Stephen’s Extended Cutaway: A Guitar Innovation Unrivaled for 40 years.
The “Stephen’s Extended Cutaway” (SEC) was one of the epitome designs of increasing guitar innovations coming out of the experimental luthiery during the 1980s; an invention which has set the gold standard up upper-fret access and has yet to be rivaled even to this day. You may know the SEC as the popular Nuno Bettencourt N4 model, a staple in Washburn’s lineup since 1990. However, the invention goes far deeper than you may have envisioned. To understand the historical nature of the patent, it’s important to start from the beginning.
Patent Design and “Stephen’s Stringed Instruments”
The primary goal of the EC design is to remove the heel from beneath the portion of the neck which lies on or near the body of the instrument, thereby allowing a guitar player to maintain proper hand position, with the thumb behind the neck. A secondary goal is to achieve this unprecedented access while improving the structural stability and the tone of the instrument.
The development of the Extended Cutaway began in the early eighties. Stephen Davies was a luthier and guitar player with a degree in music and a background in classical and jazz guitar styles. One night while playing with a jazz band at a blues dive he decided to transpose a bridge to a song by Theloneous Monk up an octave.
He blew the part and later that evening, after being given a hard time by the other band members, asked the question “Why did that happen?” With years of classical guitar training, it occurred to him the obvious problem was improper hand position caused by the thumb being forced out of position by the heel on his guitar.
Realizing the obvious solution was to remove the heel of the guitar, Davies set about working on structural designs that would accomplish this without compromising the integrity of the instrument.Within a few years, initial prototypes were built on acoustic steel-string guitars which were met with an enthusiastic response from players.
Several players especially liked the design and many of the earliest prototypes were sold to players the likes of Pat Metheny, Kenny Burrell, Kevin Eubanks, and others. Further designs and prototypes were built adapting the EC to electric as well as acoustic guitars and developing models for construction in any of the popular formats. Patents and trademarks were granted worldwide in the late eighties and instruments using the Extended Cutaway design have been built since.
The Stephens Extended Cutaway electric series was introduced in 1987 and designed entirely by Stephen Davies. They are high end instruments which showed the era of overpowered superstrats. The EC series was named either the “Challenger” or “Spitfire.” They were the very first guitars to be MASS-produced which incorporated over 27 frets (Hamer made the “virtuoso” with 36 frets, but it wasn’t massed produced — only custom ordered).
The luthiery involved in these instruments was (and still is) highly intruging. There were three versions in the electric EC line: The 26 “atlantis,” the 29, and the 36, all describing the amount of frets the guitars received. The EC 29 and 36 were only in production for two years. The EC 26 atlantis lasted three years into 1990 and dropped out after the Nuno lined was put in (which was mostly based off the EC26 for the earlier models).
The acoustics, EC29 and EC36 were built at the Kasuga factory in Japan, a respected builder. But it burned down and production never was started again. The 29 & 36 were built in Japan too – Kanda Shokai was involved with them. They were too expensive, and Washburn quit buying them.
The 26’s were also Davies’ design. Necks and bodies were built by Godin in Canada, and Davies finished building them in Seattle. Davies also had his own version while working at Stephens Stringed Instruments. They were dropped when Nuno came on board and Washburn asked Davies to design an EC model with him.
Here are the basic specs of the Models:
EC26: The Atlantis featured the Kahler Spyder tremolo and featured staggered pickups. The bridge pickup was a Seymour Duncan JB and the neck pickup was also a Duncan. It had a 26-fret rosewood fretboard with Sperzel tuners. The Atlantis was the only bolt-on version of the EC series until the Nuno series featured the EC bolted cutaway in 1990 and today, which was very similar to the Atlantis. The Atlantis came in two stock colors: red, black, or white. A custom option was also available was mostly consisted of flame or quilted maples.
EC29: The “Challenger I” featured a 29 fret ebony fretboard with medium frets. It had EMG designed pickups in the bridge and neck, and it featured the Washburn 600T tremolo and active mid-boost. The EC29 came stock in four crackle finishes and custom in either a flame or quilted maple top. The crackle finishes were are in order from most common to most rare: white crackle, blue/red crackle, red crackle (red magma), and purple crackle (also known as black crackle or black lightning). Custom ordered EC29s came in either quilted or flamed maple at an extra cost. There are much fewer custom ordered EC29s than the crackles. The EC29 was ALL maple and had three-piece neck lamination, a feature which only the best custom shops at the time offered that helped the neck stay straight.. It was also very costly. Below is a pic of a quilted maple 29.
EC36: The 36 fret version is essentially identical to the EC29 series except it doesn’t have the neck pickup, and instead, an extra seven frets are added.
The Magnum (mystery guitar): A ways back, many people speculated that a “magnum” version of the EC series existed, in that it featured a “handle” on the guitar to hold. I can confirm there existence. I have seen one on ebay some time ago, and there are also a couple pics online, such as this one right here:
I read an article made by Stephen Davies himself. Washburn destroyed all of their records on the amout of guitars they made in this era. However, Davies claimed he remembered that there were around 1000-1500 EC29s made and somewhere around 500 EC36s made. It is unknown on how many EC26s were made. Unfortunately, the models did not sell well, and washburn discontinued the 29 and 36 in 1989 and the 26 a year later.
Today, the EC electric series dwells randomly on ebay and some pawn stores. They are a forgotten jems of the late 80s, which emphasized long hair, fast licks, and crazy gimmicks. Some people criticized the 36 for the short scale length, making it difficult to actually hit all the higher frets. Some people disliked the Washburn 600T tremolo at the time. Either way, Washburn tried something extremely innovative and succeeded in creating a type of luthiery which was way ahead of its time, but the market was not up for it. The late 80s saw stern competition in the superstrat market with Hamer, Kramer, and Jackson. Kramer, Jackson, and Hamer saturated the market in big artist endorsees, and although the EC series was a top-of-the-line superstrat, it could not break free from this void. Famous players who onced played the 29 or 36 were Michael Angelo Batio and Tommy Iommi of Black Sabath (who also has a highly customized left-handed version).
Retail prices for the guitars were also very high. The EC26 Atlantis’ suggested retail was $1000 for regular finishes and $1200 for custom bursts or quilted maples. The EC29s suggested retail was $1400 for the crackles and $2000 for the customs. Suggested price for the EC36 was $1300 for the crackles and $1900 for the customs. You could find them in stores for around the $800-$1200 range depending on model, color, and time period. The EC29s sold better than the 36s due to the highly versatility of the second pickup (and other factors).