Gold Top Skele

PHOTOS: Gold Top Skele™ is a perfect blend of semi-hollowbody warmth with single coil spank. Classic tones with a completely modern twist. Details on this beautiful instrument include: carbon fiber, mother of pearl, alder, aircraft grade birch. Polished stainless steel frets in state-of-the-art Richlite fretboard. Quartersawn torrefied flame maple neck w/tilt back headstock and luthier’s joint. Advantage neck profile including Fretboard Flare™ geometry. Bare Knuckle custom pickups with 10-way switching. Patented & patent pending Pisces™ tremolo precision machined from stainless steel and aircraft aluminum.

A Few Years On

It’s magical to hear from clients who have been playing these guitars for a few years. I sometimes feel overwhelmed with gratitude having been able to walk this path in life, connecting with kind, thoughtful, amazing people from around the globe. I deeply appreciate your letters and notes…

Hi Rick,

I just wanted to say hello send a quick note in appreciation of the wonderful instrument you made for me four years ago.  

I have quite a sizable guitar collection, and as I was going through the inventory in search of a downsize, I evaluated all my «babies» and compared them side by side.  I play a lot of different styles all from classic finger style, fusion, prog-rock, ballads, C&W, R&B.  I don’t use a pick, thus the instruments pick-up sensitivity and capacity of modulating sound frequency is important to me.

The Goshawk is a Chameleon. There is virtually no sound drop-off in coil splitting. The tone knob is extremely versatile. And the volume knob is really a gain knob instead of increasing overall volume (that would not be desirable) it just adds more grit. I love that balance point just before it breaks up. I want the tooth to come out, but with a bit of delicious pain first. 

The bird you made stands out in the crowd, and as I played through the bunch of pretty high end guitars made by some of the best luthiers on the planet, I plugged the Goshawk back in time and time again, just to find that it could replicate and surpass pretty much any other guitar, it be a tele, a strat, a whatever.  Adding on superb ergonomics and playability, I am pretty sure this ranks as one of the most desirable guitars on the planet from a player’s perspective. And it made me think, what will I do if anything happens to it?

You’re a living Picasso Luthier, Rick.

I can picture my self in old age, hair and muscles all gone, skin dry and wrinkled, just sitting in the still of the night, noodling on my Goshawk. This bird is not going anywhere without me.

All the best to you and kind regards,

Carl (Norway)

From the snowy forests of Norway to the lush soils of Hawaii — speaking of: Dave Anderson sent me a care package recently including some locally grown single source estate coffee from Kauai. I am enjoying a cup now, which explains why autocorrect is getting a morning workout. Dave also filmed this pretty spectacular review demo of his American Girl Goshawk…

Hey Rick,

I just did this video demo’ing American Girl. Please tell me what you think and if you dislike anything about it I’ll yank it in a Jersey second. The video realm is totally new turf for me, so don’t hold back.

I’m finally getting around to finished wiring of studio things as time allows, then I intend to post some “super-sonic” demos in full audio bandwith, using studio guys that’ll hopefully knock some socks off.

I hope you’re doing well. I LOVE American Girl. Thanks again Paisano!

Aloha,

Dave (Hawaii)

VIDEO: Dave Anderson reviews and demos his “American Girl” Goshawk.

Sea Monster

IMAGES: Swamp ash, quarter-sawn one piece AAA flame maple. Advantage™ neck profile. Polished stainless steel frets. Carbon fiber. Precision machined components from aircraft aluminum and stainless steel. DiMarzio noiseless pickups designed by Steve Blucher.
PHOTO: Sea Monster Pisces™ 6-string guitar.
VIDEO: Overview introduction of the new tremolo system.

Purple Goshawk

PHOTO: Wizard purple Goshawk™ with blue-green abalone inlays. Torrefied highly figured flame maple neck.

Rick,

Purple Goshawk is beautiful. It’s somehow both more than I expected yet exactly what I had in mind. I’ve just taken it on the inaugural run by playing “Meridian” by Intervals and this instrument is an extension of me…playability, sustain, vibrancy of tone, as well as the aesthetic…I am at a loss for words. It’s alive.

When I was very young, 8/9 maybe, I had a book featuring a history of guitars. It had everything, from the first modern Italian guitars, to PRS, and even Ibanez and Klein harp guitars. I read it until the binding crumbled, then I taped it together and kept on reading. I knew at that age that an ultimate goal of mine would be to become the best player I could be, and to work with the best builder. Well, now 31 years old, I’ve achieved just that…at least the builder part, we never stop growing as a player.

Thank you for this build. There is a connection people like us have to our tools that not many on the outside can easily grasp, and I know my words would be lost on many. This instrument is an ultimate channel for my creative passion, and I appreciate the time and effort you poured into this Goshawk to make it perfectly for me. (Bryan Capriglione)

Birdseye Pisces

VIDEO: Requiem for Jeff Beck. He was one of my first and deepest influences. Birdseye Pisces™ with the new tremolo through Fender Deluxe ’64 handwired reissue (SM57 > Logic).

Hi Rick!

I played Birdseye Pisces for a good 3 hours last night — and what can I say — you’ve knocked it out of the park.

I am pretty sensitive to the tactile feedback on my picking hand while I pick the strings, and this guitar is absolutely spot on where I like it – a good ‘bouncy’ sensation as I pick, notes ring out for days and have a nice ‘bloom’ to them, palm mutes also have that nice percussive sound and feel, and overall the strings feel rubbery/velvety when my plectrum makes contact with them as opposed to feeling metallic/harsh as with some other guitars I’ve had. 

Some other key points — 
The guitar is comfortable and light.
The figuring on the neck is insane! Pics don’t do it justice! Same thing goes with the paint job — the textured look is very inviting indeed.

The new trem — where to start…from a pure aesthetic point of view, it’s pretty small and compact and not overbearing to look at like say Evertune. The surface finish of the components looks really good — love the black anodized look of the hardware. Trem arm is very light and minimal. I was not an industrial design major but have a few friends who were and I can appreciate that a lot of thought went into the design of each component. I am engineer by profession and love when I see a product where every design choice has a great ‘why’ for its existence (as we often say at my workplace…best part is no part). I am sure that over the months I will discover more nuggets of great design choices.

Now for the sound and playability — the trem is like butter. Zero effort needed, no tuning issues. It’s a perfect mechanical whammy! I also love how out of the way it is when I remove the trem — it basically feels like a fixed bridge, I can rest my palm on it without it moving on me unexpectedly which is awesome and unlike Floyd Rose bridges for example.

Moving on to the neck — very comfortable. The advantage profile is very discrete while playing — completely out of the way for the most part, yet is present when you really need it (while playing some lead lines or weird chords for example). I’ll likely adjust my playing style a bit to optimize more for the neck profile and really reap the ergonomic benefits. This will happen naturally as my body adjusts itself to this guitar after playing the other guitars I own.

The sound — incredible, punchy, quiet, and most importantly all pickup positions sound great. This is truly magnificent, because with my other guitars either the bridge or the neck sounds good with a certain amplifier setting, never both. Your description previously was spot on – single coil and thickened single coil tones, definitely not a humbucker, but so far it feels like the best of both worlds. I feel like over the next month or so I’ll have a better sense of the sound of this guitar as I play it through different amps.

I usually reserve judgment on any new guitar for at least a month as I believe there is an adjustment period for my body to get used to the changes, but i couldn’t resist given how immediately this guitar opened up to me. I am sure that in a month’s time I’ll have more nuanced findings and I’ll share those thoughts with you.

TLDR: I absolutely love this guitar, it truly feels like a purpose built machine, and I catch myself feeling like I want to grow old with it — I want it take on some natural wear patterns and be played a lot. I’d like to look back many years from now and view this guitar like how people relish a great original 60s strat today. Most importantly — I want to compose some nice music with this beast, and I’m looking forward to what it brings out of me over the next few weeks, months and years! (Tejasvin)

VIDEO: Overview of the new tremolo system.
PHOTO: Pisces™ patented trem precision machined from aircraft aluminum and stainless steel (additional patents pending).
PHOTO: Advantage™ neck profile. Beautiful AAA birdseye maple neck. Alder body. Carbon fiber pickguard. DiMarzio™ noiseless single coils designed by Steve Blucher.
VIDEO: Steve Sjuggerud coaxes harmonics from the neck pickup of Birdseye Pisces™ guitar.