Another one I decided needed some more visual interest.
This is how it looked when I built it in 2015:
And now…
Body is sassafras, chambered, with chalk paint over milk paint, and distressed.
Control plates are antique door hardware.
Pickguard is cut from the face plate of a produce scale.
Pickups are my homespun humbuckers, bridge: 8kohms dcr, neck: 7.1kohms dcr.
Weighs 7.2 pounds.
Second in the series of guitars for Rail Yard Studios.
The top on this one is pine bead board with its original green paint, salvaged from the doors of the old railroad freight station in Watertown, Tennessee.
The rest of the wood is salvaged from the decking of decommissioned railroad cars.
Control plates are antique door hardware, pickguard is rusted roof tin, and the tailpiece is an antique cast iron drawer pull.
This is the first of a series of guitars in collaboration with Rail Yard Studios, made from a couple different species of mahogany-like timber salvaged from the decking of rail cars built to carry coils of steel.
This is one I got bored with and decided to get a little psychedelic with. I made it three years ago, and it looked like this….
So I painted the top pink, and added some more grunginess, but then the pickguard didn’t go with it so well, and so I made a new one for it. Don’t worry, I only use records that have become more or less unplayable. This one was also missing the second disk of the album. I also aged the bridge and pickup covers, and made a new switch plate from an old die-cast metal 45 rpm adapter. Oh, and some vintage Heathkit audio knobs so the controls can be set to the heart of the sun, of course.
Body: Four piece salvaged beech, hollowed
Neck: Bolt on, hard maple, with black locust fretboard
Pickups: Dismal homespun humbuckers
bridge~ 7.3K ohms
neck~ 6.0K ohms
Tuners: Kluson
Bridge: Compensated stopbar tailpiece
Pickguard: Vinyl LP record.
Weight: 7.5 lbs
This was a custom commission for Robert Hendrick, owner of Rail Yard Studios in Nashville, as a graduation present for his daughter.
All the wood is salvaged from the decking of railroad cars built to carry coils of steel, and he has been using it in some amazing pieces of furniture, along with other big heavy stuff from the railroad industry. I have no idea what actual species it is, but it is a mahogany-like timber from some tropical region of the world.
Since I only use local and/or salvaged woods in my instruments, this was a rather interesting opportunity for me.
The New York Central Railroad disappeared in 1968, into a convoluted series of mergers, with most of the original lines now being operated by CSX, though much equipment still bears NYC reporting marks.
The body is heavily chambered, with a 1/4″ top sawn from the weathered original surface of the plank, and finished with milk paint in a rough approximation of faded “Century Green”, as used by the NYC in the late 60’s, carrying over into the Penn Central merger through the 70’s.
The pickguard is rusted roof tin, and the NYC emblem is from a 1950’s post cereal box.
Bridge and tuners are by Hipshot, and pickups are homespun by me.
Another Salamander, this one with a yellow poplar top with a gouged surface, on a buckeye back with a hammered and antiqued finish.
Neck is walnut, with an osage orange fretboard.
.82″ thick at 1st fret, .93″ at 12th. 1.68″ nut width.
Pickups are homespun humbuckers with alnico 5 polepieces, in aluminum casings.
Bridge~ 5400 turns per coil, 8Kohms DCR
Neck~ 4800 turns per coil, 6.8Kohms DCR
Brass compensated bridge/tailpiece combo and Hipshot classic tuners.
Weighs 6.5 pounds
sold
Haven’t done one of these in a while.
Top is one piece of salvaged chestnut barnwood, on a cucumbertree back with a hammered finish.
Neck is maple, with an osage orange fretboard, medium C-profile, .81″ at 1st fret, .90″ at 12th. 1.68″ wide at nut, 2.18″ at heel.
Bridge pickup is a homespun T-style single coil with alnico 5 polepieces and 12,000 turns, 9.6k ohms dcr.
Neck pickup is a homespun humbucker in a machined aluminum casing, with alnico 5 polepieces. Front coil has 6,000 turns, back has 4,000. Total dcr is 7.2k ohms.
Hipshot Classic open-back tuners, Kluson USA tuneomatic bridge.
Tailpiece is made from a 1950’s Ford V-8 fender emblem, strung through the back.
Pickguard is made from a 1973 Tennesse license plate.
Weighs 7 pounds.
$2250 including case and domestic shipping.
Available directly.
gwen@dismalax.com
