Rowan Custom Guitars

Welcome to my "Stump Speech" page

Hello all.  Time to scribble down a few more thoughts to share with you.  For the last few years I have been working (read "tinkering") on a little project that I thought would go a long way toward doing something about the annoying volume drop that occurs when you coil tap most humbuckers.  Granted, some are worse than others but all in all most of them suffer from this problem.  Several pickup builders have addressed this problem by designing stagger wound pickups to lessen the loss of signal strength and to some degree it has helped the situation.  My thought was why can't I come up with some sort of device that would allow one to "adjust" the output level of the ungrounded coil to whatever level they want.  You could adjust it so no volume drop takes place or even set it to some degree of overdrive if you like.  Cool huh?  Thus was born the Supercharger.  While designing* this gadget I thought it would be good if it was capable of dealing with the neck or bridge pickup individually so they could be balanced independently.  The more I looked at it, the more I realized that doing that would open up a bunch of possibilities.  Because the Supercharger is essentially two independent preamps on one board you could actually use one side to balance the pickup output and the other to act as a "solo" boost.  In the case of a guitar that is equipped with single coil pickups the solo boost would be pretty cool.  I have posted a few wiring diagrams accessible from the Supercharger page of my website to give you an idea of how you could apply it to your guitar.  I have also shown how to incorporate a bypass switch so you would be able to choose whether or not to use the Supercharger, or to bypass it altogether in the event of battery failure.  Currently I am experimenting with driving piezo pickups with the Supercharger and generating more application wiring diagrams detailing more ways of using it. Seems like everyday I get a new idea but unfortunately there are just not enough hours in a day to get everything done I would like to do.  So having said that I would invite you to stop by regularly to see what I have posted and maybe you'll find just what you're looking for.

* I believe that credit should be given to Mr. Bill Banks of Banks Electronics here in Dallas for turning my idea into reality.  I am pretty good at gluing wood together and turning it into a guitar but I am no electronics engineer.  I went to Bill with my idea and he listened closely to what I had to say and after a little brainstorming we shook hands and I left.  A couple of weeks later he called and said come on over I think I have what you are looking for.  Long story short, he nailed it!  Man, it's great when a plan comes together!  Thank you Bill, and I hope my check covered your trip to Kokomo!

On another subject I would like to thank Kenn Fox at Paramount Guitars in Watertown WI for becoming the newest Rowan Custom Guitars dealer.
Kenn has a Del Rio PA in Trans Purple and a Texas Twister in Vintage Amber on order so if you are in his neck of the woods stop by and say hello and check out his showroom.

Remember, next time you visit your local music store, ask to see one of my guitars, and if they don't carry them just simply ask "why not, I hear they're the most reasonably priced boutique guitars on the market."

See ya later,

Michael Rowan