John Page Crash Guitar

John Page Guitars #034 - Collaboration with John "Crash" Matos

John Page Guitars number 034 is the realization of the collaborative vision and talent from two of the world's most renown artists in their fields; guitar builder John Page and pioneer graffiti artist John "Crash" Matos. Here's John Page's account of its creation:

"I first heard about Crash when I saw Eric Clapton playing one of his original painted Strats. I thought it was exceptionally cool, very unique, not your everyday graphics guitar. It was bold, had great lines and a wonderful use of color. As I learned more about him I found that I really liked his story, from a kid living in the projects of the Bronx painting on subway cars, to painting EC's guitar on the world stage, how cool is that? In addition to a celebrity list of Crashocaster owners and other collectors of his art, Crash continues to exhibit in top galleries in the world, including exhibitions in France and Singapore, this winter alone.

"Unfortunately Crash and I kept 'just missing' each other in our professional lives. He started doing work with the Fender Custom Shop shortly after I left the shop. Then he did a beautiful exhibition at the Fender Museum of Music and the Arts, again, right after I left the museum. Around this time we became internet friends, via e-mails, while we were both columnists at Modern Guitars (.com). We respected each other's work and linked to each other's websites. One day it led to yet another tie, we became Facebook friends. Oh the world of social networking, eh?

"One evening we were both on Facebook at the same time. Crash posted something. I commented. He commented back. I commented back, and so on, and so on. Within a few minutes we had agreed to finally collaborate on couple of guitars. He had an exhibition coming up in a few months in NYC featuring his guitar art, his Crashocasters. We were both thrilled to finally get a chance to work together after so many years of 'misses.' We agreed to create two guitars together, John Page Guitars #033 and #034, one for each of us.

"Crash wanted both pieces to be totally unique, taking his guitar art to the limit, so I created the guitars to be unique as well. I decided to go with a hybrid of my P-1 and P-1SV model features. They have the 5 piece Maple/Mahogany necks and signature pickguards of my P-1 model, but the solid body and vintage style bridge of my P-1SV. Unique to both of them is the use of a 3 position toggle switch instead of my standard 5 position lever switch. I also chose what I consider to be the most underrated tone wood in the world for the body, poplar. I love poplar. I think it sounds great and it's perfect for a guitar that is going to double as a canvas due to its tight grain structure. Because of the type of paints Crash uses for his artwork I decided to go with a urethane finish instead of my normal nitrocellulose lacquer. The top coat is satin to really get that 'canvas' tactility.

"The result speaks for itself. I am proud as I can be of this guitar and the collaboration with my friend, John 'Crash' Matos. The guitar plays like a dream and is one of the best sounding solid bodies I've made to date. Art meets art. and they are both very happy."

John Page Guitars #034 – Hand painted by John “Crash” Matos – specifications

- 5 piece Maple/Mahogany neck
- Brazilian Rosewood fretboard
- Medium “C” shape (.84 - 1st fret / .92 -12th)
- Standard frets (.047 high/.095 wide)
- 12” radius
- Sperzel tuners
- Satin Lacquer finish on neck
- Poplar body (non-chambered)
- Satin Urethane finish on body
- Vintage T-Style bridge with 3 compensated saddles
- Suhr SSV pickup in neck position
- Suhr Classic T in bridge position
- Master volume
- Master tone
- 3 position toggle switch
- G&G custom, form-fit case with Crash signature

PRICE: $10,000