a little bit about the story behind the instrument and your relationship with Andy.
[ James ] I met Andy pretty soon after I moved to Charlotte from Jacksonville Beach, Florida, where I’ m from. We were going to go up and play an hour or so north of Charlotte. We got there, I walked on the stage, and the best gear you’ ve ever seen in your whole life was there. There were vintage amps, like Ampeg“ fliptops”, some Matchless amps, everything! All of the amps were on stage, facing out towards the soundman, which would never happen in 99.9 % of all churches. And I thought,“ Where am I? Is this a music store?” But it was Andy Elliott’ s church, and it was all his gear.
That was when I first met Andy. He had just started taking some luthier classes, but he hadn’ t started building yet. He is just the sweetest guy, and he said,“ If you want, I’ ll take your guitar home and clean it up and set it up for you.” I said,“ Okay,” and I remember getting in my car that night and thinking,“ I just gave that guy my guitar. I don’ t even know him!” But I got there the next day and he gave me my guitar and said,“ Man, that thing was disgusting!” But he cleaned it up and set it up and it played great, and that was the beginning of our relationship. I started taking all of my guitars to him, and any old or new guitars I would get, and he would set them up for me. I still think that he does the best frets in the business. He’ s incredible! He would make all of my guitars completely amazing!
We started spit-balling ideas together. He suggested a Strat style guitar, and a few others. But I suggested doing a take on a Mustang style. I thought it would be awesome. He immediately got mad at me and said,“ Those guitars suck!” I said,“ I don’ t want it to be a Mustang; I just want it to look like a Mustang.” And I had to keep saying that. He raised objections about the short scale length and the tremolo, but I kept saying that it didn’ t need to be an actual Mustang, I just wanted it to look like one. I went up there the next week and took my Mustang so he could do some measurements on it. I said,“ Nobody is doing this body style right now. I think if we made it a normal size, and made it thicker, I think it would be cool.” So we did it. He cut the first prototype, and it looked awesome. We made some tweaks, and it took a while. I would go up there when I could, and he’ s pretty busy too. But I knew that if I could get the look right, then he would make it sound amazing. He would be the first to tell you that he prays and says,“ Lord, please show me how to do this,” and then he figures it out and does it, and it turns out awesome.
Andy let me basically design the whole thing, and one day he called me with an idea for pickups and wanted me to come try them. I went up and played them, and they were amazing. He put some single coil, gold-foil style pickups in. And after that, it was done. It was just a matter of completing them and playing them to make sure they were right. It was so much fun. Single coils feel like home base for me, and playing Strats for so many years, I needed that Strat sound, but I also wanted something that would be a little beefier when it needed to be. But I wanted that bridge pickup to sound like a Strat, and it does. It’ s just a perfectly loud, crystal clear sounding guitar that looks really cool and unique. It’ s super
Then, he started building guitars, like the Peter Stroud. It’ s so cool to see him getting his name out there, and to be so well respected, because he totally deserves it. A few years after that he called me and left me a message to call him back when I had a chance. When I called him he said,“ If you like, I would love to do a signature guitar with you.” I spent about twenty minutes trying to talk him out of it. I really didn’ t think that anyone would care if I had a guitar, but he assured me that they would. He really wanted to do it, which was such an honor for me.
May 2018 WorshipMusician. com
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