Ronin Stringed Instruments CO: these are the guys that got folks to pay attention to the DeArmond Golden tone pickups used in so many Harmony guitars of the late 50's through the 60s.  However the Ronin (foilbucker) design is only loosely based on those old catalog brand pickups. The the pickups they produce are exclusively for the meticulously hand crafted instruments also built by them.  They are the BOMB!  And I am a big fan, so imagine how cool it was to be contacted by them to do a collaboration. John Reed (top guy at Ronin) and I talked for a time about old catalog brand guitars and pickups from back in the day.  We found that we had a lot in common on this subject.  So the collaboration was on!!

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Ronin sent me out a set of their amazing pickups to design and build an instrument with. I wanted to draw on our mutual interest in the cool old Chicago catalog brand guitars we had discussed, but also blend a bit of my Cowbrand flavor into the Composition as well.

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The final design was a blend of that no-nonsense approach I see in the way of Ronin.  Coupled that with a very traditional flavored body design that hints at the mid-century catalog brand guitar aesthetic. This idea is also pushed a bit further with a more satin like finish, slotted headstock, acrylic guard with invisible glow in the dark seven logo and inset control plate with clunky knobs!

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The Empty Seven is a sonic playground with the low output foilbuckers connected to coil taps for each of the pickups. The controls are volume, blend and tone with hidden push pull switches for tapping.

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