Signature series guitars. All major guitar manufacturers make them. Some people love them, and some people hate them. Personally, I fall into the “love them” camp. The ironic thing is that many of the people who claim that they hate them would not hesitate to play a Les Paul, which is perhaps the prototype for signature series guitars.

What I like about signature series guitars is that they either take inspiration or direct feedback from the artists that inspired the guitars, resulting in a guitar that is different from the standard fare. Additionally, most signature guitars have unique features not available on the standard production guitars. For example, taking cues from his famous “Number One” guitar, the Stevie Ray Vaughan Stratocaster has the vibrato arm on the top of the bridge rather than the bottom. The newly released Rosewood Eric Johnson Stratocaster has unique colors and a bound fretboard, which no other current product model Stratocaster has.

One trend I’ve noticed in some signature series guitars is that the identifying marks, such as the artist’s signature, have been moved from obvious spots on the guitar to the back of the guitar or other hidden areas. For example, the Stevie Ray Vaughan model has the signature on the front of the instrument, whereas the recent John Mayer and Kenny Wayne Shepherd Stratocasters have the signature on the back of the headstock. I think this is likely in response to the resistance that some players have to playing an instrument with another player’s name on it.

Even though I’m a fan of signature guitars, some guitar manufacturers have taken the signature guitar concept a little too far. For example, Dean Guitars have over 30 guitars inspired by or attributed to Dimebag Darrell. Fortunately, other manufacturer’s have taken a less is more approach to signature guitars.

That being said, I think signature series guitars provide a great way for fans to pay tribute to their guitar heroes. Additionally, I think signature series guitars provide an opportunity for guitar manufacturers to work directly with artists to create unique and innovative instruments. Gibson’s Les Paul is an example of a manufacturer working directly with an artist to create a unique instrument that has stood the test of time. And, it’s provided a platform for other artists to create their own unique guitar.

What do you think about signature series guitars?

Guitar World magazine recently posted a video of their exclusive tour of the Paul Reed Smith factory. I found it interesting that, although machines are used to do the cutting of the body and neck, there is still a lot of manual labor involved in assembling a PRS guitar.

I’ve always enjoyed working with my hands, and I’ve had an itch for a while to build my own guitar. A friend of mine built a fretless bass using exotic wood. It was beautiful! He built it from scratch and did an excellent job for his first try.

I don’t have the tools I would need to build a guitar from scratch, so I’d probably need to build one from a kit or from parts if I ever decided to build my own guitar. Several places offer kits and/or parts that you can build from. For example, Stewart-McDonald and Warmoth both offer guitar parts for the do-it-yourselfer. Even Martin offers guitar kits. It seems like building an electric guitar would be easier than building an acoustic guitar, although maybe it wouldn’t matter if you were using a kit.

Have you ever built a guitar, either from scratch or from a kit? If you have, please share your experience in the comments!

In my continuing quest to learn how all musical instruments are made, I recently watched another episode of the Science Channel’s How It’s Made series, this time featuring a segment on how pedal steel guitars are made. I’ve heard that they are difficult to play, but I didn’t realize how involved steel guitars really are. Check it out:

Earlier this week, I posted a video about how amps are made. I thought I’d follow that video up with a two part series about how electric guitars are made. These videos are from the Science Channel’s show How It’s Made, and they highlight Godin Guitars. Part 1 discusses the crafting of the wood, and part 2 discusses the electronics.

Part 1:

Part 2:

As a bonus, here’s a video from the Travel Channel series Made In America highlighting how Gibson guitars are made:

Gibson has recently released the Jeff Beck 1954 Les Paul Oxblood tribute guitar. Gibson recently sat down with Beck in London to talk about the guitar, why he chose Gibsons early in his career, and what drives him musically:

Have you ever wondered what the difference was between a standard guitar and a baritone guitar? Premier Guitar has a pretty good write up about baritone guitars, written by Sweetwater Sales Engineer Art Hill.

In essence, it comes down to scale length. The scale length of a baritone guitar rests between a bass guitar and a standard guitar. As a result, baritone guitars often use heavier gauge strings and are tuned down lower than standard tuned guitars.

I was surprised to found out the diversity of artists that have used baritone guitars. Duane Eddy, George Harrison, John Lennon, Joe Perry, Johnny Cash, Dave Matthews, and Stevie Ray Vaughan all used baritone guitars at some point in their career, among many others.

Yesterday, November 28, 2008, marked the official debut of Fender’s Yngwie Malmsteen Tribute Series Stratocaster. Like the other Tribute Series guitars that Fender has done, this is a limited edition guitar that is based on the guitar that the artist is most known for. In Yngwie’s case, this is a scalloped-neck olympic white 1971 Fender Stratocaster. Fender always seems to do a meticulous job with their Tribute Series guitars, so I’m sure the Malmsteen guitar is just as authentic.

Below is Fender’s promotional video for the guitar.

I’m a sucker for a good factory tour. I worked in a manufacturing plant throughout college and have always been fascinated by how products are made. As a guitarist, I’m especially interested in how guitars are made, so I was pleased to see that Premier Guitar magazine posted this past summer some videos of their factory tour of Nazareth, Pennsylvania’s Martin Guitars. Part I of the factory tour is posted below.

After checking out part I, also check out part II, part III, and part IV.

The internal combustion guitar:

Your touch sends signal to a small amp (6 watts or less) or processor combo

The small amp sends the conditioned signal back to the Internal Combustion Guitar

The Internal Combustion Guitar power driver reenergizes the now harmonically enriched and colored string tone

The ICG looks like a pretty interesting innovation. According to the luthier, Woody Bruce, it allows you to get great tone at very low volumes. Hear Woody B discussing the guitar:

(Thanks David!)