Blue Bayou

Blue Bayou Price: 2900,-€ The abalone with the brightest captivating colors and reflections, wildly figured, is Paua Abalone from New Zealand. Grade A Paua is hard to get and expensive. This type of Abalone is sought after for jewelry and expensive inlay work. The supply is slowly dwindling on our planet and it will soon go the path of Brazilian rosewood. This single cutaway has a blue-green grade A Paua abalone top and I did a nice transparent dark blue burst on the sides and edges. In the shade all the minute shapes and figures become visible along with the fascinating color combinations. In the light, sunlight or stage lighting, the colors sparkle and explode rainbow hues in all directions. New colors and reflections appear as you slowly turn the guitar. This effect is fascinating on stage. I´ve tested this effect on my 30 guitar students – they are all mesmerized, young and old, and can´t take their eyes off the Paua Pearlvibes. The back and sides are airbrushed in my so-called “wispy style” in deep blue greens, and surf blue green to light surf blue. The abstract shapes and swirls are layered in numerous painting steps and achieve real depth and a mystifying effect. A matching Abalone electronics cover completes the picture I started with a light (2kg)and resonant two-piece bright sounding red alder body and a flat sawn,one piece, middy sounding grade AAAA flamed Canadian maple neck with strong flames on all sides – stained to a vintage light honey color. This is a fine match to the final painted vintage green body. The neck flames are especially uniform and simply stated; very classy and stunning . SPECS:Body all vintage 50´s measurements. The one piece neck a vintage C with medium jumbo frets and 10 inch radius for easy bends. I greatly rounded all edges and contours of the body to get a sleek look and feel.. The rounded edges also enable me to use less lacquer (combination of nitro cellulose and 2 component urethane) and much thinner coats for assured good resonance. Although I meticulously hand polish all my guitars to a glass-like shine, you can barely but still make out the edges and grain of the abalone pieces. This is an assurance that the lacquer is as thin as possible. Neck and bridgeplate are always hand-fitted. ´The necks fit snugly like they should.I really on my eyes because a template can easily be off whack resulting in poor string alignment. You´ll often see this effect on factory instruments. Please note: Backplates are usually only temporary and were added for the photo shoot. NO PLASTIC on any of my guitars. Putting plastic covers or pickguards on fine guitars is like putting vinyl seats in a Ferrari! A matching abalone cover (not pictured) fits over the electronics-control cutout on the back. All pickups are fitted by hand meticulously UNDER the abalone top. No pickguards or plastic junk. It takes a lot of precision work but the results are all the more stunning. The  neck pickup fitted UNDER the pearl top with a matching abalone pickup frame. All metal parts are gold plated including locking Wilkinson tuners. Elecronics: Hand wound vintage style Alnico 2 Tele bridge pup with matching gold abalone cover. This is a twangy mellow “Jerry Donahue” Duncan bridge pickup. Possibly the best pup Duncan makes! Orange drop condensers and CTS pots are standard. Vintage  type ashtray bridge plate with compensated saddles for the tradional vintage twang and very good intonation. Strings through body ,naturally for the added sustain. I refuse to use a modern bridge plate because they don´t sound that twangy. Leo was right when he developed them. Very dry fat sound with a pleasing tele twang and rich overtones. No thin tinny sounds no matter how high you turn the treble. EXTRAS: I can add a strat MIDDLE pup with matching abalone pickup cover if you like. I can also add a matching pickup cover on the bridge pickup as pictured so you won´t have any black on the guitar. That´s what I call the Pearlvibe Camouflage look.  Last but not least, I can also wire all three pickups with the Fingertips Switching:Three miniswitches that enable 13 distinct sounds – the 5 sounds you get on a five way switch along with 3 more distinct and great sounding parallel sounds and combinations and more 4 fat and more powerful series sounds. 13 sounds altogether and all very fast . Ask me for a pricequote here. Diese E-Mail-Adresse ist vor Spambots geschützt! Zur Anzeige muss JavaScript eingeschaltet sein! You can also have the Brent Mason type switching with extra volume pot controlling the mid pup. You can blend in the middle pickup a bit to add meat to the bridge pickup or blend it in full to get a Knopfler tone. There are numerous possibilities and this switching is fast and easy to use. Like I said; I can set this baby up with almost any pickup combination you like so feel free to ask. Impression: There are many tele tones out there and tastes are always changing. The thinner old country tones are no longer that common. I admire players such as Brent Mason, Johnny Hiland, Albert Lee , Vince Gill and Jerry Donahue for their clean sounds and I tend in these directions for inspiration. I strive for a very DRY fat sound and a pleasing  twang with lots of sustain and rich overtones, just like you would expect from a fine handmade instrument with the best wood and materials. The neck is very comfortable and a pleasure to play. This is a guitar for the stage pro, serious collector or tele enthusiast looking for a “once on the planet” guitar. ​