Fresh Paint…
I decided to turn my custom shop nocaster into the guitar that I use to test my pickups. I routed out the backside and made a bakelite cover for it, similar to Merle Travis’s Bigsby. When I started, the body weighed 4lb. 4 3/4oz. After routing it out, it weighs 2lb. 11oz. I should have done this a long time ago. It feels and sounds great! I can now swap the neck pickup out from the back without taking the strings off. While I was at it, Read The Rest
1945 Atlas-Craftsman Drill Press
I saw this drill press at my local swap meet 3 weeks ago and thought by now it would be gone. It was priced lower than some of the new plastic imported drill presses that they sell today and not one hole drilled into the upper or lower table from a careless user! I knew if I didn’t get it I’d kick myself later on down the road.
Its a well taken care of 1945 Craftsman made by Atlas in Kalamazoo MI. You also see the brand Dunlap on the motor. According to the history found on the Vintage Machinery website, Dunlap was a Sears brand used on their lesser-grade machines, however, some of the older Dunlap machines were really good quality. The Dunlap brand was first used in 1941. The name came from Tom Dunlap who was the head buyer of the hardware department at Sears at the time. Atlas was just one of many companies that manufactured for Sears. If you find a vintage Craftsman machine with the model number starting with 101, you know it was made by Atlas.
The Atlas company still exists in Kalamazoo under the name Clausing Industrial. Looks like they are coming out with a new drill press completely made in the U.S.A.
Deke’s Guitar Geek Festival 2012
Last weekend we headed down to Anaheim, CA to attend Deke Dickerson’s 9th annual Guitar Geek Festival. As usual, he did not disappoint. Besides a top notch group of pickers over two evenings, Deke’s insane collection of rare, valuable and wacky guitars grows more interesting every year. My favorite this year was definitely his Bigsby from 1956 pictured below.
Deke also showed a beautiful collection of relatively unknown “Harvey” guitars made by an incredible craftsman, Jim Harvey. The Harvey mandolin pictured below, made in 1952 for Scotty Broyles, features a five pole piece Bigsby pickup. Scotty himself, along with Jim Harvey’s son Howard, were there to play in the “All Harvey Band” where seven guys each played a Harvey made instrument.
Having just made a pick guard for Deke’s tele, we set up a small display to show the guitar geeks in attendance a sampling of what we can do for them as well.
Below are a few various shots of the event and the guitar museum, including an amazing steel guitar collection.
Nitze Kitchen
TK just finished this simple kitchen made of birch europly with black laminate faces. The client-friend saw the It House in a magazine, came to the desert from Berlin, bought a piece of land and built one for himself! When inside, the simplicity of this mostly glass structure, functioning completely off the grid, gives the feeling of really being one with the amazing desert surroundings.
New for Twenty Twelve
Welcome to the New Year! Through the holiday’s and into the new year, T.K.’s been doing overtime in the shop working on his new guitar pickup. He wants it to sound like a cross between a Stratosphere and a Charlie Christian, his two favorite pickups, and it’s constructed like a Bigsby. He has talked about this for years! T.K. still has a ways to go until he’ll be happy with the final product, but we’re hopeing to have some production units for sale by summer. Stay tuned!
