Announcement Lackey Road Guitars - Hand-built solid body electric guitars featuring re-purposed vintage album covers and reclaimed materials and woods to create one-of-a-kind iconic art pieces that look cool and play great -
Announcement
Lackey Road Guitars - Hand-built solid body electric guitars featuring re-purposed vintage album covers and reclaimed materials and woods to create one-of-a-kind iconic art pieces that look cool and play great -
Items
Reviews
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Courtney on Mar 26, 2021
5 out of 5 starsMy brother, sister, and I wanted to surprise my dad for his 70th birthday with a unique guitar to add to his collection. We ordered a custom album cover guitar from Lackey Road Guitars--it turned out beautifully, excellent craftsmanship and sound...truly a 1-of-a-kind piece. David was so easy to work with and we were so surprised at how quickly our order was completed--the communication and updates on our order were greatly appreciated. This is truly a gift he will treasure! Lackey Road Guitars is highly recommended--I felt that they really went above and beyond to make sure that everything about our order was perfect. Thank you, David!
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Tommy on Aug 18, 2020
5 out of 5 starsVery fast shipping! Great product. Set the intonation and then gave it a good "schwaaaannng" unplugged and the body is very resonate. Plugged in and has a nice bark. Like the position 2 and 1 for the tone bypass and vol/tone bypass settings. Was worried that it would be too bright, but weirdly it's not ear piercing unlike some of my other tele's even with the tone cap hooked up. Overall, great product!
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huppmam on Nov 15, 2019
5 out of 5 starsI wasn’t looking for a guitar. I was idly googling for this laminate so I could finish a cafe table with it. When this popped up, I bought it almost immediately (I haven’t bought a guitar in 10 years.) It’s everything I love (Nashville Tele, amazing finish, tall-ish frets…) My amp is getting more action than a football player on prom night.
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William on Sep 6, 2019
5 out of 5 starsMy third guitar from this wonderful craftsman. Unique looking and great sounding!
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Joe on Dec 30, 2018
5 out of 5 starsExcellent craftsmanship and detail right down to finding a guitar neck similar to what Metallica uses. The communication was excellent, and the guitar was finished ahead of schedule.
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Emma on Jan 13, 2018
5 out of 5 starsThis was beyond amazing for a gift for my boyfriend! Such a unique guitar!
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Amanda on Dec 3, 2016
5 out of 5 starsSo I caved and gave my fiancé his Christmas present early, mostly because I was so excited to see how this guitar looks and sounds! He is a huge Telecaster fan and said that this one is his absolute favorite! I could not be more pleased with my purchase! It looks and sounds amazing!! I would recommend Lackey Road Guitars to anyone looking to buy a guitar!!
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About LackeyRoadGuitars
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My great grandfather Lackey leaning on his pitch fork in front of the Lackey Road barn, circa 1920.
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Routing a Les Paul Tele body.
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LP-style with Tele controls.
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Showing off at the Cleveland Flea - favorite place to share my work.
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Swamp ash Telecaster that went to California.
Why Lackey Road Guitars?
Because my earliest memories are from our farm on Lackey Road in Delaware, Ohio. Named after my great-grandfather. Old gray barns, dairy cows, maples too big to wrap your arms around, chickens, wheat and soy bean fields, hay pastures and pond – the backdrop for my dad and grandfather’s farming, my mom’s pie baking, my grandmother Lackey’s homemade noodles and cinnamon buns.
Seemed like something was always cooking and something was always breaking down – Allis Chalmers WD tractor, GMC pickup, shed roof, board fence, coal furnace. Some machine or building or apparatus always needing attention. And tools everywhere, never where you needed them.
Long before reuse, recycle and repurposing, my farmer grandfathers where making do with twine and barn wood and wire. Long before eBay and Amazon, there was Sears, the local hardware store, the lumber yard. You could fix anything with pliers and a hammer – use your tools to wield a little leverage over your material, make something new out of whatever’s laying around.
I’ve inherited several tendencies from those Lackey Road farmers:
- the desire to make something useful with your hands
- the knowledge that liking what you do is enough of a reason to do it
- the acceptance that you'll be lucky if you break even
- belief in ground truth and tool truth - things made out of wood and steel
- and the need to work standing up
I farmed part-time with my dad on my way through Ohio University, hung out with my farmer relatives summers, and shoveled enough sheep excrement to figure I’d never make it as a full-time farmer, so I became a teacher and taught my way through thirty years of Thoreau and Emerson, Whitman and Frost.
I started teaching the same year Muddy Waters died. Always looked forward to teaching Langston Hughes’ “Syncopated Blues” so we could talk about the twelve bar blues, bring in guitars and have my students perform lyrics they’d written. Or Dylan’s “Subterranean Homesick Blues” – “The pump don’t work ‘cause the vandals took the handle” – what’s that about? When we read Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath, I’d bring out the Woody Guthrie song sheets.
One summer on a trip south to see Faulkner’s Mississippi, Linda (my wife and Etsy mentor) and I “went down to the Crossroads” – where highways 61 and 49 intersect in Clarksdale. We hunted for Robert Johnson’s grave, found Muddy Waters’ cabin site, hung out at Ground Zero, tracked down Po’ Monkey’s juke joint, stayed in a sharecroppers shack at Hopson Plantation, got ourselves on the King Biscuit Hour radio show across the river in Helena, Arkansas.
On our way through Alabama we explored the roots of the Civil Rights movement - Birmingham and Selma, where I found my first cigar box guitar – a three-string with no frets and a pickup. Talk about cool! I brought it home and showed my friend John, who immediately set about to make one, and then another, and then another one after that. My first CBG was a six-string. I bolted a Strat neck to a black Punch cigar box, wired up a Telecaster bridge and pickup, plugged it in and was hooked.
So, five or six guitars later – three and four-string CBGs, six-strings, all electric – Linda says if I want to keep making ‘em I need to start selling.
I make guitars because I’m into tools and wood and music. I use my hands, heart and head all at once (same reason I ride motorcycles, but that’s a whole ‘nother story). And like my Lackey Road ancestors, I get to work standing up.
Shop members
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David Lackey
Owner
I make guitars because I’m into tools and wood and music. I use my hands, heart and head all at once. And like my Lackey Road ancestors, I get to work standing up.
Production partners
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Graffiti-Garage Guitars
Westlake, OH
Artist - specializes in custom guitar art.
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Ohio is Home
Athens, OH
Graphic design.
Shop policies
Accepted payment methods
Returns and exchanges
Payment
Shipping
Be sure your address is correct for proper shipment. I will not be held responsible for obsolete addresses. I will mail your package to the address listed on your ETSY account. If your items are returned to me due to an expired address, you will be responsible for paying to re-ship them. You will be invoiced via PayPal for the additional cost. Once you pay the additional shipping expense,my our items will be shipped.