that Fender or Gibson produce,”
Martin says, “we’d be making a
much cheaper guitar. But when
you get to that level, you can’t
give as much personal attention
to each instrument and they
all become cookie-cutter. Dan’s
doing a good job of keeping them
all different.”
One of the ways these intrepid
builders keep their guitars unique
is with wood choice and color-
ing. “We use a lot of exotic
woods,” Becker says, “like blood-
wood, yellowheart, curly ash,
fever wood, cocobolo, and high-
quality, air-dried mahogany and
maple. We’re always on a search.”
In a stroke of luck, Becker
and Martin were offered a
large stock of wood at a highly
discounted rate by some retir-
ing woodworkers. “We have a
nice stash of 30-year-old, air-
dried South American mahog-
any that’s really tough to get,”
Becker says. “And we found
another guy who was closing
shop—a local guy—and he had
a lot of old maple and ash.”
Each instrument’s vibrant
color comes from the combina-
tion of the different woods and
hand-dyed lacquers that are
sprayed onto the body after it
has been carved and sanded.
HOPING FOR HEARSAY
If you haven’t heard of
ElectriCandyland, it’s prob-
ably because Becker and
Martin rely on word of mouth
as their primary market-
ing tool. “If we advertised,”
Becker says, “We wouldn’t
be able to keep up with our
business.” Still, since 2007
they’ve sold close to 75 cus-
tom instruments, and you can
now find them on Facebook,
Myspace, and You Tube as
buzz amongst guitar enthusi-
asts spreads.
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