FIRST PLAY
After releasing his career-defining album, Crown, earlier this year, the bar is set high for Eric’s new signature guitar
Magneto guitars first appeared back in late 2008, the brainchild of Christian Hatstatt, a guitar designer and maker who has worked with various European brands, most notably Gary Levinson’s Blade Guitars. Christian’s initial designs centred on two models: the Sonnet and T-Wave inspired by Fender’s Strat and Tele. Later in 2012, the Velvet was added, a more Les Paul-inspired style. Yet unlike many modern makers who might simply change a headstock outline, Magneto subtly reevaluates those originals. Initially, they were only made in Japan via a collaboration with Kei Yatsuzuka, but more recently the Chinese-made U-One range, introduced into Europe in 2019, provides Magneto style at a much lower price point.
Eric Gales joined the party in 2011. “We were introduced to Eric by a friend from NYC who put us in touch with his manager at the time,” reports Christian. “We got him one of our guitars to try out and he has been playing them ever since. After a discussion with Eric in early 2020, we came up with the idea to build a guitar that would be more affordable but would feature what Eric likes the most: size, weight, pickups, hardware and some cool design features.” And the RD3 you see here – based on Eric’s Japanese-made Raw Dawg II Custom – was born.
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Although the inspiration is obvious, there are plenty of aspects here that change both the look and the function. The upper horn sits slightly lower into the body and the treble horn appears more out-flowing, not to mention the three cut-outs in the gold-backed plastic mirror scratchplate (the same material is used for the vibrato’s spring coverplate). Meanwhile, the body heel area, for example, has a dished relief, while the heel itself is thinner and slightly tapered. Then there are the classy control knobs from smooth grained ivoroid with black rubber ribbed grips. Being an artist model, the guitar has Eric’s signature on the headstock and a larger version that surrounds the 12th fret. Eric’s ‘Raw Dawg’ nickname is displayed on the gold-plated neckplate, too, plus we get an additional strap button on the tip of the body heel. Eric, of course, plays his guitar upside down left-handed style, simply because that’s how his elder brothers played (and not beca
