Back in ’76-‘77, as a kid, I had intended to make luthiery my career, and my life. Looking back now, over the span of a quarter century, it amazes me that I have actually seen that plan through to fruition… despite the many difficulties that meet any artist with a goal in mind. I count myself as being extremely fortunate…and as being blessed, and lucky in any number of ways.

My career, thus far, has taken many turns. Some early milestones included guitar repairs and modifications for artists such as Tony Williamson (mandolin artist extraordinaire), Mike Cross, The Psychedelic Furs, The dB’s, REM, and many other artists of the day.

Little did I know, back then, that I would go on to form my own guitar manufacturing company, and that I would build guitars for artists such as Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, Brad Whitford, Dave Hidalgo, etc, etc, etc…. not to mention the hundreds and hundreds of fabulous TCM owners that we have not heard on the radio,….yet.

During my earlier years as a repair tech I was a guitar builder as well, and in fact every modern-day TCM guitar is, in some way, a direct descendant of the guitars that I built during the period of 1977 to 1989. For instance, I have featured the rather unusual scale length of 25.125” ever since my first electric, built Aug1977- Jan78. This has proved to be quite a successful design feature, and so far as I know, I am the only luthier that uses this scale length.

I initially chose to calculate this scale ( which is directly halfway between the 24 ¾” Gibson scale and the 25 ½” Fender scale) and to use this scale to help me attain what now must seem as a rather obvious goal…to design a “hybrid” guitar that had features of Gibson and Fender instruments right there on one guitar. It is amusing to look back to ’77 and to remember that this was an idea that, in those days, verged on being heresy. In 1977, the Gibson Les Paul guitar and the Fender Stratocaster guitar were viewed as being entirely separate entities, and the idea that these two disparate designs could be successfully combined in some way was viewed with derision.

Specs: Double cutaway body, 13” wide at the lower bout, carved 5/8” birdseye maple top, one piece 1 3/8” mahogany back, 25.125” scale neck, dovetail neck joint, mahogany with center maple laminate neck construction, “scroll” mother of pearl headstock inlay engraved “McInturff”, 22 fret East Indian Rosewood fretboard with personally handcut, mother of pearl Gibson RB 250 style banjo inlays, 12” fretboard radius, 4 piece ebony/ bwb fretboard binding/purfling, 3x3 headstock with Schaller M6 tuners, nitrocellulose lacquer finish, Gibson “T-Top” humbucking pickups, “ slugs” replaced with Alnico rod magnets taken from mid 70’s (?) Fender Stratocaster pickups, two volume, two tone controls, switching setup allowed any combination of humbuckers, and in addition allowed for single coil mode per pickup (“inside coils”) and in/out of phase wiring. Careful reading of these specs will reveal a particular set of “hybrid” guitar ideas that in part are available, and perfected, on TCM guitars of today.”

While it is no longer my intent to create mere “hybrids” of extant, classic designs, it can be shown that my current products do offer tones and features that may well be somewhat familiar to devotes of the Gibson or Fender “schools”…..but with various twists.

Another design feature of the early McInturff guitars that has stood the test of time, and that I use to this day, is my very unusual use…what amounts to a proprietary design/use… of graphite composite neck reinforcing rails in the neck. I first heard about the use of graphite composite neck reinforcements circa 1980. The trend then, as now, was to use these materials to stiffen and stabilize the entire guitar’s neck.

I had a pretty good intuitive view early on as to how a neck design worked in the field under “combat conditions”. I DID know that I was making a fair amount of money via refretting guitar necks that forward-bowed , permanently, in the 10th fret or so to body joint section of the neck... and that truss rods did not work well in this pivotal part of the neck. I had also learned that my favorite set-up required that this very part of the neck be “arrow-straight”…to within .001”…while the remainder of the neck below (towards the nut) be able to be manipulated via the truss rod to a number of positions in order to suit a variety of playing styles.

My simple solution was (is) to reinforce the neck from the 8.5 fret position all of the way to the end of the tenon.

Lo and behold, the idea worked, has become a proprietary TCM design feature and, in concert with the entire TCM neck manufacturing routine, has led to ( at the time of this writing, Jan 2003) a great situation for any guitar maker..ZERO guitars returned to my shop due to neck warping or twisting. There are many more factors other than my proprietary way of using graphite rails that account for this, but my use of this material..in my particular way.. has helped to give us a neck that sets up just right, keeps it’s setup for a long time, and sounds like WOOD, not GRAPHITE.

Folks that are familiar with my work can comment upon many other TCM design features… headstock design, body designs, electronic designs, etc..as well as workmanship qualities in the “fit-and-finish departments”…..better than I can. Readers that desire user-oriented opinions and feedback are encouraged to visit the unofficial TCM discussion group at www. tcmforum.org

I have decided to celebrate my 25 years as a full time guitar professional by designing and building a unique set of very limited production 25th Anniversary Edition TCM guitars. Each of these special guitars…which are being almost completely hand built by me, personally…sports a set of brand new design features, while retaining the very best TCM hallmarks of the past quarter century.

Look for any of the following new features on any of the several new TCM 25th Anniversary Edition guitars now being developed….

New wood combinations
Refined body styling
Even more pickup options
New control layouts
Scale length options
Expanded bridge options
Pickguards
New semi-hollow construction designs
And more!!!