My new Mullen G2 is done, Holy Moly!

[Andy DePaule]

Just got these photos of my new Mullen Guitar from Mike.
Very cool, even better than I imagined it would be.

Now all I got to do is try to wait while UPS gets it from Colorado to Oregon.

I’ve designed a couple of fretboards to see which I’d like to put on it along with the Gold Keystone tuner buttons I’ve bought to replace the silver ones on there now.
Not sure which fretboard will look better until I get them here and lay them down on the guitar to see which I like best. The attached fretboard pictures are virtual images generated in photoshop. I've already ordered the fretboards so they should be here in a couple of weeks.
I just like the look of Gold & Silver together.

[Doug Paluch]

Let me be the first to say WOW! Absolutely beautiful! I do t think I could touch it, for fear of fingerprints...

[Andy DePaule]

Maybe I should play it with white gloves?

[Tim Russell]

Wow...the guitars they turn out these days are unbelievable. I would also have a hard time choosing which fretboard to use.

[Roger Crawford]

The black fretboard with the gold markers gets my vote!

[Andy DePaule]

Black was my first choice too, but now that I got my first Gold and White one back with the Sho-Bud design I'm having second thoughts.
I didn't expect much but then when it arrived, It's really very stunning.
The Gold and Black will certainly go well with the colors of the guitar, but I really want to see how the white background looks on it too.

Anyway, A Silver guitar with Gold Tuner buttons, Roller nuts and Fretboard details will be a real stand out. Maybe such a flash that nobody will notice I don't play all that well!

[Andy DePaule]

A friend of mine asked "Why all polished silver?"
Well I thought I had an original idea to make a steel that looked like it really was a "Steel Guitar" but there isn't often an original idea and after I ordered it I soon found out that Mullen had done similar guitars at least three times before.
One had front apron like mine but with Red Mica upper decks.
http://www.mullenguitars.com/Custom%20C ... s/pic2.jpg

Another one had front apron like mine but with Green Mica upper decks.
I think I saw that on the forum somewhere?
Then there was one on this page of their site with a front apron like mine but with Black Mica upper decks;
http://www.mullenguitars.com/Special%20Files/pf1.jpg

[Leo Melanson]

Very awesome looking guitar ...
What are the extra pedal setups doing?

[Andy DePaule]

I just had a call from Mike at Mullen to ask me about the splits.
Del is tuning it as I write, and they said it will ship today so should be here Monday. Gonna be so hard waiting...

This is the copedent I'm having put on it;



I will be trying the E9th 3rd pedal (Strings 4&5 up a whole tone) for the first time since 1978.
Been using the RLR E to F# with the AB pedals to get the 2nd minor chord since then.

If I don't like using that change on the pedal then I'll go back to this copedent or something close to it. Dropping the low B to G# is my fake Boo Wha pedal;



I'm one of those guys that likes to play around with the extra pedals.
Pulling the 1st & 2nd string up into unisons with the 3rd & 4th is a very cool pedal effect change, Even more so for my 2nd string jumping 3 half tones.
I thought I'd invented it until I saw other people using it too, oh well!
Dave Hartley uses this change too, but from a standard 2nd string D#, so maybe thats how he sounds so much like me! Well, not quite....

[Tim Russell]

Where did you get the fretboards from? You say you designed them, did Mullen manufacture them for you?

[Lary Marshall]

That is a beauty.

[Andy DePaule]

I've been making them with a sign shop in Saigon.
Started out to just make one for this Mullen guitar.
One thing led to another and I now been making several designs and doing them for other people too.
Hard to get a good photo of them.
They look much better in real life than the pictures I've been able to take.
The photo shop virtual ones look more like the real ones than my photos do???

I can do them in polished gold or silver and also brushed gold or silver. Got quite a few designs now and will soon get a web page up for them.

[Andy DePaule]

More designs;

[Tim Heidner]

Stage lights hitting that thing are going to blind the audience.

[Andy DePaule]

Yes, well my plan is to blind the crowd so they won't notice that I don't play all that good!

[Tim Heidner]

haha How do you blind their ears?

[Travis Toy]

A friend of mine asked "Why all polished silver?"
Well I thought I had an original idea to make a steel that looked like it really was a "Steel Guitar" but there isn't often an original idea and after I ordered it I soon found out that Mullen had done similar guitars at least three times before.
One had front apron like mine but with Red Mica upper decks.
http://www.mullenguitars.com/Custom%20C ... s/pic2.jpg

Another one had front apron like mine but with Green Mica upper decks.
I think I saw that on the forum somewhere?
Then there was one on this page of their site with a front apron like mine but with Black Mica upper decks;
http://www.mullenguitars.com/Special%20Files/pf1.jpg

I believe mine was one of the first ones they did. It's a 2010 G2. It does look good on camera.

https://youtu.be/qApHXBDqJcA

[Andy DePaule]

Just goes to show Travis,
Is this your one?

[Travis Toy]

Might have been. Mine has 5 pedals and 5 knees though.

[Andy DePaule]

Hi Travis,
That one had 4 pedals.
When I ordered mine it was also for 4&5 but a few weeks ago I decided to add the 5th pedal.
I'm about 90% sure I'll change the 4th over to raise the 1st and 2ned strings to G# & E. I've been fooling around with that for a couple of years now and think I'll miss it.
Just not yet sure which of pedal 4 or 5 'll change?
Can you post a photo of your G2 5&5?
Maybe there are more of these than I know.

I got the idea for this guitar when talking to another person about having a new steel made.
I'd been looking at drum wraps and there were some in polished silver and polished gold.
Was first thinking of the guitar having the aluminum parts polished out and the covering being polished gold drum wrap.
When I started talking to Mike about it, he said he had this other material he'd used before, but it did not come in Gold.
Thats when I though about gold tuners and gold in the fretboard to match the roller nuts.
I'm not crazy about the Mullen logo and G2 being decals or stickers or whatever so I may have them re-made as gold plates (Or maybe silver plates) to attache to the front apron.

[Stu Schulman]

Sweet!

[Andy DePaule]

Stage lights hitting that thing are going to blind the audience.

Gee Tim, If you ever heard my playing style, you'd know there is little chance of stage lights hitting me any time soon.

[Andy DePaule]

Found the green top aluminum fronted Mullen.

[Andy DePaule]

Well to my delight the guitar arrived at lunch time so I had to gobble it down quickly without looking like that was what I was doing.
Can't upset my lady after she spent a while cooking.

A stunning instrument in every way, Looks and plays wonderfully.
My only criticism would be the Mullen logo and the G2 label that are some kind of sticker and look a little tacky to my eye compared to the rest of the instrument which is perfect.

First I switched out the tuner buttons for Keystone Gold buttons.
There is no way to use all gold tuners because they are the Grover PSG sets which only come in chrome. I contacted Grover to see if they would make a gold set, but they wouldn't.

Now I've already ordered two Mullen Style fretboard. One is Polished Gold and Flat Black and the other in Polished Gold and Flat White.
Those may be another two weeks coming so I laid these two Sho-Bud style fretboards on the steel to see which I liked best.
Now I am leaning towards the Polished Gold and Flat Black but the other is also quite nice???
Wonder what some of the steelers out there might think on this?

[Tim Heidner]

That black fretboard looks killer!