This was a cool project that had to be done in a short amount of time for famed Rob Zombie/Marilyn Manson/solo guitarist John 5. My new friend Mike Freemantle approached me to make a custom neck for his Texas Chainsaw Massacre LeatherFace Guitar for John 5. Mike is a guitar designer/artist and also fabricates a lot of cool parts. The body is one piece Ash in a Tele shape that was painted red for blood, I needed to mill the pockets for the humbucking pickups and control cavity depth to fit all the electronics. Mike then took skin tone leather and and covered the body with it and then began to black stitch the guitar together like the way LeatherFace would wear his mask or body suit. After completing the leather work Mike put a Peterbilt sign on it. Mike also made the rusty pickguard that I later added some mismatched screws to and sawed the control area out to get easy access to the electronics, in order to replace the 9 volt battery on the Iron Age brand kill switch I wired in. I also milled the pickguard to fit without hitting the black stitches. I used the same brass inserts with threaded screws my Dad (Dr. Phil Petillo) used on Bruce Springsteen, Stevie Van Zandt and Nils Lofgren’s guitars which avoided using wood screws that could strip out and make problems on tour. I also used old vintage Schaller tuning keys. You can see the tuners say “Made in W. Germany” meaning the Berlin Wall was still up before it was taken down in 1989. I still remember President Ronald Reagan saying “Tear down that wall Mr. Gorbachev!” I used acid to age/relic the tuners and also bridge plate, saddles and football jack plate. Another cool idea of Mike’s was the Shotgun caps (Winchester 12G) for the volume and tone knobs, I had to lathe them true and center drill to make them work on the Emerson 500k pots to turn with no wobble, and the bullet switch tip made another nice touch. Mike used eye hooks for strap locks and a leather strap with an old sheriff badge and latches to lock into the eye hooks. The main entire focus which is the most important part of an instrument is the neck specs. Mike was able to acquire John 5’s preferred specs down to every last detail and with my fixture for making necks I was able to do exactly John 5’s feel, neck shape, neck width, fingerboard radius, fret size/height and fingerboard species which is Indian Rosewood. The neck is rare German tiger grain flamed roasted maple. The true advantages to Roasted Maple come from the tuning side of the equation. Since the wood is dried to a very low moisture content it is much less resistant to changes in temperature and humidity. That means that when you pull it out of the case after it has been in a truck in the middle of winter and start playing under hot stage lights the guitar will stay in tune much better than a guitar with a Standard Maple Neck. Roasted Maple also has a tendency to be very stable and consistent over time so the neck will keep its straightness throughout humidity changes as seasons change from fall to winter or if your world tour takes you from Canada to South America. Mike designed a headstock decal that was a cool name for the axe: Hellacaster “Careful With That Axe” in the far end of the headstock it says: “Original Freemantle Body”. Before delicately putting down the decal I did a blood red stain with a little natural in the middle for burst/framing effect. The fingerboard dot inlays are made of a flat clam shell that I dyed with a little red to mimic blood shot eyes. The side dots are made of gold/white pearl to make it easier to see on stage since it’s bright and reflects well. The nut is made of Wooly Mammoth bone and I dyed it red to make it look like blood got on it and also make sure like all my necks I get the nut flush to the edge of the fingerboard/neck. The final touch was Mike’s guitar case that had the actor that played LeatherFace, the mother of LeatherFace with cracked glass and the kid on the milk carton. Mike used old school paneling and fake blood with a hand print on the back of the case. John 5 loved the guitar and it was a big hit at Namm 2016. It was stressful but satisfying to see the guitar completed and appreciated for its many hours of art and engineering that went into it.

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