Charbonneau Guitars is a boutique guitar brand based in Hudson, Quebec, Canada, and now their first guitar equipped with a True Temperament fretboard has been made! It´s an impressive build – a very beautiful high end 7-string electric guitar based on their model Scimtar 7S.
The guitar was built for Canadian musician Pierre-Olivier Merizzi. (See interview with him below)
The luthier behind Charbonneau Guitars is Pierre-Hugues Charbonneau. He´s been building high quality electric guitars and making repairs for over 15 years. Pierre-Hugues is focusing on highlighting the beautiful pieces of wood he come across, attention to details, ergonomics and premium components.
Currently Charbonneau Guitars has ten models available in 5 different series: Scimtar (Super-Strat) KLM (Offset shape), Starcrusher (X-shape style), Fulltone (Tele/Les Paul hybrid), Stellar (Offset single cut hybrid), Clockwork (Double cut style), Vektor (V-shape style), NSB bass (BTB style), Scimtar bass, Swan bass (Offset style)
The instrument Charbonneau Guitars built for for musician Pierre-Olivier Merizzi is a 25,5” scaled 7-string Scimtar model with a True Temperament fretboard. Other specs: Body wood is a one piece Black Limba with a 1/4 inch quilted Maple drop top. The neck is made of 5 pieces Wenge/Padouk and has an Ebony fretboard with 24 True Temperament stainless steel frets.
Further more: Centered abalone dots, Luminlays side markers, Graphtech tusq X nut, Graphtech ratios locking tuners, Hipshot contour tremolo bridge. Pickups are two Bare knuckle Silos humbuckers controlled by 1 volume, 1 tone and a 5-way superswitch (coil split)
Are you happy with your Charbonneau TT Scimtar 7-string?
– I’m super thrilled with how it turned out. Pierre-Hugues Charbonneau built me my first custom guitar in 2020, an HSS 7-string. For this one, I wanted to solve my frustration regarding guitar intonation once and for all. My other guitars are looking weird at me now as they are gathering dust. This is a true fix to a long known problem and it isn’t a half measure like other compensated systems (i.e. nuts). It’s a beautiful instrument with top-notch specs. Also, Pierre-Hugues is a fun guy to work with and I can’t recommend him highly enough.
Compared to a straight fretted guitar, what´s your opinion?
– I’m mainly a lead player… but most people wouldn’t understand how True Temperament frets would be beneficial for lead work. In my humble perception, bad intonation is obvious whether you are playing chords or melody.
– With True Temperament frets, the first great improvement in my playing was that I could finally stop “over playing” to compensate for bad intonation. It took some time to adjust to that. Secondly, since every part of the fretboard now plays just as good I can finally stop worrying about “problem spots” on the guitar. THAT was REALLY unsettling at first! I used to write my solos using the “best spots” on the fingerboard to avoid tuning problems and suddenly, that is not necessary anymore. I can now get rid of all those useless fingerings. When you go back to a straight fretted guitar, it just feels so wrong suddenly.
How did you find out about True Temperament?
– Pretty much since it came out. I’m a “guitar setup geek” and have been looking into ways to improve my instruments since day one by learning everything I could (fretting, leveling, polishing, crowning, electronics, etc.). I was kinda afraid to order True Temperament frets with the first material used. Then, when the TT stainless steel frets came out, I started harassing Pierre-Hugues to make the jump with this build. I’m happy he took the leap!
You play very well in your video (see link below), but I guess you´re not a professional musician? How come?
– I used to play all day… then came other life obligations. I’m now a true weekend warrior now… Also, I play too many styles of music to make any sense out of it, ha!
Equipment: Amps? Effects, etc?
– I’ve been using the Kemper Profiler since it came out like 10 years ago. It’s really hard to beat for everything it does.
Favourite music/guitarist?
– There are SO many… I would say I love pretty much everything guitar related… but If I have to pick a few ones: Greg Howe, Per Nilsson, Shawn Lane, John Petrucci, Nick Johnston… ok, that list could go on forever! © Ulf Zackrisson
Don’t miss Pierre-Olivier´s excellent playing in this video!
