Certain makes and models of electric guitars are rightfully prized for their elegant physical designs and superior craftsmanship. Even better are those also revered for their playability and particularly rich tonal qualities. Thomas guitars, on the other hand, are usually noted for their odd (sometimes controversial) shapes and zany features. Built by the late guitarist/machinist/luthier/and fun-loving prankster Harvey Vern Thomas, Thomas Custom Guitars’ instruments included such eye-popping ’60s models as his iconic Iron-Cross-shaped Maltese Falcon.
But Thomas’ notoriously wacky sense of humor also inspired such units as toilet-seat guitars, paisley-shaped guitars, swastika guitars, a Battle Axe guitar, and a truly wicked-looking Guillotine Blade guitar. It staggers the mind, all these years later, to imagine how successful Thomas might have become if he’d remained in business long enough to get his instruments in the hands of over-the-top rock bands such as Kiss, Spinal Tap, White Zombie, and Gwar!
Harvey Thomas was born in Seattle in 1920 and took up guitar at age five. By the late ’30s, he, along with his three younger musical brothers and father, began playing around the area as the Thomas Family Band. Later, after stints as a machinist and operator of a second-hand/swap shop, he and his brothers started a house-building business. In 1950, Thomas married Mary Lou Cleveland and by mid-decade they had the first of three children. By the late ’50s, Thomas had opened his Northwest Builders Supply business at Midway, an area informally named for its location between Seattle and Tacoma. A jack of all trades/handyman, he began repairing/modifying guitars (his own and those belonging to others), experimenting with electronics, and even winding his own electromagnetic pickups, often installing them on acoustic archtop guitars.
Thomas Custom Musical Instruments
In 1962-’63, Thomas moved his young family into a house adjacent to his business. He eventually built a new house and a huge workshop with zones for metal fabrication, woodworking, and painting. There, Thomas began making guitars from scratch; the earliest had hand-made bridges, tailpieces, pickguards, and pickups, which Thomas’ inner carnival-barker drove him to hype the latter as providing the “renowned Thomas Negative-Ion Sound.”
Thomas’ skill set included designing guitars, doing the woodwork (often with walnut and/or hard maple which he dried for up to six months in his own ovens), spray-painting, cutting plexiglas pickguards, installing electronics, and hand-crafting molds used to pour fiberglass resin used to make unique pickup covers, neck inlays, and other components.
In time, Thomas decided he could make guitars as good as any, and his first prototypes emerged circa 1962. Later, he constructed an iconic tripleneck guitar (with “Thomas Custom Guitars” inlaid across the fingerboards), performing with it around the area as a one-man band billed as the Infernal Music Machine.
Then, in the wake of the surge in demand for electric guitars brought about by the British Invasion, Thomas Custom Guitars began to get serious traction in the market, and because he couldn’t keep up with making his own metal components, Thomas began to think about alternatives. Though he loved the sound of DeArmond pickups, strong negative feelings about Gretsch (which used them) caused him to rule out using them on his instruments. Instead, he opted to order Framus pickups, bridges, tailpieces, whammy bars, and tuners from the German company (though many Thomas guitars would ultimately be fitted with Kluson tuners).
Thomas once told The Seattle Times that at one point he advertised his Maltese guitars in a national music magazine and more than 100 orders poured in. But, because he only had 11 in stock and was short on supplies, he lost a lot of potential business. He eventually assembled a team to help produce guitars, bringing aboard a couple prominent country guitarists, Chet Hastings and “Big Bill” Garner, along with Bill’s father, Carl.
“Bill and Chet were basically the body-and-neck guys,” said Gordy Kjellberg, a guitarist from West Seattle who first spotted a Thomas guitar in a pawnshop in Midway and became intrigued enough to visit its maker several times. “They cut the guitars, routed them, carved the necks, and probably did fretwork and inlay work.”
Thomas’ new business plan called for making only solid bodies and necks, though he did make at least a couple hollowbody jazz boxes (the La Paz Classic Special Custom), at least one electric hollowbody four-string mandolin, and a few of what he called “box-type Western guitars.”
“Harvey had fun with everything, and didn’t believe in copying anyone or any guitar already made,” said Kjellberg. “I saw his early version of a Maltese Cross and it was pretty radical compared to what he actually produced. He made templates and rough-cut bodies with a band saw – clamped the templates to ’em and eventually perfected the shapes, the routings, and the carvings – like on the Model C. He made 10 or 20 at a time, maybe more. And if he was making something, they were all the same bodies.”
The Thomas Custom Musical Instruments company produced a catalog in 1967 and a brochure in ’69. In general, the guitars had “ultra-slim” necks with “Flex-Steel Torsion Suspension Rods,” “micro-adjustable bridges,” a logo decal on the peghead, sometimes also on the body. Among the standard models offered for between $139 and $1,165 were the Century or Model C (in six-string, two-neck, three-neck, and 12-string models), the Deleitar, the Mandarin, the Mod, the Lyer (pronounced “lear”), the Riot King, and what would become the most popular and famous design – the iron-cross-shaped Maltese Surfer and the Maltese Falcon. The former was Thomas’ base model, while the latter usually boasted a glitter-finish pickguard and distinctive hook-shaped peghead. Many of the earliest shared a paint scheme of gold with a heavy black-burst overspray. Later, he would offer a range of colors available on any model – black, white, and “sunbursts” in red, green, or blue. And for an additional sum, any guitar could be ordered as a hollowbody.
As the company’s name references, Thomas prided himself on providing custom options, including a zero-fret neck design, a laminated-wood or white-plastic fretboard, glitter details, crazy inlays, metallic paint, or tooled-leather details. And Thomas really seemed to get a kick out of doing anything to make the instruments more fancy – he deemed his instruments “the Cadillac of Guitars,” which made sense because he proudly drove a black Cadillac that had “Thomas Custom Guitars” emblazoned on the doors. Furthermore, his advertising copy boasted that his Century models were, “…created for and by the guitarist. The one who lives with his guitar. The Perfectionist. The artists. Incorporating all the features that were demanded for custom instruments. Taken from the many experiences of the professionals combined into one great guitar. Unparalleled balance of sound, the most sensitive and responsive, unique instrument ever offered to the public.”
Bluster aside, Thomas instruments, for all their flamboyant visual bling, are generally good-playing guitars, and their tone can be excellent.
“His pickups were really hot,” noted Kjellberg. “And if you adjust them right, they sound amazing. Thomas guitars sound really good.”
Other critiques have noted the iffy neck-joint design on some models, and the sometimes-questionable choices of accouterment. “Some people say Harvey was a hack,” noted Kjellberg. “His screws were sometimes not the prettiest – big, almost like machine screws – not the little nickel-plated ones like Fender and Gibson used.
“But in the big picture, it’s mostly about the necks, which some people love, some don’t.”
A Rising Profile
Thomas enjoyed a circle of friends that included prominent figures on the Northwest’s country/Western scene, and it was not uncommon for local stars including Bonnie Guitar, Buck Owens, Jack Rivers, Sheriff Tex Lewis, and others to stop by and jam on his guitars; Thomas was a fine guitarist in his own right and could play in the style of greats, including Les Paul, Johnny Smith, and Chet Atkins.
He also was aggressive in promoting his instruments to stars. He and his wife wrote letters to stars and solicited at local tour-stops. Among those who dropped by for a look were Chet Atkins and Hank Williams, Jr.
By the mid ’60s, members of several local rock bands were ordering Thomas instruments. Perhaps the first was Buck Ormsby, of The Wailers, who played a Riot King bass, and bandmate Neil Andersson, who also wielded a Thomas guitar. Meanwhile, Kjellberg (who’d gained regional notoriety as a member of Merrilee Rush and the Turnabouts) played a white Maltese Falcon and a “Thomas-caster” made for him after his Fender Telecaster was destroyed in a car wreck. Kjellberg’s brother, Vernal (a.k.a. Joey Newman) played a Swastika bass with Portland’s Don and the Goodtimes. Colin Ehli of Tacoma’s Mergers owned a black Maltese Falcon, while bandmate Sid Ostrander reportedly owned a prototype Maltese Falcon bass.
Another local guitarist, Rod Hart, recalled the first time he spotted a Thomas. While shopping with his father at Midway’s National Auto Parts store, he noticed “these incredibly weird guitars on the wall. One was an Iron Cross, one was clear, and the one that really caught my eye was made out of a toilet seat. My dad said that the guy who made them must be a real kook, and the owner of the store, under his breath, said ‘…or a genius.’ I agreed with the store owner.”
Clearly, the Teutonic aura of the Maltese models was not for everybody. Another local, Marc Connelly, recalled seeing them with a pal. “These Maltese jobs, with the tacky glitter, didn’t hold any appeal to us at all. Still, the shop owner asked what we thought. My buddy said, ‘Great, if you’re in band named Auschwitz!’
Another visitor to Thomas’ place was Timothy L. Olsen, who was 12 years old in 1965 and stopped in to buy a pickup for a guitar he was building. He’d been advised by a local music shop that “There’s a guy out in Midway who makes guitars. He’ll have what you need. But he’s a character, and I won’t promise that he’ll sell you a pickup. He might like you or he might not.”
Once in Thomas’ living room, Olsen was astounded. “Around the room ran two continuous guitar racks which held instruments against a padded rail attached to the wall,” he said. Among the instruments were, “White, sunburst, metallic, and tiger-stripped Thomases, some doublenecks and triplenecks. Then there were the unusual instruments; one looked like a shotgun, there were several made from toilet seats and bedpans. One was clad in raccoon skin, complete with tail. One doubleneck simulated a glowering Polynesian lady – each neck represented a leg, the pegheads were feet, complete with toes. The whole thing was rather anatomically correct in a ribald way.” Years later, at age 18, Olsen went to work for Thomas. Today, he directs the Guild of American Luthiers, along with a Thomas tribute website.
In time, even non-Northwest bands began popping up with Thomas instruments, including the Hard Times, which scored in 1966 with “Fortune Teller” and appeared with one on the ABC television program “Where The Action Is.” Bob Eveslage, bassist with Minneapolis’ Unbelievable Uglies, prizes the bass that Thomas sold him for $75. The most famous Maltese Falcon was probably the one played by Ian Hunter, guitarist with Mott The Hoople, who recalled in a 1999 interview with VG, “I found that with Mick Ralphs in a pawn shop in San Francisco and paid $32. I’d never seen one before… We got a lot of mileage out of it. It was a terrible guitar, but it looked amazing! The guy I sold it to took the scratchplate off, and inside was the name of the guy who built it – and a $5 bill!” That fun-lovin’ ol’ Harvey Thomas struck again!
In 1979/’80, Thomas, who had suffered for more than decade with a severe allergy to sawdust and/or lacquer – built his final guitars. His daughter, Denise, recalls that among the last stars to visit the factory was Steve Miller (VG, August and September ’10).
A half-decade before succumbing to throat cancer in his home on October 9, 1987, Thomas considered parting with his guitar company. At one point, two investors were exploring a buyout, and he called Kjellberg because he wanted to work him into the deal in an overseer position, where he could monitor quality control. But the deal fell through, and Thomas Custom Guitars came to an end.
Though the company has long been inactive, its legacy lives on. Players who own Thomas guitars treasure them, and the Experience Music Project (EMP) in Seattle holds a half-dozen Thomas guitars in its permanent collection – instruments deemed important to the Northwest’s regional history.
In July, 2011, a fire at a storage facility in nearby Auburn destroyed or damaged 80 rental units, including one that contained a Thomas family member’s stash of Harvey Thomas’ personal guitars.
Peter Blecha is the author of Wired Wood: The Origins of the Electric Guitar, Quest For Volume: Electric Guitars and the Auditory Arms Race, and Vintage Guitar features about other rare Northwest brands, including Audiovox, Bud-Electro, Coppock, and Hanburt guitars.
This article originally appeared in VG’s March 2013 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.
