Howie Griffin Series #G.21.79.21












Note: Click Here to see a video of this guitar in action!
This 2021 Griffin Series guitar is made from Hard Maple, Basswood and an extremely rare piece of Spalted Maple. It has a 24-fret fingerboard with an extra-long scale length of 26.6in. The African Blackwood board has a compound radius of 13in at the tail down to 8in at the nut.
The Shape of the neck is what we call the Howie Thick Line. At the nut the depth is 0.92inches and at the 12th fret it is 1.0in. It’s not super fat and round like an early Les Paul neck but it’s also not super thin like the 1960s Gibson ES 335s. It’s pretty much right in the middle leaning more towards the Les Paul side. The width at the nut is 1.67inches. At the tail it is 2.25inches.
The pickups are one of the main features of this guitar. I went way out of the box on this one and used Seymour Duncan’s Black Winter humbuckers. These humbuckers are unique in that they have some of the highest resistance you can get from a passive pickup. This gives you plenty of ceiling room for soloing and clarity, while at the same time, the volume and tone controls on this guitar make it so they can be turned down to accommodate nearly any style of playing. The bridge humbucker is the “trembucker” version so that the pole spacing fits the Griffin’s wider string spacing.
The hollow body design of this guitar makes it incredibly light weighing in at just 5.6lbs.
The finish on this guitar was done with a catalyzed urethane that is normally used on automobiles. This high-end urethane dries very fast and hard allowing fewer coats and a thinner finish.
The rest of the nitty gritty details are all listed below….
Series: Griffin
Serial Number: G.21.79.21
Birthday: 11.19.21
Main Body Wood: Basswood
Top Body Wood: Spalted Maple
Neck Wood: Hard Maple
Peghead Veneer: Hard Maple
Fretboard: African Blackwood
TR Cover: Black
Weight: 5.6lbs, 2.54kg
Carve Type: 0.5in Fibonacci
Scale Length: 26.6in, 67.6cm
Nut Width: 1.67in, 4.24cm
Tail Width: 2.25in, 5.72cm
Neck Depth @ Nut: 0.92in, 23.37mm
Neck Depth @ 12th: 1.0in, 25.4mm
Fretboard Radius: 13in to 8in, or 33.02cm to 20.32cm
Fretwire: 0.09in, Stainless Steel
Neck Angle: 3.7deg
Torsion Angle: 0deg
Neck Carve: Howie Thick Line
Peghead Angle: 8.5deg
Pups: Seymour Duncan Black Winter Humbucker set
Pre-Amp:
Tuning Machines: Kluson Deluxe Gold
Nut: Bleached Bone
Truss Rod: Hotrod Low Profile
Bridge: Kluson ABR Wired
Tail Piece: Gotoh Stop
Strap Pins: Gold
Strings: S.I.T Heavy Bottom
Inlays: Abalone and Black Richlite
Pup Rings: Howie Custom Offset
Side Dots: Abalone
Knobs: Black Gibson Style
Finish: DC 2000 Catalyzed Urethane