HT Signature Series Guitars

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Published on Monday, 25 November 2013 00:00

Written by Frank J. Pasquale

The development of the PASQUALE HT SIGNATURE SERIES CUSTOM GUITARS was a natural progression from our ST SERIES GUITARS.  I have already stated that the ST SERIES was designed to correct all of the design flaws that were common to the Fender Stratocaster design.  ST SERIES guitars are designed for the player who wants to get the most out of a standard tremolo style guitar without having to sacrifice playing style or consistent performance of their guitar.

But there is another breed of player that is just as demanding of their instrument but without the need for a tremolo bridge.  Thus we created the PASQUALE CUSTOM HT SERIES GUITARS which feature a Hard Tail fixed bridge.These guitars are designed for the no frills guitarist who doesn’t want a tremolo bridge but just wants a rock solid guitar that can handle whatever challenges the player will face.

The simplest solution to this situation would be just to remove the vibrato bar from a tremolo bridge and tighten the screws for the bridge claw thus tightening the bridge down so that it won’t move. But that is way too simple of a solution and sacrifices some crucial elements of tone.

Pasquale HTM Signature Series Guitars

I have already stated on several occasions that my guitar designs come from the Fender bolt on style of guitar design rather than the Gibson style of glue in set necks with a 5 degree neck angle. One reason is that I have always found the Les Paul style guitar to fit differently on the player’s body, particularly while standing up to play. The absence of the upper horn makes the strap mount meet the body in a different location and therefore it re-positions how the guitar hangs when you are playing it.  I realize that every player does not feel this way but it was for this reason that I based my designs on the Fender original concepts rather than the Gibson. 

However there was one element of the Gibson design that I found particularly enticing and that was the Fixed Bridge with the Stop Bar Tail Piece.  Gibson guitars are famous for the amount of abuse that you can pile on them while playing and they will still hold their tuning.  They are completely solid and once they are “warmed up and tuned “they will just keep on going. Of course a large part of this is due to the fact that they DO NOT have a tremolo bridge. Even if a tremolo bridge is mounted flush to the body of a guitar it is still slightly less stable that a hard mounted tailpiece because a tremolo bridge has springs in it which can resonate and shift if the guitar is played aggressively.  This can cause some variance in the tuning from time to time.  By contrast Gibson bridges mount directly on the face of the guitar and create a strong resonance that is very stable.

Pasquale HTC Signature Series Guitars

I wanted to add a no frills rock n roll guitar like this to the PASQUALE CUSTOM GUITAR line so I set out to do some experimenting.  I started to experiment with different types of Stop Bar Type tailpieces. I was not particularly impressed with the actual Gibson Style of Stop Bar Tailpiece or its bridge. It was a classic and it worked fine but it was not impressive. It mounts off of the face of the body at a radius and sets higher than a tremolo bridge so therefore it requires a 3 to 5 degree angle in the neck pocket to align with the strings at the correct angle. This adds a different feel to the playability of the guitar which I never preferred. (By the way we offer this neck angle as an option on any custom build) I tried the Gibson Style Bridge and was not satisfied so next I tried the Hipshot Baby Grand Bridge which was a new take on the old Gibson standard with some very classy yet nonetheless cosmetic changes. .This design was very cool and classy looking and we do offer this option today on any custom build but it also requires a 3 degree neck angle.

Since I have already declared the HIPSHOT US CONTOUR TREMOLO BRIDGE to be The Undisputed Heavyweight Champion of the World, I decided that I would continue experimenting with the Hipshot catalog and try the HIPSHOT US CONTOUR FIXED BRIDGE.

 This is a hard mount tailpiece that is mounted directly into the face of the guitar via three flush mount screws. It had the exact same feel and performance of the US CONTOUR TREMOLO BRIDGE that was already a proven winner on the PASQUALE CUSTOM ST SERIES GUITARS so I knew the feel was going to be right. The US CONTOUR FIXED BRIDGE also features a  “through the body”  mount that uses individual string ferrules mounted to that back of the body to mount the strings through the body which allows the string vibration to travel through the body thus transferring the natural tone characteristics of the wood through the strings into the pickups. This little feature seriously enhanced the tone of our guitars because we always use hand selected woods chosen specifically for their sonic personality.

I did a test run of a PASQUALE CLASSIC CUSTOM with this bridge using a one piece poplar body, a maple neck and a Pau Ferro fingerboard. I used the exact same design modifications that were featured on the ST SERIES GUITARS and we had an instant winner. I knew immediately that this was the combination of hardware that I was going to use.  I had the feel of the trusted HIPSHOT US CONTOUR BRIDGE with the added stability of a direct mount tailpiece and the added sonic enhancement that comes from the strings running through the body.
Thus the PASQUALE CUSTOM HARD TAIL was born. I decided to offer this feature on any guitar that we make so I named it the PASQUALE CUSTOM HT (Hard Tail) SERIES. We currently offer this in both Classic and Modern style guitars but we can also put this combination on any style or shape of guitar that you can think of.