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Travis Bean makes the scene
It’s kind of like seeing a unicorn. There were a mere 755 of these produced during the company’s relatively short existence during the 1970s. This one is a beauty! From Wikipedia: Clifford Travis Bean (21 August 1947 – 10 July 2011, aged 63) was an American luthier and machinist from California. In 1974, he partnered with Marc McElwee and Gary Kramer to start Travis Bean Guitars, which made high-end electric guitars and basses featuring machined aluminum necks. The aluminum center section ran through the instrument body, with the pickups directly mounted to the aluminum. The majority of these instruments featured solid Koa wood bodies and Humbucker pickups. Though praised for their…
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Curt Mangan Fusion Matched Strings
Brooklyn Fretworks is now an authorized dealer for Curt Mangan Strings! These fine strings are made by artisans in Colorado. The have over one zillion varieties (possible exaggeration on my part) and surely a set to fit what you’re playing, and how you like to play it. Check them out on the web at Curt Mangan Strings.
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Ibanez “Black Beauty” modification
Yes, we can! My client first tried to take this job to a couple well-known guitar stores that offer repair services. He was met with refusals each time, because those stores didn’t want to do the routing work necessary to complete this project. We routed and added a middle Seymour Duncan pickup, operated through a push-push switch on the volume pot. We also installed a Fishman Powerbridge TOM Piezo pickup along with a Powerchip on-board pre-amp. The stereo output jack allows the player to split the piezo and magnetic pickup signals to feed into separate amplifiers. The addition of a mini 3-way switch allows all of the pickups to be…
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Pre-lawsuit era Ibanez Crest gets a mod
Here is the first of two 1970s-era Ibanez guitars we are working on. This walnut beauty is in to have a Varitone switch added along with a new set of strings and a general inspection. Hard to believe this guitar is over 50 years old.
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Tobacco Brunette, SN: 2021:006
I built this guitar in 2020/21 while living in Austin. It’s the “sister” guitar to one I built that was sold at auction to benefit Austin’s Paramount Theatre for the Performing Arts. I kept this one around for a while, and had a few trusted players put it through the paces. Based upon their feedback, I made a few adjustments to the neck, which resulted in a more comfortable player experience (which is what we all strive for, correct?) It is now being offered for sale by the good folks at Ryan Fowler’s Guitar Experience in Baltimore. Specs: 25.5″ scale length 21 frets Maple & Walnut body Maple & Walnut…
Brooklyn Fretworks
Baltimore guitar design, repair and modification
