the shop had the idea to use the remaining pieces for a special run of Talladega guitars, and we've been showing you glimpses of those as the progress through our workshop. We think that they're turning out really nicely, so let's take a look.

Here is one of the bodies, already bound with cellulose ivoroid, resting in the morning sunlight as the work day begins. The next step is for Mike D. to brush on the paste wood filler. He applies the material and works it into the pores of the wood, then lets it flash off. Then it's a matter of wiping the excess off at the exact right moment. Too early, and it won't stay in the grain, too late and it won't come off at all. This gives the finish a nice flat surface that minimizes the sinking that is usually seen in lacquer finishes.

Here's the last of the run passing on the body bench.

Right next to Mike's bench, Jamie is prepping the last details on the matching neck. Here he's putting a flat surface on the side of the headstock with a cabinet scraper. We're really proud of how flat and uniform this surface is on our guitars. A lot of designs rely on curved surfaces to hide irregularities, but we like the challenge of making things flat. Believe me, other builders notice it because it's hard to do.

Each one of the maple tops has had a thin slice removed which is used as the headstock faceplate. It's another little detail that makes these guitars even more special. It means we have to keep track of all the components so that they all go on the same guitar, but the result is worth the effort.

After the filler cures for two days, the next step is to hand fit the neck to the body, so we'll have to come back to that later.

Earthen "Tally" Guitars Take Shape

Now that the the Earthen Talladega guitars have been in progress for a while, the guys have been busy with the details. As we saw in the previous post Enrico was doing the top matches and cutting out the bodies in order to "catch up" with the necks. He'd cut a slice of each top to be used for the headstock faceplate first because the necks take longer and must be started first. When we started this project a few months ago

Tom roughed out the neck blanks and installed a truss rods—then the slices of maple were glued onto the headstocks and inlaid with a pearl logos.

Before the Brazilian rosewood fingerboard is glued on, Dave binds the head using the heat gun to soften the cellulose ivoroid strips as he bends it around the corners and glues it down.

The next step is to bond the Brazilian rosewood fingerboard on and let the entire assembly sit for a few months to "normalize" and take its final set before putting a radius on the playing surface. We'll come back after a few more days and see how some of the first guitars are doing.

This shot is of number 23 (of 25) so we're getting close to seeing something that looks like an actual guitar!

Gorgeous Guitars Get Going

Here in the tiny hamlet of New Hartford, Connecticut, it feels finally feels like spring. My morning "commute" along the Farmington River provided a glorious sight as the sun rose over the mountains. When I rounded the bend and caught the first glimpse of New Hartford, I was compelled to stop and take this photo. The entire town can be seen from this point—the bank, the barber shop, Hoffman's Hardware store (where they know us all by name) and the pizza restaurant (where they know us by name too). Just beyond, our workshop is by the right side of the river.

Inside the shop, things are moving along as usual. Plenty of custom guitars to be completed, and lots of new ones being laid out as well. Regular readers of this blog will recall that we used about one half of our stash of "earthen" maple billets to build twenty-five beautiful guitars. So, with the rebirth that is springtime, it seems appropriate to begin the genesis of another limited run with the remaining pieces.

Several weeks ago the seeds had been sown for a Talladega-based Earthen guitar. If you look closely in the post about Monday Morning Guitar Builders you'll see Tom building one of the necks as the first step.

Now that the necks have had several weeks head-start, it's time to begin the body construction, so my first stop today is in the mill area to consult with Enrico.

Here he is at the small bandsaw, making a rough cut on the maple top. He's already routed the internal chambers and finished the inside carve of the top. After pinning and bonding the maple top to the back, he brings the top down close to the final shape.

This is the rough blank, ready to be shaped and routed. As before, each top is completely different from the next with its own special character. I can't wait to get a little further along so that you can see where this is headed.

In the other room, Dave is binding the headstocks. Here he is with the trusty heat gun, softening the ivoroid material so he can bend it around the curve. Because of the added brightness of the mineral saturated maple, I've decided to use mahogany for the necks. I think this will help balance the tone of the guitar as well as make it a little different from the "stock" Talladega. As always, the headstock faceplate has been sliced from the exact same piece of maple that will be used on the body, so Dave has to keep track of all the necks as they move through the room.

I'll be checking up on the progress of these guitars over the next few weeks, so if you have any specifics that you want us to cover, say hello and leave a suggestion!

Earthen Maple Studio Model Takes Flight to NAMM 2008

Ok, we're fast-forwarding to real time now, and the Earthen Maple Studio prototype is winging its way to California for the 2008 NAMM convention in Anaheim. On Thursday it will be available for viewing at our display, but before we strapped it into its first-class seat we took a detour. A guitar this striking and unique needed to be photographed properly, so en route to the airport we dropped it off with photographer Rick Whittey. Rick grabbed the case and said "see ya in two days," and this was the result.

Floating in a muddy bog, the Earthen Maple revisits its birthplace.
(click to enlarge)

One of the things we love about these rare timbers is their individual character. The polar opposite of the pin-striped, uptight business suit look—every guitar has a personality and a "face" recognizable to its owner. Even the headstock faceplate is a one-of-a-kind work of nature's art.

Asymmetrical and natural figure adorns the peghead
(click to enlarge and enjoy!)

We love the random glory of nature—if you're looking for uniformity, you've come to the wrong place because these guitars look and sound as individual as the music they were meant to create.

Only twenty-five of the Studio models will be made, each numbered individually. If you're going to be at NAMM, come on by and say hello.

Pile of Pickups

Now, with the Earthen Maple guitar prototype at a point where it could be assembled and tested, I pulled out my box of pickups to see what would be the perfect match. I could tell from the acoustic ring that this guitar was going to require something a little different to bring out its best qualities.

Choosing a pickup can be a daunting task, but if you know what to look for it's a lot easier. One mistake people tend to make is trying to make a guitar sound like something it isn't. Another mistake is thinking that because a particular pickup sounds good in one guitar, it will sound good in another. I learned a lesson while working with Don Gehman, a legendary and brilliant producer. Don had a phenomenal collection of vintage microphones, and when a certain manufacturer wanted some input on their new line of tube mics, they sent some to us in the studio to critique. It was my job to set the new mics up next to Don's $10,000+ Neumanns and Telefunkens, run the identical chains and get the levels set. We were using a really sweet Neve sidecar and some Fairchild 670 limiters. With everything in place, Don asked the vocalist, Tommy Shaw, to first just speak into each mic while we listened with eyes closed. As Tommy went from mic to mic, speaking, shouting, then finally singing; I was having a hard time making up my mind. Don, on the other hand knew immediately what it was that he was listening for. When I told him that I couldn't choose which one I liked best, he offered some sage advice that has served me incredibly well. Don reminded me that I knew Tommy's voice well enough to identify him on the phone with a single word, and that I should listen for the mic that made Tommy sound, well... like Tommy. "The object is to bring out the character in the voice that makes it sound like who the singer is." This is the identical process I use today to determine which pickup to pair with a guitar.

It's a time-consuming task to ear test pickup after pickup through a variety of amps, at a whole slew of volume and gain settings, but it can be a lot of fun too. Our cast of suspects included Lollar Imperials, Wolfetone Marshallheads, Tom Holmes 450s a number of Duncans based on Pearly Gates, 59s and Seth Lovers, two sets of Dimarzios, some stacked Phat Cats, a Harmonic Design set and even some EMGs. I guess we could have gone on forever, but I had already narrowed it down to this group based upon my experience.

The amps ranged from small combos like my vintage Ampeg Jet, a Pro Jr and a tweed Harvard to a Recto half-stack and a 1972 100w Marshall; and a lot of stuff in between like my trusty red panel AC30 Twin and various Fenders.

I kept Don's lesson in mind as I listened for the character of the guitar to come through. What I heard was a clear, bell-like upper mid with a tight, but slightly attenuated bottom end. For me, this guitar really seemed to come alive with the eq of Euro tubes as opposed to the 6L6 or 6V6. I could easily compare that with my "Simul-link" equipped Blue Angel, just by turning a knob.

It was a tough call, and I had to keep focused on the point of the exercise. In the end, I found that in this guitar the Seths with the Alnico 5 option really opened up and shimmered without giving up that midrange "voice" coming from the chambered limba body. Earthen Maple, you've met your match!

Bursting the Earth

While I've buried myself in play-testing a big pile of pickups for the Earthen Maple series, Gary has been busy in the paint room. We weren't sure what color would work best with the completely random figure and staining, so Gary and I mapped out a few choices and sprayed out some tests. In the end, Gary came up with a nice reddish-brown mix of cognac and honey—sounds pretty good to me! The result is what we call the Earthen Burst, and from this photo you can see how happy Gary is about it.

Here's a closer view of the edge. The color is actually very subtle, and because each piece of this wood is different, the results are going to vary. I actually like the idea of every guitar being different and unique; it just makes each one more special.

Tomorrow I'll show you some of the pickups I tried out, and I'll have some updates on the NAMM guitars too.

As the Earthen Turns

Our Earthen Maple guitars are coming along nicely, and soon I'll be able to show you the final result. We decided to go with the larger chambering as it gave the prototype a distinctive upper midrange signature that is unique to this series of guitars. It's not going to be a mid-bass heavy heavy rock sound as much as a jangly pop-rock or R&B machine. Of course, there will be those who prove me wrong by tuning theirs down to C and plugging it into three 100w half-stacks.

In the meantime, let's catch up on some of the steps that led to the neck that was featured a few weeks back.

After Tom reassembles the matched trio of limba boards into a solid block, he outlines the rough shape and cuts it out on the bandsaw.

The block yields two complete neck blanks—the center pieces will be kept for the "ears" of the headstocks. By using the same wood for the ears, the neck is actually made from a single board and all the densities of the pieces will match up both visually and in terms of resonance.

Here, Tom glues the ears on three blanks and clamps them up to dry.

Dave and Enrico have matched up twenty-five tops and backs, so this run of guitars will be limited to that number. Accordingly, Tom has been busy getting the necks built and onto the "curing" rack so they'll be ready when the bodies start coming through. Next stop, the fitting area and then the spray booth!