Eternal Guitars & Pickups: Jamie West-Oram "JWO-1" Guitar demo.
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- čas přidán 19. 08. 2024
- Jamie West-Oram is best known as the sonic wizard guitarist in “The Fixx”. Since forming in 1980 the band have recorded fourteen studio albums including the Platinum selling “Reach the Beach” and Gold “Phantoms”. His resume also includes session work, touring and writing with such luminaries as David Bowie, Tina Turner, Brian Eno and Stevie Nicks among many others.
Jamie has been a customer and friend of Eternal for many years as I look after his various touring guitars when they need fretwork or surgery. Late last year we began to discuss the idea of building a guitar, and Jamie came up with an idea to combine the more aesthetically pleasing elements of a T-Type guitar with the fundamentals of his more favoured S-Type builds.
We used his current Custom Shop Strat as a starting point for feel and wood choices to provide a familiar “spine” and then decided that we could make something unusual and unique at the same time.
I was working on a modified T-Type shape at the time and once Jamie saw it he was hooked. We improved the standard upper fret access and a shortened the upper horn for a cute, snub-nosed appearance, and then added forearm and tummy cuts for comfort.
We were firmly aiming for an enhanced vintage design and aesthetic to incorporate the better elements of the original classic guitars, feel and hardware but it also had to be bullet proof in use. A vibrato bridge was also essential so we used the best vintage repro currently available the Callaham paired with the excellent Gotoh vintage repro tuners and a handmade bone nut to keep things stable and reliable. Direct body mounted pickups were also a key feature which also allowed us to show off a little more of the “Luscious Lilac” finish (actually inspired by a pair of brightly coloured socks that Jamie’s gorgeous wife Bibi was wearing at the time!).
We also simplified the control layout to master volume and tone with the volume pot placed exactly where it would be on a regular three pickup pickguard as Jamie uses it a lot to create his unique tonal landscapes.
The neck was initially based on one of Jamie’s favourite guitars but he asked if it could be a little larger in profile with pronounced extra depth and wider than standard nut. In fact, I put the guitar together without paint or electronics for Jamie to assess the neck profile - fully expecting it to need a considerable amount of slimming down, but once he played it he found it so comfortable and stable that he decided to leave it as it was - a great decision.
Pearl position markers were added to the dark rosewood fingerboard along with Luminlay side dots. Jamie’s favoured 6105 size Stainless Steel frets and vintage correct 7.25” radius were included which added to the beefy neck profile makes the whole thing a serious piece of very stable neck, and compared to a slimmer neck’d guitar using comparable spec. the added depth of tone and resonance is immediate and a joy to behold.
The electronics were a much simpler decision as we’ve been making a Signature Set of “Fixxers” pickups for Jamie for a number of years so they were a no brainer as they offer Jamie exactly what he needs. These are wired through the highest quality brass collar CTS pots with a CRL five-way switch and a Swichcraft output jack.
Model: Eternal “JWO-1”
Body: Solid alder
Neck: Two-piece. Maple shaft with slab rosewood fingerboard and offset pearl dot markers on face and Luminlay side-dots.
Neck profile: Big C-shape
Neck dimensions: 25mm deep at 1st fret to 25mm deep at 12th
Radius: 7.25””
Fret size: 6105
Number of frets: 22
Fret material: Stainless Steel
Nut width: 43.mm
Finish: All nitrocellulose, aged “Luscious Lilac” on body with worn tinted maple on neck and headstock.
Plastics: Three-ply aged Pearl pick guard with aged Parchment pickup covers.
Bridge: Aged Callaham vintage repro.
Tuners: Gotoh vintage repro split post.
Pickups: Eternal hand wound “Fixxer” set - aged with aged parchment plastic covers.
Electronics: CTS brass collar 250k volume and tone pots with an Orange Drop capacitor and CRL five-way selector switch, cloth covered hook-up wire and a Switchcraft output jack socket.
Nut: Handcut bone.
Weight: 7.5Ibs
Congratulations on your new Record , see you in Newton
That's the one signature guitar I'd truly want. JWO is an underrated master of tone and textural playing, and incredibly versatile.
Just got to hear him jam on this thing 2 nights in FL. He was almost about to shatter all the mirrors in the Culture Room with his lead breaks😎 Awesome axe, man. Great choice!
Just saw him this Monday. Fantastic
Sounds great. Love your unique sound JWO pls keep giving us music. Congrats on the record I’m enjoying it
A really good guitarist... The Fixx hits are timeless classics.
JWO - lovely man, lovely hands.
I like the way his demo of the tones doesn't involve lots of flash widdly wee, but rather some lovely punchy, concise and precise riffing. Hi Jamie!
PS - Album coming today from Amazon.
Very versatile axe....Great tones all around
I’m noticing the smaller Tele-ish pickup size - I’m building a strat with a chrome Tele neck pickup, and its smaller size is an issue so I’m brainstorming a solution to get the pickup & screws to line up. Jamie’s right about Tele pickups, and I’m surprised come to think of it why he never used a Telecaster in The Fixx. You can definitely hear the Marshall sound in “Follow that Cab” on Beautiful Friction, which seems inspired by Ric Ocasek’s productions with Weezer.
I can totally relate to Jamie’s choices on guitar - I’m checking out this video because I’m building my pedalboard and I have a strat with a Bill Lawrence rail in the middle & after hooking up my new AB-Y splitter my clean sound brought out my inner West-Oram :)
Sounds fantastic.
Listening to the new album right now. Good stuff!
I love his guitar on Saved by Zero!
And thank you very much for this interview. I think JWO is an awesome guitarist
About the best guitar sound I've ever heard
Jamie's in my Top 10!!! Nice guitar :D
DO YOU KNOW HOW LONG IT TOOK ME TO FIND OUT WHAT CHORDS HE'S PLAYING ALL THROUGHOUT "STAND OR FALL"
A long time!!! No guitar tutorial on CZcams includes these chords!! They're the main thing of the whole song! I eventually found a video of The Fixx performing it live in recent years where I could actually see what Jamie was playing!!! It took searching!!!
Now I have a video showing me what they are that I can go back to if I forget! Thanks!
Jamie West Oram and Dave Gregory from XTC are my two fave guitarists.
Quad springs? Wow