We recently completed the first Baritone Healer! It has a 28” scale length and is tuned B standard like all those lovely Danelectro’s out there. This is also the second Healer for our friend Andrew K. who was the first person to ask us to include a neck circuit like a Fender JM and an aluminum pickguard. For that commission I altered the design of the original Healer guard to fit the extra wiring and we’ve used it quite a few times since.

For this Healer we used a bookmatched Walnut top over a chambered Mahogany body. The neck is Mahogany with a Macassar Ebony headcap, fretboard, and back laminate. The pickguard is raw aluminum sanded to a fine satin sheen to better match up with the @masterybridge M7.2

The hard tail bridge allows for top loading strings or through the body. While stringing this one up I found that the tone of the low B and E strings was better strung from the top so it remains that way for now. Maybe it’s the strings, but it really made them ring more clearly, with better sustain too.

We used Jaguar pickups for the neck and middle positions like the classic Fender Bass VI. Then there’s a 12 pole alnico Humbucker under a JM cover in the bridge, all made by Jaime at The Creamery Pickups in the UK. The humbucker has an awesome cutting mid-range, and sounds great with either the middle, or neck pickup, thanks to the Blender pot in the third spot on the row of knobs. This pot allows you to truly BLEND the Neck pickup with the Bridge or Vice-Versa depending on where you are on the 5 way pickup selector. In positions 2 and 4 all 3 pickups are ON.

The neck circuit allows the neck pickup to be selected with the switch in the upper part of the pickguard. It has its own independent volume and tone when selected and automatically has a darker tone because of the 50k volume pot. I’ve always felt this is the “jazz” tone and the namesake of the Jazzmaster.

We continue to use water base finish on the majority of our guitars. The matte finish on the neck is very comfortable and smooth and doesn’t gloss up like even satin lacquer will over time. I dig the aesthetic too, some contrast between matte and gloss is pretty sweet. The body is gloss because that top deserves to shine. We look forward to making more baritone guitars in the future.

Just shipped out one of the coolest that we’ve ever made. This one’s going to Daisy Spencer who’s currently touring with Olivia Rodrigo… (you may have heard Olivia’s song “good 4 u” or “traitor” perhaps?)

Well Daisy ordered this one prior to getting the tour, and we’d be stoked to build it regardless, but it is a bit of icing on the cake for all involved. Congrats again Daisy!

So this Growler then… when we started talking Daisy wanted a surface finish like a hammered copper cup, the kind you drink a Moscow Mule out of. I’ve been messing with hammered paint textures but then I remembered that Lacewood already looks sort of hammered AND has a copper hue to it. So I procured a piece from @parkerville_wp in CT, re-sawed it for a book matched top, and here we are.

I added some copper metallic to the first coat of clear to give it a little shimmer too. Because of the grain orientation, when I resawed the wood for a book match top, the grain has a 3D quality with some real movement from the quartersawn middle to the wider edge.

Here are the specs: 25.5” scale, 1.625” nut, Macassar ebony fretboard and headcap, mahogany body and neck, white binding and purfling (which ends up tinted by the lacquer to warm things up) and parchment pickguard and backplates. The wonderful open top pickups are mini humbuckers made by @geminipickups mounted in P90 style rings. Wired up with @vintageinspiredpickups 550k potentiometers and a vintage .033 Erie cap. @mojoaxe_custom_guitar_parts wraparound bridge as most Growlers get. All aged or raw nickel parts.

We’re pleased as punch with this one. Can’t wait until it arrives to its new home, on the road with Daisy.

#healyguitars #healygrowler #lacewoodguitar #geminipickups

This Growler is for our client and friend Kyle. He’s been coming to the shop nearly as long as we’ve been here in Easthampton and we’ve worked on tons of cool guitar projects together. Kyle has had this Growler brewing in his mind for years now but it has evolved a bit since the first ideas were discussed.

The Jeff Beck signature model from Gibson was the reference point for Oxblood color. I’ve looked at quite a few photos of those guitars and each one looks different thanks to different cameras and lighting. Ultimately, I mixed some red and black and white and brown and we got to something that glows maroon in the sun and is nearly black in dim lighting. 

Here are the specs: Chambered Mahogany body, Mahogany neck, Maple top and headcap, Indian Rosewood fretboard with pearl block inlays milled by Will @seedersinstruments , all with Ivoroid binding. The pickguard and backplate are both made with Ivoroid too.

1 11/16″ nut width, 25 1/2″ scale length, thicker vintage C neck shape at 0.89-0.98″ and 10-48 @stringjoy strings. 104 x 47 fretwire from @jescarofficial

The Aged cover humbuckers from Rob @geminipickups are truly among the best ones we’ve heard yet and the intonated wraparound bridge is made by Dan at Mojoaxe.

There’s something about a wraparound bridge with the longer posts that really get these chambered guitars activated, bringing out lots of presence from the body. I’ve been using VIP pots for a while now and they’re really solid and have a great taper. @vintageinspiredpickups

Kyle asked for the new cursive Healy Logo on the headstock and I think that compliments the vibe of this guitar perfectly. The pickguard shape is slightly modified to reference the angled thing that Gibson does on the LP Special and the controls changed a bit to put the 3 way toggle down below the Volume and Tone. I’d do all these things again, they’re great ideas that just pushed it where Kyle needed it.

#healyguitars #healygrowler #luthier #guitarmaker #oxbloodred