The Eaglehawk (or Wedge-Tailed Eagle) is Australia's largest bird of prey and is found throughout Australia. It is most common in woodlands, open grasslands, inland gorges, escarpments and farmland.

Eaglehawks usually hunt in open areas, though they will hunt in wooded country where they pursue prey through trees with amazing agility, forcing their prey into open land. Common food sources include wallabies, ducks, young kangaroos, cockatoos, crows, rats and rabbits. The clutching power of the talons and the force with which the Eaglehawk's feet strike is often enough to kill their quarry.

The Eaglehawk is graceful, powerful, beautiful to behold whether at rest or in action, and to its victims it's lethal. Cool huh?

Eaglehawk by Jupiter Creek Music - Australia.

 
In December 2003 I was putting the finishing touches on the Less Paul Very Junior. That was my first instrument. I've now (January 2009) completed and shipped almost three hundred and fifty instruments, with several more at various stages of completion. I've learned a lot in that time year, my workshop has grown to house new tools and machinery, and my instruments have generally improved with each one completed.

Many have been custom instruments made to special order for customers who wanted something specific like a left-handed model or a 5 string model, made from a specific type of timber or with upgraded tuners rather than the standard tuners, or an upgraded pickup.
Obviously these instruments cost more than the generic models I've offered previously on eBay, but my aim is still to produce good quality affordable instruments. Eaglehawk instruments take Jupiter Creek Music to a new level!

Ask anyone making fretted instruments and they'll tell you that a major cost in setting up a workshop is the various files needed. There are files for levelling frets, others for crowning frets, and still others for shaping the fret ends.

Did I mention that you can't actually order an Eaglehawk instrument? If an instrument starts to take shape and looks like it'll be something special it might become an Eaglehawk. Once it's all come together and blows me away, then there's a chance I'll sand off the Jupiter Creek decal and replace it with an Eaglehawk logo.
The first Eaglehawk instrument is this custom eight-string left-handed mando for Paul, a local South Australian mando player and fiddler. It has a Hoop pine body, Australian oak neck, Jarrah fretboard, EMG select pickup, and custom bridge.
The second Eaglehawk instrument is a six string guitar I made for myself. Tasmanian blackwood body, maple neck, rosewood fretboard, GFS overwound zebra pickup.
The third Eaglehawk instrument was custom made for Phil of the band Oakenwood. It has an Australian oak body, Jarrah neck and fretboard, twin string trees, switchable dual EMG Select pickups, and custom bridge and pickguard.
The fourth and fifth Eaglehawk instruments were custom ordered by a couple of tenor guitar enthusiasts, Sam in Wangaratte, Australia, and Tom in Carmel, Indiana, USA. Similar instuments, but Sam's has a GFS Tele Deluxe pickup where Tom's has the GFS twin blade humbucker pickup. Both have switching to select between single coil and humbucker modes.
The sixth Eaglehawk instrument was custom made for Ted of Riverside, California, USA. Ted asked for a tenor uke based on the Fender Jaguar guitar. The body and neck are Australian oak, and the fretboard is Jarrah. The body and headstock face are finished in Seafoam Green. This uke has two switchable EMG Select pickups, and custom bridge, neckplate, pickguard and control plates.
The seventh Eaglehawk instrument was custom made for Gretchen in Hawaii, USA. Gretchen ordered a concert scale uke in Fijian mahogany, strung low G, with the controls mounted directly on the timber of the uke. She was happy to let me make some suggestions and try some ideas I'd been working on. Her uke has my new body and headstock shapes, along with my new bridge. The body is Fijian mahogany, the neck is Australian oak with a Jarrah fretboard and diecast Wilkinson tuners. The pickup is a split coil WSC Strat unit switchable between single coil and humbucker modes, with the selector switch mounted on the upper bass bout in the style of a Les Paul, and a barrel style jack mounted in the lower edge of the body. This is the best playing, best sounding, best looking uke I've made to date!

Gretchen seems to agree! In an email she says... "I absolutely love it. We have a big Peavy amp and speakercabinet at home that I got to plug it into. Thank you so much for your hard work. It's really beautiful. It will take me some time to get to know it, but it's already so comfortable. Again, I'm thrilled with it".

Gretchen promised to stay in touch, and true to her word she sent me some photos of her uke in action at their Easter church service held outdoors overlooking the beach on Maui.