Local guitar-builder Alder & Main was born just a few blocks down the road from our shop in Telluride, Colorado. In their condo's parking garage, husband-and-wife duo Jamie and Christianna Catchpole began experimenting with fine tone woods and exploring their own intriguing guitar designs. Now relocated to a proper wood shop in nearby Norwood, Colorado, Alder & Main have really begun to hone their craft. Using the finest materials and components available, each Alder & Main guitar is built by hand with the utmost care and attention to detail, right here in the San Juan Mountains of Southern Colorado. The Moon Rocket is the result of experimenting with reclaimed Pine. When Jamie & Christianna set up their shop in Norwood, on the property they found a three-piece rough-sawn Pine board that looked big enough to cut a few guitar bodies. This T-shape body was carved from that board, and it's nicely resonant and lightweight (the completed guitar weighs in at 6 lbs 15.2 oz). The contours break from tradition a bit in favor of greater comfort. There is a "belly scarf" cut on the bass side, and also some additional carve in the cutaway to make it easier to get all the way up the fingerboard. The Maple neck came from an Squier, but Alder & Main stripped the original finish, refinished it in their style, and also leveled and dressed the frets to optimize playability. It's perfectly straight, and the Pau Ferro fingerboard feels like nice Rosewood. It has a single pickup: a Tele Bridge hand-wound by Ben Murray of Murray Pickups in Australia. A Gotoh "In Tune" T-style bridge keeps everything together, and a single volume control is all you need! The Moon Rocket is an extremely cool, one-of-a-kind handmade instrument at a reasonable player's price. The rocket? A clamp nut from equipment at Telluride Distilling Co. Why not? Just adds to the mojo. Crank her up and fly to the moon! The Moon Rocket includes a basic StewMac gig bag.
