Harvester Lupine 2017 Shortscale

Something new. This is an example of one of my backburner projects that I've been dreaming up in  the last year or so.

After working on some vintage National and Supro guitars for my customers and watching with interest the amazing work of my friend Ken at Roadhouse Pickups in Portland OR, I started planning something resonant and rootsy, inspired by compact, manoeuvrable 'student' guitars of the 1950s and 60s.

Scale length is one of the factors that has the most impact on the feel and sound of a custom electric guitar. I see unusual scale-length guitars as 'circuit breakers' or secret weapons in the recording studio, ideal for overlaying guitar parts with a different timbre or especially for exploring alternate tunings. This model has a 23.5" scale which allows for a different style of playing - either 'spanish style' or as a lap instrument.

The Roadhouse Vista Tone pickups give a unique single coil sound. Again, they add something different to the palate. They possess some of the P90's rock responsiveness and punch, yet have their own EQ. The combined-pickup position on this guitar especially curls my toes.

The body of this guitar is cut from remilled hoop pine which was once a roof beam in a 1930s sugar warehouse on the docks of Mackay, Queensland. It is a close grained timber, similar to huon pine with the heft and 'ring' of American ash. The neck is a three piece mix of remilled Queensland maple and Queensland silky-oak - both timbers with a mahogany-like weight. These were milled from ceiling lining planks of a 1920s building.

The guitar has been finished and buffed to allow the grain and slight defects of the recycled materials to show through the finish with a little extra 'ageing' here and there.

This guitar has a modified Bigsby B16 tremolo fitted at such an angle to give a nice hovering trem ride, it is capable of jazzmaster style shimmer and sits out of the way if needed, due to it's position at the base of the guitar.

Two strap pins at the base of the guitar allow for a 'built in stand' effect, something I learned from my first 1980s Schecter bass and from my Guild Polara guitars - you can lean the guitar casually against an amp or studio wall and it will stay put without sliding into oblivion ...

*See my instagram account for videos of this guitar at my shop.   

Body : Hoop Pine
Neck : Queensland Maple / Silky Oak / Queensland Maple
Fretboard : Striped Ebony
Headstock veneer : Figured Koa

Scale : 23.5"
Radius : 12"
Neck width at first fret : 39mm
Neck depth " " : 19mm

Pickups : Roadhouse Vistatones

Modified Bigsby B16 Tremolo

This guitar ships in a moulded ABS hard-case and can be setup with your desired string gauge and height before sale.

It is currently strung with Daddario 12-54 XL strings which seem just right for this scale and allow detuning.

Any questions ? Get in touch.

AUSTRALIAN BUYERS send me an offer in $AU and come to my shop in inner Melbourne to visit and plug this one in for a try-out.

Thanks, AP

*Harvester Guitars are made by hand in my little workshop in Melbourne, Australia.
The majority of my work is built to order but each year I get to spend some time on some unique guitars for shop stock and to follow my own tangents. Enjoy