Tony Edwards Guitars - The Standard

Frequent visitors to the Hall may have bumped into Tony as he spends quite a bit of time here and many of the final touches on our restored and recreated guitars are provided by him and his phenomenal skill. He is both a luthier and professional player, therefore builds guitars for endurance, for a purpose, and perhaps most importantly, produces his own pick-ups to give his guitars the precise character and soul that the buyer has in mind. He makes to order for that very reason as he can tweak all the important factors to deliver the precision. He is also one of the world's nicest guys - not always the case in this industry!

Tony builds guitars for himself, he builds to test an idea, and he uses them all to properly road-test them before offering styles and technical ideas to customers. We have 2 recent prototypes that are taking up space in his studio, and are too good not to be offered for sale.

The body and neck material is Honduran Mahogany, and the top is AAA flame Maple, just enough red in the nitrocellulose to keep that lovely maple visible. The fretboard is Ebony, fretted to perfection with jumbo frets. A Bi-flex truss rod installed to keep everything correct and maintainable. The neck profile is based upon a typical 1959 profile - I know they vary, and this is based on his 1959. The nut is bone, tuners, saddle and stop are Gotoh - always great dependable future-proof quality.

So it looks great, there are a few signs of life from its extensive road testing - a couple of marks on the top which you can see in the detailed pictures. Some of the finishing is prototype-standard, not necessarily as perfect as a guitar you order directly from him.

The magic of this guitar is the sound it will let you make. The bridge pick-up has Alnico IV magnets, and overwound as a modern PAF - unpotted with a chrome cover. The neck pick-up has Alnico III magnets, and wound to emulate a 1957 standard PAF, also unpotted with chrome cover. The bridge pick-up is governed with vintage taper CTS potentiometers for volume and tone by the upper 2 knobs, the neck pick-up governed in the same fashion by the lower 2 knobs. The video has a good explanation about why Tony designs a pick-up for a guitar - specifically for this Standard.

Despite that substantial looking 5cm thick body, this guitar tips the scales at 3.9kg (8lbs 11oz) and plays sublimely sitting or standing.

The guitar is accompanied by a Certificate of Authenticity, and supplied with a good quality case.

If purchased together with the Junior, we will offer the pair at £3,975.

Read about the Junior: Tony Edwards Guitars - The Junior