9/28/07 Howdy! Moving-Moving-Moving.. No internet reconnect until late next week. I'll get back to email next weekend. Talk to you then! Cheers, Saul 9/24/07 Greetings! Exciting news! We're moving the whole operation across town. (Phone # and email is the same.) The shop is being dismantled and packed for the move all this week, and will be reassembled all next week. Communication during all of this might be spotty, so email will be best. I'll answer inquiries as time allows. The new shop is bigger, better, stronger, faster. Like the 6 million dollar man. It all should be back to normal, up and running etc, the 2nd week of October. Talk to you then! Cheers, Saul 5/20/07 Greetings! Saul Koll is not currently taking new custom orders. Please contact Destroy All Guitars for next available Koll Instruments. cliff@destroyallguitars.com Cliff: 919 552 3047 11/14/16 What's news? Hmmmm. what is new? For those who don't know, Cliff At DAG is who you turn to for the latest KOLL Guitars. As time goes on, a more reliable and steady stream of guitars should be available through Cliff. Check him out first! For the last few months I have been deep into some beautiful guitars. A current batch of NEW ROSE archtops have been working their way through the shop, bit by bit. A new brochure for the New Rose depends on the completion of these! There will be a mass mailing when it is ready. A few RE's with Novax fans have been underway. One, a 7, will be delivered before the year is out. I'm planning on lots of good photography for yet another brochure. Once again it has been VEE CITY! Nigel from Chopperkings ordered three Custom V guitars quite a while back and these will be completed in the next month. While I was at it, I made a few more. These will be available through Cliff at Destroy All Guitars http://www.destroyallguitars.com/ in the coming few weeks. Hershel Yatovitz, gifted guitarist with Chris Isaak, finally got his custom Koll in time for the Australian tour. This was an unique collaboration with USA custom making the neck, yours truly making the hollow body and doing lacquer, John Suhr http://www.suhrguitars.com/ providing pickups handling all electronics and PLEK and set up, and Rick Huff http://www.skywaymusic.com/contact.html providing the incredible Skyway tremolo. There might have been more cooks, but these are all I can think of now.. A totally cool guitar! Watch for it. It is the black one. Orren Merton, musician, writer, (http://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&search-type=ss&index=books&field-author=Orren%20Merton&page=1, I don't know what his home page is, sorry!) came up with an instrument idea. This electric guitar will feature a sustainer and other unique electronics. It will be based around a polarizing design from the 70's.(you love it or hate it!) The ovation Breadwinner. It is totally nuts and will be cool. Currently kicking around ideas to give it the old KOLL twist. Related to this is another total custom. This one ordered by musician from Bergen Norway. A headless, fanned, chambered, piece. Here too, the ideas have been flowing and I am eager to begin cutting wood for it. Another custom, based on the rare "comet" by epiphone will be completed in the coming weeks. It features most of what makes the Tornado rock so hard, but with a totally off the wall shape. Oh, and it will feature Trem by Skyway! A new batch of arch top ukes is underway and will be delivered, hopefully in time for some Christmas carols or Auld Lange Syne. A new instrument for the incredible Matte Henderson is still under construction, and I hope to deliver this too before the year is out. As is normal, there is a ton of awesome Glide, Superior, and Tornado guitars in the works. Many new twists in terms of colors and layout. But still all of the solid, classic, and wonderfully playable guitars you have come to expect. I'm quite sure I am forgetting to mention many... Koll Guitar Company continues to be a company of one. me. Saul Koll. It is constantly in motion. I am so very lucky to have so many guitarists choose me to build the instruments of dreams for them. I constantly strive to make the best guitars. Each one, no matter if it is a standard I have made a hundred times, or something totally new, receives all of my attention and skill. And my heart. Thanks for your interest in my work. I am blessed to make my life doing what I love. Cheers, Happy Thanksgiving. PS: Many have written and called about an automobile commercial featuring a prominent hard rock guitarist from the '80's. While it has been noted that the electric guitar he plays looks very much like the KOLL SUPERIOR model, released in 1995, reviewed in March '99 GUITAR PLAYER MAGAZINE, there is no official connection between said commercial,the artist, the guitar and the KOLL GUITAR COMPANY. If you think there are similarities, please let them know.... 7/4/06 Happy 4th of July! Go eat a hotdog, drink a beer, watch some baseball, and read the Declaration of Independence! cheers! 6/21/06 It is that time again! I'm talking about the GUILD of AMERICAN LUTHIERS CONVENTION. June 21st-25th in TACOMA, WASHINGTON. http://www.luth.org/convention/conv-main.htm See you there, or talk to you when I get back! Cheers, 3/27/06 Greetings! Plenty of action around here! A one-off slide guiltar was delivered to Dan Berkerey of the Rose City Kings. This was totally custom with a hubcap from a 1956 MErcury acting as a pseudo resonator. A wonderful TVJONES HiLoTron powers it, and a 1944 mercury dime is inlayed in the headstock. So far, Dan loves it! SXSW is upon us and one of the many cool bands that played the festival features my friend Anthony Truglio, playing in a newly formed HELMET. A custom Truglio model is in the works for thier upcoming June tour. Nigel Phillips from the Chopper Kings has a couple super cool V's on order. These will be a matched pair, except one white and one black. Each in Korina and dyed Brazilian rosewood, featuring three P-90's each! Extraordinary guitarist Matte Henderson has another experimantal one-off coming. Based on an old singlecut outline, we are doing fanned frets with a custom handmade segmented tremolo (invented and machined by yours truly), old honduran mahogany with eastern maple top. It will be insane! Oh yeah and seven strings too! Author and guitarist Orren Merton will soon take delivery of a left handed Tornado with all midi stuff. It is a pretty amazing silver burst guitar. Photos will be posted soon. In addition to the great Duo's, Jrs,Super Glides, Tornados that I'm building, I have a new batch of Rose City Arch tops. These have been totally reworked and will be the models for the new Koll Arch top catalog/brochure. The guitars should be delivered in the coming two months, and the brochure later this summer. (An announcment will be sent to the email subscribers when it is ready.) For those attending MusicMesse in Frankfurt, be sure to look up Gourmet Guitars. In addition to all kinds of cool DVD's they offer, they will have a book featuring a few interesting KOLL guitars. Also in the works is a DVD they will be shooting about me and my work, to be filmed this summer after the Newport guitar show. More and more guitars! Hershel Yatovitz master guitarist from Chris Isaak's band is awaiting a couple customs too. I'll be collaborating with John Suhr, Rick Huff, and Tommy Rosmond to bring the whole guitars to life. There are so many great guitars in the works, shipping about one a week or so. I am so excited about them. I'll post photos when I can. Also, if you are excited about your new KOll guitar, spread the word! Post pics on one of the online Guitar boards! It is so appreciated! As much as there is going on around here, this remains a one person shop. All designs and all the work to bring them forth, are mine. Dede is starting to do more and more of the daily book work, but I still push all the chisels and planes, fret all the necks, spray all the lacquer, box up the guitars, answer all the email. If you order a Koll Guitar, you will be getting one made entirely by me, Saul Koll. I appreciate your enthusiam and interest! Cheers, happy Spring! 2/17/06 If you hadn't heard, starting with the new year,I have stopped doing repairs and restorations on all instruments, except for the ones I make. I started out in the repair shop almost twenty years ago at the World of Strings in Long Beach, Californina. There is no better way to understand musical instruments than to have scores of them go through your work space. When I began, in addition to every kind of guitar you could ever imagine, we worked on violins, celli,Violas,basses,Lutes, Ouds, Vinas, Kotos, Vihuellas, Bajo Sextos, Sitars, Steels, Mandolins, Banjos, Ukes, etc. Every musical instrument that had strings and frets (but not always!) was rebuilt, restored, or repaired. Later, after moving to Portland Oregon, I practiced my lutheiry at the Twelffh Fret, but here focused mostly on guitars. I kept this gig part time for the last 14 years. It is difficult to leave such a great bunch of guys and customers, but for the last several years it has been very difficult to keep on top of all the great new instruments I want to make, and the never ending repair work. I had to make a decision and chose to focus on designing and building new pieces. For those I have serviced for the last almost two decades, I am so thankful for your loyal patronage. I encourage you and anyone else to take your work to my old fine shop, The Twelfth Fret Custom Guitar Shop at 2402 SE Belmont, Portland, OR 97214 503-231-1912. The best in the business. 2/1/06 RIP PIG CHAMPION you will be missed. Greg Odell writes: I remember Pig Champion. Once told me after an 8 Foot Tender set at EJ's circa 1996: "I heard it all before...& I didn't like it the first time!!" rock on... odell R.I.P. Tom "Pig Champion" Roberts Body: from Jen at Barfly: Thomas "Pig Champion" Roberts, guitarist for Poison Idea, died at his home in Portland, Oregon, Monday night. A founding member of the seminal punk band, he continued to appear with Poison Idea throughout the late nineties and into the new millennium, despite officially quitting the band in 1993. Variously described as "spectacularly fat", and "the single largest man in hardcore history", Roberts crowned himself "Pig Champion" after hitting an impressive 450 lbs. on the scales. The highly regarded guitarist was revered by a devoted following worldwide. Fans and friends alike will feel the loss keenly. Further information not available at this time, but will be posted at barflymag.com, for your reference. Read about Poison Idea's quarter-century of pure punk in RockDetector, Wikipedia, Answers.com, and PunkVinyl. com. 1/1/06 What a great year it was! Come and visit at NAMM, booth #1479, Hall E with TVJONES, and I'll tell you all about it. Jan19th-22nd, 2006 (those who cannot attend will have to wait until I can write it here!) Happy New Year! 1/1/05 Happy New Year! Greetings from the shop. 2004 was an incredible year for Koll Guitars. What a year it was! Thanks to so many new players and frequent return customers, it was the best year ever. This year saw the premier of the newly redesigned Rose City arch top, the Rose II, which will replace all the older arch top models. It is that good! A new brochure will be available this spring featuring this dew design and the website will be updated to reflect this change. The RE "travel" guitar has been under a similar redesign. We hope to have it ready for its debut in February. The first two are for Elliott Sharp and John Stewart. Elliott's is an 8 string with oval sound hole, and John's is a 7 string with f-hole. Both feature Novax fanned fingerboards. These are some of the most innovative guitars we have produced. A full complement of photos will be added to the website as these are developed. With the Glide series we have been experimenting with all kinds of new materials. Most of this work has been at the request of players who wanted something different and cool. We have made glides with tops of Zebra, Walnut, Redwood, Padouk, and many other unusual species. We have made necks out of solid rosewood, walnut and pernambuco. Each has had an interesting result. We have never been afraid to experiment! We try just about every piece of new equipment we can find. Some of the hardware and electronics that have risen to the top includes Hipshot tremolos, they are super fantastic, TVJones pickups, but we already knew that, and Lollar pickups, His P-90's are exceptional. We have recently started checking out the PIGTAIL products and they seem promising too. Two prototypes we are especially excited about include the Baritone Glide which will finally be ready for production this year, and a hollow body short scale bass which should be ready for a SXSW debut this early spring. This one is co designed by Todd Corbet, bassist extraordinaire. The website will show these when they are ready, so check back often. Also years and years in the making we will reintroduce a new flat top early this year. By far the most popular guitar of 2004 was the Tornado. It is essentially a two pickup JR-Glide with body contouring and Hipshot tremolo equipped. Locking sperzel tuners or unique LSR's are used. For this model only the lightest most resonant mahogany is used, or a frequently requested option, African Limba (Korina) which we like to call KOLLINA. These are super cool comfortable guitars. The prototype was made for David Torn who suggested and designed so many of the changes to make these cool. He has a couple of these now which also feature some unique and interesting switching and microphone electronics which we call TORNIPULATOR. It was noticed this year that any time an older Koll Guitar went on Ebay, it usually sold for its original price, or more! This reinforces the idea that these guitars represent a sound investment. Couple this with a very liberal trade policy, you just can't go wrong ordering a Koll guitar. We had some great players join the KOLL PLAYERS this year. Among them is Isaac Brock from the band MODEST MOUSE. He has a Duo Glide, a Spectroglide, and now under construction is an unusual Glide/Superior which features a unique tremolo custom made by David King of King Bass.com. Watch for Modest Mouse on MTV and in concert everywhere! We have always made one-off/custom stuff and this year was no exception. Among the many cool things we made were Explorers style and a V style guitars. The first were ordered as a set in Korina. These were our first, and then without telling anyone about them others were requested. So, for the last few months we have had a bunch of pointy guitars hanging out! Charlie Mcree from San Diego ordered a lefty Explorer and named it his EXPLODER and so that is what they are called now. The V has not been renamed, yet. these will be featured in the CUSTOMS section of the website after photos are taken. We are so happy this year to add Stephen Stratton to the shop. Stephen is a super talented guitar maker. From his experience making high end guitars with Charles Fox, and his wood and materials experience working with Allied Luthiery (Brazilian rosewood suppliers, legal.) to his ultra clean craftsmanship on his own instruments, he has much to contribute. He is a Roberto Venn graduate. In addition, he has an extensive music collection and loves cheap beer. We are very lucky to have him! The guiding principle has been and will continue to be THE PURSUIT OF EXCELLENCE. This shop builds unique and exceptional instruments that you just can't get anywhere else. We enjoy working with you the musicians to design instruments that are individually crafted for your unique application. We love what we do and look forward to making your favorite guitars. Thank you! Happy New Year, Saul 11/4/04 Plenty of news to report. Many new models and new players. I will update soon. Thank you! November 2, 2004 Results: Ugh. (god save us) 4/21/04 April Already! It is still raining here in Portland. Go out and pickup a copy of the new Guitar Player Magazine. In it you will find a nice article on David Torn. In the photos you can see his custom JR -like guitar. It is a new model made for him called a "Tornado". The defining feature of this model is the straight string pull headstock with the LSR tuners. (One of the first non glide headshapes since the Superior!) It also features the incredible Hipshot tremolo. These things work so well! There are a number of other "Torn Only" appointments! The Tornado #2 will be delivered at the end of the month. Photos will be posted then. The Rose City model has been completely redesigned. After ten years, I decided to refine the shape of this favorite. Seattle guitarist Lan Mosher was kind enough to let me "push things around a bit" on his order. His is the prototype. New mold, new f-holes and new top carve. It is still a Rose City, but with all the updates and improvements that a decade will teach. Speaking of Decades, the band Eight Foot Tender celebrates its ten year anniversary Friday, April 23 at the Twilight in Portland, OR. All original members including original Duo Glide owner (#001) Mike Moe will be performing. All four original lineups will be featured, including a fifth never seen before "Supergroup". It should be a blast. The weekend of the 24th and 25th also is the Handmade Musical Instrument Show at Marylhurst University. Many of The region's fine instrument builders will show their work, including friends David King and Mike Doolin. If you are in town, check it out! Many new models are in development. The first baritone glide is almost ready for paint. It features TVJONES Magnatrons for pickups. Look for it in the glide section in month or two. Another model has been in the works for years and that is a Superglide with two f-holes that is built like a normal Jazz guitar. (hand bent sides, carved top, ebony tailpiece, floating bridge.) It should be ready in early summer. A seven string to be built in this same fashion has been ordered as well. Pictures will be posted when available. Experiments are continuing with the RE model. John Stewart has ordered a seven string version with a Novax multi scale fingerboard. Elliott Sharp has an 8 string on order and wants his with an oval hole. Should be really cool! We are now very proud to carry Callaham parts. This is some of the coolest stuff for traditional guitars. Call if you want to update your ax. I am just completing an interesting 7 string for Matte Henderson. It features a one piece pernambuco neck, one piece Korina body and a beautiful blister maple book matched top. Hipshot made a custom 7 string contour tremolo for this guitar. Again, photos will eventually follow. Glide of all kinds continue to be the hot ticket around here. I have been completing and shipping quite a variety. And there are many in the works in all stages. These are simply fantastic guitars. There is a model that fits virtually any situation. Write with ideas for yours! In development for bassist Todd Corbet is a hollow short scale bass. Think Hofner, but with Koll design sensibilities. It will feature TVJONES thundertrons. I am very excited. This may become a standard model. New Accessories! All guitars are now shipped with a KOLL guitar strap, KOLL polish cloth and Koll guitar pick...Oh BOY! Thanks for your interest and continued support! Cheers! Saul ----------------------- 12/10/03 Greetings! Happy Holidays! This is just a quick note to announce the live broadcast of 8 Foot Tender on Portland Oregon's community radio KBOO 90.7 FM and online as well. You can check http://wwwkboo.fm/listen.php to log on and hear it all live. On Koll guitars, they will be performing selections from their upcoming release on Long Beach Records. The show happens on Wednesday night 12/10/03 at 11:00 PM pacific coast time on STATION TO STATION. This great show hosted by Sean Flora is sandwiched between "Drinking from Puddles", DJ Brandon's fantastic show, and "Life During Wartime" which features some of the best punk you will ever hear. Tune in if you can and enjoy an entire evening of ROCK. (We use that word in the most broad sense.) Meanwhile, we continue to produce the finest instruments available anywhere, and have an awful lot of fun doing it! Happy NEW YEAR! Cheers, Saul 10/7/03 Greetings! Check out this month's GUITAR PLAYER magazine. (November 2003, page 139) Technical editor Art Thompson puts a DUO GLIDE through the paces. If you ever wondered what these things sound like, Art gives a pretty good description. We will be posting this write-up in our Press section, but check out the magazine, the photos are gorgeous! In another great magazine, Vintage Guitar, we noticed a cool JR GLIDE in a recent "reader's guitars" section. Koll guitars are getting around! This summer was exciting and busy around here. We shipped many Duo's, Supers, Superiors and Jrs. We also completed a few total customs, some of which appear in the Custom section of the website. Many of the buyers are getting their 2nd or third Koll. Thanks so much for your support. (If you are a new Koll player, please remember to send a photo and bio that we can post in the "Players" section of the website!) There is a new record on Long Beach Records that has Koll guitars all over it. "Scott Deluxe Drake and 8 Foot Tender present Classical Strategies for Guitar, Bass, Percussion and Voice" This is pretty rocking stuff. Loose and raw and live. Don't be scared! Every Koll Guitar made is usually shipped as soon as it is completed. There is seldom any kind of inventory that people can check out. They are usually made to order and delivered in about 14 weeks. We are however working on getting some into a great store in the Los Angeles area. We hope to have this going a little after NAMM in January 04. Until all details are worked out the name of the store wont be divulged, but we will say that it is TRULY the best place to go for TONE in Santa Monica. After a long summer of record heat, it is starting to rain here in Portland. Time to get back to the shop, and there sure are great things happening there! See you later! Saul Saul Koll Koll Guitar Company www.kollguitars.com 2402 SE Belmont St Portland, OR 97214 503-286-8938 7/30/03 RIP Sam Phillips 6/18/03 Summertime! At last. We have a variety of great new and used instruments ready to go in our SPECIALS section. It changes all the time, but as I write this, there is a wonderful Duo with humbuckers, all genuine mahogany barely used. There is a three P-90 equipped Superior with trem and fat neck. There is a really cool deep green quilted maple top Superior with TV Jones filtertrons. All have excellent pricing! Two months ago we shipped a really cool GOLD JR GLIDE to someone in Rhode Island. He seemed super happy with the instrument he found on the SPECIALS page. Monday we received our copy of Vintage Guitar magazine and saw that same guitar in the Reader's gallery section! check it out! This is the issue with the Mary Kay strat on the cover. it should be on the newsstands for another couple of weeks. As far as I know this is the first Koll Guitar sighting in that section. If you love your Koll guitar, let others know like this guy did! Also, if you would like to be in our PLAYERS section, send a photo and a bio! We started taking credit cards a few months ago and it has been a great convenience for many of our customers. If you didn't know, we now take VISA, MASTERCARD, DISCOVER, AMERICAN EXPRESS. We just received a copy of a gorgeous new hardcover guitar book entitled "The Rick Strachan Guitar Collection". Among the collection of beauties is one of ours! It is a RE-6 asymetrical guitar with two humbuckers. There is a quote from Rick that says, "In a lot of ways this is my favorite.." Favorite or not, I am so proud to be included in this. It is beautifullly shot by Kevin Haislip. The photos are so good, you can see dust on the pickup covers! Look for this book! We might hire Kevin to shoot for our upcoming archtop catalog. We'll let you know! Speaking of catalogs. We have them for our Glide series instruments. Let us know if you need one sent to you. Thank you! If you have photos or other info that you think might add to the excitement of the KOll website, send it in! Take care, Talk to you soon Saul 4/8/03 We now accept all major credit cards! VISA, MASTERCARD, AMERICAN EXPRESS, AND DISCOVER. Of course we continue to accept all the other forms of payment as well. We should have some new instruments in our Specials section next month, so check back soon! If you don't have our new catalog, email and let us know! Thanks! 2/25/03 Buckaroo Records! Check out the new link for the coolest vinyl! I recently met the proprietor of this operation here in Portland and Boy am I glad I did! You can find all the best old sides here! http://www.buckaroorecords.com/ Have a good one! 2/10/03 Wow! Where to begin!? Shuttle, Iraq, great NAMM show, "Wall of sound" and murder, Gretsch and Fender, New TV Jones Shop, Sun (here in Portland), Spring training, level Orange security risk,Expos to Portland, Etc.. so many things.. Let's see..I think I'll keep it simple.. We have a NEW CATALOG featuring our Glide series of guitars. These were designed by David Stephens and they look fantastic! Please email saul@kollguitarrs.com with your address and we will send you one. Or call 503-286-8938, and leave your info. We have some great deals in our SPECIALS section, new and used. In addition to all of the normal stuff, we have been working on some really interesting customs. One in particular is a thinline double cutaway, smaller than a 335. I think it will be quite popular. Look for a picture in the CUSTOMS page in the near future. Others include a variety or Tele shaped guitars. They all came at once! I have also orders for five ukuleles! These are quite unusual around here but much fun! We are making some RE 7 and 6 guitars with Novax fanned fingerboard. These will be really cool! Again, we'll post pictures in the CUSTOMS page when we have something to show. If you get a chance, go to the ABOUT KOLL page and go to our favorite links. check out the Searching For Elvis site. there are some interesting new entries. It aint nothing but a hound dog. Thank you! 12/29/02 Greetings! I hope everyone is having a great holiday season! Happy New Year. Thanks for making 2002 the best year ever for Koll Guitar Company. We look forward to continued innovation and attention to quality. We'll continue to make the coolest guitars on the planet. There is an article on my work with Jazz guitarist Ralph Patt in the latest American Lutherie magazine, #72 / winter 2002. You may order it at www.luth.org or call them at (253) 472-7853. If I get a chance, I may reproduce it in our press section. Until then, surf over and check it out. If you are interested in guitars, you should become a member of the Guild of American Luthiers. That again, is www.luth.org If you will be attending Winter NAMM in Southern California, stop by the Matchless booth and check out these classic amplifiers. We'll have several Koll guitars to try them out in the booth. These will also be for sale after the show. They will be posted in the SPECIALS section in a few weeks. On a sad note: We will miss Joe Strummer who died from a heart attack at age 50. He wrote and performed some of my favorite music. He changed the course of rock and roll for the better. Lets work to make 2003 a great one, Cheers! 12/09/02 I'm not sure who won the lucky Ebay Prize of George Jones' Motorcycle. If George bought that thing it would have been a year or two after his breakup with Tammy Wynette. They had a #1 hit single with Golden Ring in 1976. There would not be anymore until 1980's He Stopped Loving Her Today. George earned his nickname "No show Jones" by missing 50 concert dates in 1979. I like to imagine that he was out riding his 1978 Gold Wing Motorcycle during this period, but somehow I don't know if he was in any condition due to all that drinkin' and pill taking that is rumored to have been happening at that time. Any way, congratulations to the high bidder of this piece of music history. We have been shipping guitars of all sorts in time for the holidays. There is still time to order before the year is over. Order between now and the rest of this month and receive a 15% discount! We have some new reviews in our PRESS section, check them out when you have a chance. Thanks, Happy Holidays! 12/01/02 Howdy! just a quick note to say that George Jones's old motorcycle is for sale on Ebay here: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1873671962 Looks like a beauty! Good luck! Happy Holidays! 11/12/02 Greetings! Fall is definitely here in Portland. Outside my window I see an array of colors that makes it undeniable anymore. HUGE RED. Yellow, Orange, a variety of green.. It is beautiful. The sky constantly changes from Grey to Black to piercing blue as the wind pushes it all around. It is an everchanging mood. Here in P-town we are blessed with an abundance of great restaurants and taverns which are wonderful places to just hang around a fire. We drink dark brews, eat greasy bar food, and stay in out of the cold. I love this time of year. I hope it snows! We have had a variety of really cool projects of late. We are just stringing up a variety of SuperGlides, Duo Glides, and an RE-6. One Super Glide is rich black with classic TV Filtertrons, and it sports a "Ric Slash" sound hole. Another features an incredible tubular flame top with curly wood binding. Each is Stunning. The RE-6 features a much deeper profile or side depth than has been done. I think it will sound great. Were also equipping that one with an RMC pickup for synth stuff. Other cool new projects include a Yellow Duo with tortoise bindings, a Royal Paulonia Duo with flamed maple veneer top. (It is ultra light but has the classic flamed top look.) We are making an interesting guitar for local player Dale Morris. It is something that he has been designing for years and has had many prototypes made by other firms. I think that this will finally get it. The only way it can be described would be a Bisby-strato-jag-thinline-Koller. We are just finishing for "Lonnie's Place" an all-out strat kind of guitar. It features a flamed fingerboard inlay of abalone, with 14k gold pinstripes, LED position markers, beautiful paintjob by local hot rod legends Jeff Lindsey, striped by Mitch Kim. This will be played by Jim Mesi. Look out for it! (this one is Green, not Blue like the last one.) Recent commissions include one that I am very excited about. It is unlike any other guitar we have made. Imagine a mini, perfectly crafted ES 335, but with Koll styling details. All carved. It is going to be something else! We'll post photos of this in out customs page for you to check out! We prepped guitars for Jeff Trott's European tour. In addition to being a "songwriter's songwriter"(Sheryl Crow), he plays good guitar and has a great voice.Check out this music if you get a chance! On a sad note, our hearts and sympathies go out to the family and friends of Jam Master Jay Jan. 21, 1965-Oct. 30, 2002. Police hotline number, 800-577-TIPS. The Mizell family has said donations can be made to the Mizell Children's Fund, c/o Terri Corley-Mizell, P.O. Box 3497, New Hyde Park, NY 11040. Talk to you all soon! (Email or call, if you want to talk sooner!) 8/22/02 We would like to congratulate the Gretsch Company and Fender Musical Instrument Corporation on their new merger: SCOTTSDALE, AZ - Fender Musical Instruments Corporation (FMIC) and Fred Gretsch Enterprises, Ltd. (Gretsch) proudly announce today that the two companies have entered into an agreement wherein FMIC has been granted the exclusive rights to develop, produce, market and distribute Gretsch guitars worldwide. As part of the deal, which is effective as of January 1, 2003, FMIC will be responsible for all aspects of the Gretsch stringed instrument product lines and brand names, including Gretsch