Ultima

Developed in 2002, the Ultima is a semi-hollow body and an instrument with excellent tonal quality.  The wood used is hard maple hollowed to 1/8" on both the front and the back sounding boards.  When coupled with Kent Armstrong 12-pole adjustable "vintage" pickups, the sound is incredibly diverse, ranging from hot blues to mellow jazz and all venues in between.

The neck is full length maple and free floating between the pickups and from the bridge to the heel.   The neck is secured at the pickups, bridge, and 1-1/2" at the heel for strength and stability.

One nice option incorporates an L.R. Baggs piezo bridge pickup and blending pre-amp for a true acoustic sound.  The magnetic pickups remain passive at all times and can be blended in with the acoustic for a wide range of sounds.  In this manner, the battery for the piezo can fail but the magnetics remain normal.

The finish is lacquer and the walnut inlays make the gold hardware seem to leap right out and grab the eye. The unique shape of the 'F' holes then frames the accessories with a classic touch.

CGMA recording artist, Johnnie Branham, is so enthusiastic about this guitar that he cancelled his order for a custom solid body and ordered an Ultima.  His further involvement resulted in producing a Johnnie Branham Edition incorporating coil taps and phase reversal switches on the volume and tone controls as well as Schaller roller bridge, strap locks, and Grover locking tuners.  This setup allows for 16 different combinations of pickups and coils for a wide variety of sounds.  Johnnie says when the distortion side of his Crate stack is kicked in, the instrument literally "Blows me away!"