The art of luthiery is equal parts art, engineering, craftsmanship… and a whole lotta dreaming.
Les Godfrey from Godfrey Guitars is one such individual who, in his own words, “dreams of guitars all day and night. I just move lines around, and I do like to have fun with the classic shapes,” and has been doing so since his first attempt to make electric basses in 1995.
An apprenticeship with Carl Thompson, Les Claypool’s go-to luthier, and later, a move out to the country were catalysts for Godfrey’s career. “The isolation allowed my obsession with building instruments to be more realized,” he says.
In fact, the Canadian luthier's latest oeuvre, the Telecasso, turns the tried-and-tested Telecaster design on its head – with a touch of Cubism, and, as the name suggests, Picasso – and is the result of thousands of drawings.
“The motivation behind the Telecasso was merely to make a crazy guitar that I want to rock the crap out of!” he says. “Make people think, what the fuck is that?! The Telecasso is very comfortable to play, and it functions on a high level, regardless of the visual differences.”
Godfrey had a few guitar players in mind when he drew up his first back-of-the-napkin sketch.
“The person I design for, or imagine the designs on first, is ’70s era Ace Frehley, as well as Albert King and several others. I also make them with new talent in mind and imagine them throwing down like a maniac with their one-of-a-kind guitar!”
Godfrey explains that the design itself took two to three months to realize, from the initial sketch to actually crafting the two prototypes.
“The Telecasso design just came from drawing lines and arcs [but] I [mainly] based the design on the classic Tele format. That long, curved line and straight line of a Telecaster pickguard... I changed many things, but the weight is similar, and the influence is very much there.
“I see what I like and what I want to stretch, or chop, warp…” he adds. “I like to repeat a primary shape and have that theme and variation carried throughout the design.” As he himself admits, “It’s a challenge. It’s a puzzle and a mind-bender.”
Specs-wise, Godfrey opted for a one-piece butternut body – with a nitro lacquer finish – for the off-kilter model, alongside “one-piece [oil-varnished] necks [with] a very thick profile, no truss rods, [and] special pickups made by MJS [Mike Smitty Smyth] Pickups, which include a hidden coil wired in series with the bridge single coil.”
There is also a push-pull tone knob for switching between series and parallel wiring – the guitar is always in hum-canceling mode, so players can go “from a thicker tone to a more twangy tone, without the hum”.
After Godfrey posted photos of his creation, the Telecasso set guitar geeks’ tongues wagging – an experience that caught Godfrey, who’s been at it for the better part of three decades, offguard.
“I was very surprised by the reactions to the design!” he confesses.
“For the most part, people seem to really like it, while there are others who have been very vocal about hating it. It’s just a guitar. As long as I like it and the customer likes it, that is all I care about. It has always been a custom thing. It’s personal and not made for mass appeal. Almost the opposite.”
Godfrey is already working on his next idea, so expect more off-kilter designs in the not-too-distant future.
“Form and function. It has to excite me,” he says. “I enjoy making many different instruments. My favorite one is usually the next one!”
For more information, head to Godfrey Guitars.
