In a letter (circa 1995) to Tony J. Went, posted to rmp, Paul Languedoc wrote,: "There is no big mystery about the construction of Trey's guitar (except the secret 'Sonic Enhancer'). It is not a semi-hollow body, but a true hollow body, built the same way those big arch-top jazz guitars were built, but, of course, much smaller. It's not like a Gibson ES- 335, with a wooden block down the middle.

Paul was quoted in the 12/98 Guitar World as saying, "It's not like a 335, that has a wooden block down the middle. It's really built like one of those old, big-bodied jazz guitars with an arched top and all that."]

"Again, it's really built just like one of those old, big-bodied jazz guitars with an arched top and all that. Incidentally, the woods used are European Curly maple for the top, domestic curly maple for the neck, Ebony for the fretboard, tailpiece, etc., and padauk for the body and sides. Yes, padauk is a rain-forest wood, and I don't buy it anymore. What really makes the guitar unique, however, is the size and thickness of it. No one builds guitars that way [i.e. too large] because they tend to feed back at any volume to speak of, but Trey likes that because he can hold any note he wants to (with careful muting of the other strings) where most electric guitars would only feed back certain notes, and at a much higher volume level. [In other words, Trey uses that feedback as part of his tone.] Incidentally, the woods used are European Curly maple for the top, domestic curly maple for the neck, Ebony for the fretboard, tailpiece, etc., and Padauk for the body and sides. Yes, Padauk is a rain-forest wood, and I don't buy it anymore."

No one builds guitars that way because they tend to feed back at any volume to speak of. Trey, however, uses that feedback as part of his tone. Add some compression, and he can hold any note he wants to (with careful muting of the other strings) as long as he needs. Most electric guitars only feed back certain frequencies, and only at a much higher volume level."

"Its a conglomeration of different things," says Trey. "It has a longer scale length (25 1/2") like a strat because I like the twang. The neck has 24 frets. The padauk body, which is completely hollow, is small, and the curly maple top is braced like on an acoustic guitar."

Languedoc describes the hollowbody's design as a collaborative effort. "Trey and I talked about it a lot," says Languedoc. "He wanted something unusual. He was going in a jazz direction at the time, so he asked me to make it completely hollow. I was responsible for the look of the guitar. We went through some complex wiring schemes at different points, but now its back to being pretty simple."

From JamBands.com (http://www.jambands.com//aug99/features/languedoc.html)

JW: I'm very curious about how the whole collaboration happened when you built Trey's guitar. Did you guys listen to a lot of music together? Did he give you examples on tape of other guitarists that he wanted to kind of emulate?

PL: No, nothing like that. We were just talking about it. He was playing a Time guitar at that time, and then that company had closed down. This was like 1987 and I was working for the band at that point, but I also had a job as a cabinet-maker. So, he came to me and was interested in getting something different. I made some drawings and we looked at the drawings. He had some ideas and I had some ideas, but I can't remember exactly who contributed what. It was his idea, I think, to make it a hollow body. He was interested in something different.

JW: It's definitely a pretty unique sound and he rarely tunes on stage. He's got this outrageous sustain. He only plays the one guitar, yet he can get many different tones. I was just curious if he came to you and said, "I'm gonna be bending a lot of notes, I don't want to have to re-tune." So many players at the club level re-tune between most of the songs. Was that a special design you came up with?

PL: I don't know if I was thinking about that in particular, but I had built some jazz guitars and hollow body guitars with tail pieces on them. I think that's the major contributing factor that it stays in tune, you know? It's the type of bridge it has and the type of tailpiece. So I just sort of preferred that. And, it was a hollow body guitar, so it seemed to make sense to do it that way. A typical electric guitar bridge I think puts the strings under a lot more tension, like a Fender style bridge where the strings come through the back and then over the bridge saddle. There are very high stress points on the strings at certain points with that type of design and that contributes to the thing going out of tune and strings breaking, especially when someone is really bending a lot of notes, you know? Whereas in this case, with a tailpiece and a separate bridge, there's no point where the string is really under that incredibly high tension like that.

JW: So, as the years have gone on, Trey's tone has gone through a lot of changes. A couple of years ago, you built a new guitar for him. How did that come about? Did he come to you and say, "I want something new"?

PL: I think I decided to build a guitar. I don't know if he came to me or not. He needed another back-up guitar and I had the time to do it, so I decided to build this guitar. We had a few conversations about some changes, but there are really only two big changes. The bridge has a metal saddle on it. It's a fixed bridge. It doesn't have adjustable intonation on it. I think that helps with the tone. It doesn't have all those little metal parts in there to rattle around and stuff. The old bridges on the other guitars, his first two guitars, have bone saddle pieces and this one has like a bronze metal actually set into the wooden, ebony bridge. So, that was one thing and then I thought changing the type of wood would give him. He talked about having a clearer sound and a more cutting sound. So, those were the two main things. This one is made out of Koa, where as the other ones had maple tops on them.

"Sometimes you don't merely have to endure, you can prevail."
-- Phil Lesh, on the Grateful Dead's induction to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame