JAY BLANCHARD'S WATER TANK CUSTOM

Jay Blanchard's guitar: western red cedar body that began its vocational life as a stave in a locomotive water tank on the trans-American railroad, circa late-1860s. In 1902, made redundant by a change in locomotive efficiency, it was torn down and recoopered into a pickle vat stave at a Fort Collins, CO pickle operation. In 1992, it was torn down again and sat dormant, air drying in the Rocky Mountains, until 2013 when it found itself assembled into this guitar. 

24-3/4" scale, mahogany / rosewood neck, Lollar Low-Wind Imperial neck pickup, Lollar '52 Bridge pickup, celluloid tortoise pickguard, cupcake knobs, push/push phase reversal switch. I've made a lot of guitars from this batch of salvaged red cedar, but this is the last one. It's all gone. Farewell pickled cedar - it's been a pleasure, even as I hacked and wheezed on your dust.