Stepping outside of the mainstream isn’t for everyone, but if you fancy something a little different then the UK has a host of guitar makers ready to turn your dreams into a special instrument. At the end of 2022 we were chatting to Maybury Guitars’ Jason Snelling about this custom world and suggested he build us a guitar. We soon had a basic spec in place, more of a quasi-custom instrument, to show off his wares.
Jason draws from three basic designs and we were attracted to his Cholla model. You could have fun spotting the influences and references here. The outline looks a little like an offset Telecaster with a thinner upper horn, but then you could suggest it’s quite a nod in the direction of the EVH’s Wolfang. Our Cholla, however, is slab bodied with only a slight ribcage curve on the back and an overall depth of 46mm. But despite featuring a chambered sapele body, which you might expect would be in the mid-weight area, our sample is on the higher end of the solidbody single-cut world. “Sapele is the heaviest wood I use,” explains Jason, “but I could just as easily use swamp ash, light alder or meranti. Spruce is probably the lightest I’ve used. The wood type and weight is entirely down to the customer.”
The top wood is an unusual flamed ash that has quite a beautiful, understated
