The “GearHead” Guitar was designed by Mary. She woke up in the middle of the night and told me she had “gears” on her mind. I told her to sketch it out and we would discuss it in the morning. After much deliberation this is what we came up with: Skeeter body, Adirondack Red Spruce top with offset sound hole, African Padauk back and sides, dual scale lengths of 25.4″ and 24.9″.
The Diamond Guitar was designed by Mary to commemorate our 25th wedding anniversary. It’s based on our popular MiniMac body which uses a unique set of 1940 Brazilian Rosewood, our own “hollow-back” design and “double-sides” as well as an Italian Spruce “Double-top”.
We wanted to use a rare set of African Gaboon Ebony we have had curing for well over 20 years in our climate controlled wood room. This perfectly quarter sawn set was only large enough for a HighLander OM body. We combined the Ebony with a master grade Carpathian Spruce top. The wood combination was magic. Bindings and rosette are Brazilian Pernambuco wood. Peg head, fingerboard and bridge are Ebony as well.
The Wheat Harvest Guitar was designed to honor American farming heritage. The SDG body back and sides are Honduran Mahogany from “The Tree” and topped with an Adirondack Red Spruce sound board. Bindings are Koa and inlay material is Pernambuco along with Ebony peg head, fingerboard and “pin less” bridge.
Mary designed “The Spar Guitar” around the top.
As the story goes, Denis Merrill found a log which had washed up on a beach during a boat race in Oregon. The log was old and the locals to the area told him it was part of an antique Tall Ship that had sunk off the coast in the 1800’s. The locals said, often times during rough seas and storms, parts of these old ships would surface and wash a shore.
As we got back into the car, Mary grabbed the only paper she could find, a Snickers candy bar wrapper, and began sketching the design for this guitar.
We combined the old 1800’s Sitka spruce top with African Blackwood back and sides to create a Deacon body for this project.
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