The second of the Anhinga line of compact, comfortably playable guitars is in its shipping box, headed for a musician friend in California to give it a go. I've built a couple to share to get feedback on the design.

I'm hoping it passes muster and ends up touring across the country with him this Spring. Maybe those hand would Firebird pickups will inspire him. At a minimum, I should get valuable feedback on what's good and what needs a tweak.

Oh, yeah, the guitar...

Custom body design that I've wonked on about before. Birdseye Maple top on Mahogany back. Lustrous, natural finish. Warmoth Tele neck with tall, thin frets and their Wolfgang neck profile. Hipshot bridge and locking tuners. High quality electronics.

I wound those Firebird pickups myself. I dig them. Single coil clarity in a humbucking package. Toss in some Stringjoy Signature strings and it's time to RTFO.

Travel safely, my little creation, and come back to me in the Spring and whisper in my ear how to make your next sibling even better.

The American Chestnut tree was all but extinct by the 1920s. As recently as the turn of the century, they had comprised well over half of all northeastern American hardwood forests. The wood's stability, strength and lightness made it an excellent choice for making almost anything. Then it all got sick and died.

For over a century (and counting), the only available American Chestnut lumber is from reclaimed pieces. Many of these are not very large (and all of them are over 100 years old at this point). Then, one day not long ago, a large piece, almost 2" thick and at least 15" wide and over 10 feet long, shows up in our shop for sale. A member had bought it from a lot of reclaimed wood from a Pennsylvania barn. 

I put in my bid and got enough to make two guitars -- both will be Telecaster style. Leo might have used American Chestnut, had there been any when he was getting started.

UPDATE: I might get 3 Teles out of the plank? These two tops were split from what I had hoped would be a single piece American Chestnut Tele but even with light planing, the piece was just barely 1.5" thick. Before I was finished, it was going to get thinner, so I resawed it into two generouse tops, attached to some very lovely Poplar (you won't believe how colorful it is) to keep the weight in the realm of a vintage Tele.

Why is the back wood so colorful? It's hard to contemplate the front without confronting the near extinction of a species. Needed to lighten the mood a bit.

They'll get high quality necks and a special hand-wound pickup set and likely a few Fender or Fender licensed parts. Probably a lacquer or similar finish as the best way to protect the wood.

Yeah, it looks like the Anhinga and may get that name, not sure.  I'm not even sure this one will get offered for sale. But I made it and it's here and there's a similar one coming together, so here's a peek. Let me know if you are interested.

A common concern with short scale basses is that Low E string. At just over 30", it takes a lot of tension to get it to pitch and properly intonated.  This can make the bass feel odd -- one string is "stiffer" than the others. It's not uncommon to see builders drop to a .090 Low E to help with that. But it just doesn't sound quite as much like a bass that I want to play. 

The fix is more string. Sticking with the 30" scale length, we can go through body (should add at least 2") and reverse headstock (another 3"). Now, the overall length of the Low E string is close to 35" or a bit more -- not far from what it would be on a standard sized bass. I expect the A string is a bit happier with this arrangement as well.

This particular one is out of control at 24 frets -- two octaves worth of low end. The neck is topped with ultra-light Gotoh tuners to keep it up in the air where it belongs. Actually, all the hardware is Gotoh in Cosmic Black Chrome.

It has an atypical pickup/control configuration for a bass. The neck pickup is a Gibson Thunderbird bass pickup under a custom rosewood cover. The bridge pickup is a Kluson Icon Claymore -- absolutely thunderous. So thunderous that it's push-pull volume knob will split the coils so it can blend better with the neck. 

Because the pickups are so different, there's a selector switch so you can solo one of them with zero input from the other. Separate tone and volume controls make it easier to get a good mix.

That's a generous, custom dyed Birdseye Maple cap with faux binding on top of Mahogany. Comfort cut on the back so you can tuck it up tight, if you like.

Not currently for sale, though I'm open to inquiries. It's the first one of it's kind and I'm still trying to decide if it needs any tweaks before becoming an officially available item.