Guitar Gear

The Making of “Goldie” My Saint Guitars Goldtop Messenger

I’ve always dreamed about having a guitar custom made for me. I’ve provided a “spec” for a new guitar, but I’ve never had one built that I would own. That all hit home today when Adam Hernandez of Saint Guitar Company sent me the first pictures of the guitar he is building for me. To say I’m stoked is an understatement!

With Goldie, I decided to have Adam do something completely different than pretty much any guitar out there on the market. First of all, I wanted a double-cut goldtop. There are some, but not many. Normally, at least when I think of “goldtop” it’s a single-cut Les Paul style guitar. But where this guitar really differs from guitars I’ve seen on  the market are the woods that are being employed. The body back is walnut, with a maple top (I believe it’s curly maple). The neck is rock maple and will have an ebony fretboard. Both Adam and myself are anticipating that this guitar will have a fairly bright voicing, which is what I want. That will be offset by the thicker body wood Adam will be using for the walnut back.

For finishing, the back will have an open-pore finish, and the neck will have a classic Strat satin finish – no nitro on either. I love the feel of natural grain.

Progress Pictures

Sound Clips

Clean (Rhythm – both ‘buckers, solo first part – bridge/tapped, second part – bridge/untapped; Amp: Aracom VRX22)

Song – Sunset by the Bay

Features the use of the tapped ‘bucker in the neck clean, then goes gets just a bit dirty. The natural sustain is absolutely incredible!

This Is So Cool!

What’s really cool about this whole process is that I’ve seen the guitar shape from cut billets to shaping into a real guitar. I can’t tell you how jazzed I am.

August 12, 2009 – As of today, Goldie is finished and I took delivery of her. She has exceeded all my expectations! In addition to the final pictures I posted in the gallery, I will be including sound clips so you can hear just how awesome she sounds.

Woods

• Body: Black Walnut
• Body Top: Maple
• Neck: Rock Maple
• Fretboard: Ebony
• Headstock Faceplate: Koa

I’m anticipating that this guitar will be mid-rangy to bright, but combined with the awesome Saint Guitar sustain due to the neck joint that ensures the sound travels throughout the body and neck, I expect to get a chimey type of sound. This is something unique that I’ve found with every Saint guitar I’ve played. It’s definitely a sound all it’s own.

Hardware

Of course, a guitar isn’t complete without hardware, so here goes:

• Jumbo Frets
• Neck Pickup: Seymour Duncan SH-11 Custom Custom
• Bridge Pickup: Seymour Duncan SH-4 JB
• Gotoh 510 Tuners
• Gotoh 510 Wraparound Combination Bridge/Tailpiece
• Single Push-pull Tone and Volume controls for coil-tapping the pickups.
• Three-way pickup switch. Similar to PRS, but closer to the bridge. Very nice for switching pickups on the fly.

Comes strung with DR nickels (10′s), but I will probably restring it with Wyres 10′s.

If You’re Interested…

…give the guys over at Saint Guitar Company a shout. Click here to go to their site! Note that I’m not at all professionally affiliated with Saint. I discovered them awhile back, and just love Adam’s artwork!

July 15, 2010 – Updated “My Rig” page. You’ll notice I no longer have Goldie on my active guitars list. Actually, I haven’t picked her up in months. Why? SHE’S WAY TOO HEAVY!!! She’s beautiful, and she’s the most playable guitar in my stable, and without a doubt, Goldie’s build quality is second-to-none. But she’s too heavy to be playing other than sitting down, and as I like to move around on stage, sitting down is not an option.

Let this be a lesson to you if you ever have a guitar custom made for you: Make sure the guitar’s weight is part of your specification. I didn’t do that. Mea culpa. But on the flip side, a luthier should be sensitive to that in the first freakin’ place! So I kind of view the weight issue as a design flaw. Unfortunately, if I want to get it thinned out, I have to pay for it, and even though I have the funds, I’m not sure I want to commit them to fix something Adam should’ve caught in the first place.