Ed King – “Limited Signature Series Guitar” @ The Newport Guitar Festival
reprinted from http://melodyguitars.us/wp/?p=104 Melody Guitars
The Ed King Limited Signature Series guitar has unknowingly been a work in progress for many years. Starting with a guitar Jeff Binion made while working at Rose Guitars in 1994, Ed purchased the guitar and has used his many years of playing experience to modify it to fit his unique sound and playing style.
A cornerstone of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s high powered and ground breaking sound, Ed’s guitar playing is featured extensively on Lynyrd Skynyrd’s blockbuster hits including Workin’ for MCA, Swamp Music, Call Me The Breeze, Whiskey Rock-A-Roller, Saturday Night Special and, of course, the classic hit Sweet Home Alabama. Mostly recording with a Stratocaster®, by his own admission, he never found one he was comfortable with. That’s what makes Ol’ Red ( as he calls his favorite guitar ) so unique. By modifying the guitar to his preferences…he created a very unique guitar he could finally be comforatble with. With a Stratocaster® style body, sporting an original 1953 Telecaster® neck and custom wiring, this is a one of a kind instrument. We’ve diligently worked hand in hand with Ed to create an original ‘Replica’ of his Ol’ Red. In Ed’s own words-”Ol’ Red is my favorite guitar and I’m real glad I got her. When I play a gig, I only take Ol’ Red”.
Every Ol’ Red replica is built for you by Jeff Binion himself—with every guitar certified and authorized by Ed King.”
We worked diligently to capture all the aspects of the original guitar to create this collectible series guitar. The only thing you will find different from the original Ol’ Red is the headstock shape. Though the neck profile and fingerboard radius are to the exact specs of the original 1953 neck, we slightly changed the headstock shape to avoid any issues with previously filed ’Patents’. Ed approved the change and said he actually liked the new look better. Which we consider a compliment to our design efforts.
One of the special features of this model is the “Blend” capability. Ed’s original Ol’ Red has a special wiring schematic that includes a blend feature. 1 Volume control, 1 Tone control (that functions on all three pickups). What would normally be the tone control for the middle pickup is converted to a “Blend” control. Allowing the option to blend the bridge pickup with the neck pickup.
Quote from Ed:
“The ONLY way to get the Fender-Jaguar or pseudo-Gretsch tone is to blend the neck & bridge pickup…the ONE combo you can’t get on any Stratocaster except Ol’ Red.”
Ed King “Limited Signature Series” specifications:
- Lightweight Swamp Ash Body frofiled from the 60’s era
- One piece Maple neck with Walnut skunk stripe
- Vintage 50’s C shape neck profile (very comfortable)
- 7.25″ radiused fingerboard
- 25.5″ Scale length
- Beautiful translucent Red nitrocellulose finish on the body (Optional colors available)
- Nitrocellulose finished neck
- 6230 Dunlop fretwire cut down to a lower profile
- Original Fender® Vintage style 6 screw tremolo bridge system
- Original Fender® tortiose shell pickguard
- Custom Shop Seymour Duncan pickups or Vintage Style Handwound Van Zandt pickups
- Custom wiring with 1 Volume / 1 Tone / 1 Blend
- Kluson tuners
- Bone nut
- All vintage cloth wiring / 250K potentiometers
- Totally shielded and grounded wiring cavities to eliminate hum so common with single coil configurations
With these specifications, the ending result is a Beautiful, Powerful and Unique guitar parallel to Ed King’s incomparable playing style. We couldn’t be more proud of the opportunity and privilege to work with Ed to reproduce this wonderful instrument created by one of the Worlds Greatest and most Innovative players.
Thank you ED !