Semi hollow body guitar with an aluminum top
The top is handhammered into a light arch shape. The holes for the pickups and the potentiometer knobs are pressed to make a strong brim. The lines are rolled in, serving as a bracing system, and a cross brace is attached to the inside of the top.
The top is tuned until it is perfect sounding by (hand-)hammering the aluminum.
Letters are stamped in, and the aluminum is polished to a mirror shine.
“Free vibrating system”
An important feature of the Alu top guitar is the use of the free vibrating system. This means there are no objects connected to the top of the guitar, giving the top total freedom for vibrating.
This means the pickups are mounted on the wooden backside of the guitar and sticking through bigger holes in the top. Also the potentiometer knobs are just sticking through big holes in the top.
The only object touching the top is the bridge, which brings the resonance of the strings to the top.
Specs:
- Aluminum handhammered top
- Aluminum crossbrace
- Free vibrating system
- Ash body (harvested from the Buitenveldert graveyard in Amsterdam)
- nitrocellulose laquer
- Two piece maple neck, scale length 25”, bolt on
- Rosewood or ebony fingerboard
- Medium frets, bone nut
- Plain or sunburst, nitrocellulose laquer
- All hardware handmade of aluminum
- Handwound pickups, alnico 5 or alnico 8 polepieces
- zinc pickup covers
- Fused ground
Reviews:
By Henk-Jan Hoekjen (Sp aties, Stilettos)
The Squaredaddy gold is a fine guitar for rock ‘n roll-players. The guitar is easily and untuitively playable. The instrument is relatively light, esspecially since the metal finishing suggests a really heavy motherfucker. Ergonomically it is a fine machine with a neck that feels relatively short and a body that (due to the somewhat ‘square’ roundings) actually reminded me somewhat of the fender telecaster, although in a somewhat ‘rougher’ instantiation. The sound is ‘metallic’, especially when played acoustically. When plugged into an amplifier there is still a hint of metal (meaning the material, NOT the musicstyle), but it is less ‘dobro-ic’ than when played acoustically.
The Squaredaddy gold is easlily tunable, has a fine intonation and a low action, which makes it a relaxed instrument, even though perhaps somewhat less suitable for bottleneck guitarplaying. The sound and attack are relatively ‘direct’ and one can play a variety of styles with this guitar; the way in which one can manipulate the balance between the neck pickup and the bridge pick up (as well as the tone knob) allows for a variety of possible tone colours. The function of the three knobs is very clear (also due to the clever ‘upside-down’ marks). Furthermore, the guitar sound nice through different kinds of pedals; I tried a reverb-pedal, a tubescreamer and a vintage distortion, and they all sounded very well. Both in style and sound the Squaredaddy gold is first and foremost a rock ‘n roll-guitar (ranging from punk rock to more classic styles of rock, surf, et cetera) and perhaps a little less interesting for jazz players (let alone philharmonically oriented musicians).
There’s one thing that could actually add up to the musical satisfaction of the player: it would be great if the ‘trademark’ metallic sound of the instrument when played acoustically, could also be captured still some more through an amplifier (perhaps by way of an extra pick up?). Overall, I would certainly recommend this guitar, esspecially for players who want to cover somewhat ‘rough’ musical terrain with a handcrafted guitar that surely does not go unnoticed. The Squaredaddy gold combines an unconventional look with a sophisticated musical feel.
