Absolutely Killer Semi-Hollow | Josh Williams Guitars Mockingbird
Josh Williams Guitars returns to the channel — this time with the Mockingbird in '59 Burst, and Reeves Electro makes their third channel appearance with the ZO Professional Fuzz. Welcome back to Edge of Breakup.
In this episode the Josh Williams Guitars Mockingbird takes center stage — '59 Burst finish, Tone Specific Bloombucker Humbuckers, trapeze tailpiece — into the Benson Amps Vincent head and Benson 2x12" cab via the Boss Waza Tube Amp Expander. The Reeves Electro ZO Professional Fuzz and Effectrode Tube Vibe feature throughout.
Also on the channel: Josh Williams Guitars Mockingbird in Pelham Blue. Also on the channel: Reeves Electro Facet IZ Fuzz and Darlington Flyer.
Josh Williams builds in Vista, Southern California — a small dedicated team, every guitar a custom order built individually to the player's specifications. The Mockingbird is Josh's refined take on the classic 1960s ES-style semi-hollow: pressed maple top, back, and sides around a carefully selected centerblock. 16" lower bout. Mahogany neck. Rosewood fingerboard with MOP split parallelogram inlays. 24.75" scale. Bone nut. Kluson tuners with pearl buttons. Cream binding throughout. 2 Volume / 2 Tone / 3-way Toggle. This build has a trapeze tailpiece and '59 Burst finish — a different animal aesthetically and tonally from the Pelham Blue stop tail build on the channel.
The Tone Specific Bloombucker is a PAF-voiced humbucker built around the specific quality found in vintage 1950s PAFs — the "bloom." Notes swell slightly rather than decay linearly, giving chords a three-dimensional quality. Warm but not muddy, dynamic but not harsh.
The Reeves Electro ZO Professional is Markus Reeves' Zonk Machine MKII homage in the Professional Wedge format — his own tweaked version of the original two-transistor silicon Zonk circuit. NOS TO98 Sprague 2N2926 Green Dot silicon transistors from the late 1960s, matched pair. Mid-gain, super textured fuzz with heavy octave overtones and that distinctly angular, percussive Zonk MKII character.
Three controls: Volume, Drift (mimics how original component values drift over decades — acts like a cross between a fuzz and a bias control, with a wide range of usable settings — max is not the only option), Texture (adds graininess and affects the decay character, making notes crumble more aggressively as they die). Hand-sprayed hammer finish, point-to-point construction, acid-etched enclosure. The Professional Wedge format is the same footprint as the Facet IZ from the previous Reeves Electro demo.
🎸 Josh Williams Guitars: https://joshwilliamsguitars.com 🎸 Tone Specific: https://www.tonespecific.com 🎛️ Reeves Electro: https://reeveselectro.co.uk 🔊 Benson Amps: https://www.bensonamps.com/guitar-amplifiers
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🎸 Josh Williams Guitars Mockingbird | '59 Burst | Pressed Maple Semi-Hollow | Tone Specific Bloombuckers | Trapeze Tailpiece | 24.75" 🎛️ Reeves Electro ZO Professional | NOS Sprague 2N2926 Green Dot Si | Zonk Machine MKII Topology | Volume / Drift / Texture | Point-to-Point 🎛️ Also: Effectrode Tube Vibe 🔊 Benson Amps Vincent Head + Benson 2x12" | Scumback H75-PVC | Boss Waza TAE
Recording: Universal Audio Apollo x4 | Ohma Ribbon | Lauten Audio LS-208 | Royer R121 & R10 | Ableton Live 12
