Out latest 7-string

Jim Soloway · #1 03-21-2005, 02:29 PM

Someone we know is going to be a very happy man in a few days.

pawel · #2 03-21-2005, 02:54 PM

WOW!

(Lol, the forum doesn't allow messages under 5 characters? - That means we can't just reply by saying "Yes" or "No"?)

Jeff · #3 03-21-2005, 03:29 PM

Amazing work. Two questions:

What kind of wood are the pickup rings made out of?
What is the mini toggle switch for?

Jim Soloway · #4 03-21-2005, 03:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jeff

Amazing work. Two questions:

What kind of wood are the pickup rings made out of?
What is the mini toggle switch for?

The pickup rings were cut from the same piece of bubinga as the top.

The mini toggle is a coil tap.

**jim777** · #5 03-21-2005, 04:03 PM

Outstanding Jim, just fantastic how the oranges and yellows pop out at you. But, no piezos?!

Jim Soloway · #6 03-21-2005, 04:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jim777

Outstanding Jim, just fantastic how the oranges and yellows pop out at you. But, no piezos?!

We may add them later, but I really do find them to be a bit of a PIA and at this point we seem to be focused more and more on keeping it simple and letting the guitar be the star instead of the technology.

The top really is amazing. That's just a clear nitro finish over a piece of figured bubinga. Mother nature is creating the light show all by herself.

fettouhi · #7 03-21-2005, 04:27 PM

NICE!!!!!

Regards

André

Flobanez · #8 03-21-2005, 08:08 PM

Beautiful guitar!

ATDVSBL · #9 03-21-2005, 09:16 PM

Thanks for posting Jim!

Well….I would be the lucky recipient of this new Swan. When Jim and I were looking around at wood, we stumbled upon this cool stash of flamed bubinga, and Jim was nice enough to agree to build my new guitar with it. According to Jim, the combination of bubinga and ash sounds very good…..I can’t wait to hear it myself

I must say, Jim has been great to work with! The whole process has been a pleasure….and to top it off, Mr. Soloway sold me the prototype version of his new “Soloway Classic” amp from Fargen Amps. So in a few days, I should get a sweet guitar/amp combination that was designed to be perfect together.
Thanks again Jim!!

Shad

Jammy · #10 03-22-2005, 07:51 AM

An amazing looking guitar, slightly too orange for me, but still awesome. How long did the project take, start to finish?

Nats · #11 03-22-2005, 11:33 AM

hi. first off i'm new here.
second. that guitar looks really nice. i take it you built it from scratch? with my tax return coming soon, i was pondering building a guitar myself. what do you do to go about building one? good luck with the new guitar

Jim Soloway · #12 03-22-2005, 12:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jammy

An amazing looking guitar, slightly too orange for me, but still awesome. How long did the project take, start to finish?

It's not really that orange in person. That's just the light playing on the natural figure of the wood. There is no paint or dye on it. It's just a clear nitrocellulose finish over a figured bubinga top.

A guitar takes about 6 months from the time we get an order to the time it's ready to ship, but we're certainly not building one at a time. Right now we're completing about 4 or 5 guitars a month and we currently have 16 guitars underway, mostly 6-strings. A few are for custom orders, but mostly just guitars that we'll build to sell when their done. We still do a lot by hand. There are a lot of custom features and every guitar is unique in some way, but this is definitely not about a single luthier working at a bench.

The folks who have been on this site for a long time have watched the whole thing go from nothing more than sketches and cutouts that I did sitting at my dining room table to a viable manufacturing operation. We've even reached the point now where we'll have ads running in Guitar Player starting in about 6 weeks.

BTW, just so you can get an idea of what this wood really looks like, here's a picture of this body before it was bound or finished. This is just raw wood.

Texter · #13 03-22-2005, 01:03 PM

Nice wooden bezels...awesome top. I'm not a top-man but this one looks very good, nicely bookmatched too.

CQ7String · #14 03-22-2005, 01:23 PM

Outstanding as always, Jim. Someday my Soloway Fund will be up there.

lyconxero · #15 03-22-2005, 04:24 PM

Wow, I'm totally drooling over the wood alone. It's totally beautiful. I someday hope to own a custom-made guitar. Alas, I'm just a poor guitarist starting out who will have to deal with what he can afford. But someday.....