Logan Custom Guitars Club

Woodworking has never been a hobby of mine, so my experience with species of wood is largely about guitars. That said, it seems that swamp ash bodies are quite consistently distinctive for their figuring, and well, for being lighter in weight, generally speaking.

My swamp ash Logan tele is my BSB. The guitar weighs just a fraction under 7 lbs. And the wood grains are beautiful, to me, at least...

 

A week or so ago, I commented here about my plans to start a series of demo vids of my seven Logan Custom guitars. My wife took some video footage, but it wasn't usable. It took us about a week to make time in the evening to try again, and we did so tonight. One of the attempts was interrupted by Bella, our Beagle, but another try worked out better (although Bella hopped up on the couch beside me towards the end).

I put my wife to bed after that, and so I just now tried to upload my video from my phone to my YT channel, but for some reason it's not showing up. User error, no doubt. If I can't get it figured out before long, I'll wait for Beth's help in the morning.

 

Okay, I haven't checked on the status of that YouTube upload I tried last night, because today has my mind elsewhere. On this day 22 years ago, our oldest granddaughter was born. I've already texted her and messaged her on Facebook to talk with her and wish her a happy birthday.

But coincidentally, another significant event took place on this date ten years ago. Today marks the 10th anniversary of our house fire. I'm not going to post pictures this time. I've shared this before in this thread. In 2018, I shared a lot of pictures in a succession of posts. I'll retell the basic story here, but if you want to see all the pics, go back to page #333 of this thread.

On May 6, 2010, we had a house fire. I had cooked on the grill outside the night before, and unbeknownst to us, an ember had escaped the grill and smoldered through the night among the leaves and catkins from our pecan tree in the back yard. (See second pic below.)

In the wee hours of the morning, there was enough of a fire to ignite the decorative bamboo on the hurricane fence. The fire followed that fence to the back porch, where it melted down a couple of large Rubbermaid containers and a large dog kennel. All that melted plastic then acted as an accelerant and set the porch on fire.

The glass window in the back door broke in the heat, and that woke Beth up. At first, she thought our cat Bagheera had knocked something off the counter and broken it, but when she checked on it, she saw the fire. She yelled at me, and I placed the 9-1-1 call at 4:55 am.

The CCFD was very prompt, but before they could cut the gas to the house, the flames in the attic burned through the gas lines leading to the heater unit in the attic, and there was an explosion, with a column of fire leaping out of our roof and into the pecan tree out back. The firemen were able to contain it all, though, and apart from a bit of melted siding on a neighbor’s house, no one else’s property was affected by the fire.

Though it didn’t look like it at first from the street, the roof was a total loss and had to come down. And there was damage to the kitchen and some other rooms. But we came through the fire okay; even our pets at the time survived it. We were able to rebuild, with the help of so many friends I won’t try to mention them all, for fear of inadvertently leaving someone out. You know who you are, and please know that we’re grateful.

And so we have a rebuilt/remodeled home. The last two pics below are of the remodeled home after the fire. One thing that didn’t survive was that BBQ grill. It was damaged in the fire but could have been saved. However, Beth wanted it gone. In fact, I am no longer allowed to BBQ…unless at some point in the future Beth gets it in her mind that she wants to remodel.

 

And as I've also pointed out before, out of the fire came two of my guitars. They're my avatar pic, my "Firecasters." (See what I did there?)


In the rebuilding process, I salvaged a lot of the lumber from our house fire to repurpose into the build (our new attic floor), but also sent some to Bob, and these two guitars are the result.

On the left, my 2012 Firecaster I was made from the Douglas Fir joists (back/body core) and Longleaf Pine planks (top veneer) from the walls. (The house was built in 1935-36, shiplap construction, using LLP planks for the exterior and interior walls.) The pickups are Bill Lawrence's Keystones, with Lawrence's 5-way wiring scheme, and Bob's stainless steel bridge plate.

On the right, my 2019 Firecaster II was made from the Longleaf Pine planks for top & back veneers, with a basswood core stained walnut to contrast from the amber-like hue of the natural pine top & back. It has DiMarzio Twang King pickups, with a 4-way switch, and Bob's stainless steel straight alignment bridge plate.

 

Well, a couple of weeks ago I talked about my plans to start a series of demo vids of my seven Logan Custom guitars. It took several tries to get usable video. The first couple of attempts I talked too much (big surprise, right?). Then we got something I thought was usable, but unbeknownst to me, our dog hopped up on the couch beside me a started licking herself in her nether regions! So needless to say, we didn't use that footage.

About a week later, we tried again, and it took only a couple of takes and we got something usable. But then I tried to upload it, and did something wrong. After that, we were distracted by a granddaughter's birthday, our 10th anniversary of our house fire (see the two previous posts), etc. So tonight, with Beth's help, I got it figured out. And so now I'm debuting the video here.

Demo Video #1 of my seven Logan Custom guitars features my Logan Custom Challenger. Read the description for the specs on the guitar, the settings, etc.

Oh, and BTW, that ballcap I'm wearing was a last minute choice. I had thought all along that I would wear one of my Logan Custom T-shirts for the filming of this video footage. But as I was sitting down on the living room couch to shoot this, I realized I was wearing a different tee. Rather than change shirts, I just crossed the living room and grabbed my Logan Custom Guitars ballcap.

 

Thanks. I'm on a camping trip right now, so I probably won't do another demo vid until I get back home.

That said, I do have one of my Logan Customs with me on this trip: my Logan tele acoustic/electric. Since it's the size/dimensions of a tele, it's easy to take on the road when space is an issue. And since I'm just playing by a campfire or under the awning of our camper, it's plenty loud enough.

 

We’re on our return trip home, and camped for the night in an RV park in the Florida panhandle. Unlike our previous campsite in a state park in South Carolina (we drove through 4 states today), this one has a good WiFi connection.

GratefulFred, what are the specs on that tele? Pickups? Switching? ???

 

@GratefulFred I have a follow up question. I can't tell for sure, but is that a forearm contour cut I see on the lower bout?

Oh, BTW, I am home again, after a 12 day RV camping trip taking us through 7 states. And this coming Saturday, I actually have a gig, my first since mid-March. My plan as of now is to gig with my Firecaster II (on the right in the avatar pic) and my Logan Custom tele acoustic/electric.

 

In anticipation of tonight's gig, I'm about to put a fresh set of strings (D'Addario EXP26 Coated Phosphor Bronze Custom Light gauge, .011-.052) on my Logan Custom tele acoustic/electric. That will be guitar for the acoustic side of things tonight. For electric, it will be my Firecaster II. I had previously mentioned that it was my plan to go with these guitars, and I'm sticking with that plan.

The amp for acoustic/electric stuff (as well as for vocals) will be my Fishman Loudbox Mini Charge. For the tele I'll use one of my Vox Pathfinder 15Rs. The gig is at a marina in a nearby coastal town, and I'll be setting up on a stage at one end of a large patio area. Since I have to project my sound to cover that area as well as reach some dockside tables, I will line out from both amps to the two channels on my Alto TS310 powered speaker as a PA, and the amps will serve as monitors for me, as well as covering right up in front of the stage. Here are pics of my gear...

 

Yay! Nice! If my memory serves, that is Bob's "hunter" green. Also, IIRC (If I Recall Correctly), you went with DiMarzio Twang King pickups. I have those in two of my Logan teles: my BSB and my Firecaster II.

Bob turned me onto the Twang Kings, and now they're my favorite pickups. They absolutely can twang. I used my Firecaster II at my gig Saturday night, and one of the songs I played on that tele was Alan Jackson's "Chattahoochee." For the intro, bridge and outro, I slap the selector back to the bridge pickup and twang away on that signature riff. And that Twang King bridge pup just nails that tone.

I also played Buddy Miller's "Shelter Me." (On this song, I like the original, but like Tab Benoit's swampy bayou blues cover even better.) For this song, I flip the selector up to the neck pickup for strumming the rhythm and singing the verses over. Then, when, I do an instrumental break, I flip the switch up to its 4th position for both pickups in series. (I have a 4-way switch on each of those teles with the Twang Kings. My favorite switch with my favorite pickups.) That both in series wiring configuration gives the pickups more girth and more output. It's like having a boost at your fingertips.

All of that to say that there's a lot of versatility to the Twang Kings, and I'll bet you're gonna love 'em.

Oh, and as for the tele acoustic/electric, yeah, Bob made those for a while, but they didn't sell particularly well for him, so he's discontinued them. Pity, it's a great guitar. I gigged with that Saturday night as well. In fact, when it comes to acoustic/electric, I rarely use anything else. I'm spoiled to the playability and the tone. Bob set it up for 11s, and it's just a dream to play. It also is fun to play unplugged. Because of the small tele-sized body, unplugged it has a sort of midrange honk like a parlor guitar.

Okay, enough about me and my gig and my Logan guitars. Looking forward to more pics and your thoughts after you have her in hand.