Welcome to Page 3 of my website. This page will be dedicated to my Rock Beach Chambered Guitars. These are guitars I custom build in my home shop for approximately $2000 to $2500 based upon woods and options. For more information, contact me, Greg Bogoshian, at (585) 482-7930. These are built by me with assistance from my accomplice, Tim Fuss, entirely by hand and are extremely labor intensive. The final product is more than worth the wait and the price is extremely low for such a fine, well engineered piece of craftsmanship. The photo on the index page is of Mike Gladstone from "Cosco, Gladstone, and Cosco" and also of Upstate NY's hottest band "Uncle Plum" playing the CamelBack at a gig in Rochester... He tested it for me under fire at this gig and whenever he had to play a spotlight solo which required exceptional tone and feel, he put down his trusty PRS and went to The CamelBack because it sounded so much bigger and better that it inspired him to play even better! This guitar will be used for Scott Jones' new Jazz Fusion CD (He was a Grammy nomination finalist for his first effort called "Freedom") in which he and numerous guest artists will be recording starting in February of '05. Check out his stuff at http://www.scottjonesmusic.com . He is absolutely brilliant! I am truly honored to have him offer to use my instrument on his next project!
A few features of The CamelBack are the offset waistline for comfort while playing sitting or standing or kneeling... It is ergonomically engineered for player comfort and all who have tested this guitar have immediately and spontaneously commented on its comfort. Balance is also perfect!
The model I am showing here is made from Cuban Mahogany for the chambered mid-section and bookmatched African Padauk for the top and back with a thin layer of maple between the two for visual contrast. Bridge and stop are Gibson type Tune-O-Matic.
The bolt-on neck is laminated Honduran Mahogany with maple and padauk headstock overlays, dual graphite reinforcing rods and trussrod with an Ebony compound radius fingerboard and stainless steel medium jumbo frets. Tuners are locking Sperzels.
Pickups are Holdsworth H22N tapped humbucker (Jazz) in the neck position and Carvin C22B (Vintage) tapped humbucker in the bridge position. I have set up the pickup selection in a most intuitive way allowing the maximum number of pickup options possible. The bigger 3-way selects the pickup whereas the mini 3-way toggles on either side of the pickup selector allow you to choose either or both coils of the respective pickup. The volume pot is at the bottom so you do not have to look for the pot to adjust it... You simply roll your hand to the lowest point and you have it. I have found that most guitarists appreciate this method as the controls are out of the way of the aggressive player but still easy to locate and make quick adjustments. The output jack is located in a way to be easily found in a dark environment and also to avoid the dreaded "cable dance" especially when a 90 degree jack is used. The guitar can also be leaned against a wall as it is designed so that rests on the base in two places forming a stable base and the touch points are the StrapLocs so the bottom of the guitar is protected. This guitar can cover a HUGE and DIVERSE range of tones! Cleans are especially spectacular and this tells the real heart of a guitar's voice.
I choose woods and wood combinations based upon their tone quality, clarity, and aesthetic appearance. Currently, I have more padauk and Cuban mahogany for the CamelBack model which is my flagship, and I can do those in full thickness or 3/4 inches thinner. Call for options. I also have some spectacular Bloodwood that I will make one special guitar of a modified shape to best suit the spectacular grain. I also have a thick slab of Cuban Mahogany which I am going to make one complete guitar body from as it has a magnificent cathedral grain pattern that I simply cannot cover up! This will also be a one-off for you mahogany tone lovers.
On the drawing board is the next iteration of chambered guitar which will use koa and Cuban mahogany. The koa I got while on The Big Island has some incredible figuring and color streaking... Several have some worm holes which will add character to the pieces... These will be made into a form of travel guitar which will retain all of the features of the full-size CamelBack but in a somewhat smaller chambered body and possibly a shorter scale length for ease of taking through airports and such. I am hoping that this is something that touring players will really appreciate.
If you wish to view any of the woods I have for selection for tops and backs, please contact me directly at greg.bogoshian@usa.xerox.com and also at boggsplace@yahoo.com and I will send you links to photos of what I may have in stock currently so you can choose your tops and backs. Enjoy the photos below, but first, here is a brief Jazz clip of the CamelBack as played by Jim Soloway of Swan Guitars. Jim builds absolutely brilliant long scale hollowbody jazz guitars and he most graciously offered to evaluate my CamelBack. At the time, it was strung with 9-42 Blue Steel strings for future evaluation by Scott Jones.