DoctorPaul's Guitar Emporium
2012 Jaden Rose 8-String Fan-Fret #2
"Slytherin"
I first saw this guitar in April 2012, being played by the (scarily-good) Fred Brum on YouTube.
Having just taken delivery of my first 8-string fan-fret ("Achthund") I was searching for cool stuff to play on it, just to get familiar with the layout really, and Fred's video popped up.
The guitar he was playing was a stunner. A prototype 8SFF (8-string fan-fret) made by Jaden Rose, the second 8SFF that Jaden had made. So not only was it stunning, but it would clearly be a great player, as is every Jaden I've ever played. As I recall, I had at least one Jaden back then, maybe two, so it was reasonable to expect that it was going to be either very good or (more likely) amazing.
Now. Fred buys lots of guitars, and he also sells lots too; I had his Hufschmid for a while ("Chisels"), but didn't think that there'd be a cat-in-hell's chance if ever owning THIS one. I track his "For Sale" posts when I can, but I never saw this one up for grabs. Eventually I accepted that it would be long gone, and probably a long, long way from me. I never really stopped thinking about it (I guess I qualify for the term "Jaden Collector" now ...) but it gradually dropped off the end of my "Want List".
So imagine the reaction when it popped up on eBay in 2015. If you're having trouble imagining, let me help you. Try to imagine a big northern geezer with a cheap haircut, yelping like a little girl and very nearly shitting in his pants ...
Imagining that? Good. Because that's how it was.
The seller (a very reasonable sort) was asking A LOT for it, certainly more money than I typically would have just lying around. So, unusually, I talked to him about a trade deal; he'd take two of MY guitars (nice ones) and he'd throw some money into the deal. Sounded ok, but I knew perfectly well that I'd hate losing the two that he wanted. I'm not good at letting gear go. So shoot me.
I thought long and hard about it, and had to resign myself to the fact that he wanted WAY too much for it. It is a rare (unique) guitar, and one that I'd wanted for ages, but I draw the line at a used price that is higher than it would be to have a new one made ...
The auction ended with no bids. He kept relisting, and relisting, sometimes knocking a few hundred notes off the asking price, then raising the price the next time round. That bugs me.
Anyway, good things come to those who wait, right? I let him stew for a while (all the time dreading the prospect of some twat buying it before I got the chance), but then it happened. He relisted it (due to a house-move, apparently), and was asking a perfectly acceptable price, provided that it sold quickly.
I'd have happily clicked "Buy it Now" we're it not for that beautiful term ... "Or Best Offer" (Muhaha). So. I pulled on my haggling pants. If you've read some of my drivel on this site, you'll know that my haggling pants contain powerful voodoo. And so it was.
I threw in an (almost insulting) offer, and, after some bitching, he sulked for maybe an hour, then said "OK then, you bastard" (or words to that effect).
I took an extended lunch break from work and drove to his gaff, with a bag-full of filthy cash. Opening the case was like ... like angels singing. There was an actual fanfare in my head. Click ... click ... click ... open slowly ... ooooooohhhh. What a beautiful thing.
Anyway. It's MINE now, so I'll cut it with the bullshit.
This was the second prototype 8SFF made by our boy Jaden. The first was visually the same as this one (and was also made for and given to Fred), but used cheaper lumber. I'm guessing that the first one was used as a test to prove that everything worked, before digging out the expensive lumber for this one. I'm not entirely sure, but from pictures I'd guess that the first one was a mahogany body (sapele?) with a maple neck and rosewood board. I might be wrong, but they certainly weren't "fancy shit" woods. Whatever.
This one, on the other hand, got the full top-shelf-lumber treatment. The body is a brace of lumps of black limba (limba is a type of korina, and the heavy figuring qualifies it as 'black'), which is lovely ... loads of cool grain going on, and ... well ... it's korina, and korina is awesome. The neck is bubinga, which feels beautiful and looks just fine. The fretboard however, is as stunning as it is shocking.
Say "snakewood" to a carpenter or luthier and they'll either pass out or punch you in the face. This stuff I STUPIDLY expensive. The plain stuff is rare and costly, and is sought after because it is hard as the gates of hell. It tends to come in small chunks (as the trees aren't huge), so bits big enough to make fretboards don't come around very often. The name snakewood comes from the flamey, snakeskin effect that small parts of the wood have. Those bits are used for pens, knife-handles, and other small bits of expensive artsy shit, and they're cripplingly costly. So to find a chunk big enough to make a fretboard out of, that also has flamey-snakey figuring along it's whole length? Nuh-huh, that ain't gonna happen bud. So how Jaden got hold of THIS is a bit of an enigma. A huge, thick slab of figured snakewood, big enough to strap onto an 8-string fan-fret neck. It's ... FANTASTIC.
Other spec stuff? The bridge is a Jaden creation with Graph-Tech saddles, the nut is Tusq (and immaculately carved out between the string slots), there are 24 immaculately finished stainless steel frets and the scale length runs from 25.5" - 27.75". Pickups are a slanted set of
BareKnuckle Aftermaths (ooh yes!) And the tuners are Hipshot locking efforts. All good.
So, this was previously owned by Fred Brum, but was exhibited at NAMM 2012, where it was given a thorough shakedown / workout by none other than Prof. Tosin Abasi (the MASTER of the 8-string ... see 2m35s in the YouTube link). He approved. And if it's good enough for TOSIN, it's good enough for the rest of us! See the links for YouTube records of Tosin's assault, and of Fred running through "Atonement", surely one of the finest guitar instrumentals of ALL time.
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