Just Guitars is very pleased to offer this extraordinary and rare instrument to the Australian music community…
Stewart Male history
The late Stewart Male was a Melbourne musician and guitar builder, whose instruments had acquired legendary status, long before his untimely death in 2004. Stewart Male enjoyed music success from an early age, beginning with his mid-sixties band Strings Unlimited, which featured the young John Farnham on lead vocals. (The group's 'I Feel Fine' can be heard on John Farnham's Anthology 3 collection)
The hills of Lilydale
As handy at working on guitars as he was playing them, during the seventies Male handled repair jobs for both Maton and Merv Cargill, and in the early eighties provided the same service for SoundWorks in Melbourne's outer-east, before finally setting up on his own in the hills of Lilydale.
Every one built entirely by hand
Each of Stewart Male's guitars was a one-off creation, built entirely by hand, featuring only premium timbers and components, with the singular aim of playing and sounding better than anything else available. A former Maton colleague, Chris Ffinch, knew him better than anyone in the business, and provided us with invaluable information on both Stewart and his guitars.
Brazilian Mahogany body!
This unique hybrid instrument combines the best features of a Telecaster with those of a Stratocaster: a Tele-shaped body and neck, with Strat-style electrics. The body is cut from a single piece of tight-grained Brazilian Mahogany, contributing to the total weight of a hair over 8lb, (3.65kg). The body is clear nitro-finished over Natural, allowing for the purest of sonic resonances. The "belly cut", (shown in pic # 1), gives the guitar a sleek, fast appeal.
Pickups & Switching
A matched set of Seymour Duncan's original 'Livewire' active pickups are routed through a 5-way selector switch, along with a PRS-style 'sweet switch', designed to restore any drop-off from lengthy guitar leads. Body cavities are all fully shielded and hum-protected. Click on the LISTEN button and hear why Stewart Male's guitars are so highly prized among Oz musos.
Black chrome hardware
All hardware is black chrome, including the Strat-style tremolo bridge, the heavy-weight trem block and Sperzel graduated locking tuners.
Thinnest neck ever!
The Maple Tele-style neck features jumbo frets and a Graph Tech nut – AND is almost certainly the thinnest, fastest, most comfortable neck we have ever encountered – thinner than the thinnest Ric necks, thinner than it's almost possible to believe – playing this guitar is one of life's greatest pleasures!
Rounding the whole package out are a dark, smoked bronze mirror scratchplate, Paua shell inlay at the base of the neck, and smoked chrome tremolo arm. (Some of these may have been late nineties additions by another Melbourne player, Ron Beaumont)
An incredible punch
So, how does it sound? Our electrics service guy reckons it has a lovely, liquid sound. (We almost had to take out a restraining order to get the guitar back off him!) The 18 volt Duncan Livewire pickups pack an incredible punch that will slice through any mix, making sure this guitar stays front and centre every time. Roll the tone and volume off and you can almost get jazzy, but this is really a lead guitar designed for any style of rock, country or blues-rock. Give it its head and the guitar will take you places you've only been able to dream about in the past!
Original case
Complete with its original hard shell case, this important piece of Australia's guitar building history is fully set up and ready to go. And, as with all Just Guitars instruments, it comes with FREE COURIER DELIVERY to any address in Australia.
NOTE: Stewart Male's usual practice was to pencil build information in the body cavities, however in this instance there is no writing at all on the inside, hinting that he may have assembled this amazing instrument for his personal use. The neckplate serial number shows that it was the second guitar he constructed in 1986.
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