SPIRIT SERIES ’52
Play a DeTemple ‘52™ and you’ll see, hear and feel why any other variant becomes merely “ordinary” by comparison. It’s the ultimate player’s instrument.
The DeTemple ‘52™ is built the way the original solid body was meant to be. Michael DeTemple’s guitars capture the elusive qualities found in only the most desired 1950s era instruments.
Each guitar is handcrafted using Mike’s own proprietary methods and tone-improving techniques.
Simply put, you won’t find a more highly evolved, responsive or toneful vintage-design electric guitar anywhere.
You can zero in on the exact specifications you prefer because every DeTemple guitar is built only to order. To discuss your preferences please call or email Michael DeTemple. He loves to talk about his work and handles all requests personally. And if you are not sure of the best way to go, Michael can also help you with advice or recommendations.
Play a DeTemple ‘52™ and you’ll see, hear and feel why any other variant becomes merely “ordinary” by comparison. It’s the ultimate player’s instrument.
The DeTemple ‘52™ is built the way the original solid body was meant to be. Michael DeTemple’s guitars capture the elusive qualities found in only the most desired 1950s era instruments.
Each guitar is handcrafted using Mike’s own proprietary methods and tone-improving techniques.
Simply put, you won’t find a more highly evolved, responsive or toneful vintage-design electric guitar anywhere.
You can zero in on the exact specifications you prefer because every DeTemple guitar is built only to order. To discuss your preferences please call or email Michael DeTemple. He loves to talk about his work and handles all requests personally. And if you are not sure of the best way to go, Michael can also help you with advice or recommendations.
Spirit Series Guitars feature all the most high end components;
Flamed maple quarter sawn neck
One Piece Swamp Ash Body – Feather weight runs extra
Titanium parts, bridge saddles and ferrules on ’52, Trem Block and saddles on ‘56
Tool Steel Bridge Plate on ’52 Models
Like Glass nitro cellulose finish
Open Back Tuners
Titanium neck plate
Fossilized Tusk String Tree and switch tip
Fossilized nut
DeTemple Sweetspot pickups
High end brown alligator case
Bodies
All Bodies are Lightweight Swamp Ash, 1000 year old Alaskan Red Cedar, Old Growth Roasted Eastern White Pine, Upon availability or customer’s choice
Finish Options
Standard finish options are either Blonde or Butterscotch.
Custom Colors are available upon request at additional cost.
Body and neck nitrocellulose finish -Optional Gun Oil Finish on neck
Neck Options
One-piece, quarter-sawn flame Maple neck
Standard Neck Radius 9.5” -any other radius is an upgrade option
Standard Fret size .095” x .055”. Other options available on custom builds
Rosewood Fingerboards are available on a limited basis as an upgrade
DeTemple proprietary Truss Rods- our own design
Special Order Gotoh Open Back Tuners
Black Mother of Pearl fingerboard and side dot markers on maple necks
Fossil ivory (upgrade) or white plastic markers on Rosewood finger boards
Truss Rod wrench included with guitar
Accessories
Black Lacquered Phenolic 1-Ply Pickguard ( 1- Ply Parchment White is Standard)
Nickel Hardware
Titanium Top Compensated 3-saddles
Titanium String Ferrules
Titanium neck plate
Your choice of standard or reversed vintage controls
Special Order Gotoh Open Back Tuners
Fossilized Mastodon nut, string tree, and switch tip
Electrosocket jack plate
DeTemple Model IV Hardshell Case
Michael: “I believe that the tonal quality of a one-piece body is better because the neck and bridge are mounted to a single piece of wood — not two side-by-side pieces glued together. Generally, two-piece bodies were glued and joined down the center, a technique that affects a guitar’s resonance. DeTemple bodies are based upon the discovery that the original one-piece bodies had distinctly finer tonal qualities than their two- or three-piece counterparts. Contrary to popular belief, one-piece swamp Ash bodies, especially light-weight samples, from the early 1950s are extremely rare…”
Feedback
Gallery
Michael DeTemple’s guitars are considered by many to be some of the best Fender-style guitars you can buy. Having worked as a guitarist for the likes of Dylan, Clapton, Neil Young, Ron Wood, Pete Townshend..the list goes on…in both the studio and on stage, in addition to doing film score work, Michael clearly knows what a great guitar should (and needs) to be
Pickups
SweetSpot T-Series Alnico II Pickups
Bridge Pickup 7.9 KOhms Neck Pickup 5.9 KOhms
Also available on our ’52 Model is:
Charlie Christian neck pickup
SweetSpot Phoenix (Firebird Style) neck pickup
We make some ’52s as a convertible model with any combo of the three neck pickups
Bodies
All Bodies are Lightweight Swamp Ash, 1000 year old Alaskan Red Cedar, Old Growth Roasted Eastern White Pine, Upon availability or customer’s choice
Finish Options
Standard finish options are either Blonde or Butterscotch.
Custom Colors are available upon request at additional cost.
Body and neck nitrocellulose finish -Optional Gun Oil Finish on neck
Neck Options
One-piece, quarter-sawn flame Maple neck
Standard Neck Radius 9.5” -any other radius is an upgrade option
Standard Fret size .095” x .055”. Other options available on custom builds
Rosewood Fingerboards are available on a limited basis as an upgrade
DeTemple proprietary Truss Rods- our own design
Special Order Gotoh Open Back Tuners
Black Mother of Pearl fingerboard and side dot markers on maple necks
Fossil ivory (upgrade) or white plastic markers on Rosewood finger boards
Truss Rod wrench included with guitar
Accessories
Black Lacquered Phenolic 1-Ply Pickguard ( 1- Ply Parchment White is Standard)
Nickel Hardware
Titanium Top Compensated 3-saddles
Titanium String Ferrules
Titanium neck plate
Your choice of standard or reversed vintage controls
Special Order Gotoh Open Back Tuners
Fossilized Mastodon nut, string tree, and switch tip
Electrosocket jack plate
DeTemple Model IV Hardshell Case
DTG ’52, ’56 and Stellacasta Spirit Series Models
I made the first DTG 56 model so that I didn’t have to take my old 58 Strat’s out into the world. The prices have gotten so high I was afraid to take them into a club and play them. I decided to make myself a Strat style guitar that tried to answer all the shortfalls that I found with so many strategies that I set up for people.
I always wanted the guitar to be a one piece body so that’s how I started. So all my early 56 model guitars were one piece bodies as well as all my 52 models. They were all one piece bodies up until just recently in 2021 I started making two piece bodies. All of our bodies are either made out of lightweight swamp ash, 1000 year old Alaskan red cedar, alder or recently I have been making two piece bodies out of some very nice eastern white pine that I had roasted. The pine makes a beautiful sounding body.
I always found pick ups were problematic and trying to get adjusting right so I redesigned the pick ups to meet up with what I was looking for from pick ups for Strats and Teles. I rethought the design of the pick ups to match up with the amount of string movement above the pick ups. I either increase or decreased the amount of magnetism in each bobbin and changed the number of wines so that when I threw the switch on either telecasters or Stratocaster’s I got a very even balanced signal coming out of the pick ups so that they were balanced to each other
Another main difference in the build of the DeTemple guitars is the neck process. We have a proprietary method that we used to pretension the neck so that when the guitar is set up the neck is very straight and the truss rod is tightened. This puts a lot of tension in the entire instrument and really makes it sound and feel much more alive.
I also put open back tuners on the guitars so that you can grease them periodically. The wiring system in our guitars uses a five way switch on the Strat and a blender pot on the bottom tone pot. When you turn the blender pot all the way on it turns the neck pick up on so when you choose the bridge pick up with the five way switch and turn the blender pot on you will have the bridge pick up and the neck pick up. If you choose the bridge pick up in the middle pick up with the five way switch and have the blender pot turned on you will have all three pick ups at the same time. The middle tone pot becomes a master tone pot for the entire guitar.