Talladega Design Notes

The Talladega represents the fusion of two projects we worked on for over eighteen months. The idea was to balance a warm-toned chambered mahogany body with a maple neck as a way of getting both an airy snap and a rich fundamental. The original Hamer Sustain Block bridge designed back in 1977 turned out to be an excellent choice—it couples with the body and drives it with real authority.

The design called for a single coil with more girth and depth without losing the snap and definition that makes traditional singles great, so we called up Seymour Duncan. We decided to use polepiece magnets with a copper reflector plate underneath to capture some really nice overtones and help with the string separation. For the neck pickuping that would compliment the bridge pickup. Because we wanted to be able to join the pickups in series as well, the balance was extra important. Seymour came through with a hybrid pickup that uses large steel slugs to focus the field from underlying bar magnets similar to P90 construction. After a seemingly endless number of prototypes we arrived at the matched set ... it was time to put it all together and go for a test drive.

The happy ending came when the Talladegas were announced as fit to gig. Seeing our work up on stage making great music is still the ultimate thrill !