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Drak Re-Purpose: Spruce Goose to Smokin' Sexual Chocolate


Drak

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So, I love T-Bone Walker, I always have, and Guitar Slim comes in straight behind him. That big, fat greasy-sounding ES-5 P-90 Jazzbox backed up by a sleazy swaggering horn section. Not just anyone got a horn section to back them up back then, that cost money. Most guitar players could never command that kind of backup, but T-Bone did. I always had a certain love for THAT sound coming off those records. A combination of the bigfatbox acoustic jazzbox, the P-90 pickup in particular, and the recording medium at the time. That made everything sound like it was coming through an AM radio speaker. There's just a certain something particular about 'that' sound I've always loved. And its a very particular sound, a very narrow window to 'hit' that sound. No single coil Fender ever sounded like that, No solidbody guitar sounds like that, and No Wes Montgomey HB'ered fatbox Gibson sounds like it either...it's a very narrow band of a very particular formula, and I've always loved it.

The guitar in the YT I posted sounds Exactly like what it is: an Acoustic Guitar with a P-90 Pickup in it, it sounds like nothing else but exactly that.

And I wanted to re-create it...on the cheap, of course, and in typical Drak style, not mimicking anyone else.

But creating my own individualized 'thing'.

T-Bone Walker, LIve 1966

T-Bone Walker Gibson 1949 ES-5 style shot pictured against Fender amp

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I, of course, was designing for P-90's. This HAS to have P-90's to pull off 'The Bone'.

P-90's don't hang from a pickguard, they're screwed into the wood (except for dogears of course).

I have a truly decadent supply of P-90s of about every possible heat you can imagine, everything from 6.5K up to 13K.

Many different magnet combinations and every heat along the way and in-between those two extremes, I got 'em.

I probably have, oh, +/- 30 P-90 pickups of all various configs I've collected over the years.

So, that influenced my first test, that I needed to allow for a routed cavity, but with wood-meat on the backside to screw into.

But then, I said what the hell and decided to make a few.

So I made two P-90's, a HB, and one for a few Bill Lawrence Marauder pickups I quite like.

One has a flat-top (which you'll see got a veneer face put on it)

The rest are from some figured Redwood blanks I had laying around for 25 years.

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So here, I've now applied a Quilted Maple veneer to the Mahogany one, and applied some lacquer to one of the Redwood jobs.

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This particular Redwood piece (the Lawrence Marauder job), I did a dye black/sandback thing.

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OK, so here, I've got the other two Redwood pieces dyed black with some red added to the black.

All three Redwood pieces now have beveled surrounds, the Maple veneer (of course) does not.

You'll see the difference between these and the single straight-black-no-red in coming pics.

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These are the finished pics of all four except I haven't finished the finish yet and I have to drill a few small holes for the P-90 screws.

The Quilted Maple veneer got: clearcoated/sprayed green/partially sanded back/black added to spray and edge-bursted/clearcoated

You can see the difference between the Lawrence Marauder straight-black and the other two that got some red added.

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I have two acoustics that are perfect donors for this operation.

They're being re-purposed from acoustics to T-Bone Walker jazzbox electrics.

String change to electric 10's, trussrod re-adjusted, a little lower action than a typical acoustic, more electric, etc.

Both already use Gold hardware, and both are cutaway, so they 'kind of' already lean into an electric look.

This IS the T-Bone sound, both cutaway models, a few mockups for show.

I can also tune one up to open G and use it for George Thorogood, either will also do that style too, pickup heat dependant.

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