Big River*Explorer*Gray Clouds Nitro Relic*Tone Specific Bloombuckers*G&L PTB*
 
The Big River “Shardbearer”
7lbs.
 
Up for sale is a brand new Big River guitar, The Shardbearer! This new design was inspired by Luthier Ben Wasser’s “Shaft”, which you could say is in the Explorer family. Regardless, this is one of our most badass builds to date! And we wanted to give a shout out and huge thank you to Scott over at Sand Hill Customs for his absolutely insane skills when it comes bringing a design into reality. Not only was he able to nail the rendering of this unique design, he then meticulously cut this bad boy out of choice cuts of alder and poplar. Now the wings on this design are Alder while Poplar joins the two in the middle! You can check out Scott’s Reverb Store HERE. 
 
 
So the ”Shardbearer” consists of Alder and Poplar which I prepped by sanding, pore filling, leveling and the finally sealing. I then mixed up this killer custom “Gray Clouds“ Nitro and layed down ten coats. Then I hung the body to let it do its thing, and when it was ready I wetsanded, aged, buffed, and gave it some really cool checking all over. The bridge is a TonePros II TOM/Tail with locking studs.
 
The neck is Warmoth modern neck, made from mahogany with a rosewood fretboard and a tiltback headstock that I sprayed with the Gray Clouds Nitro to match the body. The back is a standard thin profile with a 10-16” compound radius. The nut is 1 11/16 Graphtec while the Gotoh locking tuners are as solid as it gets.
 
**All of the hardware was aged here in our shop**
 
The electronics were made for these pickups and this build! I started by building a copy of a G&L PTB harness. PTB (Passive Treble & Bass) essesntially gives you a master volume with an onboard EQ for treble and bass, replacing standard tone pots. I have found that their PTB gives you an absolutely usable wiring set up that is particularly fun for those of you/us who rarely use their tone pots. I used a Switchcraft 3way switch, 500k CTS pots, a .022 Mallory Mustard Cap for the Treble, a .001 Cinnamon Drop cap for the Bass, a John Suhr Treble Bleed, A kill switch, a Puretone 4Prong input jack, and Gavitt Cloth Pushback wire throughout.
 
The pickups are where this guitar gets Really fun! I had several different PAF sets in mind, and finally decided to go with a set of Tone Specific “Bloombuckers”, one of their incredible PAF sets. Here is what they had to say…
“If you played a few humbucker equipped guitars from the 1950s, then you probably know what “Bloom” is all about.  If you have never experienced it, then you are really missing out.  Many people describe Bloom in different ways and others are at a loss for words when hearing and feeling it.  To our ears there is softness to the attack of each note followed a very interesting and complex harmonic content to the tone.  Then just as the note should fade away, it continues to sing and sustain its sweet voice. 
Unlike our other P.A.F. designs, these pickups are not formulated with a certain style of music in mind.  The goal is to make the much sought-after vintage P.A.F. “Bloom” available to everyone.  This was a lofty goal and the design process has taken us years to master. 
 
Our painstaking design and testing process has yielded pickups that that sound great with tube amps, pedals, solid state amps, digital devices and even software. 
Tonal Details:
Bridge is Punchy, Clear, Warm & Dynamic – Just like an old P.A.F.
Neck is Nice & Wide Open w/ plenty of warmth without any mud.
Soft Touch, Big Round Top End, Punchy Mids & Perfectly Dialed in Lows.
They Work equally well with Solid, Semi-Hollow or Hollow-Body Guitars.”
These pickups have this magical sound and feeling to them and have easily become one of our favorite sets of Humbuckers out there.
 
***Check out the demo of these Bloombuckers down below***
 
Anyway this guitar started as an idea kicked around by a couple buddies, wondering how to go about recreating this incredible design while still keeping a Big River style of build. I really think we hit the nail on the head. The Shardbearer is so incredibly comortable, it feels amazing, looks even better, plays like the best dream youve ever had while the tones you are able to make are mind melting. Be carefull, if you purcahse this guitar, you might as well accept that no other guitar in your stable will ever get any love….. EVER AGAIN!