Sunday, December 15, 2013

'el Jefe'

I picked up the last oak neck I had in the inventory, looked it over, and thought, 'what am I going to do with this?'  A Padron cigar box was lying in the corner groaning for attention, so I decided to match the two up.

'el Jefe' is a three-string electro/acoustic 25.4-inch cigar box guitar with scarf joint ebony laminate headstock, and zebrawood 22-fret fingerboard.  The Corian nut is followed by a brass drawer pull I converted to a bridge and saddle.  The A-D-G strings from a standard acoustic set ride over a very 'hot' hand wound TotalRojo magnetic pickup, from the open gear tuners to the custom tailstock.  It's tuned to open G (G-D-g).

I like the Padron box because of the acoustic quality derived from the thin laminated top, which lets sound bounce around quite well through the three screen-backed sound holes.  Amp up this monster and the doors blow down -- seriously, with the gain set at two, and volume at four, this 'big man' scorches.

To add window dressing to the box, I chose to design corner pieces from thin walnut stock.  And, the logo, which is a standard headstock item, is relocated to the body for a little change in atmosphere.




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