One of the great pleasures of working here at Sweetwater HQ is that, literally every day, a cool new piece of gear comes in. This is particularly true with guitars; an incredible number of limited editions, custom one-offs, and other truly special guitars enter this building on a regular basis. I try to see as many as I can – I can’t help it, I just have to put my eyes on them. The downside is that those of us who work here end up walking around with tremendous cases of incurable gear lust. Every time I think I’ve lusted after my last guitar, something new comes in that blows me away! It’s a heavy cross to bear, but I hold up the best I can – it’s just one of the aspects of working in a “candy store” that we have to deal with.
This week was particularly fun. As part of our biweekly training for our Sales Engineers, a wide array of rare and unusual guitars were brought out. I was fortunate enough to grab some quality time in a room with these guitars – as well as a reissue Fender Deluxe Reverb and a Marshall JVM. Here’s a whirlwind tour of the instruments I was allowed to examine, fondle, and play; all I can say is that some lucky players are going to be very happy when these guitars show up at their new homes.
Icons of Glory
First up, I sat down with the three members of the Fender/Sweetwater Icon series. What’s an “Icon” series? Well, the Icon series consists of guitars that were custom-designed by our crew here, then built by the Fender Custom Shop to our specs. The members of this extremely limited-edition series were designed based on three of the most iconic electric guitars out there – instruments that were used by some of the most influential guitarists on the planet.
The first Strat I picked up, economically named the Fender Custom Shop Sweetwater Icon Series ’56 Stratocaster Heavy Relic, has a relic’d Black nitro finish on a ’56-style alder body and a well-worn ’57-style soft-V maple neck. The tremolo isn’t blocked as it is on a certain other black Strat, but you’ll find it no problem to capture classic English blues tones with this guitar. The Custom Shop Fat ’50s pickups have a round, well-balanced sound, with staggered Alnico V magnets and Formvar wire. Cool touches abound, such as the bone nut; clay fingerboard dots; and relic’d white pickguard, knobs, pickup covers, and selector cap. The entire instrument resonates when you play it, with wonderful sustain and rich tone. Whether distorted or clean, there’s clarity and punch. The neck is very comfortable, with a worn-in feel and easy action.
Next on the row was the Fender Custom Shop Sweetwater Icon Series ’60 Stratocaster Heavy Relic. This guitar features a heavily worn 3 Color Sunburst nitro finish on a ’60 alder body, with a satisfyingly chunky ’51 Nocaster neck profile with a 12″ radius on the rosewood fingerboard. Gold hardware and hand-wound Texas Special pickups give you Austin-approved tones, while 6100-sized frets make it easy to play, even with heavy strings. Clay fingerboard dots and a bone nut are among the appointments. When you pick up this guitar, you can’t help but to launch into Texas-flavored blues licks. With the big frets, it plays easily, with a ringing sound and a lot of tonal flexibility.
Take a Tele, add a PAF-style humbucker at the neck, and you’ll have a powerful rhythm guitar that could launch a ton of British Invasion hits – especially if you pull off the low E string and tune it to open G. That’s exactly what the Fender Custom Shop Sweetwater Icon Series ’51 Nocaster Relic is all about. It sports an ash ’51 Nocaster body and black Nocaster ‘guard. A ’52 U-style neck gives you plenty of wood to grip, while the Custom Classic-style 6-saddle bridge maintains perfect intonation. A bone nut, a hand-wound Nocaster bridge pickup, and a white Strat pickup selector knob round things out. But the heart of this baby is the Seymour Duncan ’59 humbucker that’s loaded into the neck position. In G tuning, switched to that fat but clear neck pickup, you can’t avoid breaking into a long litany of classic songs.
Cabronita Especial
If you’re looking for a slightly different take on a Tele, then the La Cabronita Especial may excite you as much as it did me. Only 40 of these guitars will be made by Fender – 20 in relic Gold and 20 in relic Black. These guitars have a lightweight alder body, a one-piece C-shaped maple neck, and a 9.5″-radius fingerboard with 6105 narrow-jumbo frets. But the big deal is the pair of TV Jones Classic “Filtertron” pickups. They provide the expected spanky/twangy clean tones, but push them through an amp like the Marshall JVM, and you’ll be amazed. They come alive with crunch and sustain, while maintaining clarity and dynamics. Not to rave, but I love the sound of this guitar. It’s not quite a humbucker – though, with the S1 switching, you’ll get more PAF-style tones – and it’s definitely not a single-coil. But, it has that open top end and sparkle, with plenty of growl, meat, and punch. You could use it for country, rock, grunge, and even jazz.
Happy Anniversary!
I recently had the amazing experience of seeing all 25 of the Gibson Custom 1959 50th Anniversary Les Paul Standards in the Sweetwater-exclusive Rubyburst finish – that’s all that will be made – being rolled in for their Guitar Gallery portraits. It was quite a sight! But, this is the first chance I’ve had to really sit down and play one. So, what’s the big deal? It’s just another vintage reissue, right?
In a word, “no.” This is anything but “just another reissue.” For these anniversary Pauls, Gibson’s luthiers analyzed several original vintage ’59 Les Pauls to achieve the most accurate re-creation of any of their reissue instruments. These guitars are not the same as any previous reissue. Here are just a few of the differences:
- Vintage-corrected body shape
- Slightly thicker mahogany body
- 3-degree angle pickup route
- Taller, vintage-correct neck heel
- Slightly thinner maple cap
- More-accurate carved top
- Slightly thinner fretboard
- Wireless ABR-1 bridge for tighter response
- Brass bridge saddles
- Lightweight aluminum stopbar tailpiece
- Historically correct pickguard shape and placement
- Historically correct backplate and switchplate
- Historically correct 1″-diameter jack plate hole
- Vintage-correct dial pointers
These guitars are lightweight, but they’re not weight relieved or chambered. They feature a solid one-piece mahogany body, which is historically correct. The reason for the lighter weight is that Gibson used a better grade of Honduran mahogany, which is from the higher part of the tree and therefore farther from the water line.
With the Rubyburst finish on the figured maple top, this is a gorgeous guitar. And, its playability matches its looks. Further, it sounds even better than it plays and looks. With a real ’59 Standard going for way more than my house is worth, odds are I’ll never own one. But now that I’ve played this reissue, I feel as though I’ve come as close as I can get. The cool thing is that, although these are clearly guitars collectors will drool over, they’re not so expensive that they can’t be played and enjoyed — it would be a shame to lock one away in a display case when it’s such a great instrument. When these 25 are gone (actually there are less than that available as I write this), that’s it, they’re gone for good!
Going Acoustic
I couldn’t resist picking up two Taylor acoustic guitars that were lounging off to the side of the room. It turns out that both were one-of-a-kind instruments. The first one I grabbed was the Taylor Grand Concert Koa CE Custom, which features beautiful AA koa wood for the back and sides, with a Sitka spruce top – and even koa binding with abalone edging. A bone nut and saddle, a Taylor Expression system, and a 3-ring koa rosette join a slotted peghead, a Florentine cutaway, and a Natural Shaded Edge Burst finish. This guitar sounds and feels great, and it looks simply beautiful, with powerful tone and rich body.
Next up was the Taylor DN Series Macassar Ebony dreadnought acoustic — take a look at the photos to see the incredible wood used to craft this guitar! And it looks even more stunning in person. Besides the ebony back and sides, the guitar has an Adirondack spruce top, a bone nut, a bone saddle, a Taylor Expression pickup system, and more. There’s no pickguard on this dreadnought, so you can really see all of the beautiful, subtle figuring in the top. This guitar plays like a dream and sounds excellent — it rings like a bell and has a depth and a richness that incites you to keep playing.
Speaking of depth and richness, if you’ve never played a Brazilian rosewood acoustic before, then the next guitar on your “must try” list should be the Taylor Grand Auditorium Brazilian Rosewood LTD. This is a Sweetwater exclusive, and only seven will be made — there just ain’t that much great Brazilian rosewood left, so don’t pass this up. The guitar has a figured mahogany neck, a Sinker redwood top, an ebony fretboard and bridge, Adirondack spruce bracing, koa binding, abalone rosette with bound soundhole, a mother-of-pearl peghead inlay, a bone nut and saddle, a Taylor Expression system… everything about this instrument is top of the line, best of the best. But all that aside, it plays like butter and sounds spectacular. This guitar is the definition of “great acoustic guitar tone.” There’s also a dreadnought version of this guitar, and it sports an Adirondack spruce top — only seven of those will be made, as well — and a Grand Concert CE limited edition version with an Adirondack spruce top is also available.
There will only be six of the next guitar, plus it may have the longest name of any instrument in this article, so you know it’s cool! The Gibson Acoustic Limited Edition Master Archetype Custom J-45 Macassar Ebony acoustic guitar is a classic advanced jumbo design with exotic tonewoods and appointments, including AAA African Macassar ebony back and sides, 1930s advanced jumbo bracing, African ebony fingerboard and bridge, Custom Shop rope top trim, Custom Shop 1.77″ nut width, handmade Plate “Legend” tuners, a Sitka spruce top, and a handwritten label signed by Luthier Ren Ferguson himself. The guitar has a punchy, full sound, with smooth and easy-playing action, good sustain, and nice sparkle.
That’s All I Can Take
There were several other guitars in the room as well, including a Fender David Gilmour Signature Strat (the neck was thinner than I expected, but all the tone was there!), a Gibson Robbie Krieger Signature SG, Gibson SJ200 Super Jumbo Limited Editions, and ’64 Tele Relics, but full descriptions will have to wait for another article — I just don’t think I can handle any more guitar lust right now. My credit card is cringing in fear…
