Price: $1500 USD (includes hard foam case) – this has SOLD
Dot Matrix started life as a combo of African mahogany for the body and a sweet chestnut drop top 1/4″ thick. It’s a non-chambered construction with a nice belly carve and the comfort carve on the face.
The body edge was rounded over and the binding was skipped in favor of creating a hand-scraped faux-binging to frame the blue trans-tint stain on top. The sheen is from the Tried & True Finishing Oil, rubbed after curing with Renaissance Wax to give it a bit more protection. Unlike a typical thick lacquer finish, this finish allows the wood to breathe a bit more and for you to have a better sense of the “feel” of the wood used.
To be honest, I often choose this type of finish simply because I like the look of it – not because I believe there is a sonic difference. If you can hear a difference, that’s awesome. If you cannot, that’s fine, too. I just like the look this type of finish imparts and it allows me to be “hand on” with the wood as part of the build process. What this means is, if you run your hands over the surface of this guitar, you’ll know where the dot inlays are by feel as there is a definite difference in texture between sweet chestnut wood and pearl.
The neck is a custom mahogany unit with pearl dots and 22 frets, loaded with Hipshot locking tuners. All hardware is chrome. The fretboard is pau ferro.
The bridge is a fully adjustable Wilkenson unit and the rest of the other hardware bits are factory Fender pieces for a great fit and solid lifespan.
Now, about those dots…there are 39 of the on the face of the guitar, and there is a single pearl star nestled amongst the group. All were laid out by hand and set by hand into the body, and all are genuine pearl.
The pickups are from Lollar. There is a Vintage T in the neck and a Special T in the bridge. The Vintage T is a great pickup and “it offers full-bodied mid-range and a clear top end that sounds full and clean with moderate amp breakup. It’s wound with larger diameter wire to give you less compression compared to typical T-style neck pickups“.
The Special T is a higher output version of the Vintage T for the bridge. “You get a rounder top end with more mid-range and bottom end. Roll the tone control back and you’ll get something close to a vintage P-90 humbucker tone.” Bottom line with this set is they flat out rock!
Sound samples from these pickups are available on each page linked to above.
Overall, I have to admit, this is one of my favorite builds ever.
