As many have seen on my other thread showing some pictures of my recently acquired Nocturne the whole journey, carefully guided by Jem, has been a very personal journey. For those that are interested I have started this thread that will, in pictures, show my thought process and how Jem guided me to reality to create the guitar of my dreams.
Before commissioning Jem I had already been a huge fan of the Hamer Californian - the guitar of my dreams. Through HFC I got in touch with Jem who assured me that my dream could be realized. When I rattled off the spec I think he got a surprise.
Me: "Dragon inlay along the neck - to look like a Chinese dragon tattoo - all blues, and orange with a red eye, scales, but not like a PRS dragon"
Jem: "OK.... It can be done. I'll guess you don't want a Roger Dean Dragon then?"
Me: "No! I want it to look like a tattoo, and the Dragon signifies the Chinese Year of the Dragon"
I was born in the year of the Dragon, it would be built largely in the Year of the Dragon, and Jem (as it happens) was also born in the Year of the Dragon.
Hardware wise I we discussed the relative merits of Schaller and Gotoh and I decided on Gotoh. I have always loved them (they build the trems on the Ibanez Jem's which are very comfortable) and they had very good reviews online and among owners.
Machine Heads again Gotoh to keep some consistency. And they look the Biz! Pickup wise I settled on the Bareknuckle VH2 for the bridge which I love on my Cali. Neck pickup to be decided but definitely a humbucker. Jescar frets were a must to keep the colours right. they are gold coloured and jumbo in size.
I asked Jem about woods and after a brief conversation we agreed that it would be worth paying extra to have the best available flamey look - body and neck. After hunting through his local specialist suppliers "stash" he came back with something a bit special - predictably a billet on the very bottom of a select pile. The fretboard would be dark ebony to enable the inlay to jump out. The rest of the spec evolved during the build and will be discussed later.
The first stage for my involvement would be the Dragon inlay design.as I was told in implicit terms that "what I draw is what I get."
These were my first concept drawings and a few pictures of inspiration from Chinese tattoos - mainly for the colours.
Some of the materials before they realised their new purpose in life. AAAAA+ Maple, orange spiney, turquoise matrix, abalone, pau inlay (latter two not pictured)
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DBraz
As many have seen on my other thread showing some pictures of my recently acquired Nocturne the whole journey, carefully guided by Jem, has been a very personal journey. For those that are interested I have started this thread that will, in pictures, show my thought process and how Jem guided me to reality to create the guitar of my dreams.
Before commissioning Jem I had already been a huge fan of the Hamer Californian - the guitar of my dreams. Through HFC I got in touch with Jem who assured me that my dream could be realized. When I rattled off the spec I think he got a surprise.
Me: "Dragon inlay along the neck - to look like a Chinese dragon tattoo - all blues, and orange with a red eye, scales, but not like a PRS dragon"
Jem: "OK.... It can be done. I'll guess you don't want a Roger Dean Dragon then?"
Me: "No! I want it to look like a tattoo, and the Dragon signifies the Chinese Year of the Dragon"
I was born in the year of the Dragon, it would be built largely in the Year of the Dragon, and Jem (as it happens) was also born in the Year of the Dragon.
Hardware wise I we discussed the relative merits of Schaller and Gotoh and I decided on Gotoh. I have always loved them (they build the trems on the Ibanez Jem's which are very comfortable) and they had very good reviews online and among owners.
Machine Heads again Gotoh to keep some consistency. And they look the Biz! Pickup wise I settled on the Bareknuckle VH2 for the bridge which I love on my Cali. Neck pickup to be decided but definitely a humbucker. Jescar frets were a must to keep the colours right. they are gold coloured and jumbo in size.
I asked Jem about woods and after a brief conversation we agreed that it would be worth paying extra to have the best available flamey look - body and neck. After hunting through his local specialist suppliers "stash" he came back with something a bit special - predictably a billet on the very bottom of a select pile. The fretboard would be dark ebony to enable the inlay to jump out. The rest of the spec evolved during the build and will be discussed later.
The first stage for my involvement would be the Dragon inlay design.as I was told in implicit terms that "what I draw is what I get."
These were my first concept drawings and a few pictures of inspiration from Chinese tattoos - mainly for the colours.
Some of the materials before they realised their new purpose in life. AAAAA+ Maple, orange spiney, turquoise matrix, abalone, pau inlay (latter two not pictured)
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