Guitar Noize - guitar news, crazy guitar designs and cool guitar videos

I’m not sure where I saw Longfellow guitars but it was probably on PremierGuitar.com or GuitarSite recently and I thought they looked very cool. At first I saw the model that looks like a battered Gretsch called the ‘Primo’ then I checked out the rest of the gallery and noticed there are Tele style guitars, Mustang style guitars and guitars that look like they have a fat lip which houses a speaker!

The guitars themselves are made from Aluminium 1050A which after a quick google seems to be aircraft grade metal. The metal is welded and brushed then coated with a thin coat of hardening twin pack matte lacquer which seals the aluminium and gives the guitar a clear tough finish. Pickguards are stainless steel or annodised aluminium. The necks are cast aluminium which are CNC machined to achieve the appropriate relief which means there is no need for a truss rod. These are then bolted or welded to the bodies.

When I was thinking about posting a special guitar for Halloween one guitar maker sprung immediately to mind, McSwain Guitars, yes I know I have already featured them many times before but nobody pulls off hammer horror-esque guitars quite like them.

Frankenstein is a chambered Mahogany body with a Maple top and a 3 piece Mahogany neck. The fingerboard is Ebony, Maple and Purple Heart that is stitched together with Leather cord! The border (can’t really call it a binding) is also stitched over black epoxy and red leather dye. Apparently this guitar is owned by Ben Moody, co-founder of Evanescence although he parted company with the band back in 2003, he has been collaborating with people ever since but last year worked with Celine Dion… erm…

After featuring Johnson Guitars’ Egyptian series I thought I had to revisit their site to feature this crazy guitar, the Johnson Guitars German Tornado is the kind of guitar I expect Steve Stevens would have played the Top Gun theme tune on! And just in case you would like to reenact cold war dog fights they also have an F-15 Eagle and a Russian Mig to choose from. All made from tropical American Mahogany and Maple neck with an Ebony fingerboard.

I can’t imagine for a minute that any of these guitars would be very comfortable to play but they will certainly raise a few eyebrows and probably get a few laughs too as you riiiiide in to the danger zone! Now to get you in the mood watch this video!

Thankfully in this time of financial fears and global glumness someone has a sense of humour, or maybe they don’t and they are really serious? I’m not sure but the guitar pictured left is called the ‘Anubis’. Anubis according to the ever useful Wikipedia was a jackal-headed human who was often shown attending to the mummies of the deceased or sitting atop a tomb protecting it. In fact, during embalming, the “head embalmer” wore an Anubis costume. Although Anubis wasn’t usually depicted with such a long neck!

This guitar is actually part of a series, other Egyptian figures include Apophis, Bast, Horus and Osiris whose lovely golden Bigsby tremelo falls in quite an unfortunate place!

The guitar has an African Mahongany body and a Maple neck with one of the craziest headstock designs I’ve ever seen. Also the Ebony fingerboard has hand cut abalone inlays and these of course are Pyramid inlays! All the hardware is Gold of course and the guitar is hand painted, signed and dated.

I have featured the work of guitar graphic artist Jim Fogarty a couple of times on Guitar Noize for the Union Flag Twin Neck guitar but Jim recently contacted me to let me know he has finished the artwork on a special Leverty Guitar project. The Guardian guitar pictured left is something Jim started designed back in 2001, since then this has been an in-house project that I guess he has fit around his busy schedule hence the delay. This photo was shot before the guitar had been lacquered which will really bring the guitar to life. I will post a photo of the finished product once Jim’s partner in Leverty Custom Guitars, Dick Levens has finished the build but I can tell you it is a one piece Mahogany body and will have a one piece Maple neck with Ebony fingerboard.

So enjoy this little preview and if you want to see the entire painting process, which I think is an amazing collection of photographs showing the initial outlines all the way to the finished product (over 100 photos in all) head over to the Guardian guitar project page on Jim fogarty’s website.

Last month I featured a couple of Gibson’s “Inspired By” series guitars, the Kiefer Sutherland KS336 and the Okuda Tamio Les Paul OT Special. Well Gibson just added the Zakk Wylde ZV Buzzsaw pictured above to the range which has to be one of the ugliest guitars Gibson have ever produced.  The ZV in case you aren’t aware is a Zakk Wylde creation that is a cross between the classic Gibson Flying V and SG guitars. I’m not sure where or when the orange buzzsaw graphic came about but I have seen it on an Epiphone Zakk Les Paul and it is just nasty compared to his classic black and white bullseye design.

So how does this guitar shape up, well it is solid mahogany, ebony finish top and back with a 3 piece maple neck. The fingerboard is single bound ebony
with pearl block inlays. It has EMG 81 and EMG 85 active humbuckers and a V shaped tail plate with Nashville Tune-o-matic bridge. I’m sure some metal heads or Zakk fans will want this guitar but its not going on my wishlist.

They say “This guitar is something a little different for Gibson, but it’s a lot of fun!“

There are 2 things I find really interesting about this Scott French SF3 guitar. The first is the bridge which resembles the bridge of a traditional bowed instrument such as a Violin and the nut which, well kind of doesn’t exist and is instead replace with individual guides:

“Open notes sound the same as fretted notes with a Zero Fret. Directly mounted Individual String Guides are solidly mated with the neck. The elements are round to match the circular theme established with the Braille logo, truss rod cover, tuner posts, knobs, etc. They also help avoid the ugly butt joints usually used with normal bar shaped nuts.“ - check out a close up image here.

There isn’t so much information available about the bridge other than that it is a custom Ebony bridge with Graphite saddles. This custom bridge has been created with a radius that allows the strings to be bowed, obviously trying to bow an individual string on a traditional flat radius bridge is very tricky. A custom pair of Nordstrand humbuckers have been created for this guitar which also follow the radius of the bridge.

The only problem with this guitar would be that it would be hard to play normally so it is a very specific kind of guitar but this is obviously a one off created for Austin Amberg. The normal version of the SF3 has a Hipshot Baby Grand bridge so no need to buy a bow for it!

Check this guitar out, this is one of the craziest and amazing guitars I think I have ever seen. How many guitars have you seen that can stand up on their own feet? their Dragon feet! This incredible creation is the latest guitar from Emerald Guitars Custom Shop which is a Dragon called Bahamut. The exciting thing is that the new Taiwanese owner Lee Hom ordered this guitar as a special centre piece for his world tour after seeing The Alien on Guitar Noize! Now the Alien was pretty amazing in itself but I can’t even comprehend how a guitar like this is created.

“The body is a chinese dragon that is twisted into the shape of a treble cleff and to top it all off we added another little dragon on the headstock. The body is hand shaped out of a special foam and then covered in carbon fibre to keep it both light and strong. The body is then completed with a special chrome paint that gives a beautiful metal look. Of course there always has to be a little something extra and in this case it is the red lasers in the eyes. on stage with some smoke these just look amazing.“

“As with all my guitars it is only part of the deal making it look good, it also has to play and sound great and this baby meets all these criteria. The Carbon neck makes a super stable structure so a perfect set up will stay a perfect set up and with stainless frets you wont even need to worry about fret wear. Its got a beautiful deep tone also due to the twin humbuckers and the extra dense centre section of the guitar.“

The amazing thing about this guitar is that it was completed in just 6 weeks, Alistair from Emerald tells me he was doing 14 hour days in order to get the instrument finished in time. I’m sure you will agree it was certainly worth the effort!

How about this for one of the most unique solutions to travel guitar design? The Stow-Away™ looks like a cross between a Fender Stratocaster and a Steinberger when not packed in a suitcase with a few classic Strat finish variations available, red, black, sunburst and the Deluxe model which has an Amber finish with Figured Maple over an Alder body, a Maple neck with a 22 fret Rosewood fingerboard and 2 Seymour Duncan Humbuckers as opposed to the standard version which has 3 Alnico Pole Single Coil pickups but these can be upgraded before the guitar is shipped should you wish. Both versions have Graph-Tech Saddles.

The key design element of this guitar stems from Stewart Guitars’ trademark ‘Clip Joint Neck Connector‘ which allows the neck to be quickly removed (without tools) for easy travel or compact storage. When disassembled, the neck of the Stow-Away™ can be stored in a diagonal storage cavity in the back of the guitar body.  (See photo above.)  The Stow-Away™ can then be discretely stored and in a well padded carrying case (included).

Check out this video to see just how quickly and easily the Stow-Away can be disassembled! This guitar is available from $400 via the Stewart Guitars’ website and they also run a “Loaner Program” so that you can try before you buy.

John Backlund started out as an Illustrator in the 70’s, entirely self taught John has always had an eye for Retro design. Although over the years he has had many jobs and sideline interests he seems to have finally found his niche with the design of this amazing Retro look guitars and amplifiers. John has teamed up with Bruce Bennett, a luthier for 30 years who has worked for Gibson (well to be specific he says the Steinberger/Tobias division in Nashville) and Warrior Guitars. He also designs custom effects pedals and amps. The third member of the partnership is Kevin Maxfield, a guitarist for many years who has been working with Bruce since 2002 designing and building inexpensive hot rod guitars.

Well the combination seems to be working as they have created the JBD100, check out the gallery page for some great hi-res shots. You can choose to customize the guitar when you order by choosing which 2 colours you would like from a pre-defined colour palette. This palette updates the photo of the guitar so that you can see exactly how your guitar will look. Aside from the colour you can choose which wood you prefer for the body, a choice of Mahogany, Alder, Basswood or Maple. You can also chooseeither a Maple or Mahogany neck and a Maple, Rosewood or Ebony fingerboard. But the coolest custom feature I like for this guitar is rather than choosing the DiMarzio or Seymour Duncan pickups, both of which are an option, you can choose to have colour matched Lace Sensor Alumitone™ Pickups. If you take a look at this photo to see a close up. I didn’t know anything about these pickups but I found a whole load of information at, surprise surprise, Lace Music Products’ site.

“This radical departure from pickup design is aluminum based, rather than copper. Result: less resistance, higher output coupled to a “current driven design” as opposed to conventional voltage based pickups. More bass then traditional single coils, more volume, mids are slightly more then conventional pickups. Highs are clear yet smooth, nicely equalized.“