We built this T-Style at Lukas’s request. The design is of course a classic, but we have added some modern features:
The body is made from a one-piece, thermally treated alder. Due to the the “roasting”, the wood is artificially aged and loses about 10% of its weight. This makes the guitar lighter and more resonant. The neck and fingerboard are made from beautifully figured Swiss maple, which has also been thermally treated. As a result, it is much less sensitive to the effects of the weather, so it hardly swells or shrinks and is extremely stable and torsion-resistant. We provided the fretboard with custom aluminum inlays that adorn the fretboard between the 22 polished stainless steel frets. Fluorescent Luminlay Sidedots provide best orientation even on dark stages.
For better playability and ergonomics, we have added contour shapings to the body. So it is flattened in the armrest area and made a belly cut on the back. In addition, the neck-body transition has also been flattened and contoured, which makes playing very comfortable up to the highest frets. The neck joint with the 4x M6 stainless steel screws ensures an extremely stable connection, the best sound and sustain.
On the electronics side, the Häussel humbucker on the bridge provides plenty of power and the Barfuss pickup on the neck delivers the blues. With the 4-way pickup switch, we have added a 4th serial combination of the pickups to the classic Tele sounds. The HB bridge can also be split, which makes the guitar very versatile in terms of sound.
On the hardware – side, the ABM bridge made of solid bell brass and the Gotoh locking tuners ensure uncompromising quality.
For the finish Lukas decided on a heavy aged candy tangerine over British Racing Green, after we had created some color samples. In a complex process, we made the body and every single part of the hardware look really old; piece by piece. The gold anodized pickguard made of aluminum provides another optical treat.
Last but not least, the finished guitar was cryo-tuned at -180°, which additionally reduced the tension in the material and made it even more resonant. You can hardly make much more out of such a classic.. it was a lot of fun building this guitar and Lukas is more than happy – what more could you ask for? 🙂
