Here we go
gents, it's guitar building time.
We're going to follow "rjd's" Artisan Deluxe #030 guitar from
start to finish. I choose this one for a couple reasons:
One is that I have only gathered lumber since Rich placed the order, most others are
already in some stage of construction.
Two is that it is a fairly straight forward guitar with common/standard appointments.
So without further introduction...let's review the specs and options to know what we are
going to be getting into over the next few months:
Rich is after a throaty Les Paul tone without the muddiness that plagues many Pauls. That
immediately pointed us to a limba body and neck, maple top and humbuckers. A super winning
combo. The limba adds nice clarity to the tone without thinning it out or loosing the
beef. A chambered body will also keep the weight down and help the tone stay full, smokey
and BIG. The maple top will add the snap and the humbuckers the power. This will be a
great sounding guitar for straight-up rock, smokin' blues, and even jazz with a tame amp
setting.
Throw in a Brazilian fingerboard, lots of classy paua purfling + firesun inlays, and a
touch of tricked-out electronics and you have yourself a sweet custom guitar!
Thorn Artisan Deluxe #030
Body - Chambered Black Limba. I have some very lightweight limba with some curl to it.
Top - 5A Quilt Maple - big and pillowy quilt.
Neck - Black limba with a Fat Back carve - oh yeah! Matching quilt headstock overlay.
Fingerboard - Buttery smooth Brazilian rosewood, 10" radius, 25" scale. A bone
nut and 6150 fretwire finishes it off.
1-piece tremolo system. These start as a solid chunk of brass (not cast) and are
completely machined into the trems and the saddles. I will be adding a section on the
website showing the many unique details of trem systems - it's a great unit - 15oz. in
weight (no cheesy pot metal on this one).
Custom Sperzel ultra-light locking tuners with straight string pull. Bob Sperzel assembles
custom sets for me with extended button shafts and bushings on the D & G tuners which
allow for straight string pull without the headstock looking like a weapon. I have a
feeling this will start becoming more and more common, but remember where you saw it first
.
Offset Paua purfling around the body top and sides, fingerboard and headstock. This is
standard on all Thorn guitars.
Firesun position marker inlays in paua and pearl - also standard.
Pickups - We are going to try the classic combo of Seymour Duncan '59 and a JB. This is a
tried and true arrangement and a good starting point.
Controls - One Master Volume, one Master Tone, and a single "Blend" knob (see
below).
Plus a 5-way blade switch with the following positions:
1 - Bridge hum only
2 - Bridge split
3 - Bridge/Neck - Activates the blend knob for precise tweaking in this position only.
4 - Neck split
5 - Neck hum only
I think that #3 position will see a lot of action
Color - Ocean blue top and headstock, natural back and neck.
Nothing like blue quilted maple - one of my favorites.
That covers most of the details. Other specs such as inlaid logo, TRC, wood back plates
etc. are standard on all Thorns. We'll check in with those as we go.
'm looking forward to this, should be a lot of fun
Ron.
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