The Beardsell 7E is a true semi-acoustic electric guitar - it responds in your hands like an acoustic archtop, but you can crank it up loud like the best of electric guitars. The guitar is designed for players, and has a shoulder appeal that would shame a Les Paul.
Acoustic archtops have advantages that fixed-bridge electrics do not have. The bridge is free to move with the top, creating complex tonal characteristics and sustain from sitting on a vibrating surface, sympathetically vibrating with the strings (by comparison electric guitars are rather neutral). Beardsell effectively, and beautifully, bridges this divide.
"Awesome guitar! Brilliant body shape. It fits perfectly. Thanks. I may have to follow Jackson Browne's advice and need 2." - recent customer
On the 7E, the bridge is the only thing that sits on top of the hand-carved, parallel-braced, big Leaf curly maple top. The back is a flat plate stretched over a light-weight, arched center block and a bent wood rim. The pickups mount from the rear, and the tailpiece is seated upon two posts mounted to the center-block which broach the top so that it doesn't mute the top with its down-bearing pressure. The top plate is free to move, keeping the guitar lively and responsive to touch like an acoustic. The acoustical chamber creates sound, but the back resists low-end feedback with laminations that raise its resonant frequency, making it more acoustically neutral, which works to prevent feedback - because this is a guitar you plug in.
This is a three mini-humbucker pickup guitar that acts like two different two-pickup guitars. Let's clarify that - the main 3-way switch controls the bridge and neck pickups in much the same way you would imagine, until you click in the middle pickup (tone knob push/pull switch), a low-z humbucker wired in series - that creates a dirty overdrive that puts a whole new level of possibility on the pickup selector. With a volume control fitted with a treble bleed circuit you can control the amount of drive to the amplifier from the guitar without loss of bass end. The shades of tone are up to you. The old-fashioned way.
The asymmetrical neck shaft, ergonomically built to fit your hand, is double-reinforced with carbon fiber for extra stability. The tailpiece in this case is a Bigsby B-11 tremolo system without a front-roller, which has a minimal break-angle over the bridge saddles to minimize tension build-up on either side of the bridge and freer movement of the strings across the saddles. In other words, it stays in tune.
With its tonal range, attention to ergonomics and remarkable aesthetic appeal, the 7E, like all Beardsell guitars, is made for players who are ahead of the curve, and have a discerning eye as well as a discerning ear.
- Top: AAA curly big leaf maple, carved arch
- Back/sides: birdseye rock maple
- Internal structure: basswood centre block
- Internal treatment: laminated-back control cavities
- Neck: Honduras mahogany
- Neck profile: teardrop C/V (flat thumb-side, rounded finger side)
- Fretboard: pau ferro
- Scale length: 24.9"
- Fretboard radius: 16"
- Fret material: nickel-silver SM 152
- Fret count: 24
- Head inlay: logo only
- Fret markers: side/top 3-5-7-9-12-15-17-19 holly strips and dots
- Nut material: bleached beef bone
- Truss rod: steel 2-way
- Neck rods: 2 static carbon-fibre
- Neck pickup: mini humbucker--A5, 42awg, 9.5K
- Middle pickup: mini humbucker--A2, 41awg, 6k, switched in series with N-B 3-way
- Bridge pickup: mini hmbucker--A5, 43awg, 10K
- Pickup type: passive humbucker
- Pickup cover/material: nickel
- Controls: volume, tone (with middle in-series push/pull), 3-way toggle
- Pots: 500k CTS
- Treble bleed: yes--0.001uf/150K
- Tone cap: 0.022uf orange drop
- Bridge: Macassar ebony tune-o-matic, Nashville thumbwheel feet
- Tailpiece: Bigsby B-11
- Tailpiece mount/support: Bigsby stood off from top on threaded posts into center block
- Jack: 1/4" Switchcraft
- Jack mount: Electrosocket
- Tuners: Gotoh 510 aged chrome w/ebony buttons
- Control knobs: ebony domes
- Switch: Switchcraft 3-way toggle
- Top finish: gloss amber/orange toner-burst
- Back finish: gloss clear
- Neck finish: gloss clear w-amber toner
- Case: Ameritage silver
- Pickguard: NOS tortoise shell celluloid
- Pickup mounts: back-mounted height adjustment cap screw, ebony centering surrounds
- Centerblock: perforated basswood (back only)
- Nut width: 1 11/16"
- Spacing: 2 1/8"
- Fretboard width: narrow
- Fingerboard binding: yes, tortoise celluloid
- Body depth: 2 3/8"
- Body width: 13.25" (lower bout)
- Body length: 16.75"
- Body binding: yes, tortoise celluloid
- Overall length: 39"
- Neck join fret count: 16
- Finish type: water-bourne lacquer