Thanks for al the nice posts guys, they are most appreciated!
To answer a few of the questions posted here:
1) Woods used:
Body - Chambered 1-piece (sweeeet) walnut
Top - Bookmatched insanely figured flamed walnut
Neck - Flamed walnut
Fretboard - You guessed it.... flamed walnut! The fretboard almost looks like flamed Koa, and if you've ever seen a piece of Ron's flamed koa stash in person.... it is absolutely drool worthy! :lol:
2) Pickups chosen:
I went with Tim @ Bare Knuckle pickups located in the UK. He makes custom wound pickups and having tried a set already in another guitar he knows what he is doing! They've VERY pricey with the whole pound to dollar ratio being pretty distant, but IMHO they are totally worth the high price (think it was $330 for the set :shock: ) as the other guitar I had a Miracle Man set installed into instantly came to life! I went with the Steve Stevens Rebel Yell set because after speaking with Tim he said it took the best from both modern and vintage tone sets. Ron told me the neck was smooth and very articulate (perfect) and the bridge just had this grit on the clean channel so you could tell it was waiting to get hit with some gain to really shine (which is where I come in hehe).
3) What bridge was used:
Ron actually designed that bridge himself. He used to physically make them himself as well but it was taking up too much time and since he knows guys who are just as good, he outsourced that part of the hardware. The Sperzels are also custom ordered if you take a look at the back, they're not the same as regular locking sperzels.
The bridge is machined out of a SOLID block of brass, so it sustains and rings like a bell, very good for the tone IMHO. It is so smooth too, I just had to go with one for mine!
You can't buy them individually, it comes only on his guitars. Sadly, another small builder has ripped off his design (I won't name names, but he knows who he is... don't know if he looks at this board or not) for the bridge and now uses it on his guitars. He also stole a few other ideas from Ron's guitars, but that's another story that really pisses me off. :evil:
4) Is he closing up shop?
Nope definitely not. This is where you see what kind of person Ron really is, and it makes him SO cool in my eyes. Ron ended up receiving a ridiculous amount or orders the year I placed mine. I mean, for a one-man shop (two technically, his Dad helps with some of the inlay work so Ron can focus on the guitars) receiving 50+ orders in a year is a HUGE undertaking. Now imagine receiving, oh I dunno, 4 emails per month from 50 people!!! Yep, he was receiving so many calls and emails that he was stressing out because he never got to work on the guitars that people were complaining about the wait, when in fact these same people were creating the wait-time they were griping about! Leave the man alone, get your guitars sooner, it's a simple idea but many failed to grasp it.
At that point Ron had three ways to go: 1) Raise the prices astronomically to artificially cut down the demand so only the uber rich could afford to still place an order or 2) Keep his prices the same, but hold off on letting any new orders into the queue or 3) Just keep letting those orders flow in, but then each new order is looking at a 3+ year build time, which most people wouldn't want to sit through anyways and would most likely turn into a HUGE headache on his part. I've seen this happen to a TON of small luthiers once they start getting more work out there and most guys go with the "I'll just charge double what I was charging before" (see JG Gustavessen, or however you spell his last name.... 8K for one of his guitars? :x ). Ron would like to keep his guitars competetively priced and yet still affordable so that it wouldn't be only the ultra-wealthy who could afford them. Heck, I paid for mine while I was still in college! :shock:
I'm REALLY excited to receive this guitar! Ron took some very special woods and a LOT of talent and put together a guitar I'm going to be able to enjoy for years and years.
I was very patient waiting for this baby because I knew that upon completion, it would exceed my expectations. I haven't even received her yet but I already know he will! Ron rocks!!! 8)
