Burger’s Guitars (St. Cloud, MN)

Anyhow, I sent him the Breadwinner and told him I wanted a totally mind blowing design and to keep these 3 things in mind:

• Lava lamps
• Acid trips
• Beatles psychedelic

BUT to maintain the Eastwood badges on the headstock. When he got my guitar he was blown away with the design and playability. He wants one! ;o) Hope he pulls the trigger. I have officially nicknamed it “Hurdy Gurdy”. (Donovan). Band I play with does 60s thru 90s and I am the 60s psychedelic guru of the unit.

Custom Painted Eastwood Breadwinner Guitar

Custom Painted Eastwood Breadwinner Guitar

Custom Painted Eastwood Breadwinner Guitar

Custom Painted Eastwood Breadwinner Guitar

Wanted to share it with you. I hope you don’t hate me for doing this, but I wanted to make it “mine”. Man .. does it turn heads and get the comments …. Naturally I tell them it’s an Eastwood first and foremost! Gotta love it!

Wow, now there are at least 3 decorated Eastwood Breadwinners guitars out there. Here are the other two courtesy of Bill Nelson:

Bill Nelson’s Custom Painted Eastwood Breadwinner Guitars

by Rich Bittner

Customer Customizes Eastwood Breadwinner! from MyRareGuitars.com

Airline Map Electric Guitar (Custom Color: Black)

Is there an Eastwood or Airline guitar you’ve always wanted but in a different color? Different hardware? Or perhaps a left-hand model of something that is only available in right-hand? Well now it may be possible to have whatever you want. Read on…

Earlier this year a customer came to us asking for a custom shop guitar. He wanted an Airline MAP guitar, but he wanted it with gold hardware, gold switchplate and gold pickguard. Our standard reply was, “Any time we introduce a new color/model, our factory has to make a minimum of 8 pcs, so if you want to buy 8 of them, we’ll do it”. Typically at this point the customer will say, “Oh, I guess that’s out of the question then”.

But this customer was different. He said, “I’m willing to pay a LOT more for this, so name your price and let’s get it done!”. That got me thinking. I liked his concept of the gold hardware MAP model and I thought it would appeal to some of our existing customers, but did not want to make 8 of them only to sell just one. So I went back to him and suggested the following arrangement:

1. Send us deposit of $3,000 to commit to the order, and within 3-6 months, the 8 custom guitars will be completed.
2. Once complete, we send him his one guitar.
3. Then we offer the next 7 guitars at $999 each (including hardshell case) to our customers via www.myrareguitars.com
4. Once we have sold 4 of them, we refund $2001 back to him, making his cost on the custom guitar of his design only $999.

He agreed, and here is the guitar (sorry, they SOLD OUT within the first week!!).

So if there is something you are looking for that we do not currently make, send me an email and we can talk about it: michael@myrareguitars.com

More pictures of the Airline Map in black:

Airline Map Electric Guitar (Custom Color: Black)

Airline Map Electric Guitar (Custom Color: Black)

Airline Map Electric Guitar (Custom Color: Black)

Airline Map Electric Guitar (Custom Color: Black)

Airline Map Electric Guitar (Custom Color: Black)

Airline Map Electric Guitar (Custom Color: Black)

Eastwood Special Order Guitars – Order Yours Today! from MyRareGuitars.com

Baxendale Guitar

Harmony Conversions

Scott Baxendale’s legacy of building custom instruments began in 1974, when he arrived in Winfield, Kansas to work for Stuart Mossman, owner and founder of Mossman Guitars. Scott joined Gruhn Guitars in Nashville, Tennessee, In l978, where he specialized in the restoration of classic vintage instruments. During this time he repaired or restored guitars for such professionals as Billy Gibbons, Johnny Cash, Hank Williams, Jr., Steve Howe, Elvis Costello, John Hartford, Marty Stuart, Norman Blake, Roy Acuff and many others. Here is the Mick Jones Custom.

Scott Baxendale Acoustic Guitar

Scott Baxendale Acoustic Guitar

Scott purchased Mossman Guitars, in l985, moving the company to Garland, Texas. He manufactured over 250 acoustic guitars, averaging five instruments per month, some of which are owned and played by Carl Perkins, Joe Walsh, Willie Nelson, Donovan, Greg Lake, Jorma Kaukonen, John Mellencamp, Chris Hillman, James Burton, Travis Tritt, Dave Alvin, B.J. Thomas and Ray Wylie Hubbard.

Scott’s work on Harmony conversions was brought to my attention by long time friend and customer of Eastwood, Dewitt Burton, guitar tech for R.E.M. If you have ever owned an old Harmony guitar, you’ll know how cool they are, but Scott can take a mediocre instrument and turn it into a world class guitar.

Vintage Harmony Guitars Catalog

The Harmony conversion is a process by which they take old USA-made Harmony and Kay guitars and remanufacture them using our proprietary bracing and internal design, giving the guitars a new life and a world class tone that compares to vintage guitars of the highest order. This re-manufacturing process allows them to create a guitar that is also green, recycling and repurposing by starting with an existing guitar that was originally made with quality woods, and requiring no finish work. These are great guitars that retain their vintage patina and mojo at a price that the average musician can afford.

Vintage Harmony Guitars Catalog

Many musicians have an old Harmony or Kay laying around that was their first instrument. Some have sent them to Scott to be rebuilt, and these guitars subsequently became their favorite instrument! Many of his customers are professional recording artists and musicians. If you would like to purchase a remade Harmony or Kay, have one rebuilt, or have one to sell, contact Scott baxendaleguitar@att.net

Mick Jones - The Clash

Scott Baxendale Guitar & Harmony Conversions from MyRareGuitars.com

Headstock: Joey Leone RBC Guitar from Eastwood Guitars

Eastwood CEO Mike Robinson and I have been working together for years – improvements on existing designs, new ideas and alike. Mike has always encouraged me to think outside the box, and in turn I have given him many ideas and concepts, some discussed and put aside, but this Signature Moded was a concept we both loved. This guitar was to be a players guitar – one that offered an opportunity for guitar players to have a wide palette of sounds to draw from – yet did not look like a crowded subway car.

OK Joey, “what does this guitar do that is so special?” Here’s where the fun begins…. First I thought about some of my favorite guitar players and the guitars they played. I tend to think of guitars and players in groups, organized by styles and tones. Hmmm? Matt Guitar Murphy played an ES 345, T-Bone Walker played an ES-5 Switchmaster, Mark Knopfler a Strat, Roy Buchanan a Tele, double hmmm? Pickups?A triple hmmmm?

Pickups: Joey Leone RBC Guitar from Eastwood Guitars

I knew I wanted my first design to be a versatile guitar that would be a clean, and clear voiced guitar that could be played at a low volume and still be strong sounding, but also one that would sing and sustain at higher volumes. I wanted the guitar to cut through with a high mid voice that would be there even when mixed at lower volumes. Here’s how I did it!

First I decided to go with a semi-hollow archtop design like a 335, but use P90 pickups. I knew that there were very few if any semi-hollows with P90 pickups. Next I wanted to have the scale length be longer then the standard Gibson, so I created a Fender scale (25 ½ inch) on a Gibson style frame. This would afford the player the opportunity to use heavier gauge strings without the hand fatigue that we incessant pickers tend to experience. Also this would make bending strings more pleasurable.

Flamed Finish: Joey Leone RBC Guitar from Eastwood Guitars

I also asked the builders to make the neck a bit wider (2 mm’s) so the strings would not feel crowded. This is the feel you get when you play an L5 or any high end archtop, again wanting to give the player a really fine guitar for his or her money. I also asked them to make me a one piece mahogany neck; this design in my opinion gives the guitar a more consistent transfer of vibrations throughout the guitar. I have always felt that multi-laminated maple necks were strong and stiff to a fault as the glue joints make the neck dead. I also never liked the idea of guitar builders gluing together piece of wood that did not have consistent grain and or density. Yes, more expensive, but Mike said, “Let’s design the guitar FIRST, and worry about cost SECOND.”

I insisted that this guitar have a book matched flamed maple top and back of similar grain and density for the same reasons mentioned above. I also added flamed maple sides as well for aesthetics mostly. And speaking of aesthetics I also wanted real mother of pearl instead of “pearloid” or some other faux material. Tell me that never drove you crazy, over $3,000 for a guitar and when you friends say, “is that real mother of pearl?” you have to say… ahhh.. kinda…..no!!!

Switches: Joey Leone RBC Guitar from Eastwood Guitars

Now onto the electronics, an aspect of which I am most proud. I went to pickup visionary Kent Armstrong (son of Dan) and told him I wanted P90 pickups that would also be able to get a Strat sound as well as the standard P90 voicing. Through many, many hours of work in Kent’s workshop we came up with a hot P90 pickup with a coil tap that would yield the signature Strat sound. This is not one of those stacked humbuckers that I have always thought to be okay at best, but not having a single coil sound at all. These pickups sound great and they are potted with wax to avoid almost all microphonics. Then, three pickups like T-Bone’s ES-5 with the middle pickup reverse wound to get the humbucking sound when combined with any of the other pickups, this we did – but again through many hours of skull sessions – we made the middle pickup not only a coil tapped single coil but used AlNiCO 5 magnets like on the old 55 Les Paul Custom – but really closer to the McCarty Pickups found on the old L7 “pickups in the pickguard” design. These can be adjusted by simply pushing the pole piece up through the bottom of the pickup with a small screwdriver. This pickup when coil tapped sounds very similar to a Jazzmaster pickup but with a bit more balls. All these custom creations add expense? You bet it does, but when you play this guitar and start to explore the tonal palette, it will blow you away….

What we end up with is a guitar with 27 useable sounds – no throw away “excuse” sounds – with 9 humbucking combinations. All of this is easily accomplished by using the three full size toggles located between the master volume and master tome pots.

You will see some pictures here is this article of the first two prototypes. Production models will be available in April 2007. I’ve asked Mike to do two colors – Natural (pictured here to the left) and an Antique Sunburst (the Cherryburst will not be in production until later next year).

Natural Finish: Joey Leone RBC Guitar from Eastwood Guitars

Now onto some of the other design ideas that went into the RBC model. Medium jumbo frets on a slightly curved fretboard, this will make this guitar an axe blues players as well as shred guys who are used to flat fingerboards feel at home. Add some Grover Imperial Tuners, a tunematic bridge, and trapeze tailpiece to the design of the Joey Leone Signature RBC Model, and you have a guitar designed by a player for players. No B.S.

One more thing my friends, my buddy Mike Robinson at Eastwood Guitars has been behind this guitar from the beginning and will deliver this guitar to you with his usual rock hard, unsurpassed customer service that has helped make Eastwood the up and coming guitar company out there today. This guitar will be of the highest quality and be affordable. No B.S. there either!

Joey Leone Signature RBC Eastwood Guitar (Rock, Blues & Country) from MyRareGuitars.com

Custom Longhorn Guitar by Bill Wagoner (Plymouth, IN)

Here is one of my solutions to the problem. I bought a 1968 Coral Longhorn Body off of EBAY for 65 bucks. It had never been used, no neck, not even a neck pocket, no routing for pickups, no wiring, no pickguard, nothing but a body. Enclose is a pic of the body as I got it and the guitar I made out of it. I did all the wiring, inlays, designed and made the pickguards by hand, assembly, set up, everything.

My inspiration for this project was the old BIGSBY guitars made by Paul Bigsby back in the late 40’s and early 50’s and also the gaudy Cool Italian guitars of the 1960’s. Also I was thinking of the original handmade Mosrite stuff where Semie Mosley would include a fancy pickguard, arm rest and so forth.

My first step was to decide on pickguard material. I went with the white pearloid, or what I call Mother of Toilet Seat, in other words, fake pearl. My pickguard material came from ALL PARTS. I sell their stuff in my store and it is great quality. I knew that I wanted to cover the entire headstock with it but that presented a problem. The neck is basicaly a generic strat type neck but since you cannot bend the thick pearloid I had to make it two pieces. I decided to make the second piece double as my truss rod cover. The neck came from a low priced strat style guitar called a Palmer. Great neck for almost no cost and it plays like a dream.

Next was attaching the neck and body. Since this body had never had a neck, there was no neck pocket. After observing what I call the First rule of guitar repair, I routed out an area to attach the neck about an inch of so deep and also removed part of the material under the fingerboard to get the proper slant to the neck in relation to the body. Due to the fact that I was going to use a rosewood archtop bridge I did not need to worry about where I placed the neck since I could position the bridge anywhere I wanted after the guitar was together.

What is “The First rule of guitar repair?” For every minute you DO something to your guitar, you THINK ABOUT IT for 20 minutes FIRST. If you take your time and approach guitar repairs this way you will make a lot less mistakes in the long run! After attaching the neck, I started on my Inlays. All it had when I started was the boring and traditional plastic dots. I drilled those out of the neck and replace them with real abalone dots. Next I used diamond shaped abalone pieces that I bought from RESCUE PEARL Company and cut them into triangles. Then I routed the fingerboard and added them to make the pattern you see now. You can do a search and find Rescue Pearl on the net, nice folks and very helpful and reasonable prices too. I then started to design the pickguard. I wanted it to follow the lines of the F-hole rather than hide the F-hole as they do on so many hollow body guitars. I used old file folders and cut the patterns from them with scissors after drawing them free hand and then copied them in pearloid. The arm rests and the control plate were done the same way. I used an old Seymor Rail pickup I had laying around and kept the electronics simple since there is a limited amount of space on the body anyway. I also made sure to position all the electronics where they can be worked on easily from the F-holes in the future.

Finally I strung her up and added the ALLPARTS Rosewood bridge. Incredibly, the intonation on this guitar is perfect, no need for tune-o-matic bridge saddles at all. It has a wonderful warm woody tone that is different than any of my other guitars and I just love it. Add to that the fun of making it myself and I have a guitar that will never leave my collection.

Post by: Bill Wagoner (Plymouth, IN)

Frankenstein Longhorn Guitar from MyRareGuitars.com