A new take on an American classic
A timeless guitar that has everything you need, and nothing you don’t
Taking inspiration from a guitar manufacturing legend
When you think of the huge innovators in the electric guitar industry, you might think of names like Leo Fender, Seth Lover, Les Paul, and the like. One name you might not think of is Chip Todd. Among a long list of other accomplishments, Chip is responsible for pioneering the Peavey Guitar Program in the 70s. Out of this program came the T series, a run of several electric guitars and basses with a variety of different configurations. Besides being innovative instruments in their own right, featuring die-cast hardware, unique coil-split and phase switching electronic features, and an integrated neck tilt mechanism, what is even more impactful was Chip’s impact on guitar manufacturing as a whole.
Chip was the first to integrate CNC, or computer automated machining into electric guitar manufacturing. The bodies were cut by a CNC router, and the necks were cut on a repurposed gunstock carving machine. This allowed a level of speed and efficiency to the manufacturing process never before seen in the industry. In the finish room, parts were dipped in a solution to make them conductive to static electricity. While other manufacturers were manually spraying finish on their guitars, this conductive coating caused Peavey’s urethane finish to literally wrap itself around the necks and bodies as soon as it left the gun!
Nearly 50 years later…
All of that sounds pretty impressive, so why haven’t we heard about it already? Peavey struggled to break into a market predominately dominated by Fender and Gibson, and the T series ultimately was discontinued after ten years of various guitar attempts. Fortunately, this series has a different reputation today. Many players are beginning to appreciate the ingenuity of these guitars, demonstrated by the fact that the prices of these instruments have doubled since I bought my T-40 back in 2013. Still, these instruments are a hidden gem to most. How many vintage American guitars can you still find for under a grand?
The reason for this little history lesson should be fairly simple; looking at the image above it’s easy to see my inspiration from the T-15. The T-15 was designed to be a student instrument with it’s scaled down body and short 23.5″ scale length. Like the rest of the T series, these guitars featured Peavey’s Super Ferrite pickups, which I am incredibly fond of. My goal was not to replicate, but to modernize the idea behind this instrument.
The Rockhopper boasts a more comfortable 25″ scale, finding a happy medium between standard Fender and Gibson scales. A sleek new pickguard shape houses the no-nonsense electronics, with a pickup selector, one volume, and one tone. A pair of custom overwound rail P-90s deliver a complex sound, equally at home with shimmering cleans and warm overdrive. The pine bodies feature a heel carve, allowing easier access to the upper frets. Combined with the hand rubbed nitro lacquer finish, these guitars will wear in nicely for players who are into the “road-worn” look
These guitars are all spoken for, this page will be updated when more are available!
