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Don Grosh Guitars & how to build a modern classic... The Player’s Guide to Ultimate Tone TM Our journey to Bloomfield, $10.00 US, October 2010/VOL.11 NO.12 Report Colorado for a conversa- tion with Don Grosh on true custom building, the birth of the ElectraJet and more... Don Grosh Guitars

7 “Any problem you can’t solve with a good guitar is either unsolvable, or isn’t a problem.” Time has come today... Uknown Hinson submits to the probe at the Earl in East Atlanta When it comes to guitars, no one can tell you what you oughta be playing. Our relation- ship with a guitar is far too personal and subjective to be reduced to another white-hot 12 flavor of the month hoisted to must-have status in a chat room. First of all, you should Joe Naylor’s want to pick up a guitar and actually play it, and let’s face it, plenty of guitars new and Reverend old have been built that most of us would simply find uninspiring on style points alone Unknown Hinson Signature – like a Mosrite, for example. Maybe the color is all wrong, or the body shape is Guit-tar naff… The neck may feel too clumsy, or the headstock shape is goofy, the hardware 13 too clunky, or perhaps the guitar isn’t really flawed at all – it’s just not ‘you.’ These Our review of the are all valid reasons to bypass even the most popular and revered guitar designs, affordable and toneful because if it isn’t for you, well, it just and simply isn’t. Vox AC30C2X The truth is, most of us are ruthlessly finicky about the guitars we choose 15 to play, and this is the challenge facing small, independent custom build- The Majestic... now made ers like Don Grosh. Consider this… When you buy one of the archetypes in the USA, in guitar building – a Strat, Tele, Jazzmaster, Les Paul, SG, 335, 6120, mate... D18 or a J45, within fairly familiar parameters you know what you’re getting. There is a certain degree of comfort and safety in buying an 16 archetype, even though these guitars, like any others, can wildly vary Reeves Amplifiers in sound and feel for no outwardly apparent reasons. We review the The ‘little guy,’ on the other hand, must surmount magnificent and uber versatile some very significant challenges just to be favorably Custom 50 Jimmy noticed, not to mention attaining a modest level of & Super ‘78 profitability. Name recognition can only be achieved one player at a time – an agonizingly slow process 17 for anyone lacking patience. The small custom Pinstripe Magic.. builder must also possess the skill and vision Eric Collins’ ‘Bluesbreaker-Pinstripe’ to create an instrument that clearly offers rocks something unique and of value – a cool and embraceable design, superior 18 workmanship and materials that Bits & Pieces... surpass that of a production guitar, No more tears... exceptional playability, tuning Lava Cable’s stability, and outstanding tone. solderless patch cable kit... Simple enough, eh? History would 19 indicate otherwise. It seems that the The Diaz Texas Ranger... modern custom builder’s ultimate a pedal you really, really goal in designing guitars would be to need create an instrument that possesses an www.tonequest.com cover story

enduring appeal that is universally name. What you really need to gather from this review is that recognized and appreciated by play- Grosh overbuilds utterly fantastic guitars at a very reasonable ers whose influences and musical price, while allowing you the freedom to acquire what will be taste are as unique as the builder’s the perfect guitar for you rather than someone else. The fol- vision. Such a guitar, it seems to us, lowing interview vividly reveals the Grosh story and how he would earn the status of a ‘modern builds guitars today. The rest is up to you. We urge you to hit classic,’ and in our opinion, Don the Grosh web site when you have the time to linger, consider Grosh has achieved that goal with the all the varied models and options, pick one, and Enjoy… ElectraJet. TQR: How did your interest in working on and building Our review of the ElectraJet will be guitars initially develop, Don? undoubtedly be the most concise gui- tar review ever published (and you’re I’ve always been a ‘tool guy’ reading it now.) Yes, we could tease ever since I was a little kid. you with glowing praise describ- I was always tinkering and ing the worn-in feel of the perfectly building stuff, and I was shaped satin neck, the exquisite fret comfortable with power tools work, the exceptional metallic finish on our review guitar because my dad really just that reminded us of the faded copper color of an old Gibson turned me loose. When I’d go sparkling burgundy 335, or the stellar balance and feel of to a friend’s house he would the ElectraJet in hand… We could rant endlessly about the have to ask permission to use a uniquely toneful tone of the Grosh humbucking pickups, or jig saw, and that seemed really the precise and reliable nature of the Gotoh tremolo… But weird to me (laughing). My you’ve no doubt already read hundreds of glowing guitar dad’s side of the family owned reviews, and when referencing Grosh guitars, to simply crank Grosh & Sons Scenic Studios out another review on just one model would leave you woeful- in Hollywood. My grandfather started the company, and there ly short-changed. We visited the shop in Bloomfield, Colorado were four brothers in the family dating back to the 1930s. and saw how all the different Grosh guitars and basses are They built sets for film and stage like Pirates of the Carib- made, how the wood is selected, stored and worked, how the bean, the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland as well as working nitro finish is painstakingly applied, the necks shaped and the for lots of hotels in different locations like Las Vegas, so by frets dressed, and how the pickups are wound. Don Grosh the time I was in high school I was proficient in welding and builds roughly 22 guitars every 30 days. He could build more, carpentry work. When I got into BMX racing my friends and but not the way he chooses to build them. While we received I would fabricate our own frames and weld them together, and an ElectraJet specifically for review, we can tell you that all for awhile I was making my own skateboard decks. the varied Grosh models share the same attention to detail, and every one of them embodies an uncommon appeal that When I got into guitars at 18, I immediately started working reflects the builder’s eye for classic design that marries the on them for myself and friends, putting together necks and romance of the past with modern day precision, craftsman- bodies and doing repairs. It isn’t like I sat down and read any ship and consistency. If you can’t find exactly want you want books about guitar construction – I just jumped into it. One in stock through a dealer, you can order a guitar, choosing of my first guitars was a Guild D-50 that I still have, and my among all the considerable options available. That’s custom brother and I built a Martin from one of those kits from the building. The beauty of the ElectraJet and all the other Grosh 1833 shop, and after models is that that I built a thinline you can get acoustic/electric that what you want, I still have and play. not just what’s I had a Les Paul available, and Custom and a Gibson Don Grosh 335, but I really liked is completely all kinds of guitars. hands-on, work- ing in the shop TQR: How did you graduate from working on instru- every day build- ments of your own and for friends to becoming the ing the guitars shop manager at Valley Arts guitars? That’s a huge that bear his jump. -continued- 2 TONEQUEST REPORT V.11 N.12 October 2010 cover story

Well, I was working in and I wanted to see where that would go. Eventually the band the construction industry fell apart, and since I had kept a lot of tools and equipment in building custom homes, my parents’ 3-car garage, I was building guitars on the side. from complete framing I took three prototypes to the 1993 NAMM show and had a to cabinet work, and I couple of guitars in the Matchless booth that year, and they had been doing that for were well-received. I also took the guitars down to Make’n quite awhile and I was Music in North Hollywood and they became my first dealer. getting a little burned Some of the musicians that bought my guitars included Mi- out with it. I went into chael Landau, who bought five or six, Oliver Lieber, Randy construction right out of Jacobs and John Shanks. high school and we were doing some really high-end work – my main thing was custom cabinetry and custom bars – really TQR: Those ‘garage’ guitars would almost be collectible complex work, and I still do some from time to time because now... So did you continue building in the 3-car when your wife wants some crown molding in the house and garage? she knows you can do it… (laughing). I had three guitars that I had built that were really pretty good, and I had seen an ad Yes, at that time there weren’t in Guitar Player for Valley Arts, so I took my guitars down a lot of small custom builders there and they hired me to work in the repair department. other than Tom Anderson and They did work for players like Steve Lukather, Lee Ritenour Tyler. I sent guitars to other and Larry Carlton, and they were doing a very small amount stores, and I think it was a little of custom building. Even though it was a minimum wage job easier than it would be today. I and I had been making pretty good money in construction, it’s built about 20 guitars in the first what I really wanted to do. Eventually I was overseeing all the year, then I acquired a Japanese repairs, and when they moved into a larger space and began distributor who ordered four building more guitars, I was the shop foreman managing guitars a month, which was production. good, and I had a friend helping me in the shop. We also received TQR: You must have had thousands of guitars go through an incredibly positive review in your hands at that time… What were some of the Guitar Player, and that review things you might have learned about design and article really put us on the map. construction working on so many classic guitars? We increased production to about 8 guitars a month, still Some of the working in the garage, and I eventually was able to move older stuff from using a pin router to a CNC machine. At that point really had I had two full-time guys helping me and with the CNC a vibe, but we were able to build about 16 guitars a month, including I wasn’t re- some basses. We built about 1,000 guitars total working in ally a vintage the garage, and in 2001 we moved to an industrial space in junkie – I southern California. I’m really particular about the way I was more want things done, and I’ve never been interested in sitting interested at a desk, so we kept production at a level where we could in making build the guitars to my standards. things better. Honestly, a lot of the ‘vintage’ guitars seemed to be hit and miss and were often not very good. Obviously, the TQR: When did you move to Colorado? Gibson guitars were built to a higher level, but Gretsch guitars really weren’t very good, and the Fenders were simply mass- We moved in 2005, and within a week we were building gui- produced guitars to me. Some of them could sound great, tars. We also had some unassembled and finished necks and but they weren’t representative of anything more than a very bodies from California that enabled us to get started quickly, economically built instrument. and on nights and weekends I worked on finishing out the build out of the shop and better organizing the space. TQR: How long did you work at Valley Arts? TQR: And presently you are building about 22 guitars a I was at Valley Arts from 1985-1993 when Samick eventually month… Let’s discuss the various models you build bought them, and I was also in a Christian alternative band today, beginning with the ‘Reserve’ models. -continued- TONEQUEST REPORT V.11 N.12 October 2010 3 cover story

Those are limited TQR: How and when did run guitars that we you develop the design for the come up with in the ElectraJet? shop. We build them whenever we have We had been in the Colorado a unique idea we shop for about a year, and want to try, and we I wanted to come up with have some things in something new, but still a the works right now. retro style. I drew the initial We are going to be building a limited run of full-size ‘Strat- body shape free-hand and kept style’ guitars with vintage specs, for example, and we may tweaking the cutaway areas only build 40 of those guitars. and body shape, and then be- gan working on the pickguard TQR: In 2009 you also built a limited edition Turbo shape, which probably took Jet – the rocker’s version of the ElectraJet with 3-4 months to finalize. mahogany back, figured maple top and humbucking pickups… TQR: Perhaps one of the most notable features of the ElectraJet body style is that virtually any pickup That’s a chambered guitar with the ElectraJet body style, bolt- looks like it belongs on the guitar – Strat, Tele, P90 on neck, humbucking pickups and a really nice maple top. or humbucker, and that is often not the case with unique, custom-built guitars. TQR: Can you describe the changes you made to the Retro Classic Strat and Telecaster style models? Well, that’s probably because There were certain things I the shape is so thought I could improve on when unique that you I designed those guitars. The body don’t have a pre- shape features deeper cutaways for conceived idea better access to the fingerboard, of what ‘belongs’ the lower bout is slightly larger there. If all you and the contours on the back are had ever seen more subtle and comfortable, and was that guitar with single coils and then you saw it with P90s we contour the neck heel for easier it might seem wrong. The headstock is also different, and we access to the upper part of the fin- have four different headstock shapes for the Retro Classic, gerboard. The neck and truss rod Tele, ElectraJet and set neck models. They are subtle changes, are a completely different design but you can easily see the difference. as well... The truss rod we make here has more mass than a standard design, and the peghead is TQR: You also build bolt-on maple top models. Are they thicker with more wood in the area where the neck transitions typically built with mahogany backs, and have you from above the nut to the peghead. We make the body slightly ever used ebony for fingerboards? wider at the lower bout and the peghead thicker to encourage bet- ter resonance and sustain, and that is why we create those types Yes, mahogany is my favorite wood for guitars with maple of design changes – not just for cosmetic reasons. Our priority is tops as a complement to the brightness of maple. We don’t use about better tone and resonance that you can hear and feel with that many ebony fingerboards. It’s brittle and prone to split- the guitar unplugged. We do the same kinds of things with the ting, and we really haven’t received any requests for it. Retro Classic Vintage T as well. TQR: How many different tremolo designs do you use? TQR: How is the Vintage T constructed? We noted a humbucking pickup in the neck on your web site... The main tremolo we use for the Retro guitars is the Go- toh 1088. It sounds perfect for that guitar, with bent metal You can order it with a humbucker or standard Tele neck saddles, a V groove in the saddles to keep the strings centered, pickup, with F-hole or without, in swamp ash or mahogany. and we modify the block by adding a nylon bushing for the The body is completely hollow on either side with a center trem arm to avoid any sloppy action. We also modify the two block beneath the bridge. posts. I really love the way this bridge sounds for a 2-post, -continued- 4 TONEQUEST REPORT V.11 N.12 October 2010 cover story

floating tremolo, and it re- ply binding and period correct humbucking pickups, pots, ally stays in tune well. For the tone caps and wiring. ElectraJet we use the Gotoh 510 6-screw tremolo bridge The DG 293 is the fully hollow and we set it up with the bridge model with a small block of wood flat on the body. Our original that extends from the tailpiece to intention was not to set up the the bottom of the bridge pickup, 510 on the ElectraJet to be and it can be ordered with hum- floating, but after we had some buckers or P90s. It is also avail- customers request a floating able with a standard figured maple trem, we found that it actually top or Sitka spruce. Both models works very well, while still have a hollow mahogany back, maintaining excellent tuning with a block of wood that extends stability. When we get requests from the tailpiece to the for the 1088 Gotoh bridge to be installed on the ElectraJet, bottom of the bridge pickup. we’ll do that as well. TQR: Being fully hollow with the exception of the block, TQR: When did you start building the set neck models? does the guitar feedback like most hollowbodies at high volume? While we were still in California. I designed it to be either a fully hollow, semi-hollow or solidbody guitar, and at the time Not at all. It has a little more mass with the mahogany back I was looking at archtop designs as a reference point. The cut- and carved top, so the feedback you might experience with away design provides access to the very last fret, and the body lighter hollowbody guitars that lack the block beneath the is a little rounder, wider and shorter than a typical Les Paul. bridge isn’t a problem. The DG 193 is our semi-hollow model The waist is also moved more forward for better balance. with a solid block that runs down the middle of the body, and it also has a great acoustic quality with more mid punch TQR: How did you approach the neck tenon/joint design? and attack than the DG 293. Both models are available with humbucking pickups or P90s. I wanted to use the long tenon similar to a ‘50s We also build a Les Paul, although the Gretsch-style, tenon on our guitars is fully hollowbody wider, extending all the guitar called the way to the neck pickup Hollowtron with rout. We also added a cat eye f-holes, volute for added strength TV Jones Fil- with the thickness of tertron pickups, the headstock as thick and a TonePros stop tailpiece and bridge or Bigsby tremolo as it can be and still fit tailpiece. standard tuners. The additional mass not only TQR: We also saw some bass necks in the shop and bass- adds strength, but it also improves sustain and resonance. es on your web site...

TQR: And the set neck models include solidbodies, fully What we’ve done so far with the basses is just a Jazz or P- hollow and semi-hollow designs... Bass style. I had a lot of people asking for basses, so we did some limited runs to meet that demand, but we’re going to Yes. The solibody models include the Custom, Limited and start building an ElectraJet bass soon. ‘59 Spec. The Custom features a 5A figured maple top, ma- hogany back and neck, and a Brazilian rosewood fingerboard TQR: Let’s talk about your philosophy and approach to is optional. The Limited adds full binding on the neck and building and finishing guitars that makes them tan- our ‘Limited’ fingerboard inlays. Both models can be ordered gibly different from typical production instruments, with P90 or humbucking pickups, TonePros stop tailpiece and starting with the finish... bridge, or optional wraparound tailpiece. The ‘59 Spec is our tribute to the ‘59 Les Paul, with trapezoid inlays, aged single The finish is very important to me, and very important to -continued- TONEQUEST REPORT V.11 N.12 October 2010 5 cover story

tone. That’s why I still use nitro and apply a very thin finish It’s more difficult to that requires a lot of time to build up thinner coats. What you get really good ash see in a lot of guitars today are finishes that are applied in right now, so I’m going a way that speeds production, and in that environment you through more wood to don’t want to be using lacquer. I also mix all of our own col- get the optimum piece ors, including the metallics, and mixing our own colors gives that I want. We have a us a lot of creative flexibility. new supplier for alder, and we’re probably get- TQR: Like the ‘black orange’ color on the ting the best alder I have ElectraJet you sent us for review – one of the ever seen since I’ve been nicest custom colors we have ever seen. You building. Sometimes offer a lot of options in terms of neck shapes we’ll produce a 1-piece and fret size as well. Do you follow any phi- body, but I prefer 2-piece bodies because I think they look losophy in regard to the size of a neck and its better. With a 1-piece sometimes the grain is inconsistent or role as a tone generator? doesn’t match up as well as a 2-piece.

The bigger the neck, the bigger the tone. We TQR: What do you use for the nut material, and is all of do have a lot of different neck shapes, and your hardware made by Gotoh? our most popular is the medium/large round- back with rounded fingerboard edges that We use make it really comfortable, but with enough micarta. mass to produce a great sounding guitar. We have used TQR: We also saw the racks of beautiful fingerboard bone in blanks in your shop – Brazilian, Madagascar and the past Indian, and it all seemed to be uncommonly nice. and it Have you noted a difference in the sound of differ- sounds ent types of rosewood? good, but You can tap on those boards and hear a difference. Every it isn’t as durable in terms of tuning stability. All of the piece of wood is unique – some of it has a heavier, denser hardware we use is Gotoh with the exception of the TonePros midrange tone, and the Indian can be lighter and brighter bridges and tailpieces we use for the set neck guitars. We use sounding than the Brazilian and Madagascar. A lot of times nickel, and since the chrome tailpiece on the HollowTron is we’ll go through different boards and tone-tap them to select chrome, we use chrome hardware on that model. the right piece for a specific guitar. With ash and alder guitar bodies, the weight of the body will also completely affect the TQR: Let’s talk about pickups... You made the decision tone of the guitar. On an ash Retro Classic body for example, to wind your own – how long did that process take a 3.5 pound body will sound different than a 4 pound body. and what was involved? A 4.5 pound ash body will be too heavy, and that will go to the band saw. A heavy ash body will sound very bright and We started about two and a half years ago with single coils. It not very open sounding. On a Retro Classic Vintage T, I was something I had always wanted to do but just didn’t have would go a little lighter because there is a little less routing. the time. We worked on just the neck single coil for a good The target weight for the bolt-on guitars is 7 - 8 pounds.With 6-8 months. We knew what we wanted to hear, but it took a the set necks the target weight is 8.5 pounds, and we will still lot of time to dial it in. We tried hand-winding, and we got do a certain amount of chambering to meet that target weight. really close, but I realized that it was impossible to get the Through every step of the building process – from the rough tension of the wire on the bobbin consistent with handwind- blank to the stage when the top is matched with the back, the ing, and that was key to the sound of the pickup in my mind. body is weighed and then we’ll chamber it according to what Without the correct tension, that’s probably 60%-70% of the is required to reach that perfect weight. The heavier ma- sound. With handwinding, every pickup is going to be slightly hogany pieces sound better with the hollow and semi-hollow different, and it was even more critical with humbuckers, so guitars. we eventually bought a computerized winding machine. Then we were able to really work on things we could control – the TQR: How has the wood supply changed over the years tension, the way the wire is scattered, how it’s layered, the since you’ve been building? shape of the coil... -continued- 6 TONEQUEST REPORT V.11 N.12 October 2010 interview

TQR: What type of magnets are you using? your arm so far out when you play. On the one I’m build- ing for myself, I’ll have just one bridge piezo pickup, and it Alnico 5 for will have a fretless fingerboard extension over the body that single coils, and extends almost to the bridge pickup. To my mind it will be we use different great to have the baritone thing going on, with the ability to types of Alnico slide chords up or play slide on a fretless surface above the for humbuckers 18th fret. Other than that, we’re working on the full-size Strat depending on the and a new set neck model.T Q application. On our 302 hum- You’re invited to contact the shop bucker uncovered directly for all guitar inquiries: we use Alnico 4 www.groshguitars.com, 303-464-8717 and with a cover we use Alnico 5. When you start introducing covers to the mix the sound changes. We tried different covers from differ- ent suppliers, and we experimented with polepiece screws. Time Has Come Today… When we were developing our P90 we were listening to dif- ferent pickups from boutique winders, and we had one from a Unknown Hinson specific winder that seemed muddy with very little defini- NEW COVER STORY tion. When we put our polepieces in that pickup, the clarity “This whole world’s wild at heart and weird on top.” and string definition improved dramatically, so we learned – Peanut something by doing that kind of testing. Some of the parts we use for pickups had to be outsourced to unique suppliers, but we are really happy with our pickups now and winding them here gives us much more flexibility and consistency. There is always some variance that occurs, like on the 42 gauge wire, the tolerances might vary from one spool to the next, and we actually take measurements and compensate for those vari- ances when we wind the pickup.

TQR: What about pots, caps and tone caps?

We use CTS 250K and 500K pots, orange drop .047 caps for the single coils and paper-in-oil .022 caps in the set neck guitars. It feels sometimes as if we are drifting into a dull sameness TQR: Aside from rolling out the basses, what’s ahead? that threatens the unique look, sound, and feel of the country that is furtively unbecoming America. In the sterile style of an We’re doing a international airport, a mall, or a global hotel chain, our cit- baritone guitar right ies and culture are succumbing to a revolting code of generic now with TV Jones blah that dilutes every facet of our lives, yet we pride our- Magnatron pickups in selves on diversity... The presumably inoffensive visual Muzak the ElectraJet style, permeating America’s urban landscape betrays a misguided and we’re building theory of design that places an illusion of upscale conformity five in the first run. above the natural human tendency to embrace chaos and I don’t know how questionable taste, as if the Earth were a galactic cul de sac many we will actually with a neighborhood covenant banning pickup trucks, yard sell over time, but I ornaments, purple shutters, bed sheet curtains, carports, tiki want one for myself, torches, barbecue pits, sounds emanating from one’s property so we’ll be set up for that are audible from another (excluding leaf blowers piloted them. It’s an 18 fret by $7 an hour undocumented aliens), and all other outward neck, but the bridge signs of vibrantly flawed human life being lived to the fullest. is moved back so you And as you, of all people, have surely noticed, America’s for- don’t have to extend merly rich and exceptionally deep musical heritage is suffering -continued- TONEQUEST REPORT V.11 N.12 October 2010 7