New Hot Rod Pattern – Engine Turned Aluminum Guitar

If you love show cars and hot rods, you’ve seen engine turned aluminum used on everything from truck beds to tailgates. I found a paper that looks just like the swirled pattern so that you can get the engine turned look on your guitar while preserving the traditional wooden guitar tone. For my first experiment, I took the finish a step further by spraying a transparent candy apple red over the pattern to get a holographic look that really jumps. It ended up being my top attention-getter at the Nashville guitar show. Continue reading

Custom Short Scale Bass with Long Scale Bass Sound

Having been a mechanic for 25 years, Don was troubled with hand flexibility issues that made it hard to continue playing his 34” 4-string bass. He was looking for a short scale bass that would still sound like a long scale and would be comfortable and lightweight enough to play from his favorite chair. We talked about how to customize a bass that would fit his needs. Continue reading

Own a Silver Sparkle Paisley? Here’s the Original Buckocaster

In the spring of 2003, Brad Paisley called me with a question. “How can we combine your paisley design with Buck and Don’s sparkle guitars?” We decided a great foundation would be his heroes’ coolest guitars: the silver sparkle Telecaster with black binding. I had built a few guitars with black paisley print on white paper, and we felt the black and silver would make a great combination. Of course, the guitar must have black binding, too. It sounded like a great idea, but I wasn’t sure I could pull this off.

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