A hollow body fitted with a thin top of fine wood produces an open dynamic sound.  Light weight and comfortable body contours make it a breeze to play.

Craig Nicholls of the Vines commissioned this guitar - he saw one of producer Rob Schnapfs' S&S guitars and liked its light weight and sound.  Quilted Maple top with Rosewood fingerboard, 2 TV-Jones Filtertron pickups.

This guitar is a precursor of the S&S and 486 line dating back to 1996.  A hollow Alder body topped with Macassar Ebony and a one-piece Macassar Ebony neck.  The original guitar underwent some modifications over time.  The original Tele-style bridge with a Seymour Duncan Hot Stack was replaced with a roller bridge, a Bigsby and a BoneTop P-90 style pickup.  A second BoneTop was added and the 3-way switch placed in the upper bout.  An Ilitch noise-cancelling coil ensures studio-quiet operation.

Taking the S&S concept as a starting point I used the Warmoth Bocote neck producer Rob Schnapf brought me and made a PJ with a fiddleback Ash top.  Due to the heavy neck and light body this bass turned out to be a bit neck-heavy...

Alder body with flame Maple top with a center stripe of pearl.  Seymour Duncan Seth Lover pickups.  Mahogany neck w/Ebony fingerboard.

Mahogany body and neck with Rosewood fingerboard.  Flame Koa top.  'BoneTop' P90's.

Salvage, courtesy of Todd Taggart.  I found the piece for the top while dumpster diving at Allied Luthierie - one of my favorite suppliers.  It had proved too small for their use as an acoustic back: a full 1/2" thick top of figured Rosewood with abalone purfling.  The neck is quilted Mahogany with a Rosewood fingerboard. The thickness allowed me to carve the top rather than have it be a flat top as usual.

Mahogany body w/flame Koa top.  Flame Koa neck w/Rosewood fingerboard.  Gold hardware.

for work images click here

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Indian Rosewood top over Mahogany body.  Maple neck w/Indian Rosewood fingerboard and headstock overlay.  Two 'BoneTop' P-90's.  $-way switching allowing for the pickups to be wired in series as well as parallel.

Here's a video by "Dream Guitars".

Macassar Ebony top over Mahogany body.   Maple neck w/Macassar fingerboard and headstock overlay.  Two 'BoneTop' P-90's, Hipshot bridge.

Macassar Ebony top over Mahogany body.  Maple neck w/Macassar fingerboard and headstock overlay.  Lollar Imperial humbucker in the Spalt custom bridge, Lollar minihumbucker in the neck.  Hipshot locking tuners w/barrel knobs.  5-way switch for various coil switching options.