Guitar #055

Big Leaf Maple "Cutting Board"

Completed October 23^d, 2015

This is another connotation in my line of "Cutting Board" electric guitars.  This example with a lap-joint type of set neck, carved to give a smooth transition from the neck, over the heel, and on to the back of the body.  The lines are all soft and flowing, with great access right to the 24^th fret.  Both the body and the neck are made of beautifully quilted Big Leaf Maple (Acer macrophyllum ), with a medium size strip of Black Walnut (Juglans nigra) down the middle.  This guitar has all it's contours drawn out like a beach pebble, offering greater comfort, and to allow light to reflect from the grain at a wider range of angles, thus increasing the shimmering effect of this amazing looking wood.  A pure Black Ebony freat board and all black hardware complete the look.  Then just to go over the top is the Snake inlay!  This inlay is composed of a number of types of shell and contrasting woods.

For the Pickup, this guitar was pared up with a set of fairly hot Seymour Duncan SHPR-1 P-rails together with per-wired Triple-shot pickup rings.  This is a very unusual setup, and give incredible flexibility!  Each pickup is a humbucker made up of a P-90 and a Rail type of coil.  The pickup ring houses two micro switches that control the internal wiring connection of the coils, allowing the pickups to function in four different modes.  This allows the pickup to operate with the P-90 type coil alone, or, the Rail alone, or both coils together in series, or, both coils together in parallel.  This means you can go form a Tele type of sound, to a Vintage Les Paul, to a clean Humbucker, to full-on ACDA.  Just preset the micro switches for the type of song, and then use the three way pickup selector switch as normal.   If  you are so inclined, you could reset the micro switches during playing as well.  As I said, this gives a lot of possible combinations (I am not going to do the math), just think of the type of sound you want from the pickup and set it.

Now to get to how this guitar actually sounds.  Maple generally gives a bright sounding guitar.  Ebony fret boards also give a very clear sound.   On the other hand; hot pickups generally are warm with more bottom, but work amazingly for distortion, and touch sensitivity.   Hot pickups are part of a Rockers arsenal, and this guitar definitely has that look.  Together, this makes this guitar roar!  Tons of power, very long sustain, clean harmonics, percussive hammer-ons, and easy to "make her scream" when you choke the pick at the right place on the string.  Playing with volume that you can feel, and then changing to series humbucker mode, instantly pushes the the amp into a smooth overdive, egging you on towards you best Led Zeppelin impression!  

Specs

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