[Jim Soloway]

Hi guys. I came across theis thread doing some maintenance on my site and I thought it might be useful if I ceared up a couple things about our guitars.

First of all, these guitar were designed to be played primarily in standard pitch using normal string guages. My 7-string, which is my main instrument, is tuned to standard using a set of .011's plus a .060 for the low A. On a 6-string I do tune to open D a lot, but that's only because I've been playing 7-string for so long that I tend to get hopelessly confused when I play 6-string in standard tuning.

Second, the only reason why there are no bends in my clips is because I'm the one playing them. My playing is what I would describe as "piano-like". It doesn't realy matter what guitar I'm playing, what the scale length is, or what the string guages are, my playing is still going to be your basic no-bend zone. If you check out the clips by Scott Lerner, he bends on the Swan just like he does on any of his other guitars. We've done a lot to make these as easy to play as possible and while I know its hard to believe until you've tried one, for most people, a Swan with .010's tuned to standard pitch feels very similar to a Strat.

As for being "too pretty", as a working musician I really do understand that one and I don't disagree. I didn't originally set out to go in that direction, but very clearly we've drifted that way with fancy woods and nitro finishes. Our earlier guitars were a lot more utilitarian with poly finishes and simpler wood combinations. I played over 150 gigs in one year with my first 7-string including a lot of outdoor gigs in crummy Portland weather. It was strictly a working guitar and when I sold it the sweat and coffee splashes all just wiped off the poly finish. I certainly couldn't do that with my new nitro finished guitar.

I have no plans to make the guitars uglier, but I do have plans to offer some more "player-oriented" guitars. It's not on the web-site yet, but poly finishes are available again along with solid colors and more all-ash bodies.

If you have any questions, please feel free and I'll do my best to give you some answers. And if you're curious about what our guitars feel like, just give me a call. I usually have a demo model that I ship around for test-drives. The old demo sold a while ago,but I plan on having another one available in about 6 or 7 weeks.