The Fishin' Musician's Custom Guitar

Well Folks, Ron Brandt has undertaken a project which should prove to be a musical masterpiece. The new instrument is what he calls his "wish-list guitar" incorporating the elements and features that have developed his taste in guitars over the years.
The body is being built from the ground up with raw, Hawaiian, unshaped, Koa tonewood chosen from an exotic woods supplier in Sacramento, Ca.. It will be a 2-piece koa core with a flamed koa top and back.


The pickups and electronics are going to be rear mounted thus avoiding a pickguard so the flamed front is not obscured.


The neck is a Tom Anderson strat-type of solid Pau Ferro wood. Ron found this rare piece in a repair shop and emailed the Tom Anderson factory for any insight. Tom Anderson himself replied and said that the necks were discontinued years ago when the Anderson company stopped selling parts and concentrated on selling complete guitars. Tom Anderson was surprised to hear any of these unused necks still existed.



To go along with his "other hobby", fishing, Ron contracted inlay artist Amy Hopkins to do some custom artwork on the neck. As fate would have it, His project coincided with an inlay seminar Amy was about to attend and the Anderson neck became her working model at the seminar. Renowned Martin Guitar inlay artist, David Nichols, lead the seminar and helped Amy fine tune her skills as she performed her magic on the neck. The inlay designs are inspired by the various species of saltwater game fish Ron has caught in his years trips to Florida, Jamaica, Hawaii, St. Lucia and other exotic destinations. The headstock is the crowned jewel of Amy's work. It features a marlin jumping from a sea of abalone. As you can see, the artwork is truly exquisite.



With the inlay work completed, the frets will be installed next. The frets used are very tall. Much taller than most guitarists prefer. In fact they are bass guitar frets! The same used by Stevie Ray Vaughn and Ron's mentor, Jeff Rutter. High frets lend to better intonation, longer wear and ease of bending. The nut material will be bone.

The pickups look like the standard strat-style but are actually 2 single coils "stacked" to achieve the hum cancellation that normally plagues a single coil while still maintaining the traditional warmth and expressive quack of a Fender strat. They manufacturer of these pickups is Australian audio engineer, Chris Kinman . Jeff, Paul and Ron are always searching for the ultimate tone and have been very impressed with the Kinman products. The set used by Ron is called the Kinman AVn Traditional '56 / '56 / '62. This set best compliments the early Fender tones of the '50s. A 5 position selector switch will be used along with single master volume and tone controls. The guitar's completion is anticipated this spring, 2001.

Ron's choice for a guitar strap is a padded Levy plain black leather strap with Schaller strap locks which he uses on all of his guitars. The tuning machine heads are the traditional Klusen-type from AllParts. AllParts also supplied the rest of the gold hardware including the hard tail bridge, volume/tone controls and neck plate. Ron will continue to provide pictures as the instrument is further developed. Rest assured this new guitar will be seen and heard on stage this year!


The body was cut in early March. The "flamed" grain of the koa will stand out more prevalently when oiled, and apparently there are several shades or depths to make the wood dark enough without obscuring the grain. Then it's really just a matter of assembling the components and setting up the instrument per his personal preferences.
They also asked if the guitar could be shown at the Nashville Guitar Symposium held on March 20. The builders have a booth at the show and would like to use the guitar as an example of the custom work they are capable of.

FINALLY THE FINISHED PRODUCT!

The guitar builders next sent a sneak preview picture of the newly completed guitar which is being shipped April 30th, 2001. The tension now mounts with the big question of will it sound as good as it looks? Ron said the answer to this will be provided at the next Cryan' Shames concert!.






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