Three New Leach Customs - Two Dreads & An Archtop

[cpabolting]

Arrived over the weekend three custom Leach guitars....

All three are very unique instruments.... with the Brazilian Bresh dread a real killer with it's booming bass and glassy trebles...and is a work of art. I took this guitar out to my gig on Saturday night I was so impressed with it!

The Fall Fantasy has a spectacular redwood top and quilted maple... it has a little less bottom end than the Brazilian Bresh.... but just a little.

The electric is a Travis Special Archtop with alamed maple top, back, sides and neck. This is a replica of a Super 400 that Merle had custom made with a solid maple top to get the sustain and tone of a solid body combined with the look of his signature archtop. Hand-made P-90 pickups. I thought it was so spectacular that I wound up buying all three guitars!

[billgennaro]

Congratulations! That must really be quite exciting. Harv is an artist with his builds and, to me, there is nothing quite as beautiful as a nice curly Maple archtop guitar with a sunburst like that.

[T1mothy]

holy cow. Beautiful stuff!

[harvl]

Glad they finally made it to their new home!

Harv

[Martin Keith]

Harvey - simply stunning work!
The Bigsby/Travis look is so distinctive - it's wonderful to see such a playful-yet-respectful update.

Love the zero frets, too. When will the stigma fade that these were somehow only for cheap guitars?

Gorgeous!
Cheers,
Martin

[fazool]

Gorgeous. I especially like that archtop.

[harvl]

Originally Posted by Martin Keith

Harvey - simply stunning work!
The Bigsby/Travis look is so distinctive - it's wonderful to see such a playful-yet-respectful update.

Love the zero frets, too. When will the stigma fade that these were somehow only for cheap guitars?

Gorgeous!
Cheers,
Martin

I've been friends with Thom Bresh for many years, when we first met he had 2 of his dad's guitars at his house. The D-28 with the original Bigsby neck and a Super 400 which had the prototype Bigsby tailpiece... Thom told me when his dad gave him the 2 guitars he said "This here is a Martin so it's probably worth something, but if you ever make a clock out of that Gibson don't throw away that tailpiece..." He had no concept that because they were his guitars that they were worth a fortune... I believe Thom sold them through Christies for about $250K. Best part for me was I got to take measurements of that neck, in fact when Martin did a reissue of the Martin/Bigsby I made the prototype neck for them to copy. The combination of the 7 deg. headstock pitch and the hard rock maple neck gives them a really unique sustain and feel. It felt especially cool knowing that I was measuring the same neck that Leo Fender measured for his guitars.

Harv

[kirkham13]

Really really nice. And refreshing!

[BBWW]

Nice haul. Harv has a few I want too, I just don't have any money. LOL I do have an LS, Tree Mahogany with a one piece back at my house from Harv, sadly its for sale not for me to keep. :-(

[JoeCharter]

All three guitars are very nice -- but the headstock on the archtop is outstanding.

I also really like the burst maple back.

Enjoy, Keith.

[cpabolting]

Originally Posted by JoeCharter

All three guitars are very nice -- but the headstock on the archtop is outstanding.

I also really like the burst maple back.

Enjoy, Keith.

I wasn't sure about he different headstocks on the dreads at first, but they are actually really cool and I am enjoying playing with them

[harvl]

Originally Posted by cpabolting

I wasn't sure about he different headstocks on the dreads at first, but they are actually really cool and I am enjoying playing with them

When I first started building copies of that headstock I has some reservations. Thom was telling me a little history about them which was pretty cool because I always thought the way they looked was a visual statement.

Travis would restring his guitars with them laying on his lap, so he wanted all the tuners on the left side, originally the scroll was on the left as well but it was in the way. They originally were strung like a Stauffer guitar with the big E longer than the little E string. The part that was most interesting to me was that they made several prototypes with varying angles and settled on the 7 deg version because it, along with switching the strings so the little E was long, had just the right feel for the way he played. He liked that the very short big E string tightened it up and the long little E was a bit looser.

Harv

[JoeCharter]

Originally Posted by cpabolting

I wasn't sure about he different headstocks on the dreads at first, but they are actually really cool and I am enjoying playing with them

I was actually commenting on the headstock inlays rather than the shape...

The dreads look nice, especially as a pair. I also change strings with the guitar on my lap and I always sweat it when I get to the treble side.

[harvl]

The inlays on the headstock of the "Fall Fantasy" are some of my all-time favorites (right up there with and orchid vine I recently did ) Growing up in Vermont I really wanted to try and capture the colors and movement I remembered. All the materials are natural wood which really helps to maintain an organic feel.

[JoeCharter]

Originally Posted by harvl

The inlays on the headstock of the "Fall Fantasy" are some of my all-time favorites (right up there with and orchid vine I recently did )

You mean this one?