William Jeffrey Jones Kronos

Kronos (frequently also spelled "Cronus") was the leader of the Titans and father of Zeus, Hades, and Poseidon. The origin of the name is unclear and may well be associated with the ancient Indian demon Kroni. All too often, Kronos is confused with Chronos, the personification of time.

This guitar is the next distillation of Jones' Kronos fretless concept which began with the first Kronos built almost exactly a year ago.

The lovely figured walnut top in the photos above is one single piece. For the back, Jones chose to enhance the joinery of the soft maple with walnut veneer.

The neck on this guitar is Honduran rosewood, a very hard, dense wood that rings like glass when tapped. The moderate V neck profile is obvious here. Note the stacked Mother of Pearl sidemarkers at the octave position.

For fretless guitars, Jones prefers a bolt-on neck joint, mostly because if any maintenance has to be done to the fingerboard, the neck can be easily removed. On this instrument, Jones uses hex screws (instead of wood screws) and threaded T-nuts that have been permanently installed into the hard Honduran rosewood neck, before the fingerboard was attached. This allows for a very strong neck joint which is virtually foolproof to disassemble and put back together without stripping threads in the neck wood.

You may have noticed the carved leaf embellishment Jones added for fun. It breaks up the monotony a bit and compliments the curves of the guitar, otherwise contrasted by the straight veneer lines. Think of it as a graphic counterpart to the carved flourish on the other horn, as well.

Because the bridge is wooden, Jones typically incorporates a brass ground plate to hold the ends of the strings that pass all the way through the body. The brass plate is covered permanently with a walnut inlay. The plate is soldered with a ground wire that is in turn soldered to the cover of the volume pot. Also new to this model is the small control port and cover for easier access to the electronics.

The bridge is sculpted ebony with a maple saddle. Black metal ferrules on the front of the guitar keep the strings from wearing the walnut top.

For this latest version of the Kronos, Jones has moved the pickup back toward the bridge to allow for the possibilities of a more treble sound. While Jones loves a neck position pickup, particularly for jazz, this bridge position is a little more versatile. Jones based placement on the premise that highs are easier to remove than add.

As is a common practice for Jones, he incorporated minimal controls - in this case, a single volume pot. For tone control, he usually relies on a wah-wah pedal or EQ.

Jones has incorporated an aluminum socket jack mount. It makes for a good-looking, solid jack.

A quick word about the finish on this Kronos; Jones is a big Tru-oil user, but for this guitar (and more to come), he's using Danish oil, which is a penetrating oil. It doesn't build a coating like Tru-oil does, but instead, penetrates the wood, then dries there to harden and protect the wood. You're seeing a sheen here, because Jones sands the snot out of his guitars. The last grit Jones used on this instrument was 1200 grit, sanding wet using Danish oil as his lubricant. It's truly smooth

The ebony fretboard is inlaid with contrasting maple fretlines. This new instrument uses a 660 mm classical scale, or approximately 26". This allows for more string tension, which, Jones feels, greatly enhances the tone

Jones recommends D'Addario half-round strings for fretless guitar. That's not to say that round-wounds aren't perfectly acceptable. The half-rounds though, are quite a bit brighter than flat-wounds. Jones uses a standard set, gauged 013-056, but usually replaces the first and second strings with a .015 and .019 string. The heavier gauge really helps thicken the sound of the higher strings on fretless guitarSince no bending is necessary on fretless guitar, the heavier gauges improve tone at no cost to playability.

Rather than a simple inlaid logo, Jones wanted to raise the bar with a fully carved logo. The ebony headstock badge sits proud of the faceplate by about 3/16". It's inlaid into the faceplate, then the edges are cleaned up by hand. Jones carves the logo by hand

The nut is ebony. Jones likes an ebony nut on a fretless instrument, because it means that the tone of the open strings more closely matches that of the fingered strings.

Specifications -
- Body: semi-hollow soft maple w/ one-piece, air-dried walnut top
- Neck: Honduran rosewood, 3x3 headstock, dual-action trussrod, moderate V carve
- Fretboard: fretless ebony, 24 frets, 12" radius, maple slot inlays
- Scale length: 660 mm (26")
- Nut: ebony, 1.70" width
- Pickups: single Kent Armstrong humbucker, covered
- Switching: volume control only
- Bridge: sculpted ebony floating bridge w/hard maple saddle
- String spread: 2 3/16"
- Tuners: black Grover locking 3x3
- Body finish: Danish oil
- Neck finish: natural (none)
- Total weight: 6 pounds, 6 ounces

Price: $7000