DESCRIPTION:
http://www.carltonguitars.com.au
https://reverb.com/marketplace?query=carlton+custom+guitars+esquire+recyclecaster&_aid=kingman


Ray Carlton built this guitar out of bits and pieces lying around in his workshop. I'm the lucky buyer and 'lucky' is indeed the word as this plank is ALIVE. We think the body is made of pine, which is apt considering some of the first Esquire's were also made of pine. The body is routed for the rhythm pickup but there's no way I'm going to 2-pickup Tele configuration having tried this one pickup with its 3-way switch options. This is how it will stay.

The guitar originally came to me with a pickguard that was fashioned out of an old Elton John record, "Blue Moves". With all due respect to Elton John, the look was making me feel ill so I swapped it for the mint Esquire guard you see here.

The pickup is a very affordable Tone Rider Broadcaster pickup, possibly A3. However, coupled with the switching combination, body and neck construction (super tight and solid) it's a formidable sound and one which I'm loathe to muck about with.

The maple neck is a slim 60's 'C' profile with a decent slab of rosewood, about a 9.5 - 10" radius, and some extremely well levelled and polished medium-jumbo frets. This makes it comfortable, fast and with the ability to bend notes and not choke out.

Axe FX users: The amp I used for this demo is a HIWATT DR100 and matching cab based on one of Yek's forum presets. The clean sound is with the volumes at reasonable levels and the dirty sound is with the volumes pretty much maxed out and the inputs jumped. I also introduce a 3-knob Tube Driver (gain down, level up), some simple pedal compression (think: Ross) and some stereo tape delay later on in the video. If you would like to try the preset you can download it from http://axechange.fractalaudio.com/detail.php?preset=4344.

The guitar is a one-of. However, I'm almost certain that Ray could be coaxed into sourcing similar parts and piecing a few more together if the interest (read: orders) are there.

Rock on.