Howie Griffin Series G.21.79.21 - Spalted Maple

Howie 2021 Griffin Series #0021 (Amy)

Note: Be sure to check out the video for a more detailed description and to hear this guitar in action.  

This 2021 Griffin Series guitar is made from Hard Maple, Basswood and an extremely rare piece of Spalted Maple. It has a 24-fret fingerboard with an extra-long scale length of 26.6in. The African Blackwood board has a compound radius of 13in at the tail down to 8in at the nut.  

The Shape of the neck is what we call the Howie Thick Line. At the nut the depth is 0.92inches and at the 12th fret it is 1.0in. It’s not super fat and round like an early Les Paul neck but it’s also not super thin like the 1960s Gibson ES 335s. It’s pretty much right in the middle leaning more towards the Les Paul side. The width at the nut is 1.67inches. At the tail it is 2.25inches.

The pickups are one of the main features of this guitar. I went way out of the box on this one and used Seymour Duncan’s Black Winter humbuckers. These humbuckers are unique in that they have some of the highest resistance you can get from a passive pickup. This gives you plenty of ceiling room for soloing and clarity, while at the same time, the volume and tone controls on this guitar make it so they can be turned down to accommodate nearly any style of playing. The bridge humbucker is the “trembucker” version so that the pole spacing fits the Griffin’s wider string spacing.

The hollow body design of this guitar makes it incredibly light weighing in at just 5.6lbs.

The finish on this guitar was done with a catalyzed urethane that is normally used on automobiles. This high-end urethane dries very fast and hard allowing fewer coats and a thinner finish.

The rest of the nitty gritty details are all listed below….

Name: Amy

Series: Griffin

Serial #: 0021

Birthday: 11.19.21

Main Body Wood: Basswood

Top Body Wood: Spalted Maple

Neck Wood: Hard Maple

Peghead Veneer: Hard Maple

Fretboard: African Blackwood

TR Cover: Black

Weight: 5.6lbs, 2.54kg

Carve Type: 0.5in Fibonacci

Scale Length: 26.6in, 67.6cm

Nut Width: 1.67in, 4.24cm

Tail Width: 2.25in, 5.72cm

Neck Depth @ Nut: 0.92in, 23.37mm

Neck Depth @ 12th: 1.0in, 25.4mm

Fretboard Radius: 13in to 8in, or 33.02cm to 20.32cm

Fretwire: 0.09in, Stainless Steel

Neck Angle: 3.7deg

Torsion Angle: 0deg

Neck Carve: Howie Thick Line

Peghead Angle: 8.5deg

Pups: Seymour Duncan Black Winter Humbucker set

Pre-Amp:

Tuning Machines: Kluson Deluxe Gold

Nut: Bleached Bone

Truss Rod: Hotrod Low Profile

Bridge: Kluson ABR Wired

Tail Piece: Gotoh Stop

Strap Pins: Gold

Strings: S.I.T Heavy Bottom

Inlays: Abalone and Black Richlite

Pup Rings: Howie Custom Offset

Side Dots: Abalone

Knobs: Black Gibson Style

Finish: DC 2000 Catalyzed Urethane