The Personal Touch

Having a guitar built for you from scratch, to your own exact preferences, is a pleasure everyone should experience at least once. Of course, the various Custom Shops of the big makers offer this service – and their works must be regarded as definitive when it comes to the classic solidbody electric designs. nonetheless, as i discovered, working closely with an independent luthier adds a personal dimension to the process that’s rewarding, hopefully, for both maker and buyer. So it proved to be when i met Michael Couling, the maker behind California artist guitars, which are played by the likes of Snarky Puppy’s Mark lettieri and blues-rock firebrands Dan Patlanski and innes Sibun. intrigued by Michael’s evident passion for building guitars closely tailored to the needs of gigging players, i took the plunge and commissioned Michael to build me a Strat-inspired ‘artist-S’ solidbody that sounded a little darker than the Fender Strats i own – a mellower take on a classic sound. Michael’s creation, its body crafted from a single piece of swamp ash and powered by custom-wound Joce Dominger pickups, is exactly what i hoped it would be: not a Strat copy but a fatsounding alternate take on that style of guitar that exudes handmade integrity. and having it built just for me means there’s a special emotional connection, too.