Wood Selection
The wood for the James Duke 357 is selected first and has to meet certain size and grain characteristics to assure all bodies are glued in the same manner, with an offset glue joint at the bottom bout of the guitar. This maintains consistency from one guitar to the next. The upper bout is contoured for a very comfortable feel. The species of wood used for this guitar body is alder.
Neck:
- Flatsawn solid maple
- Indian rosewood fingerboard
- Traditional clay marking dots
- Elliott custom side dots
- Nitro finish
Fretting
At Elliott Guitars, fretwork is one of the things they are most proud of. They go to the extreme to make sure that your guitar is going to play the best it can. The fingerboard is planed under tension. The fretting process is done with epoxy fretting, using a special blend of epoxy that makes re-fretting very easy without messing up your fingerboard. This process is used for multiple reasons. One of the advantages to this type of fretting is that you lose the hollow gaps under the fret that you find with the traditional way of fretting. In traditional fretting, with each fret you put on, it is like driving a wedge into the fingerboard, which causes back tension on the neck. With epoxy fretting, all of these issues are eliminated. The epoxy under the frets helps to transfer string vibration throughout the neck to the body, and relieves all stress and tension on the neck that occurs with traditional fretting. This results in a stress-free neck, which allows the truss rod to work properly and to adjust the neck accurately.
Pickups:
- Elliott James Duke Gold Foils (colors available)
The colors available for the 357, all with Polyester Urethane finish include:
- Shoreline Gold w/ pin stripes
- Surf Green w/ pin stripes
- Sonic Blue w/ pin stripes
- Candy Apple Red w/ racing stripe
- Black Sparkle w/ racing stripe
- Lake Placid Blue w/ racing stripe
OPTIONS:
- VT1 Ultra Trem Vega-Trem tremolo: +$300
- Premium finishes (Shoreline Gold w/ pin stripes): +$350