We’re getting ready to ship the most recently finished Smith Special to TR Crandall in NYC. When I had the thought to engrave the hardware, tattoo artist Dave Gibson immediately came to mind. I’ve known Dave for years and after talking with him a few times about my vision, what he came up with was even better than I had imagined. I had seen a photo of Merl’s Super 400 with a Bigsby vibrato engraved but on this guitar, we took it all the way and engraved all of the aluminum. I completed it with a tortoise shell pick guard with longhorn inlay, pine top, headstock overlay with overlapping MOP horseshoes and sunburst finish. All photo by Steve Lester