I have been looking at all the prototype Esquires a while. The pine bodies and the Cabronitas with a Dearmond pickup both got me interested. I decided to do my own take on the prototype Esquire. I wanted to build something really cool that is lightweight and awesome sounding. I wanted to apply what I have learned from 30 years of building to the most simple of guitars. It’s not a complicated guitar but one where every single detail counts, a lot. Simplicity can be beautiful, crude, and perfect all at the same time.
As I said, it is a simple guitar but simple machines are often the best. One volume control, a pickup, a bridge, tuners, some hardware… not much else. The body and neck represent all the wooden parts. Each and every part was carefully chosen to enhance not only the aesthetic value but also the performance of the guitar.
I decided to make the body from a single piece of western red cedar. I chose it because it is super light weight and very resonant. It is used often for acoustic guitar tops and is known as a dark, resonant tonewood. The neck is one piece hard maple with a walnut skunk stripe, three on a side. I used the new Waverley tuners that look closest to the Fender 3 on-a-plank I could find. The pickguard is made from thin phenolic capturing the appearance of the old bakelite Fenders. I finished them in nitrocellulose lacquer, leaving as thin a film as possible.
The bridge is the most important piece of hardware on this guitar. I chose a heavy stainless steel string-through plate and 3 brass saddles. I also used a heavy stainless steel neck plate, important due to the softness of the cedar body. The stiff plate allows for much more tension to be used without crushing the body. I chose a Dearmond Hershey Bar pickup from a Silvertone. It looks cool and sounds terrific. It is cleaner and more acoustic sounding than a Broadcaster or Tele, but with a little bark if you hit it hard. Assembled it weighs a very comfortable 5 lbs 8 oz. The guitar is very resonant, you feel it vibrate when you play it, like a great acoustic guitar.
