There are good guitars and there are great guitars. Much of the time the difference is subtle; but in the details of the materials, workmanship and overall design.
Chris Swope of Swope guitars has certainly gotten building an exceptionally great guitar down to a science.
From an ergonomic standpoint this guitar balances effortlessly, seated or standing. The fretwork and feel of the beautiful and heavily Figured, Birds Eye Maple neck w/ a Rosewood board is hard to beat. The actual neck profile is an extremely comfortable medium-thick C with graceful shoulders, giving it a more substantial feel. The neck thickness is .85” at the first fret and .95” at the 12th fret.
The GTO's body is built out of 2-piece center-seam cut lightweight Swamp Ash, for resonance and consistent results each time. This is the first White Blonde GTO, to be adorned with a beautiful 1-ply tort guard with a tremendously figured Birdseye Maple neck.
Besides for this being one of the nicest looking and feeling solid body guitars we’ve come across, which is a bold statement as we’ve been fortunate enough to have played nearly everything; from the holy grail of vintage guitar collections to instruments built by the highest-end European and American Guitar builders/Luthiers. This Swope GTO Custom just sings and sounds unbelievable. Its tone certainly matches its looks and feel. Before even plugging this GTO in, the guitar just vibrates in your hands for days, as if it were alive. Just wild. It's also incredibly loud acoustically. Possibly a result of the super thin Nitro finish, as well as the very snug neck pocket.
This guitar features Swopes own top of the line, handwound GTO pickups; which are like a Lap-Steel, Tele and P-90 pickup all mashed-up together to create some of the most pleasing electric guitar tones one could hope for. They certainly lean more towards the Fullerton CA (AKA Fender) type of tonality, yet still have an aggressive attack,with just the right amount of mid-range to them, while always sounding crystalline and laser focused to the ear, with great (but never overbearing) twang and a fullness found usually only in PAF style Humbucker equipped guitars. However, if you do want a full Humbucker type sound just pull the nifty push/pull tone knob up and your two single coil pickups are now in series (wired like one large humbucker) with each other, rather than your typical parallel middle position tone. It’s all up to how you want the guitar to behave.
Specs: Body: Ash Neck: Flame Maple Fingerboard: Rosewood Radius: 9.5” Nut Width: 1.656" Neck Dimensions: .85"-.95" 1st & 12th Fret Neck Profile: Medium-thick C Finish Blonde Nitro Lacquer Descendant Vibrato Staytrem Bridge (9.5” radius) 25 1/2" Scale Bone Nut Push/Pull Tone Pot (Series/Parallel) Swope "Knock Around" Relic Finish (This is Swopes version of a light relic finish with slight checking and light wear on the body)
Specs: Body: Ash
Neck: Heavily Figure Birdseye Maple
Fingerboard: Rosewood
Radius: 9.5”
Nut Width: 1.656"
Neck Dimensions: 0.85"-0.95" 1st & 12th Fret
Neck Profile: Medium-thick C
Finish: Blonde Nitro Lacquer
Fingerboard Radius: 9.5”
Scale Length: 25 1/2"
Nut width: 1.656" or 1 & 21/32"
Push/Pull Tone Pot (Series/Parallel)
Swope "Knock Around" Finish (light relic, intentional finish checking on the body, matte Nitro neck finish, gloss Nitro on the headstock.
HSC: Included
Weight: 7lbs on the dot.
Call, write or come see us in person; to try this one out, ask for more specs. Or to make an offer.
