Jamie West-Oram is best known as the sonic wizard guitarist in “The Fixx”. Since forming in 1980, the band has recorded fourteen studio albums, including the Platinum-selling “Reach the Beach” and Gold “Phantoms”. His resume includes session work, touring and writing with luminaries like David Bowie, Tina Turner, Brian Eno and Stevie Nicks, among many others.
Jamie has been a customer and friend of Eternal for many years, and I look after his various touring guitars when they need fretwork or surgery. Late last year, we began to discuss the idea of building a guitar, and Jamie came up with the idea of combining the more aesthetically pleasing elements of a T-Type guitar with the fundamentals of his more favoured S-Type builds. We used his current Custom Shop Strat as a starting point for feel and wood choices to provide a familiar “spine” and then decided that we could make something unusual and unique. I was working on a modified T-Type shape then, and once Jamie saw it, he was hooked.
We improved the standard upper fret access, shortened the upper horn for a cute, snub-nosed appearance, and added forearm and tummy cuts for comfort. We were firmly aiming for an enhanced vintage design and aesthetic to incorporate the better elements of the original classic guitars, feel and hardware, but it also had to be bulletproof in use.
A vibrato bridge was also essential. We used the best vintage repro currently available, the Callaham, paired with the excellent Gotoh vintage repro tuners and a handmade bone nut to keep things stable and reliable. Direct body-mounted pickups were also a key feature, allowing us to show off a little more of the “Luscious Lilac” finish (actually inspired by a pair of brightly coloured socks that Jamie’s gorgeous wife Bibi was wearing at the time!). We also simplified the control layout to master volume and tone with the volume pot placed precisely where it would be on a regular three-pickup pickguard, as Jamie uses it a lot to create his unique tonal landscapes.
Initially, The neck was based on one of Jamie’s favourite guitars, but he asked if it could be a little larger in profile with pronounced extra depth and wider than standard at the nut. I put the guitar together without paint or electronics for Jamie to assess the neck profile - fully expecting it to need considerable slimming. However, once he played it, he found it so comfortable and stable that he decided to leave it as it was - a great decision.
Offset pearl position markers were added to the dark rosewood fingerboard along with Luminlay side dots. Jamie’s favoured 6105 size Stainless Steel frets and vintage correct 7.25” radius were included, which, added to the beefy neck profile, makes the whole thing a serious piece of very stable neck. Compared to a slimmer neck guitar using a comparable spec. the added depth of tone and resonance is immediate and a joy to behold.
The electronics were a much simpler decision as we’ve been making a Signature Set of “Fixxers” pickups for Jamie for several years, so they were a no-brainer as they offered Jamie precisely what he needed. These are wired through the highest quality brass collar CTS pots with a CRL five-way switch and a Switchcraft output jack.
We will be building this model on a custom-order basis only, so please get in touch to enquire about pricing and timescales.
- Model: Eternal “JWO-1”
- Body: Solid alder
- Neck: Two-piece. Maple shaft with slab rosewood fingerboard and offset pearl dot markers on face and Luminlay side-dots. Neck profile: Big C-shape
- Neck dimensions: 25mm deep at 1st fret to 26mm deep at 12th
- Radius: 7.25”
- Fret size: 6105
- Number of frets: 22
- Fret material: Stainless Steel
- Nut width: 43mm
- Finish: All nitrocellulose, aged “Luscious Lilac” on the body with worn tinted maple on the neck and headstock.
- Plastics: Three-ply aged Pearl pickguard with aged Parchment pickup covers.
- Bridge: Aged Callaham vintage repro.
- Tuners: Gotoh vintage repro split post.
- Pickups: Eternal hand wound “Fixxer” set, aged with aged parchment plastic covers.
- Electronics: CTS brass collar 250k volume and tone pots with an Orange Drop capacitor, CRL five-way selector switch, cloth-covered hook-up wire, and a Switchcraft output jack socket.
- Nut: Handcut bone.
