Liquid Metal Guitars / M1 Tv Jones Special / 2013 / Guitar
The beautiful beast, growling power from a set of TV Jones LMG powertrons. Tom used a thicker, higher pole piece to take advantage of the sustaining qualities of our metal.
A solid block of aluminum alloy is machined to our proprietary thickness. This is the thickness that we found in our researching and prototyping to have the best qualities for sound. The guitar is hollowed out, but plays, as it is intended, as a solid body guitar.
The chromed body is 17 " long from the tip of the top horn to the back, 13 1/2 " at the widest body point, with a 7 3/4" waist.
The guitar weighs 9.75 lbs.
Neck - Ebony fingerboard with 22 frets and 25 1/2" scale, 1.71" wide @ nut, 2.22" wide @ 22nd fret.
Graphite nut which incorporates Teflon and match the grooves to each guitar's intonation. This makes the guitar exceptionable playable.
Angles - the neck pocket is machined into the body at a 2 degree angle, this allows for exceptional intonation. As well, we use a tilt back head stock that provides for much better downward pressure in the strings. This gets you better fretting and provide crisper notes.
A diamond ground fingerboard is accurate to within one thousandth of an inch for super low string action.
Hard alloy precision medium jumbo frets are .103 wide and .048 tall.
The neck is a wonderful balance between thickness and speed, we use a radius that is on our opinon the best for feel and for functionality.
The neck is painted black, with three coats of black paint then seven thin coats of clear, that is wet sanded and buffed after each coat.
Tuners Gotoh's six in line mini - tuners, are beautiful to look at and a dream to use, with an 18:1 ratio. The tuners have unique permanent Lubri-Plate™ coating on the gears assures consistent lubrication without grease, for smoother tuning. Gotoh's new Rock-Solid™ string posts eliminate looseness for better tuning stability, they stay in tune.
Liquid Metal Guitars, Canada
Welcome to Liquid Metal Guitars here on VintageandRare.com
LMG builds a line of metal bodied electric guitars with a proprietary precision machining process that takes advantage of the exceptional tonal qualities of dense block of aluminum. Each product linehas a custom pick up set made exclusively for that guitar by some of the best boutique pickup men in the business.
We know we are a bit on the outside, using aluminum for our guitar’s bodies, but we now know that we can and do build something that is exceptional to play, has fantastic tone and really a rather cool look about it.
Without fail, all who pick up our guitars are taken aback at how good it feels. They comment on the setup, the playability, the weight, the balance, the neck, the fret dressing and that is before it’s even plugged in and put into its natural “amplified” state.
The fellow’s whose work you will feel first is Paul.
He is responsible for the pro standard that each guitar achieves before it leaves our shop. Paul was the first guy on board and since that day has been instrumental in keeping us at an exceptionally high level of quality.
He is, certainly in our area, the best guitar man in the business. Guitar folk know the no-compromise consistent quality of his work.
Paul played with Bryan Adams, had a hit record with Strange Advance, worked with Jean Larrivee and then set up his own guitar tech shop here in Vancouver. He has done work for Dave Gilmour, The Edge, Sarah McLachan folks of that ilk.
He takes so much time on the set up of our guitars. They leave with a master’s hand and eye having made them imminently playable. The intonation is perfect, the finish perfect, the height of each pick up and their poles, with their unique tonal qualities, perfect and the result…. well it’s perfect.
Bernie was the second on board. After a working with a bunch of cowboys that really didn’t get what I was after I found Bernie through a guitar forum and lo and behold he was right here in Vancouver. Bernie is the man running the big metal cutting CNC machines, that take 30 lbs of aircraft aluminum and shapes it into our 3.5lb guitar body.
He is great guitar player in his own right, fronting a local band here. He has encyclopaedic knowledge of guitars and keen eye for their traditional detail. He is a third generation machinist, so he knows what is possible in the shop and then some. It’s his players’s knowledge of what is essential in a great guitar and his skill in machining that allows us to make a guitar body that not only looks great but is familiar in shape and weight. His work creates an exceptional platform for our boutique custom pickups makers.
The way we make our bodies is quite unique, we’re the only ones I know of doing it our way. We have defined a thickness that enhances the guitar’s tone and sustain. The body and sides are from the same block of metal, this gives the body superb strength, no wah, no bend in the metal. This allows for tremendous string energy retention.
And as a bonus, because we didn’t realize this when we started out, ( our first few prototypes didn’t accomplish this ) the way we build them now, it completely shields the pickups, allowing their tone to be pure and strong, no hum, no extraneous noise, not even from the single coils.
And Bernie, he is another “no prisoners”, as he likes to say, type of guy.
Fritz the man in the middle, is the fellow who sands, masks, buffs, levels, assembles each guitar. He is great guitar builder in his own right, building only custom guitars.
He is consistent and accurate. Our painting, clear-coat and finishing, is so important. The lines have to be perfect and straight, the neck transition sanding must create an absolutely seamless feel, nothing to catch on your hand and the clear coat so so smooth, that when you run your hands along it just feels good.
It takes time and skill to make a great guitar. Just the masking of the neck alone can take hours and in our process of painting and sanding and buffing he does this three times. Spending time like this, it one of those things that we can’t not do.
And then there is me. I love what I do here, it is a remarkable thing, making guitars.
I am very particular, bit pushy, I will redo it ten times to get it right. I know what I like and what I am trying to achieve or as Paul says ” you certainly know what you don’t like!”
For me now, with this group of craftsmen, it is akin to making music with a group of great session musicians. They each know they are doing, they bring a level of skill and attention to detail that raises everyone’s game.
It is not competitive per se, but it is that we know each is going to nail it, so had better give it our best. And like a group making music with that skill, that high artistic level, the end result is far greater than the sum of the parts.
We don’t build a lot of guitars but the ones we do, are exceptional.