Big River/Novo**Cayman Blue Nitro Relic**Madlove Vintage Spec Firebird (N) & Madlove Vintage Spec Broadcaster (B)**

The Big River “N.L.O.”

8lbs 8oz.

Up for sale is another specialty build here at Big River. Introducing “The N.L.O”, part Novo, part Tele, 100% kick ass guitar and stealer of girlfriends. The body was cut by our new friend Scott over at Sand Hill Customs. He helped us out with a recent build, “The Tele Paul Revere” made from all most 300 year old reclaimed wood from the Globe Grain Elevevator! Make sure you check out Scott’s Store…

https://reverb.com/shop/scotts-gear-garage-1525

Anyway the body is made from three pieces of ash. Featuring a German carve, it was prepped; pore filled, sealed and given ten coats of our custom mixed Cayman Blue Nitro then left to hang and do its thing. When ready, it was wet sanded, aged, buffed, aged some more and given beautiful checking throughout!

Our Telecaster neck is made from roasted maple with a roasted maple fingerboard. The specs on our necks are as follows…a 9.5” radius, 22 medium jumbo nickel frets with rounded and hidden frets end (that are flat out awesome), a medium C shape (a little more substantial than Fender’s Slim C) and a bone nut. We finish the neck with several coats of thin lacquer, then they are buffed to a super smooth satin finish. The tuners are a set of Hipshot staggered locking tuner and the steel string tree is from Callaham. All of necks receive a fret level, crown and polish!

To add to the stability and aid in that tele twang, i went with a Gotoh ”In Tune” Ashtray Bridge, with compensated brass saddles for dead on accurate intonation. This bridge along with every piece of hardware used, was aged here by us in our shop!

The wiring harness is a traditional vintage style tele harness. I used an Oak 3way switch, 250k CTS pots, a .047 Mullard Tropical Fish Cap (I love these caps!) a John Suhr Treble Bleed, a Puretone 4prong input jack for added stability so you don’t accidentally pull your cable out, and Gavitt cloth pushback wire throughout.

The pickups are what make this N.L.O. really special. Michael from Madlove has been one of my favorite pick up winders since I came across his CuNiFe Widerange Humbuckers over a year ago. If you haven’t heard or tried his pickups, absolutely check him out!

https://reverb.com/marketplace?make=madlove-pickups

or check his website out…

Madlovepickups.com

Anywho, for the neck I went with his vintage Firebird pickup. Closer to a single coils, Michael’s Firebird uses Alnico 5 magnets, has beautiful clarity and treble with a super tight bottom end. This pickup is a sweet sounding and super clean but has no problem getting dirty at the flip of a switch. Add some drive and fuzz and this pickup sounds absolutely heavenly!

After going with Michael’s suggestion, I paired it with his Madlove Vintage Spec. Broadcaster tele bridge. The early 50s broadcaster was a slightly different beast with Alnico III magnets and wound hot to about 9-9.5k with thinner 43 AWG wire. Supplied with vintage style cloth covered wire and wax potted in black wax just like the originals. This pickup really is the perfect match for the Firebird, has some more kick to it, while still retaining all of that tele bridge goodness! The middle position with these pickups is where the magic happens!

*check out the demo below of the Madlove Broadcaster in action*

The Big River N.L.O. is a beautifully gnarly, vintage inspired tone velociraptor. Our Cayman Blue Nitro paired with this Roasted Maple neck makes this kick ass shape stand out in the crowd! But when you plug it in, that’s when you are really going to turn some heads. Grab this one quick, it won’t be around for long!

**We love this design and guitar so much, we have several more being cut and on their way as we speak! All with different neck, pick up and control configurations, so check back often to see what kind of heat the next one is going bring!**