Custom handmade guitars, built right here at Rudy's for over 30 years. This particular model is brand new, or maybe the oldest Pensa ever built. It is a homage to the very first 'R Custom' models made at Rudy’s Music before even Pensa-Suhr was a thing. This guitar is based off of Mark Knopfler's original 'R Custom' that was recently sold in the Christies Auction. Get this one while you can!
"According to Rudy Pensa, this guitar was built by luthier John Suhr as a prototype for an "R Custom" range of Stratocaster style "Dinky" body guitars.
Musing on the concept of fabricating electric guitar bodies using a synthetic material that could be moulded, Suhr felt it would save production time and costs as compared to the efforts employed when cutting and finishing wood bodies and began a search for a suitable substance. As fate would have it, his boyhood friend, Paul K. Steck, was working for his family's business, Exothermic Molding, which specialised in metal and synthetic commercial fabrications. Steck shared with Suhr a material that when altered in density could replicate the 'tap tones' desirable in musical instrument woods, which he referred to as "structural foam". By laminating two sheets of the material, Suhr now had stock that was thick enough to fabricate an electric guitar body. Completed in 1984, the first prototype was fitted with a twenty-two fret neck and three single-coil pickups that followed a Stratocaster outline but was slightly more diminutive than a standard Fender body, and was finished in a flashy hot red colour. Suhr found that one effect of the structural foam was to absorb the feedback - as loud as he turned up the amp, the guitar never fed back."
Specs:
Model: Pensa MK-RCR, R Custom Red
Serial #: 1215/121024
Body Finish/Color: Nitrocellulose Lacquer/Rallye Red
Back Finish Color: Nitrocellulose Lacquer/Rallye Red
Neck Finish/Color: Nitrocellulose Lacquer/ Natural
Paint Option: Limited 'R' Custom logo
Top Wood: Alder
Body Wood: Chambered Alder
Neck Wood: Hard maple, top adjust truss rod
Neck Back Shape: C
Scale Length: 25 1/2", luminlay side dots
Fingerboard Wood: Hard maple, 1/4" black face markers, 12" radius
Binding: None
Neck Pickup: Lindy Fralin Strat Neck
Middle Pickup: Lindy Fralin Strat Middle
Bridge Pickup: Lindy Fralin Strat Bridge
Electronics: Volume, Tone, 5-way selector switch
Nut: Bone, 1 5/8"
Frets: Dunlop 6105 / 22
Bridge: Hipshot Tremelo
Tuners: Schaller M6 135 locking with staggered posts
Hardware Color: Black
Pickguard: Black single-ply
Knobs: Dome
Weight: 6.9lbs/3.15kg
Case: Ameritage Custom Hardshell
Special: The first built of the model
String Gauge: .010" ~ .046"
