Mahogany Semi-hollow body, Spruce top, Mahogany neck, Ebony fingerboard, 25 ½” Scale.
Spalt BoneTop pickups, volume & tone w/push-pull for series mode, 3-way switch.
Gotoh vintage style tuners, ABM wraparound tailpiece, Dunlop Straplocks.
3.1 kg
Michael Spalt of Spalt Instruments made this lovely guitar. It just so happens that the instrument has many features that suit my playing. I’ve coupled it to either a Fender Pro Junior or Blues Junior amp, depending on the playing or recording situation. The realisation for me that an electric guitar is only half an instrument and the amp needs to be incorporated as well, was a big factor in deciding what guitar to buy.
I’m primarily a jazz style player. The clean sound that us jazz players use has moved on on the 40+ years that I’ve been playing professionally and the 50+ years that I’ve been listening to jazz guitars, live and recorded, as well as in my own playing. In the modern world we often play a lot quieter and in small venues. We also have much better screened pickups, so less background noise and hum.
Spalt make their own pickups and call them BoneTop pickups. They are only available in their guitars and mine at least have a P90 style sound. The tops of the pickups are made from bone, hence the title. They are very full in tone with even response across the frequency range. The sound is also louder than most pickups in my experience. While researching this guitar I had a Telecaster modified with Lollar P90 style pickups and they were loud but not as loud. Despite this volume I can still get a beautiful clean sound through either Fender amp.
The guitar is chambered and has a soli spruce top, finished with a violin type coloured stained clear lacquer. The back and sides are one piece of mahogany and the combination give me some resonance to the sound. From this combination of woods I can gain a rounded clean sound, without the need for a deep bodied traditional jazz guitar. At the lower volumes at which I play usually this is very helpful, as I am able to assess the sound of the guitar straight through the amp, without it being much coloured by the acoustic sound, as with a hollow deep bodied guitar.
The neck is a depth that is full and suits my playing, as it relates closer to an acoustic neck. And the fingerboard is a lovely piece of ebony with wonderful fretwork. I do some guitar repairs so I know that the time and expertise it takes to finish frets like this, is a skill many makers either don’t have, or avoid using, because of time vs cost.
I’m using flat wound gauge 10-44 Thomastik strings, which I’ve used for many years. They give a very relaxed sound once played in after a week or so and they then last many months at least. All these factors are topped off by either finger-style playing or using a plectrum made by Michel Wegen, custom made from hoof material.
As getting to know this guitar progresses I’ll be doing some recordings & videos and will look very much forward to the sounds that will permeate new music.