Daddy Mojo's Ozark Guitar Incorporates Formica and 85-Year-Old Pine

Two years ago I moved to the lower level of a 1920s three-story building. Having been caringly preserved, with all its Art Deco elements, hardwood floors and elaborate moldings, it became a source of immediate inspiration.

The main hallway, with its architectural attributes, proved a perfect backdrop on which to hang various guitar prototypes that had been developed at the Daddy Mojo shop over the years.

That summer, the building's owner proposed some necessary upgrades to the building, and the drafty guillotine windows were soon replaced with new ones. To make way for these new windows, beautiful slabs of unmarked 85-year-old pine had to be removed from the existing walls.

The kitchen, which had already been renovated in the Sixties, was the only room that was out of step with the rest of the house's early modernism. With its yellow Formica counters and wall paneling framed by strips of aluminum molding, it hinted heavily toward suburban nostalgia and forgotten American diners.

One of the prototypes in the works was a short-scale electric solid body made of reclaimed and nontraditional materials. I couldn't help but think this model should be an ode of sorts to my new home, using materials exclusively salvaged from it.

In this spirit, we would like to introduce the Daddy Mojo Ozark (featuring a reclaimed 86-year-old pine body with an early Sixites yellow Formica top).

First Reclaimed Ozark Model:

• Salvaged pine body (86 years old)
• Sinker maple neck (240 years old, retrieved from a Quebec riverbed).
• Birdseye maple fingerboard
• Early Sixties Formica top and headstock overlay
• Proprietary DM Art Deco tailpiece and pickup covers.

Other Specs:

• 23 1/2″ scale length
• 1 3/4″ nut width
• MOJO pickups, custom wound (DeArmond style)
• Integrated onboard ring modulator and single oscillator.

For more information, visit dmelectrics.squarespace.com.