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Holy Grail Guitar Show 2014

 

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Formentera Guitars

Formentera Guitars showed a shape that works well for all kinds of pickup configurations.

 

Frank Hartung Guitars

When I first saw Frank Hartung's guitars at the Frankfurt Messe, I thought they were a very nice take on the classic 2 humbucker tradition from Klamazoo. But this Caligo is so far from that design that I can only lift my hat in admiration. For some reason my muscial soul seem to resonate at the same frequency as this guitar.

It's a design that, to me looks like both traditional but also very new and fresh.  

 

 

The recessed controlls are functional as well as part of the overall design.

 

Here's a more traditional build but with modern and attractive curves.  

 

 

Here is the Embrace model to the left and the Junico to the right.

 

 

 

Gamble Guitars

German company Gamble Guitars have a slighlty offset shape that I really like. After trying it, I must say it's quite possibly one of the most comfortable shapes I have ever tried.  

 

 

Here are Sacha and Robby from Gamble Guitars smiling from the amount of visitors at the show.

 

New from Gamble is a carbon top guitar. I tried it and I liked it.

 

Grellier Guitars

French luthier ChristopheGrellier showed a common shape for all his guitars that works exceptionally well across the platform.

This Podcaster shows a dedication to getting the design just right. Please note the slanted bridge milled out of solid brass just for this guitar. And, to me, this body shape is so much more comfortable than an old slab body Telecaster.  

 

Danelectro

I like art deco style things and this Luk guitar from Guitardoc in Germany caught my fancy. In Sweden we say "grönt är skönt" (loosly translated: "green is good") and this guitar certainly proves it.

I could easily see myself wearing this on stage. Or anywhere else for that matter.

The pickguard is just yummy!

 

Helliver Guitars

Some nice takes on the set-neck tradition from Oliver Baron at Helliver Guitars.

This metaltop "junior" is so cool!  

 

Hilko Guitars

The resonator guitar to the right was interesting and the rosewood Tele was very elegant.

 

Holy Grail Guitar Show

Obviously not a guitar brand but I needed a headline where I could post pictures of the show itself.

This was the outer hall where you could also buy HGGS merchandise. They sold the obvious t-shirts but also special commemorative picks and strings.

This is part of the inner hall where most of the goodies were shown.

 

Isaak Guitars

 

Andreas Isaak has a brother who's a graphic artist and he provided the "little monster" for this guitar.  

 

 

More monster on the back.

 

When making this guitar Andreas put a very thin copper plate on it which he then used acid on to bring out this design.  

 

 

Close-up of the copper plate design.

 

 

Island Instruments

Island Instruments seem to get there inspiration from more odd brands like Danelectro.  

 

 

I like the way the design elements come together on this guitar.

 

 

Jens Ritter Instruments

 

Jens Ritter is one of the builder's that I seem to know at once just from a glance that they were designed by Jens.  

 

 

This is a one-off Converse All Star model. Except for the fingerboard, it's totally covered by by Converse bedges.

Headstock is not exempt from badges.  

 

 

A very nice touch is the shoe string eyelets acting as fret markers.

 

 

Jersey Girl Homemade

Some builders were very unique and Jersey Girl Homemade was one of those. One fun aspect of them is that you can buy guitar, strap and a pedal in the same color coordinated scheme as the observant reader has already surmised from the picture above.

 

Their way of using color coordinated wood for everything is setting them apart.  

 

 

This is one of the more interesting guitars (among the VERY many interesting guitars) I saw at the show and apart from the design it has to do with the pickups. As you can see there's only half a pickup in the mid position. This half can be combined in a number of ways with the the other half pickups you see attached to the other two pickups. And alos to the other full size pickups.

The trem handle was a joy to use.

 

Wood, wood and more wood.

 

Below is the color coordinated Fulltender pedal.

 

 

Their way of using color coordinated wood for everything is setting them apart.  

 

 

The Jersey Girl team Kaz Goto and Akiko Oda. Why they chose to include the word "homemade" in their brand is beyond me, as nothing looked homemade to me. :-)

 

 

JJ Guitars

JJ Guitars has been in my mind for some years now but this is the first time I actually got to try them. Nice work indeed.

This patchwork quilt was very nicely executed.  

 

 

The Free-way switch is a switch looking ´like an ordinary 3-way switch found on many Les Pauls or similar or not so similar guitars. But it is actually a 6-way switch. And it works very nicely, too. This will most probably be seen in many guitars in the not so distant future.

 

 

 

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