Johan Gustavsson Fullerblaster Custom

When I started playing guitar, I wanted to be a jazz guitarist. Back then, Gibson was the guitar of jazz. All my idols played them, and I logged all my hours of playing and practice in the world of Gibson. I had a 1966 Gibson catalogue that I stared at for hours and hours (by the way, I still have it). To me, Gibson WAS guitar.

Then I became a session player, and had to re-learn what a guitar should be, because session players played Fenders. It took some getting used to but I got the bug. And, truth be told, now, in my heart, I am a Fender style guitar player.

As a professional guitarist those have always been my go to guitars. There has always been an honesty about them. To me they are the working man's instruments, you get out what you put in. And the right Fender can be a simply brilliant instrument (like my treasured ’56). They don't lie.

Today’s best builders all have their own take on Leo’s design, their own recipe of how to take the basic building blocks and create their personal vision of what this style guitar could and should be.

It really takes a deep understanding of the DNA of the guitar to do this. More than that, it also needs a deep understanding of the player who creates music with that style of the guitar. But most of all it takes love. Love for the history of these guitars. Love for the titans who have played them. Love for all the things from big to tiny that goes into making these beasts.

In my opinion, Johan Gustavsson has more than accomplished the task at hand. This brand new Fullerblaster is simply spectacular! Actually it is beyond spectacular. Remember - Johan, the man who makes the Bluesmaster, is the artist behind this amazing guitar.

Every single element of this guitar has Johan’s masterful touch. From the lightly relic-ed esthetic to the immaculate fit and finish, it all comes together to create the mojo of a guitar that you feel like you’ve known forever. It has personality!

The lightly relic-ed one piece maple neck has a super comfortable soft V to C profile with a compound fingerboard radius. It’s wonderfully hand carved with rolled-over fingerboard edges. It’s really quite a perfect rendition of a '50s style neck but with a modern playability and truss rod access. Another strong example of Johan’s eye for detail and care for the player. 

The pickups are custom wound to achieve a well balanced sound. And the tone is really vintage. These are not overwound modern pickups. They really sound and FEEL like a guitar that has been around a long time. That’s an incredibly difficult feat to achieve with any kind of honesty. The additional middle pickup is a tweak on the original FB recipe adding to the versatility of this guitar. If you are an aficionado of Strat tones, as am I, this guitar is for you.

Gustavsson Fullerblasters are genuinely infectious guitars. A truly great design that really sucks me in. The more I play them, the more I WANT to play them. Johan has uncovered some serious magic with his Fullerblaster. He actually might have made my perfect "desert island" guitar.

If you'd like to find out more about this item, just call or e-mail me. It would be my pleasure to talk to you about it.

ABOUT JOHAN GUSTAVSSON GUITARS
It's probably fair to say that there have been few builders who’ve made as deep an impact on the contemporary guitar world as quickly as Johan Gustavsson. He’s taken the ’59 burst to a level that you likely haven’t experienced from any other builder. Johan's first exposure to a fine guitar was via his teacher, Robert Larsson, who had (as Johan puts it) “an old beaten up 1960 Les Paul Standard.” It was then he realized just what a great guitar could be. The experience continued when Johan got a part time job at one of the few places importing vintage guitars to Sweden from the U.S. (fifties Gibson Les Paul Goldtops, Juniors, pre-CBS Strats, Teles and Jazzmasters, etc). The exposure to that level of guitar and to that many great instruments had a great influence on his work as a guitar maker. Again – the quality of those guitars showed the possibilities inherent in the instrument. Johan has always been more attracted to the Gibson style of making guitars (with carved maple tops and glued in necks), and this is reflected in his most famous, and current model, the Bluesmaster Custom 59. A Gustavsson guitar is a Gustavsson guitar. His shop consists of Johan and an able assistant who was trained at the London Guild Hall University (and is a wonderful guitarist). That’s both good and bad news. The good news is that Johan’s genius is evident in every guitar he creates. The bad news is that since he makes them all himself, there are never many available. It’s a rare treat to play one. Simply superb.