The owner of this guitar approached and informed me of his lifelong dream to order a custom guitar. A local giging musician and recording artist/engineer, I knew we had to step out of some comfort zones.

This guitar solidifies a new signature look for the Parlor City Package, which will include the option for a multi-piece neck. When I glued up the back, I just knew we would have to have absolute continuity of lines, from the back to the heel-cap, from there throughout the entire neck. That took some prototyping to make this quarter-sawn neck blank.

This client was 100% honest with his feedback every step of the way regarding inlay work. I loved the challenge. A fan of Pink Floyd and with an initial beginning with an “A,” I set to inlay subtle subliminal messages throughout the guitar without overstating the now obvious.

In a personal attempt to make a guitar with absolutely no black (minus any natural stains in the burl inlay pieces), the client agreed to make a last-minute change from black tuners to gold. To his suprise, this had the added benefit of matching the double-brass inlay fret position markers, as well as the gold fretwire - a first for CGC.

Visually, this is my favorite guitar to date, and takes me back to my roots as a builder; no solid 1-piece necks, virtually every non-metallic part made in-house. With the recent closure of a world-wide luthier-supply company, I sure am happy to have learned the skillset necessary to be nearly 100% independent in my builds, lest tuners, bone and other obvious hardware.

This process also reinforced my favorite part of building custom guitars: inviting the client to the shop to choose their own materials as part of the consultation process, and seeing the absolute joy on their face after they take delivery of our shared conception - turned - reality. I am extremely lucky to be in that position.