MATT THOMAS'S WATER TANK CUSTOM

Matt Thomas's guitar: western red cedar body that began its vocational life as a stave in a locomotive water tank on the trans-American railroad, circa late-1860s. In 1902, made redundant by a change in locomotive efficiency, it was torn down and recoopered into a pickle vat stave at a Fort Collins, CO pickle operation. In 1992, it was torn down again and sat dormant, air drying in the Rocky Mountains, until 2012 when it found itself assembled into this guitar.

Mahogany / rosewood neck, steel pickguard, Lollar Standard-wind soapbar, Lollar low-wind Regal, momentary kill button, Bigsby B5, antique bakelite knobs.