Introducing

The Falcon

     The design of the guitar was the product of a collaboration between myself and John Flannery. The letters of the name Falcon reflect this collaboration. The idea was to have a larger bodied Dragonfly guitar that would produce more of an acoustic voice while still being primarily an electric instrument. Loosely the design resembles a larger archtop-electric hybrid with similar appointments to my standard design. The design took a life of it's own as soon as the Charlie Christian pickups were decided upon. It was this angular visual characteristic that set the theme for the rest of the instrument and it is carried through every aspect of the design to produce a classic look with a very modern design.

     With the success of the first 15" singlecut (affectionately named the Les Paul Killer) this design followed the same pattern for size, shape, neck carve, and electronics. The setup for this guitar is similar with the 5-way variations (including a very funky out-of-phase setting) as well as independent tone controls that allows a switch between 2 different capacitor values or full tone bypass. For even more versatility each pickup has independent volume controls. The result is an incredibly versatile instrument that can span the range of tones from clear single coil brilliance to a humbucker-ish punch while still retaining its archtop voice.

     The woods chosen for this guitar are very simple. We wanted only the purest ingerdients for a nice contrast. The carved top is Engelmann spruce with a very creamy and fine textured grain. The body and neck are dyed Honduran mahogany with a warm and rich acoustic response. And to tie it all together the fingerboard, headstock veneer, taikpiece, pickguard, knobs, and tuning key veneers are all from the same piece of Macassar ebony (the mahogany dye was formulated to capture these colors to match this wood). These 3 elements conbine to produce a clean and elegant look that sounds just as good. The larger body is so incredibly responsive that the slightest touch is enough to get an acoustic response. Channeled through a pair of Jason Lollar's version of the classic Charlie Christian pickup and we have a versatile and modern archtop electric. This is definitely a new model available for full customization. In fact my next personal guitar is going to be one of these.

Custom Falcon #066

Top: Straight grained Engelmann Spruce
Body: Striped Honduran Mahogany
Neck: Striped Honduran Mahogany
Fingerboard: Macassar Ebony
Headstock veneer: Macassar Ebony

Scale Length: 24.625"
Fretboard radius: 12"
Frets: 22 - Stainless Steel
Nut width: 1-5/8"

Pickups: Vintage Vibe - Charlie Christian neck and bridge hum-cancelling pickups
Electronics: Custom
    5-way pickup selector, Concentric Volumes and Tones and tone 3-way for each pickup

    Switching: 5-way Rotary :
        1. Neck
        2. Neck and Bridge in parallel
        3. Bridge
        4. Neck and Bridge in out-of-phase (series)
        5. Neck and Bridge in series

     Tone 3-ways:
        1. NOS Soviet Green Can .022uf paper in oil capacitor
        2. Tone bypass
        3. NOS .047 paper in oil capacitor

K&K Pure Archtop pickup can be accessed with a stereo jack (magnetics on the tip)

Logo: Spruce
Side dots: 3/32" Mother of Pearl

Bridge: Adjustable Macassar Ebony
Tuners: Schaller
Hardware: Nickel
Knobs: Macassar Ebony

Finish: Nitrocellulose with aniline dyed back and neck. Tru-Oil on the Macassar ebony

Click here for process pictures.