The guitars I mainly use are those I’ve built myself. Most of the time, I build guitars to match a classic look with modern function. I use a variety of parts, paint and aging services, and types of setups. I do a lot of my own painting, all of the electronics, assembly, and setup.
Each guitar has a different layout, from pickups to neck radius and profile to paint design and bridge assemblies. Each one is truly unique and they’ve all been a lot of fun to build. I also take commissions from local guitarists for custom builds of their own. If you’re interested in a guitar built to your specifications, you can contact me.
I also am a huge supporter of King Bee Guitars, and own some of his work as well.
King Bee Guitars
First, my King Bee guitars. Andy has been building me guitars for a long time, and I have to say his work is extraordinary. With exception to setup for my taste, each guitar has truly been a great addition and well-used. While some have been passed on to the next guitarists in line, these are the guitars from King Bee that I still love and use.
The King Bee Fat TeleTobacco sunburst, Seymour Duncan stack in the bridge and mini-humbucker in the neck position. 12″ radius. This is great for classic tone and vibe with a slightly more modern feel.
This guitar serves me the all-too-important purpose of classic Telecaster rock and roll. You’ll notice I’m not a Fender guitar lover. I grew up on Kramers and Charvels, and Fender just never completely delivers when I try them out. This guitar does exactly what it’s supposed to do – rock like the ’70s are still around.
(coming soon – the King Bee workhorse Strat)
PK Guitars
Most of the time, if there’s something I want a guitar to do, I build it myself. There’s a unique advantage to doing my own guitars in that I can buy new OR used parts, hand pick electronics and neck/body types, and continuously fine tune until an instrument plays and sounds just as I want it.
I have built PK guitars for others in the area, and do so on a very limited basis. When building for a customer, I need to get as close to their expectations as possible the first time around using all new parts. This makes these guitars more costly and more work-intensive. However, I do enjoy building for others from time to time.
Here are a few of the guitars I’ve built for myself.
The PK Semi-Hollow Flame TopThis guitar is the first in the ‘PK’ series. Hollow Alder body with a 1/4″ Flame Maple top. routed for a single f-hole, it uses a humbucker in the bridge, a rails pickup in the neck, and a Wilkinson tremolo. The switching and controls are standard Telecaster (master volume and tone, 3-way switch), using a Gibson-style switch and controls in custom locations. The body was cut and built by hand specifically for this project, and also uses a double binding on the face of WOOD instead of the typical plastic.
When I painted this one, I opted for 4 colors of stain that I sanded off from darkest to lightest to give the flame a 3D appearance. The back of the guitar is stained dark brown, and the entire thing is then coated in very thin layers of clear nitrocellulose lacquer.
The neck is a Warmoth Pro model with side adjustment truss rod, reverse headstock with a Flame Maple face, graphite nut, and locking Sperzel tuners. The neck is their thick construction (1″ deep the entire neck length).
This is the guitar I’ve had the most requests to sell, but being the first in the series, I’ve always kept it as my own, and my youngest son has already claimed it as his when he’s old enough.
Turq The WorkhorseTurquoise classic-styled Strat. 1″ thick baseball bat neck, DiMarzio HS-3 pickup set, 12″ radius. Light swamp ash body and a heavy relic appearance. One of my most-used guitars.
This one has been around the block – literally. It started as a King Bee Strat. The neck I chose for the guitar was a bit off for my changing needs, and I needed silent pickups. So I changed the neck and all the electronics in it. Then sold it. It reappeared with someone else playing it. The guy who had it didn’t really have the skill to modify it, but did anyway. The DiMarzios were replaced. The aged Gotoh trem and tuners had been replaced with some other aftermarket stuff that killed the tone of the guitar. A brass nut was added – although I’m growing fond of the nut, it binds like crazy, so it renders the trem useless. He also went way overboard on additional aging. It looks like a typical “home done relic” now, but its original mojo and tone is still there.
I was lucky enough to get it back from a THIRD owner in a trade, and have been slowly getting it back to usable condition. The pickups have been replaced again, and I have more aged hardware on order from King Bee. Don’t worry, Turq… We’ll getcha running again.
PK’s BlackieNothing like Eric Clapton’s (well obviously, considering we’re dealing with a Tele and not a Strat)…
One of my first ‘relic’ builds, the Blackie used relic parts mixed with authentically vintage parts to get real vintage look. I used an ’80s Japan Tele body, a late-’80s unfinished (and heavily used) Warmoth neck with a reverse headstock, and an original ’80s Duncan JB bridge pickup. The rest of the parts are new and aged to look the part.
Honestly, this might even be my main guitar, except the neck (being old and unfinished) took a tiny twist to it. If I had it refretted and leveled, it would probably play like a champ.
The PK ClassicMy #1 Strat. Body and neck are Warmoth. Pickups are a mix of Duncans and DiMarzios (stacks). Wilkinson trem, Schaller locking tuners. Warmoth radius, standard thin neck. 100% honest aging on this. All bumps and bruises are from real use and real-life hardware modifications throughout the instrument’s life.
The tip of the hat to Jeff Beck on this one is notable, but I opted for slightly different hardware and pickups. Instead of the LSR nut, I chose graphite. Instead of a traditional Fender 2-point trem that lifts off the body, I chose a floating Wilkinson. I also added a Hipshot Tremsetter to prevent tuning issues for the songs we do in drop-D (and the occasional broken string).
The PK PatriotYep – that’s metalflake, and yes it was done by none other than Tony De Lacugo (famous for his chopper paint as well as award-winning guitar paint jobs – google his name to see some of his great work).
DiMarzio pickups, coil tap switch, 3-way pickup selector, 12″ radius rosewood fretboard, 22 jumbo frets, standard D profile, Sperzel graduated locking tuners. Neck is finished in Tru-Oil gunstock finish for a smooth unfinished feel, headstock in gloss lacquer. Can YOU say Rockabilly?
The BenderMy B-Bender custom build. It has a Duncan stack bridge pickup and two Duncan Strat stack pickups, a custom-wired 3-way switch, 3-tone sunburst paint, an authentic Fender B-Bender installed, rosewood fretboard and locking tuners with a 12″ radius.
This is the mix of B-Bender Telecaster and Dick Dale Strat that I love to use. With the stacks in place, I can still push my amps into high gain for the rock covers and retain silent operation. But they’re very traditionally voiced, so clean Telecaster bending sounds really authentic on it.
The PK Dan Dimas80s revisited. Single Duncan humbucker in the bridge, black Strat-style body, black pickguard, single volume knob (with TONE on it), Warmoth Wolfgang profile neck with compound radius and no position markers, chrome Floyd Rose original with D Tuna.
Since the picture was taken, I’ve changed it out with a SoCal pickguard (now with a PAF in the bridge and an Evolution in the neck), 3-way switch and single volume knob. I needed it to be more versatile for live shows, as I’m using this style guitar more and more with “heavier” sounding amplification.
The name “Dan Dimas” came from my fatfingered text to a friend about making a San Dimas style guitar. Autocorrect does not seem to like the word “San”, and no matter how many times I backspaced and retyped it, it would change it to “Dan”. So Dan it is…
