Custom Job Earth 3 CJE3SP130924 born today and it was actually quite a trip from the mill to the hanger. Lots of surprises and changes, some will stick to the model, some won’t. In the end though, it’s a super expressive, rock solid, and flexible beast. The wood was just common Walnut. I’d opted for that predominantly because I wanted something *slightly* lighter, slightly less uniform in figure, maybe with a little more depth than the flame maple I’d been using. I’m also not too much of a fan of using dyes and “grain popping” techniques. it never seems to live up to what the wood has to offer itself.
So Walnut it was. I found some nice straight grained stuff for the neck, back and mid pieces, and a few more figured pieces for the front, peg head and electrical cavity cover.
After playing around a bit with grain “matching” I found a nice balance for the shape of the guitar. Sort of a curving shooting star pattern that matched the celestial theme of the overall build. This was something I was trying to find nicer solutions for with my previous builds but pretty much nothing from those guitars really fit. This overall feeling migrated nicely into some fretboard work that I’m pretty proud of, however simple the process. The maple inner laminates really contrast the dark walnut primaries.
On the last guitar, I’d messed around with wire inlays on the fretboard to portray a sort of axial travel of the earth (abalone dot) around the sun. This was fine, it looks ok, but I was making that for myself and really, if a thin brass wire lets go of it’s setting while I’m bending a string, I only have myself to blame for the blood. Also, for wire work, it’s better to use a wood that’s way less hard and dense than ANYTHING one would use for a fretboard. I persisted and inlaid into Pau Ferro by the skin of my teeth. For this guitar, I wanted something simple, distinct, subtle, and durable. So I opted for the moon’s path (gold MOP) around the Earth. I’m sure this will become more complex than this as the builds of the Earth series go on, but I really like this. You gotta kind of look for it, and the eclipse at the octaves just looks sweet.
Another lil change of heart was that, though this was to be an Earth 2 (and therefore a two pickup job), I decided to add a middle single coil. Honestly, I know this is debated widely and that switching options today sort of make a three pickup guitar silly, but a middle single sets better with me than most other positions. The next one is an Earth 2, I swear.
The headstock and decor is basically the same as the last guitar, though I opted for a matching walnut veneer, which was a dream to inlay wire into. The Earth logo is brass, white MOP, gold MOP, and abalone. The the machine heads are Sperzel non locking tuners, which are fine. Unfortunately, I’d ordered two sets and the second set appears to have gotten lost in the shuffle. They never charged me so, no harm no foul but … I think I’ll go another route with the next build.
The Nut is unbleached bone, hand cut, shaped and notched.
The binding is a nice flame maple with black/white/black fiber lams. The truss rod cover is Maple and Walnut and Brass and is affixed by magnets. I did lessen the headstock angle on this one. The last build was 14˚ and this was 11˚. Combining that with the 25″ instead of the 25.5″ left things a little more “slinky” than I like at 10ga so it’s strung with 11ga, which adds a depth of overtone to the sound. The next one (Earth 2) will be back to 14˚ and will work better with 10ga.
The Pickups are DMarzio, Super 2 (N), Super Dist (B). Dark Matter (M) switched by a Freeway 6way through three pots, 1 tone (N/B), 1 tone (M) and a Master. The control cavity cover is, again, affixed by magnets.
The neck is a little different than my earlier guitars. Where Earth 1 was a shredder profile up and down and Earth 2 was like a squished V profile down low and a squished D profile up high, this one is fuller towards the nut… kind of baseball batty .. then flattens out and speeds up nicely while still allowing for expression up high.
Overall, I like it a lot! It’s super stable with a very full tone and a lot of sustain. The hot pickups pull everything from the note. It’s FAR more balanced than my previous builds and the finish is rather stunning. I haven’t blocked and polished anything since I was working on furniture a lot more as I’m usually into a semi gloss finish at most, but I think this fits better with this body style.
Anyway, next up is the Earth 2. It’ll basically be this same instrument with two pickups, a different switching pattern, one tone per p/u, a 14˚ headstock angle, different tuning machines, and a faster (slim taper) neck up and down.
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