“Quite often we hear really good artists say ‘the guitar feels like home but it rings so well.’ That’s music to our ears”: Joe Knaggs on the tonewoods, inspirations and philosophy behind Steve Stevens’ favorite high-end guitar company
For Joe Knaggs, making guitars was the opportunity to combine a love for art and music, and it is writ large in his designs. With Knaggs about to turn 15, he discusses the brand's evolution and explains the search for “the Knaggs ring”
(Image credit: Knaggs Guitars)
Leaf through the Knaggs Guitars catalog and you will be confronted with some of the most immaculately crafted high-end electric guitars on the market, some of which, like those of the Creation Series, blur the line between luthiery and art.
At first blush, some betray the design inspiration behind them – like the Kenai, a thick, muscular singlecut – before a closer examination reveals that the man behind the designs, Joe Knaggs, has no intention of making a copy of anything.
When he left PRS to form Knaggs Guitars in 2009 with marketing whiz Peter Wolf, he was going to draw from other influences, and what excited him as a jazz player.
“I did not feel pressure that it was Private Stock by another name, although three of the original members of that team are a part of Knaggs Guitars,” he says. “I don’t have any fun copying other stuff directly. Yes, you are always influenced by previous successes, but how boring is it to just copy exactly!”
The Choptank, kind of inspired by a Telecaster but with a glued-in neck as per Joe's preference. "I came up with that bridge plate after looking at an old Tele... I thought that if you screwed that bridge plate down it would allow the sound to transfer much better." (Image credit: Knaggs Guitars)
Those early days were devoted to drawing, more drawing and prototyping. The Choptank and Severn electrics came out of those sessions, as did the Patuxent, a cutaway acoustic that Knaggs now makes 10 to 20 of a year. The drawings had to be perfect.
“I redrew the Severn body and headstock hundreds of times, moving a line a tiny bit here and there till I liked what I saw,” recalls Joe.
Others liked what the saw, too, most notably Steve Stevens, whom Wolf knew from “the Hamer days”. He reached out to the Billy Idol guitarist and he has been a friend of the brand ever since, with six signature guitars and more to follow, including a 40th anniversary Rebel Yell model.
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“Steve has brought great credibility to the brand,” says Joe. “He is an icon, and for great reason. He is an awesome player and musician! A player like Steve, that truly loves the guitars gives customers reason to believe.”
Catch a Billy Idol show and you'll invariably see as Knaggs guitar onstage, with Steve Stevens [left] one of the brand's biggest champions. “We consider Steve a friend and we are so proud of working with him!” says Joe. “It's always a pleasure.” (Image credit: Scott Legato/Getty Images)
No guitar is perfect, even – perhaps especially – our favorites. Some of Knaggs’ biggest innovations came from trying to enhance the ’61 Stratocaster and ES-125 Joe played with his band.
“For instance, the bridge design on the Chesapeake trem instruments uses a hinge type approach rather than a knife edge,” he says. “An 8.5” [fingerboard] radius on the Severn and Choptank gives a vintage feel, but helps keep the guitar from fretting out.
“A one-piece tune-o-matic bridge on the Influence guitars allows the harmonics from the string capture to transfer beneath the bridge. These are just a few elements I created to give our instruments their own feel and sound, ‘the Knaggs ring’.”
The Kenai presents a deluxe take on the classic singlecut recipe and features an original Knaggs bridge design from 2009. (Image credit: Knaggs Guitars)
The pursuit of ‘The Knaggs ring’ begins with the tree. In this business, tonewood is everything, and there is a sense that Knaggs Guitars is a love letter to timber. “A thought that comes to mind when building an instrument is the combining of the woods for a certain fullness,” says Joe. “A piece for highs, a piece for lows and a piece for midrange. I like the guitar to have a nice full range, but that also depends on the instrument.”
My original concept was to use different pickguards to create different sounds on the same guitar, kind of like changing a top on an acoustic
From the very beginning, guitars were built with wooden pickguards, and it was not just for decoration. “My original concept was to use different pickguards to create different sounds on the same guitar, kind of like changing a top on an acoustic.” says Joe. “The wood pickguard in combination with the steel bridge gives the guitar a ‘natural’ sound. I am in awe of trees!”
Another Knaggs signature detail is the two-tone staining on the guitar’s top, making the contrast between the figured maple maple top and the body that more dramatic, working in synch with nature, showcasing its beauty.
This Severn X hard-tail is a spectacular example of Knaggs Guitars' two-tone staining and single purfling process, an approach that allows for high-contrast tops such as this, drawing attention to the three-dimensional figuring of the maple. (Image credit: Knaggs Guitars)
It’s also proof that Joe Knaggs is never not thinking about guitars. “I actually came up with the two-toned, single purf’ process when I was laying in bed fighting cancer,” he says. “We then applied that to the creation series we were building at the time.”
Knaggs Guitars officially turns 15 in November. The plan for the following 15 is simple: to “keep growing at a moderate, manageable pace” and to run a guitar company where everyone knows each other’s name and is in it for the same reasons. The philosophy will stay the same.
“We enjoy building nice, high-end instruments,” says Joe. “The instrument rings and sustains as well as it can per the wood we use, so the player can get the most out of the instrument.”
Jonathan Horsley has been writing about guitars since 2005, playing them since 1990, and regularly contributes to publications including Guitar World, MusicRadar and Total Guitar. He uses Jazz III nylon picks, 10s during the week, 9s at the weekend, and shamefully still struggles with rhythm figure one of Van Halen’s Panama.
