Lollar Goild Foil pickups are in stock now!

I now stock Jason Lollar’s take on the legendary Gold Foil pickup. Hyped by Ray Cooder, Jason already started to produce a Supro Steel pickup, now you can complete your “Coodercaster” with a Gold Foil neck pickup… Or just buy a bridge – neck set. Or just buy a three pickup set with RWRP middle pickup to make a Gold Foil Strat!

Jason’s pickup is made as a very sturdy, long lasting pickup; it does not have the microphonic feature like the original. Shims are available that matches the bottom plate of the pickup, to adjust the height, like a P90 dogear.  A version to screw directly on the body (photo), and a version with a side mounting plate to connnect to a scratch plate and float on the top are available, nickel and gold. All variations can be ordered.

Jason Lollar:
One of the first questions we get asked when we meet guitar pickers is – “Do you make Gold Foil pickups”?.
Well, we finally took the hint, and spent the time (two years of R&D) to get it right. We use custom made parts, built to our specs. We hand stamp the foil inserts, one at a time – even the rivets holding the pickup together are custom made. As with all the pickups we make, every aspect of the design has been scrutinized and tested – to sound right and last a lifetime.

Our Gold Foil is a single coil pickup with unusual clarity and power. Expect crystal clear top end with lots of in-your-face harmonic overtones, and a wide dynamic range that can make a typical tube amp give up the dirt – while retaining all the detail and “3D” you expect from a Lollar. Rubberized ferrite magnet with 44 gauge wire. Single conductor only. Neck 6.2K, Middle 6.8K, Bridge 7.25K

Gold Foil pickups can be found in the webshop here:
(Dutch) http://www.fernsguitars.nl/nl/webwinkel/webwinkel.php?cat=19
(International) http://www.fernsguitars.nl/en/webshop/webshop.php?cat=19

The new Fern’s Orville Breeveld Signature Custom

After a year of developing, talking, sketching and carving, Amsterdam leading session guitarist Orville Breeveld was yesterday finally able to lay his hands on his own signature guitar. He became a quiet man, and surprised with an instrumental version of a Marco Borsato song that could easily fit any jazz album.

As a starting point I took measurements from his old Ibanez AM400, and adapted them into my Custom-1 guitar. We decided to do a semi-hollow guitar, with a focus on the sound of a solid body guitar. The semi-hollow construction would add a nice brightness or “ring” to the instrument. Most specs from the neck of the Ibanez were copied in the new guitar (thickness, width, shape), and the guitar was redesigned around a 24 9/16″ scale length. The shape was comfortable for Orville, but the F-hole on the bass side should be a bit more modern, and can we do a wine-red finish? Orville told me one of his earliest connections to the guitar was the Gibson Marauder in wine red that his father used to play. We finished the design with adding a pearl block inlay in the neck and gold plated hardware.

The guitar has the same basic construction as the allready listed Custom-1. The instrument is build around a central neck block that runs through the body. All other parts are build around that neck block. The top has been made of a beautiful AAA tigerstriped piece of European maple, hand carved. Here are the specifications:

Woods:

• European maple AAA tigerstriped top
• Mahogany body
• Laminated neck block: USA maple, Greenheart, Purpleheart
• Ebony fretboard
• Laminated head: USA maple, Ebony

Hardware:

• Jason Lollar Imperial Humbuckers, standard wound
• Schaller bridge, tailpiece and locking tuners
• Dunlop fretwire
• Bone topnut
• Pearl inlays

Finish:

• Custom wine red stained finish
• Transulent PU laquer finish, high gloss
• Neck: PU laquer finish, satin gloss

Scale:

• 24 9/16″

Orville first gets a moment to PLAY the guitar, in December the website will be updated with a more photo’s and information.

Orville Breeveld:
As a musician, composer, orchestrator, teacher and marketeer, Orville Breeveld has been working in the field of international art, entertainment, media and advertising for over a decade. With a cosmopolitic vision, Orville Breeveld has set stage for various multi-cultural artistic and as well as business talents throughout Amsterdam. As a musician and composer, Orville Breeveld has a long established career of working together with various ensembles, musicians and entertainment corporations through out the world like Nederlands Blazers Ensemble (Dutch Horn Ensemble), The Metropole Orchestra, Maher Zain, Combattimento Consort Amsterdam, Karsu and many others.

With his own event production company and talent development organisation Breathing he has been presented and programmed hundreds of young talented singers, bands and visual artists on international festivals and events. Besides composing and arranging for his own bands Orville composes music for TV, radio and other artists. This he does with his own company The Groove Group. Orville aswell is a proud father and has a strong vision on fatherhood in various communities. He initiated the platform Vitamine V in the Netherlands to inspire other fathers and to contribute to a better upbringing of children through various actions and activities.

www.orvillebreeveld.com

Custom lap steel flightcase.

Looking for the very best protection for your new ordered Slide King lap steel guitar? I can now offer a custom made flightcase that fits the lap steel perfectly and gives the best possible protection during transport for your instrument.

Recently I got requests from USA and Australian customers to supply a strong case. Together with the Dutch flightcase company Van Der Werf we designed a case with an inner CNC cut foam that follows the shape of the instrument. A cut out around the neck makes it easy to take out the instrument, and a spare pocket is made to bring your favorite slide bar and picks.

The case can be closed with the strings in tune, so it is perfect to protect the instrument just before a performance. However for save travelling in an airplane or a van I always recommend to loosen the string tension. The case can be closed with one or two open locks at the outside.

The case is made on order, it can be ready within one or two weeks. The price for the case will be around € 375,- for a 6-string Slide King. The same type of case can also be ordered for other lap steel guitars, prices on request.

 Van Der Werf Flightcases

Personal requests for custom made lap steel guitars.

The best thing about making instruments on order, instead of serial production is to be able to adapt somebody’s personal needs. At the moment I finish a few lap steel guitars. Two Slide King models need different details.

One Slide King had a special request to make somehow a palmrest above the bridge.
As a reference the customer mentioned the ‘ashtray’ of a telecaster or the bridgecover of a stratocaster. A bridgecover is always something you hate or you like. For me I don’t like it, as I like to be able to do palm muting. But for the customer it is a must. He doesn’t like palm muting. There you go.

The palm rest is made from ebony, like the other parts of the Slide King lap steel. The rest can be simply bold on the bridge, or taken off, for those who do like palm muting…

The feel is a bit like a strat cover, it works.

A second Slide King needed a visual addition on the side. Some vintage lap steel guitars or pedal steels have a brand plate on the side, so it is visual for the audience when playing the instrument.

As a request it is of course very nice, and I feel very flattered that a customer wants to show my brand to his audience. Not only the brand needed to be visible, also the name of his wife should be there. Lucky for me only three letters.

The side of the Slide King lap steel guitar will look like this when finished:

 

Lollar “Royal T” & “J-Street” pickups now in stock!

To complete Fern’s full stock of Telecaster pickups, I added the new “Royal T” neck pickup and the new “J-Street” bridge pickup.

The “Royal T” is basically a strat-style neck pickup dimensioned to fit in a standard telecaster neck routing. For some people, including me, the standard telecaster neck pickup is not working great. I like to fit in P90’s, Wide Range humbuckers, Charlie Christian pickups, or what so over in the neck… This pickup is plug-and-play.  No routing required. It looks cool too!

Jason Lollar about the “Royal-T” neck pickup:

We love Teles. But every once in a while even the most die-hard Tele-philes want to channel their inner Jimi. Don’t feel bad. We don’t blame you. We are here to help. You don’t need to carve up your pickguard. You don’t need to hack up your guitar. You just need some “Royal T”…

Our newest neck pickup for Telecasters! We’ve had many requests for a Tele neck pickup that really sounds like a Strat. Done! Combining a custom nickel pickup cover (we designed and had made in the US), a special selection of magnet type and length, and coil wire that would typically be used on a Strat pickup (42 gauge heavy build), the results are a deeper, clearer, glassier and punchier tone. Stratty! Think “Blonde meets Blackface”… Vintage style cloth covered lead wires, Alnico 5 magnets.

Available in the webshop: http://www.fernsguitars.nl/shop/shop_nl.php?item=1016&cat=15&pg=0&nr=308

The “J-Street” is a hot bridge pickup with an output to match a P90 or humbucker type of neck pickup. Not a vintage Telecaster sound, but still Telecaster-like!

Jason Lollar about the “J-Street”:

 Long part of the Lollar “secret menu”, the J Street is now online! A hotter, fatter version of our popular Special T, the J adds more low end and upper midrange, with a top end that leans more towards the P90 and humbucker world. It pairs really nicely with our Regal humbucker, or any fatter, hotter neck pickup. Flat pole design with graded Alnico 5 magnets. Vintage style cloth covered lead wire. Wax potted.

Available in the webshop: http://www.fernsguitars.nl/en/webshop/webshop.php?cat=157