Gary’s Story
Joe Knaggs introduced the Creation Series at NAMM in 2014. Creation #1 was “The Black Pearl.” Creation #2 became “The Monument Valley.”
The idea came from Joe’s move to Flagstaff, Arizona. Entering the state through the northeast corner, he drove through Monument Valley at sunset. The landscape stayed with him and became the theme for this guitar.
The Arizona and Native American influence appears throughout the instrument: turquoise in the Knaggs logo, a custom morning-star motif in the koa pickguard, and turquoise-and-black detailing around the guard.
The guitar has an extraordinary big-leaf quilted-maple top over a one-piece alder back, with a burgundy/copper color palette. The neck, fingerboard and headstock overlay are Brazilian rosewood, with curly-maple binding on the fingerboard and headstock.
The pickups are David Allen True ’62s. Joe told me, “It is really killer, A work of art actually...I am extremely proud of the way this instrument came together”!, which says a great deal about how he felt about this particular Creation.
Creation #3, “The Mayflower,” followed for a customer. The first three Creation instruments were available only through Artistic Guitars, making this guitar an especially meaningful part of my history with Joe and Knaggs.
