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Crocker
Guitars was
chosen over other custom guitar builders to create “Honey
Dripper”, the guitar featured in the upcoming film,
“Honeydripper”. The movie, written and directed by
John
Sayles and starring Danny Glover, Keb Mo, Stacy Keach and Gary Clark
Jr, takes place in 1950 Alabama. The guitar is spotlighted as the first
electric guitar seen in the small town of Harmony. Handmade by Sonny
(Clark), it was described in the script as “a neck screwed to
a
plank with strange wires.” In the hands of Sonny, it helps
save
the Honeydripper Lounge owned by Tyrone (Glover), which is on the verge
of closing due to a competing club with a jukebox. A blurb about the
movie says "it evokes that magic Bo Diddley moment when music fused the
blues with rock & roll".
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Sonny
(GaryClark Jr.)
playing Ted Crocker's “Honey Dripper” guitar in the
new
John Sayles film, “Honeydripper”
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Crocker crafted his
interpretation of what a homemade, electric guitar built by a 1950
Bluesman would be. He designed his own pickups and hardware to appear
period correct, yet stand up to the demands of recording a movie
soundtrack in a 21st century recording studio and survive shooting on
location in a Juke Joint. Of course the tone had to drip mojo. Because
it's a Crocker, it was up to the task. Because it's Hollywood, a
stand-in was also ordered.
The
guitar(s) surpassed the expectations of everyone involved.
| Crocker used a one
piece slab of Honduras Mahogany for the body (finished with tung oil)
and Leopardwood for the bridge, string base, bobbin bottoms and volume
cavity cover. He chose Purpleheart for the bobbin tops. Even with such
a basic shape, there was quite a bit more work than on an 'ordinary'
Crocker guitar. The finished guitars ship in a tweed case and include a
custom-made vintage leather guitar strap, a tweed guitar
cable
and two Crocker Wood Shed™
guitar picks. |
The script
noted that
Sonny was a WW2 Radio Technician, and the pickups were odd, with
exposed wires. Crocker designed 3 two string pickups which sit in a
recess with exposed windings and cloth wires. The pickup windings are
saturated with lacquer to avoid microphonics & feedback and he
engineered a ground circuit to keep the guitar SUPRISINGLY quiet (the
cavities and routes are painted with black, conductive shielding
paint).
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Body:
Original Crocker Rusty Nail™
Design (modified)
1 Piece Honduras Mahogany
Tung Oil Finish
Neck: Maple/Rosewood
Scale: 24.75
Tuners: Vintage Nickel Kluson Style
Pickups: Crocker Custom Stonehenge™
Pickups
(3) Two String Pickups
Scatter Wound by Hand
Optimized Output
Purpleheart Bobbin Tops
Leopardwood Bobbin Bases
Alnico V Magnet Poles
Hand Crafted Leopardwood Bridge
Hand Crafted Leopardwood String Base
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Here's Ben Prestage
playing a
Honey Dripper guitar. Ben is an awesome, award winning blues musician,
and a friend. Ben was voted “one of the three best unsigned
performers in the world” at the 2006 International Blues
Challenge and is the only two-time recipient of the prestigious
“Lyons/Pitchford Award" for 'Best Diddley-Bow Player'. Check
out Ben's
web site and MySpace for more of his unique
'one man band' style of blues.
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Click
to visit the Official
Honeydripper
Movie Website!
Visit
us at MySpace.com/TedCrocker
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