The spirit

As we’ve always thought that the exercise of explaining our work or the philosophy behind what we’re doing could be a somewhat frustrating experience, so the sentence here is what seems to be just the right words for us.

The machine is not master & tyrant, but willing servant and helper, and the products do not take their physiognomy from mechanical technology but from the spirit of their artistic originator and from the dexterity of artistically skilled hands. It is better to work ten days on an article than producing ten articles a day, this is the ruling principal. Style as identity.

- Joseph August Lux -

Construction

All our necks are quarter-sawn cut, for the maple ones we use European maple, mostly used in violins & other quatuor instruments making. Lighter in weight, whitish in color it as some gorgeous flame appeal and deliver a more open airy sound than his north American counterpart .

They also feature our trademark asymmetrical shape (round on the bass side, a lil’ flatter on the treble side ), super rounded frets & fretboard edges for a cool  » fits like a glove » feel.

We also do our custom fret job, that we start with a regular jumbo wire to the 12th fret & then going on with smaller ones toward the end of the fret board. This help push-pulls when the space between the frets are becoming to narrow.

We’ve also developed our own single bar, double action with spoke wheel truss rods which are machined by a custom race car parts workshop. We call it « the carbon flex » influenced by Steve Klein’s truss rod design, it consist of a multi layered wood/carbon heart for a larger push or pull than normal truss rods.

This prevent necks from twisting & other problems related to standard designs, it also makes the neck curb evenly through all his length, flanked with 2 carbon bars running from the 9th fret to the end of the fretboard, this helps getting rid of this fretboard end bump that gives us a hell with low action settings .

Our neck joints are tight as possible & hand adjusted.

We are doing our own little magic trick to give our bolt on necks the same sustain as their glue-on sisters, this is our trade secret & would not be explained!

 Our wood choice for the bodies are :

- red alder

- spanish cedar

- lightweight swamp ash

- Honduran mahogany

- African Limba

Finishing wise we are trying to keep the layers as thin as possible to let the wood sounds and express itself to the max!

Hardware

Concerning the hardware we choose :

GOTOH 510 vintage H.A.P tuners , or « Stealth » (as on our « Pheaton »)

GLENDALE « half plate » bridge with intone « cutting edge » compensated saddles

COMPTON compensated bridge ( as on our « Phaeton »)

CTS pots which are selected with the best tapper, customized for smoother action & polished for a classier appearance

Russian N.O.S capacitors

Electro socket output

 

We would also make custom hardware parts as our own designed « BUCKET » bridge , pot buttons, control plates or decorative jewel as on our « El Mirage ».

For our pickups we are now enjoying a collaboration with Mr Dave Stephens of SD pickups.

After nine long years of research we think he reached the peak of what could be to our ears the most touch sensitive & best sounding humbucker known to mankind.

He also make us his own incarnation of our «chicken strut» neck pickup in which he also put his little magic to bring it to a new level of sophistication.

Our custom SD pickups comes with our trademark « front grill » custom made nickel covers.

We always stay open for new project, special features, or crazy ideas in order to make creative and beautiful tone machines.

As we say « play a masterpiece, wear an attitude »

 

Serge & John