THE DAN ERLEWINE DE-11 MODEL

Dan’s first signature guitar, based on his beloved 1937 Kalamazoo KG-11, features a 1930s V-shaped neck, Rickard rear-mount banjo tuning machines, an Adirondack spruce top, a satin finish, as well as Honduran mahogany back, sides, and neck. Most intriguing, its neck extends past the nut before transitioning into the ears of the peghead, and threaded brass inserts in the fingerboard accept screw-down capos from the first to the seventh fret. “It’s the most musical new guitar I’ve ever owned,” says Erlewine.

Dimensions

Body Length: 17-3/8”
Total Length: 38-7/8”
Lower Bout: 15”
Upper Bout: 10”
Waist: 9-1/8”
Depth: 4”

STANDARD SPECS

Mahogany Back & Sides
Adirondack Spruce top
Adirondack Spruce Ladder Bracing
Bolt-on Mortise & Tenon Neck Joint
1-13/16” Nut Width
2-3/8” Bridge Spacing
24.75” Scale Length
Indian Rosewood Fingerboard & Bar Bridge
Blk/W/Blk Top Purfling & Rosette
White Binding
Firestripe pickguard
Open Pore, Dark Sunburst Satin Nitrocellulose Finish
Plastic Fingerboard Markers
Bone Nut & Saddle
Off-white Plastic Bridge Pins
Rickard Rear-Mounted Brass Banjo Tuners
D’Addario XS Coated Strings - Light Gauge
Hardshell TKL Case

Our DE-11 model includes a V-Shaped Neck, Extended Peghead and Built in Capo System (1st-7th fret) with 3 brass capos and 2 thumb screws.

Dan did an interview with Acoustic Guitar magazine and he explained more extensively the proprietary capo system and elongated neck in much more detail. See below.

ABOUT DAN

Dan Erlewine has worked on an awful lot of famous guitars, some of which have been strummed by the likes of Bob Dylan, Jerry Garcia and many other notable musicians. With decades of music experience under his belt, Erlewine has both performed extensively with rock ‘n’ roll and folk bands and worked on hundreds of instruments. He began learning his trade as a teen in the early ‘60s, working at a local music shop. Throughout the ‘60s and ‘70s Erlewine traveled a lot, mostly with various rock bands, including his second band, The Prime Movers, which starred none other than James Newell Osterberg, a.k.a punk rock royalty Iggy Pop.

In 1967, the “summer of love,” Erlewine’s band opened for Cream in San Francisco, one of many notable musical phenomena that took place around that time for Erlewine.

During this time, Mike Bloomfield of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band served as Erlewine’s mentor. Erlewine would even go on to play in the Paul Butterfield Blues Band’s drummer, Sam Lay’s band for a short stint in Chicago. After another band break-up, Dan moved back home and got back into the business of guitar repair more seriously. In the early ‘80s Erlewine made the first of what would be many, many guitar repair videos, an endeavor that was encouraged by one of his brothers who had been involved in the early days of computer technology. The videos caught the eye of the musical instrument industry, and in 1984, when Erlewine attended a National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) convention, he was asked to demonstrate his talents at the booth maintained by Jim Dunlop’s company.

It was there that Erlewine was spotted by Athens’ own Stewart-Macdonald, which would offer Erlewine a job that brought him to the little town of Athens in the mid-80s. Soon Erlewine was penning a column for Guitar Player and Bass Player, as well as a music publication out of the U.K. After several years of regular column contribution, Erlewine decided to publish all of his written works on guitar repairing, as well as some extra stuff, in a volume entitled The Guitar Player’s Repair Guide, a book that has seen numerous editions over the past several decades. Erlewine continues today as the godfather, mentor and all-around authority in the world of guitar repair and luthiery.

Much of this bio is excerpted from a story by Emily Votaw for WOUB Public Media.

DEMO COURTESY OF THE NORTH AMERICAN GUITAR