Larry Sparks Guitar Tribute: Atkin's Big-Guard Dreadnought, With a Catch

A pickguard that covers most of the lower bout should choke a guitar. On this Larry Sparks guitar it doesn't, because Alistair Atkin's team hand-voiced the top to make up for the damping that much celluloid adds. The guitar is a brand-new Atkin dreadnought, built in England as a special order that came in on our Small Business Saturday, and John's verdict on camera was simple: "they mostly hit a home run."

It's loud, it's bold, and it looks like a 1950s guitar somebody bolted a huge guard onto decades ago. Some players will hate it. John knew that going in, and so do we. Here's what we said about it, where John would have done it differently, and what to look at if you want an Atkin with this kind of old-guitar attitude.

Why build a Larry Sparks guitar with a giant pickguard?

John calls Larry Sparks's guard one of the most unique of its era, and this guitar is patterned after it. In the video, John puts it in context: through the 1950s and '60s, big-name players used big guards to make a statement, and he sees that look as part of American music culture, the same way people remember Elvis's leather-covered guitar.

Jeremy has a personal stake in this one. John points out on camera that Larry Sparks is the guy who got Jeremy playing guitar in the first place. Jeremy's version of the story: he couldn't grow the hair or the sideburns, so he gave up and played mandolin.

The order raised eyebrows, even inside the shop. John says he understood it from the start, but the team had doubts, and so did Alistair, who wasn't sure at first that Atkin could even source the guard material. They found it. The finished guard is tortoise rather than the black guard on Sparks's own guitar, because that's what the customer asked for.

Why Atkin built it

John's reasoning for sending this Larry Sparks guitar to Atkin was about voice before looks. The structural worry with a guard this size is that it damps the top, so the guitar under it needs to start out big. To John, only one company was going to pull that off:

"We know that they build big, monstrous guitars that have tons of power and just feel big straight out of the box." (John)

The aging matters as much as the power. With worn finish around it, the guard reads as period-correct and not like a sticker on a new guitar. John's line was that you'd look at it and think "this is an old vintage guitar that somebody added the pickguard to." That's the effect the whole project depended on.

Jump to: the special order story at 0:46, who it's for at 2:49, the X factor at 4:34, and John's critiques at 5:13.

Does the giant guard kill the tone?

Traditional design thinking says a top covered in this much celluloid should sound veiled and compressed. We opened the video with that exact question. Our take is that the hand-voiced top got around it. Dig into a heavy G run and the guitar stays bold and loud, which is the opposite of what the rulebook predicts.

When Jeremy asked about the X factor, he called it the pickguard. John agreed, then pushed past it. For him the tone, the look and the feel add up to one thing: "the whole package of a true vintage-inspired guitar." If you need a reminder of what makes a guitar actually vintage versus vintage-styled, our guide to what counts as a vintage guitar covers the line between the two.

The catch: John's two critiques

The title promised a catch, and John gave two. Both come down to taste. Neither is a complaint about the build.

1. The guard color. As a Larry Sparks fan and a self-described vintage nerd, John would have gone with a black guard to match Sparks's guitar. The customer wanted tortoise, so tortoise it is.
2. The amount of relicing. This was the bigger one.

"I do think maybe we got a little bit heavy with the amount of relicing that's going on with this guitar. It does look good, but I wish it was probably a little bit less." (John)

His summary after both points: "for us vintage nerds, this is a pretty good home run." If you're ordering something in this vein, those are the two choices to settle up front: guard color and how far the aging goes.

Who this Larry Sparks guitar is for

When Jeremy asked who would buy this, John's answer was a player "who wants something unique" but still wants a vintage-inspired guitar. He tied it to a specific kind of nostalgia: you saw your favorite artist with a guitar, and you want to own something like it. That's the buyer.

• A bluegrass player who grew up on Larry Sparks and wants the look on stage.
• Someone who wants a new guitar that reads as old across the room, with Atkin's aging.
• A player who doesn't care what the guitar-forum crowd thinks of a giant guard.

Who should skip it: anyone who wants a clean, modern-looking dreadnought, or who winces at heavy relicing. John said it himself:

"There's going to be a whole lot of people that look at this guitar and say it's an absolute abomination. But for us guitar nerds, we're going to know it's an absolute beautiful work of art." (John)

Signature and tribute dreadnoughts are a whole category of their own. Our look at the Martin D-28 Billy Strings signature dreadnought is a good comparison for how a factory artist model handles the same idea.

Can you order a Larry Sparks guitar like this one?

This guitar belongs to the customer who ordered it, so it isn't for sale. But it isn't a one-off idea either. John says we've already had requests for this guitar in slight variations, and he has about five more ideas in the same vein that will probably come from Atkin. If you want a Larry Sparks guitar of your own, or a different artist tribute built the same way, ask us about ordering one. We don't have a price to list for a build like this.

If you'd rather play an Atkin today, these are the closest in-stock guitars to the Sparks build. All three have Atkin's aged nitro finish and a baked Sitka top.

The Essential D is the one to see if the Sparks guitar's relic look is what drew you in. Its heavy aged finish has the checking and wear of a guitar that has been played hard for years, and its mahogany back keeps the tone punchy and focused. The White Rice moves to Indian rosewood with the same 25.4" scale, which adds depth and a wider dynamic range. The J43 is a slope shoulder with a shorter 24.9" scale, so it feels slinkier under the fretting hand on long sessions.

Every Atkin in our Atkin guitars collection sits next to the rest of our dreadnought guitars, and you can browse every guitar in stock from there. If you're shopping boutique bluegrass dreadnoughts more broadly, our Boucher vs. Collings bluegrass dreadnought comparison covers two more builders we carry. In the video, we also mention the Atkin Black Pearl that came through the shop a while back, another example of how far Atkin will go on a creative build.

How a special-order Larry Sparks guitar reaches you

A special order like this still goes over our bench before it ships. Every guitar gets our 23-Point Professional Inspection before it leaves the shop, the same bench time an in-stock Atkin gets.

Atkins sit well above $1,000, so they ship under the Dread-Not Guarantee. That means a 1-year trade-in credit of up to 90% (pre-tax, less round-trip shipping), a 30-day in-home trial, and a humidity kit in the case.

Related reading

• Bourgeois Vintage Heirloom Dreadnought: Bluegrass Brilliance
• Dreadnought vs. OM: Choosing Your Perfect Guitar Shape

The verdict on the Atkin Larry Sparks guitar

Atkin took on a build that even Alistair doubted at first: a brand-new Larry Sparks guitar with a guard big enough to choke the top, and a top voiced well enough that it doesn't. John would have picked a black guard and gone lighter on the relicing. Jeremy would have grown the sideburns if he could. If the Sparks look is what you've wanted since you first heard him, tell us what you'd build and we'll take it to Atkin. If you want an Atkin now, start with the Essential D #4534.