Turning Up the Wick

It has been a very busy few months here in The Workshop. The response to our Tulsa model variants has resulted in a massive uptick in the amount of work to do.

I’m still pressing on with the Artist Proofs—trying out ideas I have for future options on my Team Built guitars. The German carve top has proven to be a home run, and the number of customers requesting the back carve is up too.

Figured Korina back carve

Right now, I’ve got the “Espresso” Tulsa in the paint room, getting its first coats of nitro. It features a bookmatched  top of roasted (torrefied) curly maple. The idea and name came from the color of this piece of wood. I’ve had it in my shop for about three years, and up until now I hadn’t thought of what to do with it. The inspiration came when I used a dark filler on some mahogany for a client who wanted a tobacco shade. When I saw the result, I immediately knew what I was going to use that maple for.

The torrefied maple top
Espresso Tulsa’s mahogany back with German carve
The Espresso Tulsa no. 1 takes shape

The thing about this torrefied wood is that even though I had glued up the top several years ago, it was still perfectly straight and dead flat in every direction! As skeptical as I was before, I’m convinced that this stuff is extremely stable. In the case of pure white maple, the color change is really drastic, so it’s not for everyone, but it’s perfect for my coffee-themed build.

Published by

Jol

Jol Dantzig is a guitar builder, designer, writer and filmmaker. He has worked for Gibson, Fender, Guild, Ovation, Gretsch, and was a founding partner of Hamer guitars—one of the first boutique custom guitar brands. Dantzig’s work has been played by hundreds of artists including Sting, Steve Stevens, Larry Coreyell, Dug Pinnick, Billy Gibbons, Keb Mo’, Nick Lowe, KK Downing, Glenn Tipton, John Abercrombie, Glen Campbell, Rick Nielsen, Kenny Vaughan, Lita Ford, James Honeyman Scott, Elliott Easton, Andy Summers, Peter Frampton, Martin Barre, Lyle Workman, Brad Gillis, George Harrison, Jeff Ament, Dweezil Zappa, Jeff Tweedy, Nancy Wilson—and many others.