The finished "Hobbit" themed guitar, with Britt's amazing graphics. Look carefully at this higher contrast photo and you can see some of the characters from J.R.R. Tolkein's classic story.
For a senior project Britt Coy built a Strat-style guitar. She began with off the shelf parts, partly due to time constraints. However, Britt reshaped the body to fit her better, and also reshaped the neck to be more comfortable. She performed the fretwork, adjustments, shielding, sanding, and finishing of the body and neck. Additionally, Britt designed and executed a beautiful Lord of the Rings-themed imagery for the entire body of the guitar and the pickguard, as well as a headstock shape that evoked both a leaf and a sword, appropriately. The headstock was also carved for a 3-D effect. Britt designed the electronics for her guitar to allow switching combinations other than the stock wiring. Her guitar plays and sounds great. As part of her trade with me, Britt helped me with shop maintenence as I needed it. Great work!
Nos Oshiro
Nos measuring bridge parts
Setting the drillpress depth
Milling the bridge base.
Belize Rosewood burl will match the guitar's top.
Checking the final depth.
Nos began working with me with the intent of making some modifications to his bass as part of a school project. He traded me time cleaning the shop and helping me prep for classes; I showed him some basic things about different pickups, hardware, etc. Pretty soon it became obvious that Nos had an aptitude for lutherie and we set about making more intense changes to his bass, including milling a new bass bridge and saddles from Bell Bronze, and installing a custom preamp and pickups. Nos did a beautiful fretjob and took a pretty good bass and made it really fine. When that project was complete I suggested to Nos that he stay on and continue doing work for me in the capacity of an informal apprenticeship. The accompanying photos show Nos working on the tremolo/tailpiece/tuning mechanism he built for a guitar I designed. He has also routed for all the hardware, shaped the body to completion, made the laminated back plate or birdseye maple, fitted the neck, sanded in preparation for dyeing the body sides, and probably by the time you read this dyed the body sides and shaded the back. The Tremolo/tailpiece/tuners he built is a gem! It is both beautiful and precise, aesthetically gorgeous and technically functional. A tremolo must be absolutely precise to work better than the off-the-rack units available. Nos created a piece of hardware that is superior in looks, feel, fit, and function to that which is used on even the highest quality production guitars. Nos is now going to college and helping me in his spare time (why is it never the other way around?).
Fleishman Instruments 1533 Welter Ct. Sebastopol, CA 95472 USA guitars@sbcglobal.net 707-823-3537
