Recent content by John Backlund

It'll have the brushed metal-looking plastic plate made with the same material used on the 100...which does look surprisingly good... However, I plan to personally offer a chromed steel replacement plate for the 100 in another month or two for those who may want something like that for their...

I had three prototypes made privately for me by Marco Krijger in Holland, and they still hang on my wall at home, he has never produced any of my guitars for resale, though he does offer template sets of some of them for hobbyist builders who may want to try to make one on their own, for their...

That's a pretty accurate summary of the situation.

I'm pretty sure there's a LOT fewer than 500 'Backlund' guitars out there, in fact, I doubt if there's more than 50-75 Chattanooga-built JBD guitars in existence, and that's over an almost ten year span. There might be as many as 200 Retronix model 800 six strings and basses, but certainly no...

The knob arrangement on the 200 in my illustration show the push-pull onboard tuner that was incorporated into most of the Chattanooga-built JBD customs, the Eastwood version of this model uses, I believe, conventional tele-style volume and tone knobs, so they will match. Also, the 'hook'...

I'm pretty sure that Eastwood IS going to offer the 400 next. I'm pretty stoked about getting that model 'out there'. It will differ from the photo in that it will not use the Hipshot 'piano' bridge, engine-turned metal plate, and may not have locking tuners like the 400 pictured (which is one...

Although I no longer have any association with the J Backlund Design company or their sub-brand Retronix, technically, JBD can still build some of my guitar designs, but only as custom-ordered, U.S. made instruments, though I suspect that they rarely will, if at all, find any customers at the...

Added this Epiphone Zenith a month ago... And this thinline A/E classical about two weeks ago... Oops! can't forget the Tele, which I've owned longer than any of them (2002-2003)... Almost forgot the Eastwood model 100...

I like the chrome versions, and I like the rivets too.

It's a microphone by the Holophone company. It's a big sucker, and is priced at about $1100, but it's one of the coolest things I saw at NAMM. The pretty woman at the booth told me to put on the headphone set that was plugged into the mic and listen to it as I made noises into it, but I told her...