John Page Classic, a new guitar brand that brings the custom-design genius of John Page, co-founder of the Fender Custom Shop, to the world of production guitars, has announced the Ashburn, its initial production model.
The double-cutaway, hard-body Ashburn was designed by Page and produced to his standards in a state-of-the-art workshop in Japan and set up in the U.S. by John Page Classic techs.
“The Ashburn has all the design features of my hand-built custom guitars,” Page said. “It’s the culmination of my nearly 40 years building custom guitars. Through John Page Classic, I’m now able to make the Page custom-design experience available to more people.”
John Page Classic is a cornerstone brand of HRS Unlimited, a new company founded by MI veteran Howard Swimmer to bring forward-thinking business models to MI.
“In a market characterized by custom guitars on the one hand and production guitars on the other, the Ashburn is a new alternative—the first ‘custom production’ guitar,” Swimmer said.
The Ashburn offers several John Page custom design advantages. Its threaded machine bolt neck assembly provides superior tone transfer and a unique complexity to overtones and harmonics. It is equipped with Bloodline by John Page JP-1 pickups, custom voiced by Page and with the bridge pickup reverse-slanted for greater thickness and girth. The Ashburn’s bass-justified fret dots provide greater visibility. Its staggered Gotoh Vintage Style tuners reduce and, in most cases, eliminate the need for string trees.
Page co-founded and led the Fender Custom Shop for its first 12 years and created legendary guitars for artists including Eric Clapton, Pete Townshend, David Gilmour, Elliot Easton and Cesar Rosas. He also designed guitars in conjunction with Harley Davidson, Playboy and Jaguar. Page is prominently featured in The Dream Factory: Fender Custom Shop, by Tom Wheeler (Hal Leonard, 2011).
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Specs: The Ashburn, from John Page Classic
• Body: Alder • Neck: Maple • Neck/Body Attachment: Machine screws with Threaded Inserts • Fingerboard: Maple or Rosewood • Neck Shape: Medium C • Scale Length: 25.5" • Frets: 22 Nickel Silver • Hardware: Nickel/Chrome • Tuners: Gotoh Staggered Vintage Style • Bridge: Gotoh 510 Tremolo • Pickups: Bloodline by John Page JP1 single coil S-style Pickups (3) • Controls: Master volume/tone, 5-way pickup selector allowing noise cancelling in positions 2/4 • Colors: Black Metallic, Daphne Blue, Fiesta Red, Inca Silver, Olympic White, Shoreline Gold MSRP: $1,499 Optional hard shell case with John Page Classic logo: $100
For more information about John Page Classic and the Ashburn, visit johnpageclassic.com.
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