BRUTE BUILDS
Click on any image for Demos or Instagram Link
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BRUTE 500 #6: SINISTRAL SOUTHPAW
A custom build for grunge legends Mudhoney's guitar tech and member of Dustbombers, this lefty has a black stained 38mm Ash body, a black anodised Hoxey aluminium chambered 25.5 neck (strung right-handed as per customer's spec) with Graphtech Ratio locking tuners, Mad Love A90-TB pickups (wound hotter than normal spec) wired to Alpha pots left-handed, with Switchcraft right-angled switch and socket. 3mm thick single-ply black acrylic pickguard and 3mm black anodised rear sustain plate, finished off with Schaller locking strap pins.
"Truly gorgeous and plays like a dream. It sounds amazing, thanks! And it plays so well..."
CUSTOM TELE CONVERSION
Commisioned by the guitarist of the noise-rock outfit Slug13, this started life as a beaten up, laquer-over-wood Hohner Telecaster with a burnt headstock. I stripped it back to raw wood, ditched the bridge, pickups, electrics and neck, filled, sanded and finished the body in black nitro, made a custom pickguard, fitted a Gotoh bridge, and black brass control plate, single Warman Destroyer Humbucker, fitted new Alpha pots and Electrosocket with Switchcraft Jack, and topped it off with a chambered 25.5 Hoxey aluminium neck with stainless steel frets and Graphtech Ratio locking tuners. Sounds so huge and heavy, and sustains for days.
"Coolest fucking guitar I've ever had and completely unique. Awesome work."
BRUTE 500 #5: SURVEYOR
"Energy is Mass multiplied by the Speed of Light squared.
That's a big number, and you're pretty big.
We've got more of you than we can use."
Short-scale, huge-sounding clang racketeer capable of making craters in the desert. Lightweight 38mm Poplar body finished in RAF Grey-Blue nitro, Electrical Guitar Company JM500 pickups, aluminium rear sustain plate, Gotoh bridge and a Hoxey chambered 24.75 neck with Graphtech Ratio locking tuners.
Who fears the king? Caw! Caw!
"It's incredible, a masterpiece - genuinely blown away. It's the best thing I own. I'm in love with it. Thank you so much!"
​Full specification here
and Demo vid here
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BRUTE 500 #4: BILLIARD PLAYER
Named after Shellac's super-clangy John Peel session of "Billiard Player Song", this noise machine delivers huge portions of sonic aluminium, thanks to the Hoxey aluminium neck, rear aluminium sustain plate and the Mad Love A90-TB pickups.
Click here for the full specification, and here for some dodgy demo vids...
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BRUTE 500 #3: BIG BLACK
Stained and lacquered 38mm Ash body, Hoxey 25.5 scale anodised black aluminium neck with Graphtech Ratio locking tuners and Graphtech nut, Electrical Guitar Company JM500 pickups, 3mm anodised black backplate, 3mm matt acrylic pickguard, CTS 500k pots wired Travis Bean style with Orange Drop capacitors and shielded braided wire, Switchcraft jack and switch. Incredibly clear metallic frequencies, sustain for days and an extreme tonal range.
"It's lovely...You've made some very nice aesthetic choices...I've been loving it. It really is a terrific guitar and it's quickly turning into my favourite."
STEAK AND BLACK ONIONS
Requested by Steve Albini fan and owner of The Manmade Brute, this short scale build features a double cutaway glossy Swamp Ash body fitted with Warman Mirror Man humbuckers wired to Alpha 500k pots. Instead of a Tone Control, the circuit is wired to make the lower potentiometer act as a Bass Cut. Coupled with the bridge pickup fixed against the bridge (which reduces the pickup's lower frequency response), this combination results in incredible clarity and glass-like chiming tones. A Killswitch adds to the guitars versatility. A 3mm distressed aluminium resonator backplate massively increases this instruments capability for sustain.
"This guitar is the most versatile and comfortable guitar I own. It can achieve anything, but given the bass cut knob, killswitch, pickup placement and aluminium sustain plate it of course excels in chaotic destructive tones (as the name would imply!)"
BRUTE 500 #2
Build for a customer, featuring a 38mm thick Ash body in RAF Grey-Blue nitrocellulose,
Q pickups flat-pole P90s, Switchcraft jack and 3 way switch, single CTS 500k volume pot, Axecaster steel-saddled bridge, 3 ply BWB pickguard, with Wilkinson tuners on a Tele neck. The Croation-made Q-Pickups give this guitar a chiming, reverb-like clarity, while the Ash body sustains beautifully.
"Probably the cleanest sounding guitar I've ever played,,,Nicest clean sound I've had so far. I saw this guitar and knew it would be perfect for something."
BRUTE 500
My personal clanger, sold on to the guitarist from punk band Fuzzy Duck. A Hoxey 25.5 aluminium neck with Graphtech Ratio locking tuners, 35mm thin Alder body sprayed Primer Grey with matt lacquer over, 3mm single ply matt black acrylic scratch plate and 3mm brushed aluminium resonator sustaining backplate. Electrical Guitar Company P90 pickups (10.62k bridge 9.65k neck) from the third Obstructures .750 guitar from 2007, Axecaster bridge, Alpha 500k pots, Orange Drop caps and shielded braided wire. Shellac-inspired laser-cut "Mass and "Velocity" toggle switch surround. 3.9kg deliverer of clarity, definition, sustain and....Clang!! Skkkrrrrrclang!!
"You've done an incredible job on this guitar! It's everything I've ever wanted, nice weight, brilliant action and so comfortable and easy to play. This is the sound I've been after! It's got a real sense of danger to it...Band practice was the best we've ever sounded, the boys said the guitar cuts through perfectly and brings a whole new sound to the band. The EGC P90s are absolutely fantastic. Even after rehearsing, I didn't put the guitar down until about one in the morning. It's so comfortable to play, I love how thin the body is. It's probably the closest thing to a Travis Bean I've ever played, just without the hefty price tag. I'm really impressed with the Hoxey neck too, it almost feels effortless to play those super diminished chords on it. Thank you so much for the opportunity to own it, it's insane."
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MNEMONIST
Comissioned by a customer as a record of his life and memories applied in water slide transfers with clear nitro and acrylic lacquer, 38mm thick two piece Sapele custom body with clear perspex pickguard, custom-brushed 3mm aluminium control panel and backplate, Wilkinson P90s, 500k pots and a Strat-style neck.
Filthy amounts of overdriven tube saturation on tap.
"Absolutely love it. You are indeed a master. Love the way the pics have come out. Can't believe what you've done...it's exactly how I imagined it. Brilliant."
INDUSTRIALIST
Short scale 24.75 build, 38mm thick two-piece lightweight Tulipwood body finished in Oxide Black with 3 ply scratchplate and 3mm thick aluminium backplate. Flat-pole P90s wired to 500k pots with shielded braided 22awg wire. The light weight of this build makes gigs a breeze, while the short scale neck gives a twangy edge to heavy gain settings.
"Man, I'm so stoked! The guitar is sick!! Thanks again, Martin!"
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THE MANMADE BRUTE
Two piece Alder 44mm thick body painted in acrylic resin-based satin black and left unlacquered on purpose to allow for maximum DIY (Destroy it Yourself) marks and scratches to suit the brutal noise-rock aesthetic of the guitar. The scratchplate is made from 3mm thick aluminium. Pickups are 7.5k stacked Alnico 5 flat pole P90s, but sound more like single coils. The neck pickup is warm and full, while the bridge is very trebly and high-end. These are wired using braided shielded wire 50's style to a 500k Alpha audio taper volume pot and a 250k Alpha audio taper tone pot with a 0.22uf capacitor. The bridge is a Fender black nickel through-body bridge. Absolutely Harsh.
"This guitar is intense. Gotta be my favourite one I own now, It just sounds and feels perfect for me."
THE COMPLIANT
Alder body, Telecaster neck with laurel fingerboard. Oxide Black acrylic paint, clear matt acrylic lacquer. Wilkinson P90s wired 50s style with braided cable, 2 x Alpha 500k pots, 1 x 0.022uf Orange Drop capacitor. Through-the-body bridge with modern ferrules.
(Named after the Shellac song because I gave it to my son for his 18th birthday and he grinned his face off when we saw Shellac and they played it...)
SONIC STRIFE
The first build. A two piece Alder body married to a Telecaster neck, fitted with high output Wilkinson P90s with 500k pots. Painted in RAF Grey-Blue. Later improvements included Fender black nickel bridge with Graphtech saddles and a 3mm aluminium resonator backplate. Played this for six years in a noise-rock band called Princess. Damage provided by the occasional copper ice-pic...
THE BLACK CONTROLLER
Customer build featuring 44mm thick two-piece symmetrical double-cutaway stained Ash body, a Hoxey Guitars 25.5"scale, 9.5" radius aluminium neck, with Grover locking tuners, custom distressed 4mm acrylic pickguard, anodised black 3mm aluminium resonator backplate, hardwired Submarine Pro pickup with separate output, 500k CTS pots wired Travis Bean style to Bare Knuckle True Grit P90s into Switchcraft jacks and Electro sockets. A true Noise Monster.
"I love it. Found it really hard to stop playing it - the double outputs just offer such an infinite variety of sounds. It was a lot of fun listening to the sustain and the quality of sound flicking through the different setting options. And the build quality is amazing. It’s such a beautiful looking guitar - wood and metal perfectly blended together. I’m so looking forward to the journey ahead. Thanks so much, Martin. Truly brilliant work."