Finished in December 1987

The story:

In 1985 I already had around 15 years of repair experience, and was disappointed by the many flaws in factory made guitars, including the ones I worked on at the Washburn custom shop in Chicago where I worked at the time, I decided that it was high time I built one for myself.

I had some Swamp Ash that I fished out of the trash at work, and a collection of mismatched parts that I had accumulated over time.  I only had to invest in fret wire, some other woods, a few more parts and tools.  The swamp ash was not bad, just to small for the instruments we were making there at the time.

I was not exactly sure about what I wanted it to be, as much as I was sure of what I wanted it not to be.  I knew I did not want to copy a known makers design, like way to many guitar builders do.  I knew that I did not want to have to tune it every five minutes, or even have to give it a setup more than twice a year.  I knew I did not want it to weigh enough to hurt my back.  I knew I wanted technology, not tradition, but most of all I did not want to sacrifice anything to keep the cost down or save time, like manufacturers do.  In the end, it turns out that I knew very well what I wanted after all.

Materials used:

The body is Northern American swamp ash (Fraxinus pennsylvanica) AKA Green Ash (called swamp ash when it comes from a swampy region), with an African Padauk (Pterocarpus soyauxii) top that includes the lighter colored sapwood, and the theme is continued through the fret marker inlays.  The neck joint is accented with rosewood and padauk, and the neck is Bavarian Rock Maple with an East Indian Rosewood (Dalbergia latifolia) fingerboard bound in padauk.  The head stock has a padauk face and a rosewood back overlay and my logo is inlaid with maple and rosewood.

The body, pickup and electronics cavities are also bound in rosewood and padauk.  The electronics cavity lids are padauk over aluminum shielding plates and bound in rosewood too.  The switch plate is rosewood, and the switch and tuner knobs are also rosewood and padauk.  I put the tuning knobs away until such time that I can find or make the right screws to mount them with, since the tapered heads of the original ones can split the wood.

The volume and tone knobs are swamp ash with padauk tops and rosewood binding, and sport triangular abalone position markers surrounded by rosewood.  I started with a different design and made one knob, but I was afraid it would break to easy as it had some thin spots.  here is a picture of it:

The triangular side fret markers are abalone surrounded by rosewood and flash in succession when the guitar is turned in light.

For the 12th. fret, the side marker is an Australian fire opal (my birth stone), and the face marker is a scene, showing a sterling silver and brass spaceship approaching an abalone planet with a turquoise moon.  In the background is a lapis planet, stainless steel stars and two red dwarf stars which are garnets.