An orange telecaster-style guitar sits on the workbench, with tools and string wrappers and other bits strewn around it.

    The Blues Deluxe

    • Body: English Ash, stained orange
    • Neck: Maple
    • Fretboard: Wenge, with maple inlays
    • Finish: Oil
  • Scale length: 25.5"
  • Neck Pickup: House of Tone House Special P90, Alnico 5, Formvar wiring
  • Bridge Pickup: House of Tone House Special P90, Alnico 5
  • Hardware: Gotoh tuners, custom 3D-printed hardtail bridge.
  • Wiring: Les Paul style wiring with 500k pots.

The Blues Deluxe, based on a Telecaster Deluxe, is loud and distinctive in both tone and looks. Fitted with a pair of House of Tone P90s, wound to be voiced for 60s British blues crunch in the neck, and that delta blues sound in the bridge, it delivers a sonic experience that is as distinctive as its looks are.

The black and white and orange mix meaning this is a guitar that isn’t quite even when it’s not being played. The body is ash, stained orange and with an oil finish, which has the wonderful tiger-striping of this wood and finish combination, and the neck was originally a maple and spalted tamarind for the fretboard, and was the first neck I ever made, but switched out for a maple and wenge neck later on as my abilities improved.

Over the years this build has become my daily player, but also continues to be a guitar on which I’ll test out new ideas to check they really work. This was the first guitar to get a custom 3D-printed carbon-fibre embedded bridge.