The Luddite Guitar – the original
This guitar model represents a return to simplicity, back to a time when pushing the envelope was less important to successful marketing than structural integrity and long-lasting functionality.
Over the years I have watched the metamorphosis of the electric guitar as it passed through a series of stages: the Floyd Rose Vibrato, the single HOT bridge pickup, the cut-away, the double cut-away, 18 frets, 24 frets, self-sustaining pickups, neck joints at the 14th fret, neck joints at the 16th fret, and on some neck-through models the joint occurs even higher up the neck. While each of these innovations can be new and exciting, they often rob the instrument of its tonality, functionality and longevity.
The original Luddite is a modern manifestation of the 1920s parlour guitar. It has a single neck pickup, a tunamatic-style bridge with a short trapeze tailpiece and the neck joins the body at the 12th fret. The slotted headstock provides the strings a greater break angle over the nut. This imparts more energy from the vibrating string into the neck. Don’t let the simplicity of this guitar fool you, there are rich tonal complexities lurking within.
The Luddite Series
As per the tradition of many Specimen instruments, variations on a premise are inevitable. So according to the basic tenants of the original Luddite model pictured here, some variations have followed:
– Halfling Luddite meets one person’s idiosyncratic need (and maybe others)
– Super Luddite brings a level of luxuriance to the Luddite line
– Ultra Luddite sports a Floyd Rose locking vibrato system (a first for Specimen!)
All of these instruments have tonally superior non-adjustable steel or carbon fiber neck reinforcements instead of nasty, noisy, fickle and unstable, potentially short lived, adjustable truss rods. All join the body at the twelfth fret and have no cutaways. All have slotted headstocks.
I love fleshing out a model to meet various needs and with the Luddite’s sublime silhouette and simplicity, the manifestations are endless.
Specs
• 25″ scale length
• Single soap bar P90 pickup
• Bolt-on mahogany neck
• Ebony fretboard
• Tunamatic bridge
• Trapeze tailpiece
• Cherry nitro-cellulose finish
