Although still a baby to music Sam Sunderland is gaining quite the reputation on the local music scene in Vancouver, having received write ups in local papers and has been called the towns best kept secret. He has traveled by train in search of the real, but lesser known blues musicians, visiting many of America’s music cities including Chicago, New Orleans, Memphis, and Austin. In summer of 2006 Sam traveled to North Carolina where he spent 3 weeks of intensive study with guitar legend and a real hero of his. Shortly After he returned home there was a guitar give away Contest involving playing over a selected backing track submitted to contestants, Sam placed first and won a G&L Signature Series ASAT. Watch out for this young tele picker he might just show us all a thing or two.
We are pleased to have made this guitar for Sam in the summer of 2006, and just as pleased that Sam allowed us to show it to you.
Custom Guitar Body
Body Finish
The guitar body is made from a lightweight, single piece Swamp Ash block, finished with a sealer and single coat of blonde nitro-cellulose finish, often referred to as the "Mary Kay" finish. The semi-opaque finish coat allows the grain of the wood to clearly show through. At Sams request, we did not clear coat the finish on the guitar body at all. The thin coat almost feels like a satin finish.
Guitar Wiring
A great deal of attention is paid to the guitar electronics & shielding. All of the cavities are shielded with copper lining. For best, noise free performance, none of the shielding, control plate or pots are used for grounding the signal path. Instead a single point ground is created for the pickups, controls and shielding. The danger of noise caused by poor grounds & loops is minimized.
CTS pots & Orange Drop Capacitors are used in the control circuit. This guitar was fitted with volume & tone control. We also included a treble bleed circuit, that makes sure that the output remains bright, even with the volume knob turned down.
Custom Guitar Neck
The guitar neck is made from hard maple capped with a Pau Ferro fingerboard. The frets are Pyramid shaped frets allowing for easy fluid playing. The translucent nitro-cellulose finish is stained to a burnt amber color. Departing from its mostly traditional look and appeal slightly, we used an LSR roller nut, to help meet with Sams need for a guitar that stays in tune throughout his demanding style of chicken pickin!
Fender Stratocaster, Telecaster are registered trademarks of the Fender Musical Instrument Company (FMIC). Catalina Guitars is not affiliated with FMIC.
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The guitar body is made from a lightweight, single piece Swamp Ash block, finished with a sealer and single coat of blonde nitro-cellulose finish, often referred to as the "Mary Kay" finish. The semi-opaque finish coat allows the grain of the wood to clearly show through. At Sams request, we did not clear coat the finish on the guitar body at all. The thin coat almost feels like a satin finish. 
A great deal of attention is paid to the guitar electronics & shielding. All of the cavities are shielded with copper lining. For best, noise free performance, none of the shielding, control plate or pots are used for grounding the signal path. Instead a single point ground is created for the pickups, controls and shielding. The danger of noise caused by poor grounds & loops is minimized.
The guitar neck is made from hard maple capped with a Pau Ferro fingerboard. The frets are Pyramid shaped frets allowing for easy fluid playing. The translucent nitro-cellulose finish is stained to a burnt amber color. Departing from its mostly traditional look and appeal slightly, we used an LSR roller nut, to help meet with Sams need for a guitar that stays in tune throughout his demanding style of chicken pickin! 
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