Bzzzzzzz

Had some time today to work on the latest guitar for Andy N., my favorite client. The eight string bass is at a standstill until I work out the bridge issues, so today was spent on the sitar- guitar.

Not actually a sitar, of course, but a guitar along the lines of a Coral electric sitar.

Twenty-three pieces of wood in total, counting the fingerboard and the circle of ebony behind the bridge. Neck/center laminate of maple & padouk, body wings of spalted padouk, walnut, and flamed birch, with walnut laminates between the core and the wings. Rosewood board, padouk headcap veneer.

Andy and I had been tossing around the idea of a sitar guitar for a while, but the lack of available hardware kept the project from getting off the ground. The original Coral instruments featured a bridge with some fairly primitive adjustments that neither of us felt comfortable with. I went as far as to order a replica from Jerry Jones, but that went into the spare parts bin as well.



Trust those crafty Germans to come to the rescue. Rockinger Guitars, in Hanover, Germany, manufactures a set of buzz saddles that retrofit onto a three barrel Tele bridge. Kind of hard to see in the pic (stolen from their site), but the intonation point is cut diagonally into the rear of each saddle. The front allen screw raises the flat surface until it just contacts the underside of the string to cause that characteristic sitar buzz. I have no idea what the center screw is for- hey, the literature that came with it is in, well, German. Ja.





Once again, the practice of building guitars without having all of the hardware in hand came back to bite me on the ass. I spent most of last year making bolt on electrics, trying to streamline the process into something resembling profitability- I think I got a little spoiled using the same hardware on multiple guitars. This is the third guitar in two months to have "parts issues".

Case in point. The angle cut into the neck was perfect for the original barrel saddles. I had it strung up & playing like a dream. Then the sitar saddles showed up (after a six week wait, thank you very much homeland security). They're huge. Now the bridge is countersunk a full quarter inch into the top, hence the big hole in the center of the guitar. Andy hates banging his hand on the raised lip around the edges of old school telecaster bridges, so the countersinking actually made it more comfortable to play. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.




Andy has many guitars- this bastardized tele is the elder statesman. Most of the wood is original, the rest not so much. Over the years he's fit it with new tuners, new frets many times over, a Schaller bridge with fine tuners, New pickups (Gibson mini- humbucker, Duncan stacked rail humbucker, Duncan JB) and a bewildering wiring scheme. I cracked it open to add another phase switch and a direct on for the neck pickup to give him seven-position switching- I have no earthly idea how the rest of that circuit produces sound. I got bored and diagrammed it out one day- I swear the signal dead ends. The sticker behind the bridge has been there since the factory Bigsby was removed, and is sort of a trademark with him. The ebony circle on the new sitar guitar is awaiting a pearl bear claw inlay, a last minute addition. Ironically, Andy had the idea while listening to me complain about the amount of inlay on a commission for another client- I absolutely hate doing inlay work. Thanks, Andy.


As long as Andy is the subject, here's the last guitar I made him. Every now and again one runs across a piece of hardware that begs to have a guitar built around it. In this case, a Rick Turner replica of an old Rickenbacker horseshoe magnet pickup. Loud. Snarly. Slide-o-riffic. Pretty much the best sounding slide guitar I've ever heard. That's a Dimarzio in the neck position- the poor thing doesn't get used much.

The top is a Brazilian wood called Imbuya. Or Imbuia. Or Imbuja. However you spell it, I've sorted through hundreds of board feet and never found another piece that looks anything like this.

Andy's Band