#043- Workingman’s Venus

This body was the original Prototype for my Hollow Rim design, and had been sitting in my rack–disassembled–for the last several years. One of my local customers had been eying it for 3-4 of those years, and finally talked me into making a new neck and finishing it out for him. And due to it’s understated woods and appointments, he dubbed it “The Workingman’s Venus.” Tonally, this guitar has a wonderful air to it, and with the tones rolled back in single mode, has a fantastic trumpet-like honk to it. Very cool sounding guitar.

#042 Herbie 217

All of the wood (except for the ebony) for this guitar came from a tree named Herbie which stood just a few miles from my shop, and was the oldest and largest Dutch Elm left in New England. When Herbie came down, the wood was made available to local artisans, so I pounced on the opportunity to build a guitar from it. Proceeds from the ensuing auction went to the Herbie Project, a trust to plant and maintain new street-trees in Yarmouth. The Elm made for an excellent-sounding guitar–in combination with the P-90s, it sounded like a vintage Junior-type guitar.

#040 MBAO-5 Hollow Rim Bass

This was a totally collaborative effort from start to finish with a local player who has been in the business for a long time. It started with a project to build a neck for one of his existing basses, which in turn became a new bass from the ground up. It basically brought the old faithful P-Bass into the new age–with a 35” scale, 5-string neck for more punch and clarity, and a hollow Swamp Ash body to keep the weight down and give a nice airy, wooden, vintage tone.

#035 Venus Hollow-Rim

This was my first Hollow Rim guitar with F-Holes. It is also the guitar that I get the most email correspondence from. It has a very thick, sweet, open tone with killer sustain, yet with no problem cutting through a mix.

#034 Venus Custom

The Dave Gutter Signature Model– Dave’s love of Hendrix lead us to a dream he’s always had of having an upside-down guitar. So we figured on building a “lefty flipped righty”, but still wiring it as a righty (so the electronics aren’t in your armpit). I showed him this piece of Purpleheart that I had in the shop, and he was hooked…and he left the rest to me. This guitar made its debut at Rustic’s Machigonne Festival here in Portland with them playing a killer set, followed by them joining Ray Lamontagne as his band for a set.

#031 V6

It’s not often that a customer supplies the wood for his instrument, but in this case, my friend and local musician did just that. The Pine and Curly Maple came from an old timber frame barn that he took apart and moved when building a new house for his family. And as you can see in the pics, we left the cracks in the maple open to go along with the rustic “barny” feel. We ended up with a very articulate bass that can drop a very tight low-end and crisp, cutting highs.

#030 Venus HollowRim

This guitar was commissioned after some lengthy emails about specific preferences in tone, players, etc, and they ended with something along the lines of, “I’d like to give you the opportunity to build something that you may not have been asked to do yet…” and the rest was left to me, no progress pics, no more discussion. His only guidelines going in were: Hollow Rim, Rosewood fingerboard, P-90s, and fingerboard dots. It was definitely daunting at times not knowing if he was going to like the woods that I chose, but in the end he was–and is–still thrilled.

#029 Venus Classic

Awesome project from start to finish. This guitar was built for a guy who is really into John Mayer/SRV-style players, and it remains one of my favorite sounding guitars that I’ve built, which could be due to the fact that I’m a Strat guy. I thought it came out something like a Strat with some serious cojones. Adding the Curly Maple top to the traditional Alder body and the Ebony board in place of the standard Rosewood yielded a such a present, snappy, ballsy sounding guitar with incredible sustain. It just rang…I need to build more of these.

#026 Venus Myka Custom

This was a collaborative project between me and David Myka. We decided to do a trade of our guitars with the stipulation that we had to use a Spruce top with a laminated hardwood veneer, and we had to use Macassar Ebony. What resulted was two very cool guitars–the idea of laminating to the Spruce was to see if we could still achieve a fat jazz tone while changing the appearance of the Spruce. I think the Spruce’s response ended up tightening up, which is helpful for guitars like this which are played at high volumes.

#016 Venus Multi-Lam

#015 Venus MultiLam

The combination of this harder Spalted Maple on Mahogany body and neck made for a wonderfully open, resonant guitar with no mushy top-end. Almost into the Les Paul vein without the weight.

#014 The Mandizzle

My second go at an F-Style went a lot smoother than the first (though it still took forever to build…). Right off the bat, this thing was LOUD, so I can only assume that more years of playing will make it an awesome sounding mando. I’m looking forward to building the next one.

#013 The Mango

My first attempt at a F-Style Mandolin, and it sure has some bark to it. It ended up a lot louder that I was expecting, and it continues to open up over the years. See the About Page for some back story to this one.

#012 Venus MultiLam

This guitar was built for a teacher I had back in the early ‘90s, who is now a good friend of mine. He got me playing the bass in my first band, which he put together with me and a couple other students. He also introduced me to Phish, which changed my life implicitly. We kept in touch, and after talking guitars for years, he commissioned this guitar and it remains one of the guitars people inquire about most. The soft Spalted Maple top mellows the dark, woody tone of the Wenge out very nicely. Then the plates of Curly Maple and Paduak added some nice articulate snap to the high end.

#011 Venus

#010 Venus

#009 Venus

#008 Venus Hollow Rim

#007 Venus Hollow-Rim

This was the first guitar to feature my Hollow Rim design. My thoughts were to create a fully hollow sounding guitar without the cost and time associated with building a true Archtop. So this one is fully hollow except for a small block underneath the bridge–it’s not a semi-hollow, it’s not a true hollowbody. I also left enough wood to get my contoured arm bevel and belly cut, so it remains as comfortable as my other guitars. Tonally, this guitar is extremely versatile. The Mahogany gives a wonderful warmth and sustain while the Zebrawood adds some bite.

#006 Venus MultiLam

This is the one guitar that I’ve been able to keep around here as a test guitar for customers. It also was used extensively by Dave Gutter in the recording of the Rustic Overtones’ album New Way Out while I built his guitar. The Wenge body and neck give this guitar a nice woody, dark tone and some midrange bite, while the Ebony fingerboard allows for some solid snap.

#005 Venus

Another from the first run, this guitar was a trial in woods other than the norms. I love the sound of Myrtle–it’s similar to Maple but warmer with some more inherent resonance. It also has that perfect wide curl like Maple. The addition of the Wenge neck gave it a mid-range scoop and an organic, woody tone with great sustain.

#004 Hawg Prototype

#003 Venus

This was one of the first run of OW Guitars. I had a piece of Quilted Maple that had been sliced wrong–if it’s quartered, a lot of times you only see the Quilt on the edges instead of the flats of the board. So it wouldn’t make a nice top. But I was obsessed with Padauk at the time, so it made for a great looking body. Very crisp tone, cut through the mix without a problem.

#002 Venus Purpetrator Multi-Lam

“The Hippie Sandwich.” A 31-piece body with a racing stripe down the middle and some of the curliest Purpleheart I’ve ever seen. The owner is a good buddy from college—he made and added the Spider, which has since become a coverplate for a battery, as we recently added the Garcia wiring. Tonally, this guitar can do anything. All of these laminates create this resonating mass that will sustain forever, give you the snap of a Strat, or the fat crunch of an LP, while still cutting through a mix and remaining articulate.

#001 Venus Prototype

This was the very first Venus, built in my first shop in Gardiner, NY. The Venus name came after my shop-dog Venus, who was underfoot in the shop at all times. Very cool sounding guitar from the start—very Stratty when you want it, but also very full in Series mode. This was my plan with the Venus from the start—take what I love of both Fender and Gibson guitars and marry the two. Being that this guitar is always around, it has become a guinea-pig for all new modifications. As it is now, it has the Garcia wiring. I’m sure it’s just a matter of time before I throw a middle pickup in there.

#000 FuCaster

The FuCaster was the first guitar I ever Built. It originally had a Bocote pickup ring and control plate, which we swapped out years later when I made the black ThinLine pickguard for it. The Barden “Gatton” pickups are my absolute favorite for the Tele souund. With 5-Way switching the tonal versatility is stunning. Luckily, this guitar lives nearby so I can still get my hands on it here and there.