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Why buy an AxeCraft custom guitar.
Let us count the ways:The Body The body is hand made from select
wood materials. We use select Alder, Ash, Cherry, Maple, Black Walnut, Basswood,
Cypress, and other unique species for exquisite sound and beauty.
Each guitar is individually dreamed up and constructed. Bodies are cut out individually and hand shaped. The neck pocket is precisely machined for a true fit with the neck.
Pick up and Control pockets are coated with shielding paint to eliminate 60 cycle hum.
The finishes are hand applied in
many, many layers. We use primarily Tung oil as a stain and water based finishes
(for reduced environmental impact). Bodies are hand rubbed with a layer of
carnuba wax before assembly. The Neck Necks are hand made or purchased as
blanks. They are made to precise tolerances. They are
made of hard maple and may include a Rosewood or Ebony fingerboard. Frets are medium
gauge nickle-steel. Necks include a double action truss rod. That's just the
start. Each neck is hand finished to ensure best possible intonation and action. The frets are leveled to prevent buzzing. Frets are then crowned and the ends rounded over. Frets are then wire brushed and polished in a two step process. The nuts are hand made of bone or Corian(tm) and individually fitted to the neck. String slots are individually fitted using gauged nut files. After the neck is strung up to tension, the truss rod is adjusted to allow 0.10" to 0.12" relief, depending on the individual guitar. Frets are rechecked for buzz and fine adjustments are made.
The bridge saddles are adjusted for intonation, and action is set.
Finally, the pickups are adjusted to balance high, mid and low range sound.
Then we play the guitar for a while and make any adjustments that show up as the strings settle in. The ElectronicsElectronics are individually selected for each guitar. Controls are hand soldered. Control, pickup and output pockets are painted with magnetic paint to shield the components from ambient 60 cycle AC energy. This helps prevent hum. Controls are grounded to the
bridge using solid copper wire to provide excellent grounding and prevent hum. Pickups are typically Altec Alnico V units. We also use other pickups as desired. Potentiometers are typically A250kOhm for the Volume control and B250kOhm for the Tone control. On humbucker or stacked coil pickups we typically use 500kOhm pots. Capacitors are typically .020 or .022mOhm for single coils. Other sizes are used as needed to balance the guitar sound. Switches are typically Fender(tm) 3 or 5 way. We pay a premium to install Fender switches because they are solid and reliable. We usually use an "electrosocket" type output jack in the "telecaster" style guitars because they are more rugged than the Fender design. We occasionally also use the "football" type on teles. "Stratocaster" style guitars get the typical boat type output. Click here for a pdf on "How to make an electric guitar". |
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"AxeCraft", "BlueJeansMusic" and
"Cherry Guitars" are trademarks (2008) of Steven Miller.
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