Lowe Guitars shop notes

[BTL]

Here's a better picture of the Paradise Teeluxe and the framed study for the graphic.

[BTL]

Today was just nuts.

[BTL]

Today was what? You guessed it: Even more nuts.

[BTL]

Buttoning down a custom order conversion neck with a reverse headstock, birdseye fretboard, and blocks. I installed and chased the threaded inserts, then installed the machines and string retainer. 

This one's ready to ship. There will be a flurry of activity between now and moving day, January 2nd.

[Shadoweclipse13]

Nice looking necks and work in general Brad, but your string "tree" here is REALLY cool looking. I like it a lot!!!

[BTL]

Nice looking necks and work in general Brad, but your string "tree" here is REALLY cool looking. I like it a lot!!!

Thanks, they're from Hipshot. They will be my standard retainers going forward. This is the first time I've used them, but my first impression is they are vastly superior to the vintage style trees.

[Shadoweclipse13]

... my first impression is they are vastly superior to the vintage style trees.

That's a fairly low bar to hit But Hipshot's stuff is great! I've got a couple of their bridges and tuners, and I love all of their stuff.

[BTL]

... my first impression is they are vastly superior to the vintage style trees.

That's a fairly low bar to hit But Hipshot's stuff is great! I've got a couple of their bridges and tuners, and I love all of their stuff.

I came at this whole guitar building thing with a vintage perspective, basically designing and building instruments that could have existed in the '50s and '60s, and I tried to keep my conversion necks true to that aesthetic.

However, most of the upscale builders who don't focus on relics have embraced incremental improvements like ultralite machines and modern retainers, so I don't see why I shouldn't as well.

[Shadoweclipse13]

... my first impression is they are vastly superior to the vintage style trees.

That's a fairly low bar to hit But Hipshot's stuff is great! I've got a couple of their bridges and tuners, and I love all of their stuff.

I came at this whole guitar building thing with a vintage perspective, basically designing and building instruments that could have existed in the '50s and '60s, and I tried to keep my conversion necks true to that aesthetic.

However, most of the upscale builders who don't focus on relics have embraced incremental improvements like ultralite machines and modern retainers, so I don't see why I shouldn't as well.

I think that's a great way to approach it. I personally don't think that starting out because you love vintage aesthetics, but being willing to embrace modern upgrades takes away from the designs. There's a stigma with some people who like everything to be vintage accurate, who I believe miss out on functional improvements. I think that for some things, the builders of yesteryear, like Leo Fender, would fully embrace modern things (like CNC, etc.) if they were actively building things today.

[HarlowTheFish]

That's a fairly low bar to hit But Hipshot's stuff is great! I've got a couple of their bridges and tuners, and I love all of their stuff.

I came at this whole guitar building thing with a vintage perspective, basically designing and building instruments that could have existed in the '50s and '60s, and I tried to keep my conversion necks true to that aesthetic.

However, most of the upscale builders who don't focus on relics have embraced incremental improvements like ultralite machines and modern retainers, so I don't see why I shouldn't as well.

I think that's a great way to approach it. I personally don't think that starting out because you love vintage aesthetics, but being willing to embrace modern upgrades takes away from the designs. There's a stigma with some people who like everything to be vintage accurate, who I believe miss out on functional improvements. I think that for some things, the builders of yesteryear, like Leo Fender, would fully embrace modern things (like CNC, etc.) if they were actively building things today.

100% agree -- vintage-accurate gets us stuff like ratty string trees, a 3-way switch on a Strat, that ridiculous Tele wiring from the earliest 2-pickup ones (neither of which Fender acknowledges at all these days, even on their vintage-inspired offerings), and a bunch of other stuff that really didn't age well. Having worse hardware in the name of vintage-accuracy is pretty bunk IMO (see those couple of threads about the terrible Nash JMs from a while back). People forget that Leo went to Music Man and G&L where he designed the MFDs, Dual Fulcrum Vibrato, the PTB system, and a bunch of both noiseless (whispers) and active (collective gasp from the purists) pickups/electronics.

[Shadoweclipse13]

I came at this whole guitar building thing with a vintage perspective, basically designing and building instruments that could have existed in the '50s and '60s, and I tried to keep my conversion necks true to that aesthetic.

However, most of the upscale builders who don't focus on relics have embraced incremental improvements like ultralite machines and modern retainers, so I don't see why I shouldn't as well.

I think that's a great way to approach it. I personally don't think that starting out because you love vintage aesthetics, but being willing to embrace modern upgrades takes away from the designs. There's a stigma with some people who like everything to be vintage accurate, who I believe miss out on functional improvements. I think that for some things, the builders of yesteryear, like Leo Fender, would fully embrace modern things (like CNC, etc.) if they were actively building things today.

100% agree -- vintage-accurate gets us stuff like ratty string trees, a 3-way switch on a Strat, that ridiculous Tele wiring from the earliest 2-pickup ones (neither of which Fender acknowledges at all these days, even on their vintage-inspired offerings), and a bunch of other stuff that really didn't age well. Having worse hardware in the name of vintage-accuracy is pretty bunk IMO (see those couple of threads about the terrible Nash JMs from a while back). People forget that Leo went to Music Man and G&L where he designed the MFDs, Dual Fulcrum Vibrato, the PTB system, and a bunch of both noiseless (whispers) and active (collective gasp from the purists) pickups/electronics.

I agree with just about all of that, although I do like 3-way switches on Strats

[BTL]

Since we're talking about Leo, I'll address something I haven't talked about in years: My concept behind what has come to be known as the bottle-opener headstock shape was "What Would Leo Do?" for headstock design after G&L.

This shape incorporated cues from Fender, Music Man, and G&L to come up with something distinctive and new that also reflected the heritage I was hoping to build upon. As a designer, I'm still very proud of that early work.

These were among the first few builds with the finalized headstock shapes:

[BTL]

My new work space is set up and I'm back to building. My necks are drilled with US-spec machine holes but I tend to prefer the Hipshot import machines because they are offered in shiny chrome vs. shiny nickel for the USA models. To address the slight difference in spec, I use a #7 O-ring on the ferrule to center the import bushing and these work well on both 3/8" and 1/2" machines. 

I'm transitioning to roasted maple with chrome logos, glossy faces, and Hipshot string retainers as the standard offering on my conversion necks. I'll still build a few here and there with black logos, satin headstock face, and vintage string trees for those who prefer a more traditional look. These tend to sell before they're even advertised, so I'm currently working to accumulate inventory. I'm down to two again, and I think one may already be spoken for.  

[BTL]

I just received the CAD of the 3+2 headstock...I'm pretty psyched.

[marqueemoon]

The silver logo looks really sharp.