Video Clip

Check out this Youtube video clip of Tim Williams playing the guitar I finished building for him last year. He takes a solo at about 3 and a half minutes into the clip. If you scroll down in my blog here, you can see some close-ups of the guitar that I posted earlier.

Tim Williams - 61 Highway

Taylor Trip 2009

I was invited down to the Taylor Guitar factory in El Cajon, California to take part in a Repair Summit for their Warranty Service Technicians in Canada. This September I spent a whole week there getting some more training, enjoying the California sun, and coming back home with some new repair and service techniques. Visit my blog dedicated to this to see pictures and more.

http://jfguitarstaylortrip.blogspot.com/

-James

New book release

I've just received an amazing set of books about guitar building authored by one of my guitar building heros, Ervin Somogyi. The set of books, "The Responsive Guitar and Making the Responsive Guitar" were just released in July. Follow this link to check them out and order: http://www.esomogyi.com/responsiveguitar.html


-James

Super Tele

For those who know my situation, I haven't had much time to build guitars lately because I've been so busy with repairs. I also do not currently have a full scale shop set up for building guitars, but that won't be lasting hopefully too much longer. I have not been totally idle, though. I've had an idea kicking around in my head for some time now to put together a telecaster with some mods.
Over the last several months, I have ordered and collected choice parts and pieces to put together what I'm calling my "Super Tele". Here's the breakdown:

Body: I ordered a modified Tele body from my favorite electric guitar body company in New Jersery, Musikraft. They made me a two piece alder body with their Dakota Red finish and humbucking pickup slots.

Neck: I made my first order with Warmouth and boy was I happy. They made me a nice tele neck with 1 11/16" at the nut and a "V" neck. Maple neck with a rosewood fingerboard.

Pickups: I went to my all time favorite pickup company, TV Jones, and ordered a custom set of pickups. The bridge pickup is their Powertron Plus, which is a Filterton on steroids. The neck is their Magnatron, modeled after a DeArmond but humbucking. A beautiful warm pickup. I dug out a vintage oil filled .047 capacitor to go with the pickups and CTS pots. Switchcraft 4 way selector to split the neck coil for some extra options.

Hardware: Roller bridge, Bigsby Vibrato, Bakelite pickgaurd. I ordered a custom set of Sperzel open gear tuning machines to finish it off. Sperzel is best known for their locking machines, but I didn't want locking. These chrome beauties are open gear and just look so cool.

The guitar is reminiscent of a Tele but has other personality to it given the TV Jones pickups. It's much more versatile than a standard tele and can go from warm jazzy tone with the Magnatron in the neck to full on ACDC with the Powertron Plus in the bridge. I totally love it and I had so much fun putting it together. Who knows, maybe I'll draw up my own design and start making some from scratch in the future.

-James

Update

Starting April 14th, 2009, I will be doing all of my repairs exclusively from Guitarworks, on 16th Ave. in Calgary. Please drop by and visit me. If you have an instrument that needs to be repaired, please call me to book an appointment.

Guitarworks
602-16 Ave N.W.
Calgary, AB
Trans Canada Highway
403-284-2866

-James

New Blogs!

I have created two new blogs which are extensions of this one. In the last several years I have had the opportunity to visit two large guitar factories and train with their repair staff. I represent Martin and Taylor Guitars as a Authorized Warranty Technician for them and have had the pleasure to visit both factories. You can visit these new blogs and see a picture documentation of my trips. Enjoy!


-James



http://jfguitarsmartintrip.blogspot.com/

http://jfguitarstaylortrip.blogspot.com/

James Fry Guitar for Sale

Hey folks, I'm listing a used James Fry OM Cedar top, East Indian Rosewood back and sides guitar for sale. I don't have as much time to build acoustics right now and I have a waiting list for when I get started again, so this is a chance to bypass the waiting list and grab this guitar for a very reasonable price. I've attached some pictures to view. Please email me for a price or any questions you may have. james@jamesfryguitars.com

Here are the specifics:
-Guitar size: OM, Orchestra Model: The body size makes this guitar very well balanced and comfortable to play. The cedar top warms up the tone and the rosewood gives it nice depth and punch. Although it's a smaller guitar than a dreadnough, it still has great projection.
-Top Wood: Solid AAA grade Cedar, High Gloss Finish
-Back and Sides: Solid AAA grade East Indian Rosewood, Satin Tung Oil Finish
-Solid Maple/Koa wood binding on back and top
-Flamed Maple tail inlay
-Walnut rosette with double ring Abalone inlays
-Solid Honduran Mahogany neck with Flamed Koa wood headcap and Abalone shell "JF" inlay for "James Fry Guitars", Deluxe laminated heel, (ebony/mahogany/ebony and maple wood neck heel cap. Neck has an oil finish for easy play.
-Ebony fretboard with "medium sized" comfortable frets, Abalone shell dot marker inlays on fingerboard top and sides
-Width at nut: 1 11/16", 16" fretboard radius, 14 frets to the body, 2 1/8" string spread at bridge, fretboard scale length is 24.9" like what you would find on a Martin OM.
-Tortishell plastic pickgaurd with clear pickgaurd on other side of soundhole for "upswing" strummers
-Ebony wood bridge with Abalone shell dot inlay ebony bridge pins
-Polished bone nut, polished and compensated bone saddle
-Clear, high gloss lacquer finish on soundboard, Satin oil finish on back and sides
-Fishman Ellipse Transducer/Mic blend active (powered by 9V battery) pickup system with an option to blend the pickups, a phase button, and a master volume
-Gotoh 510 chrome tuners
-Chrome heel strap button
-Design: X braced top, bolt-on neck This guitar is equipped with a Bridge Doctor, as used on Breedlove Guitars. It stabilizes the top from developing a belly below the bridge that happens to guitars over time. See http://www.jldguitar.net/index.html
-Custom wood construction hardshell case. Black tolex exterior, green "velvet" interior. This case was ordered to be "beefed" up for travel. Handmade by Datt Cases in British Columbia.


-James

A Guitar Is Born!

I've been working on this guitar for about three years. It just so happened to get delayed by my shop moving, beginning fatherhood, etc. I'm so happy it's finally complete, and I'm sure Tim is to.
If you have kept up with my blog, you may remember a guitar similar to this that I had built for bluesman Brother Ray Lemelin. Brother Ray provided the design and direction for where he wanted things to go in the construction and I put all of those things together and built it for him. Ray spread the news and now I've had the pleasure of building another Creosote Slide for bluesman Tim Williams. Tim is a 40 year veteran of roots music and it was an honor building a guitar for him. You can check out a bio of him here: http://www.telusplanet.net/public/belzners/timbio.htm
The body is Honduran Mahogany with a Flamed Maple top cap. The neck is maple harvested from a 90+ year old telephone pole from British Columbia that at one time had been soaked in creosote, so Ray named it the Creosote Slide. It is made for slide guitar playing with two growly, brash vintage Teisco Gold Foil pickups taken from Ray's vast collection of cool guitars. The banjo tuners are all Schaller Drop D tuners so that various tunings can be created. The finish is old school nitrocellulose lacquer. Master volume and two tone controls with a three way toggle switch make up the controls. The control cavities were customized to take away as little wood as possible.
Here are some pictures of the finished guitar for you to enjoy.

-James