smitty model 2 Fmt

Eric ‘Smitty’ Smid, based just outside Amsterdam, is happy to build you his own versions of the classics, but this Model 2 is typical of his more creative side. He might refer to this design as his ‘Tele’, but here it shows much broader influences with a beautifully subtly flamed maple cap over a chambered (ES-335-like) one-piece American walnut back in an outline that blends a sort-of Tele’s top half with a rounded horn, and a reversed offset base.

It retains a Tele’s uncontoured flat-top style, that maple top in a fine classic sunburst,but the top edge is actually maple bound while the sides and back are a clear gloss that shows off the striped chocolate figure of the walnut. And thanks to that chambering, it’s a great weight, too, at 3.46kg (7.6lb).

As an experienced player, Eric knows how a good neck should feel: this is a perfect example with a slightly asymmetric ‘C’ profile, 42.9mm at the nut, 21.5mm deep at the 1st fret and 23.5mm at the 12th. It has a very vintage-y Fender-like feel finished naked with oil and wax, as well as heavily rounded rosewood fingerboard edges and 6105-style medium jumbo frets, which on the 305mm (12-inch) camber, produces a very clean player.

Its acoustic response is superb, snappy with a beautifully fast developing sustain and resonance that’s perfectly captured by Eric’s own pickups, a Spicebucker at the bridge and Cool P-90 at the neck. The shape might be unique but the feel is very familiar, like an old friend you’ve known for years – and that’s pretty much how it sounds, too. From the split bridge humbucker’s thin but smooth-nosed bite through to the very big, clear but chewy P-90 and a full bridge humbucker that seems happy with genres ranging from early Brit-invasion rock to pop and blues, it also takes off with more gain for a dynamic, huge rock voice that’s rounded, thick and juicy. When a build style and components combine like this, it’s one very potent dish. Superb stuff!

5. Like the guitar itself, there’s nothing fancy going on with the controls, just tidily wired high-quality components: Emerson Pro 500k pots, .022 microfarads tone caps and vintage-style wiring. If a control circuit can ‘feel’ good and familiar, this certainly does 3 3. Eric’s take on the Fender headstock is familiar yet distinctive. The quartersawn flamed maple neck is finished in a “mix of oil and wax, then I steel-wool it back and polish it”, says Eric. Note the beautifully cut Graph Tech Tusq nut and non-vintage truss rod access point

1. Smitty says its Spicebucker offers “a moderate output and mismatched coils for great definition and dynamics. All the classic tones you’d expect from a late-50s humbucker.” It has a measured DCR of 8.3kohms and in split mode, 4.36k, voicing the slug coil

4 4. Using an Alnico V magnet with plain enamel wire, this Smitty Cool P-90style soapbar single coil has a measured DCR of 7.27k ohms

2 2. This model could easily have a glued-in neck but here it’s a bolt-on with Eric Smid’s distinct ‘S’ cut-out heel plate on a subtly contoured heel. While the finish is very thin gloss nitrocellulose, Eric will happily add some ageing for you

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