After 14 months, I'm finally in possession of my brand new guitar!
This beauty was built by Brian White--Milobender on RUKind--(http://www.iocustomguitars.com/). It's a combination of many aspects of Jerry's guitars... The body woods are very similar to 'Rosebud': Cocobola/Maple sandwich. The neck is familiar: Maple/Wenge/Maple/Padauk, with a volute at the nut; 25.5" scale. The bottom-half of the body shape is taken directly from 'Tiger', while the front horns are custom designed. The electronics include a Waldo-buffer & a new-old-stock Stratoblaster that I can switch between, OBEL, and 3-position coil switches: front coil/Humbucker/rear coil for each pickup, as well as a push-pull bypass of all the active elecs. The tail piece, pickup-plate, and nut are brass, custom fabricated by Brian (tailpiece has a Cocobola spacer); the bridge is a Kluson steel-billet harmonica bridge. The headstock shape is very 'Irwin' and has Sperzel locking tuners. The knobs are custom fabricated brass too, we found those online. The finish is incredible, and seems extremely durable. It comes in at just about 10.5lbs
The quality is astounding. Legendary, even... I'm still in disbelief that I own such a fine instrument. The whole thing is of a quality I've seldom seen, rarely touched, and never owned. The neck is extremely comfortable (I visited Brian's shop last September and we roughed out some final details, including designs to make the neck super-comfortable for me). The guitar is extremely well balanced and sits perfectly--neither neck-heavy or body-heavy--on my shoulder with a strap. I would say it's "transparently comfortable", for lack of a better way of describing the uniquely cozy feel.
The "feel" of playing it (from the perspective of a lead-guitar player in a Dead coverband, now that I've had it for a couple shows) is very forward, dominant, and is a joy to both feel and hear. The sound is... Unmistakable:
*see my sig for a look at the rig I'm playing through.
All in all, I couldn't be happier with the entire experience. Brian is such a great guy, wonderful to work with; he always responded quickly to my emails, answered my questions, and sent tons of pictures whenever he did any work on the guitar. Most importantly, Brian worked with me on many of the finer details--the minutiae of the shape, the neck, the inlays, electronics positioning, etc etc. I'm happy to have made a friend along the way of acquiring my dream guitar. I would absolutely recommend Brian and IO Custom Guitars--with highest regards--to anyone looking to find "that sound and feel" that is so elusive.
If you'd like to see more pictures of the completed instrument: click HERE
If you'd like to see pictures taken during the building process: click HERE
(~~);}
This beauty was built by Brian White--Milobender on RUKind--(http://www.iocustomguitars.com/). It's a combination of many aspects of Jerry's guitars... The body woods are very similar to 'Rosebud': Cocobola/Maple sandwich. The neck is familiar: Maple/Wenge/Maple/Padauk, with a volute at the nut; 25.5" scale. The bottom-half of the body shape is taken directly from 'Tiger', while the front horns are custom designed. The electronics include a Waldo-buffer & a new-old-stock Stratoblaster that I can switch between, OBEL, and 3-position coil switches: front coil/Humbucker/rear coil for each pickup, as well as a push-pull bypass of all the active elecs. The tail piece, pickup-plate, and nut are brass, custom fabricated by Brian (tailpiece has a Cocobola spacer); the bridge is a Kluson steel-billet harmonica bridge. The headstock shape is very 'Irwin' and has Sperzel locking tuners. The knobs are custom fabricated brass too, we found those online. The finish is incredible, and seems extremely durable. It comes in at just about 10.5lbs
The quality is astounding. Legendary, even... I'm still in disbelief that I own such a fine instrument. The whole thing is of a quality I've seldom seen, rarely touched, and never owned. The neck is extremely comfortable (I visited Brian's shop last September and we roughed out some final details, including designs to make the neck super-comfortable for me). The guitar is extremely well balanced and sits perfectly--neither neck-heavy or body-heavy--on my shoulder with a strap. I would say it's "transparently comfortable", for lack of a better way of describing the uniquely cozy feel.
The "feel" of playing it (from the perspective of a lead-guitar player in a Dead coverband, now that I've had it for a couple shows) is very forward, dominant, and is a joy to both feel and hear. The sound is... Unmistakable:
*see my sig for a look at the rig I'm playing through.
All in all, I couldn't be happier with the entire experience. Brian is such a great guy, wonderful to work with; he always responded quickly to my emails, answered my questions, and sent tons of pictures whenever he did any work on the guitar. Most importantly, Brian worked with me on many of the finer details--the minutiae of the shape, the neck, the inlays, electronics positioning, etc etc. I'm happy to have made a friend along the way of acquiring my dream guitar. I would absolutely recommend Brian and IO Custom Guitars--with highest regards--to anyone looking to find "that sound and feel" that is so elusive.
If you'd like to see more pictures of the completed instrument: click HERE
If you'd like to see pictures taken during the building process: click HERE
(~~);}
