Rich has posted the photos from the latest batch of guitars!  We have branched out a bit this time, with a glued-neck, all mahogany, Classic Jr.  I think that all the guitars came out beautifully, and now that they’re gone, I can finish putting together the new shop. 

We’ve taken down the spraybooth, and transferred over the heavy equipment.  Now we have to finish the move (and get the new shop heater working – it’s been incredibly cold for the last 2 days).

I can’t wait to have the new shop up and running. 

Chuck

Due to customer requests, we’re now offering a 12″ fretboard radius option on our Archtop guitars and 10″ or 12″ options on our Fusion and Classic guitars!!

Chuck

We’ve had a wonderful review in Vintage Guitar magazine.  They loved our Fusion guitar.  We’ll post the review when the issue is off the newsstands.

We also had a wonderful comment on the Gear Page!  One of the few people who’ve already played our prototype Classic guitar (our take on the Tele) raved about it.

To all of our friends, and to the people in the press, we thank you.

Rich

I’ve posted a small batch of Fusion guitars in the For Sale and Recently Sold galleries.  

The number may be small, but these are some of the most exciting guitars we’ve ever made!  Not only do they have our improved wiring and components, but we’ve two Swamp Ash guitars, one of which is for sale!!!

Not only are the guitars special, but we’re honored to present a Thornton guitar as painted by Crash!!  You can see this fantastic instrument in the Recently Sold gallery.

Finally, we’ve added two new finishes to our repertoire.  The Recently Sold list has a Transparent Black guitar, which came out unbelievably well, and a Flat Tobacco sunburst, which is also to die for.

The economy may be down, but our guitars are better than ever!!

Rich

I’ve begun shipping the sold guitars, and photos of the latest batch are up!

The six unsold guitars can be seen on our Guitars for Sale page.

The sold guitars can be seen on our Recently Sold page

Chuck

Chuck and I have redesigned the control setup for the humbucker-equipped Fusions. The new Fusions are shipping with a push-pull pot instead of a blend pot.

Instead of being a blend pot, the fourth pot is now a separate tone pot for the Humbucker. Pulling this up adds an additional pickup to each switch position except the center (No. 3) position.

I have posted the new control setup in a graphic on a new tab on the Fusion page (I have also created similar diagrams for the various archtop models).

There are several reasons for this change. First, the push-pull allows us to include a larger number of different pickup combinations than the blend. Second, feedback has been that most players either turn the blend pot all the way up or down. The push-pull is quicker and simpler to use. Finally, since our volume controls are independent, users can duplicate all the effects of the blend pot in a simpler, more intuitive, way.

Rich

Here are the specs on the Fusions we have for sale from the double batch we’re working on now.  These guitars will be ready for shipment in about 3 weeks!  We’ve added a couple of new finishes this time around. Look for our new Red guitar and our new 3-tone Tobacco Burst guitar.  As always, we’ll take photos of them and post them as soon as they’re done!

These guitars are for sale now, so please Contact Us to purchase one of these guitars or for more information.  

Rich

1)
White SSS (3 Single Coil) Fusion
Mint Green Pickguard
Vintage Cream Pickup Covers and Knobs
Birdseye Fingerboard
6105 Fretwire

2) SOLD
Tobacco Burst HSS (Bridge Humbucker and 2 Single Coil) Fusion 
Parchment Pickguard
Vintage Cream Pickup Covers and Knobs
Birdseye Fingerboard
6100 Fretwire

3)
Tobacco Burst SSS Fusion
Mint Green Pickguard
Vintage Cream Pickup Covers and Knobs
Birdseye Fingerboard
6105 Fretwire

4)
Red SSS Fusion
Mint Green Pickguard
Vintage Cream Pickup Covers and Knobs 
Rosewood Fingerboard
6105 Fretwire

5)
Vintage Cream SSS Fusion
Mint Green Pickguard
Vintage Cream Pickup Covers and Knobs
Rosewood Fingerboard
6105 Fretwire

6) SOLD
Vintage Cream HSS Fusion
Tortoiseshell Pickguard 
Vintage Cream Pickup Covers and Knobs
Rosewood Fingerboard
6100 Fretwire

7)
Vintage Cream HSS Fusion
Tortoiseshell Pickguard 
Vintage Cream Pickup Covers and Knobs
Rosewood Fingerboard
6100 Fretwire

8) SOLD
Dark Honey Burst HSS Fusion
Mint Green Pickguard
Vintage Cream Pickup Covers and Knobs
Rosewood Fingerboard
6105 Fretwire

9)
White HSS Fusion
Tortoiseshell Pickguard 
Vintage Cream Pickup Covers and Knobs
Rosewood Fingerboard
6100 Fretwire

10) SOLD
3-Tone Tobacco Burst HSS Fusion
Tortoiseshell Pickguard 
Vintage Cream Pickup Covers and Knobs
Rosewood Fingerboard
6100 Fretwire
 

We’ve posted some sound samples!

There’s a long story behind these clips. We hired a videographer/audio engineer, gathered one of each model (which took quite a bit of doing), grabbed our Carr Slant 6V amp and a borrowed vintage Fender, kidnapped Denny Breau, and headed for South Portland to shoot some video.

Denny improvised in just about every possible style, one after another, for 6 hours. It was an incredible display of virtuosity and stamina. In the studio, the guitars sounded great.

Well … we got the raw files, and both the camera and the board had malfunctioned. The video was unusable, but some of the audio files were salvageable – maybe.

We gave them to Bruce Goulette of StudioG, and he worked his magic. He had to put in a fair amount of compression, and play with the levels to resurrect the almost non-existent voice track, but a few of the tracks were usable.

We’re deeply grateful to Denny and Bruce, and we’re going to try again – just as soon as we can get the stars aligned again. In the meantime, we “sort of proudly” present our first sound clips.

Hi everyone, welcome to our Blog!

Just wanted to say that we’re getting close to finishing the batch of 22 Fusions that we’re working on. I hope they’ll be ready for delivery by the end of July or the first week of August. I built a double batch this time so we would have somthing for sale on the website. As of now I think we have 9 or 10 still for sale. Richard will post the specs for you.

As a company we have found ourselves in a position, due to the rising costs of everything, that we have to raise our prices. This is not something I take lightly. I know how hard people work for their money, and I know I work awfully hard for my money.

You people that have purchased my guitars have been wonderful customers and some of you have turned into real friends. I thank everyone of you for making it possible for me to build these guitars.

With this being said I would like to ask you all if you have any thoughts on how much of an increase in price would be fair to both of us. I go to work every day and try to build the finest guitar available and I try to do this at a price point that is affordable. Without you my customers I’m out of business but if I don’t raise my prices I’ll be out of business also.

I just want to be fair to everyone. Thank you for your thoughts.

Chuck