Josh Williams Guitars Mockingbird
Josh Williams Guitars makes its channel debut with the Mockingbird semi-hollow in Pelham Blue — an instrument that absolutely delivers. Welcome back to Edge of Breakup.
In this episode the Josh Williams Guitars Mockingbird takes center stage — loaded with Tone Specific Bloombucker PAF Humbuckers and a stop tail, into the Benson Amps Monarch 2x12" via the Boss Waza Tube Amp Expander. Origin Effects Revival Drive Compact, R2R Electric Rangemaster OC44, Effectrode Tube Vibe, and Echo Fix EF-X3 Chorus Echo also feature.
Josh Williams builds in Vista, Southern California — a small dedicated team, every guitar a custom order built individually to the player's specifications. Josh trained at the Roberto-Venn School of Luthiery and apprenticed under Latvian master luthier Yuris Zeltins at The Blue Guitar in San Diego, and that foundation shows in the level of finish work and construction detail his instruments are known for. Players including Ariel Posen, Joey Landreth, and Josh Smith have made Josh Williams guitars part of their working rigs.
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 — the pressed maple construction adding openness, shimmer, and a sweeter upper-mid response compared to solid maple, while maintaining the warmth and bloom of a great semi-hollow. Every centerblock is individually weighed and chosen to keep the instrument lively and balanced. 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. Stop tail on this build.
The Tone Specific Bloombucker is a PAF-voiced humbucker built around the specific quality found in original 1950s Patent Applied For humbuckers that most boutique winders struggle to replicate: the "bloom." Vintage PAFs had a particular way of sustaining and opening up after the initial attack — notes swell rather than decay linearly, giving chords a three-dimensional quality immediately recognizable in recordings from that era. Warm but not muddy, dynamic but not harsh.
🎸 Josh Williams Guitars: https://joshwilliamsguitars.com 🎸 Tone Specific Bloombuckers: https://www.tonespecific.com/products/bloombucker-p-a-f-humbuckers 🔊 Benson Amps: https://www.bensonamps.com/guitar-amplifiers
Subscribe for more boutique tone explorations.
🎸 Josh Williams Guitars Mockingbird | Pelham Blue | Pressed Maple Semi-Hollow | Mahogany Neck | Tone Specific Bloombuckers | Stop Tail | 24.75" 🎛️ Origin Effects Revival Drive Compact | R2R Electric Rangemaster OC44 | Effectrode Tube Vibe 🎛️ Also: Echo Fix EF-X3 Chorus Echo 🔊 Benson Amps Monarch 2x12" | Boss Waza TAE
Recording: Universal Audio Apollo x4 | Lauten Audio LS-208 | Royer R121 & R10 | Sennheiser E906 | Ableton Live 12
