Features Overview
25 ½” Scale
24 True Temperament Frets
Neck Through
Burr Elm Top
Mahogany Wings
3 pc Mahogany/Wenge Neck
Rosewood Fretboard
Evertune Bridge
Gotoh Locking Tuners
Seymour Duncan Pickups (Saturday Night Special and Custom Stack)
Treble Bleed, Boost and Coil Split Push/Pulls
Dunlop Flush Mount Straplocks
Black Tusq Nut With Zero Fret
This is the Acolyte, the name is especially apt for the guitar pictured here, as the guitar was built for a gentleman with several medical conditions which meant he required a truly custom guitar to enable him to play more comfortably for longer. It was designed from the ground up and is 100% bespoke, having been built exactly to the customers specifications. It was built with comfort, speed and accuracy in mind, comfort being especially important - so the body shape was specially tailored to the unique playing style of the new owner, as was the neck profile and everything in between…right down to the location of the controls.
As for the accuracy – we have the revolutionary True Temperament fretting system which I have now used on a number of builds. This ensures perfect intonation at every single fret and gives the guitar a voice of extreme clarity. Notes and chords sound so much cleaner than with regular straight frets and ring out for ages. The equally impressive Evertune bridge means that this accuracy is preserved hour after hour with out any need to retune.
Of course, the functionality was the main purpose of the guitar, but that doesn’t mean it can’t also look fantastic! The guitar is a neck through design featuring a full top of beautiful Burr Elm, wings of some extremely lightweight Mahogany (total weight 3.4kg) and a 3 piece neck of Mahogany and Wenge. Black accent veneers in between the top and wings give a nice clean edge between the different woods and a sharp pin striped look when viewed from the back and sides.
On the electric side of things we have Seymour Duncan pickups with some extra switching options. The volume is a push pull (and also features a treble bleed) - when pulled up all the controls are bypassed and the bridge pickup goes straight to the jack for a quick boost in volume should it be needed. The tone control is also a push pull with a coil split option, which pairs nicely with the hum cancelling single coil in the neck position.
After completing the build, I decided to include the model in my range for future customers who may need an Acolyte for their musical adventures.
