❌SOLD❌ Liquid Metal LMG T-B Aluminum Body Electric, 2009

Here is a Canadian rarity – a Liquid Metal LMG T-B with machined aluminum body, Lollar pickups and Bigsby.
Founded in Vancouver by Phil Cook around 2007, the Liquid Metal guitar company specialized in metal-bodied electrics and provided manufacturing support to other builders. By 2019, the company closed.

The Liquid Metal LMG T-B is a T-style guitar, but not like most. A parallel can be drawn between the body construction of this model and the Rickenbacker 360. Both start with a block of material, here a block of 6061 T6 Aircraft Aluminum, cut to shape, flipped over and then chambered from the rear. Finally, a full back plate is added. On the front, the machines used to finish the surface also add the ‘diamond’ texture that looks like a separate pickguard from anything more than a few inches away.

The neck is Maple with tipped-back headstock to remove the need for string trees, Ebony fingerboard and head plate with inlaid metal logo, and has a dual-action truss rod. The tuners are excellent Gotoh HAP (height adjustable post) models.

While originally equipped with Lindy Fralin pickups, a Lollar Charlie Christian humbucker style has been added to the neck, and a Lollar BS Tele model at the bridge. The Bigsby B5 has a Chet Atkins arm plus a Callaham forward roller upgrade. A Schaller roller bridge has been added to provide smooth string travel and tuning stability.

This fascinating, extremely well built instrument is in very good, clean condition with only light wear. The original rectangular hard shell case is included.

While the actual Liquid Metal website has been gone for several years, some of its contents are viewable on the Internet Archive Wayback Machine.

Here are some clips from the archived site describing the Liquid Metal LMG T-B:

“As with all of our guitar bodies, the “T”, starts as a solid block of 6061 T6 Aircraft Aluminum and is then hogged out until we have the perfect body thickness. This is way denser than wood and the plucked string’s energy stays intact much longer. This ultimately makes for clearer, more pure sound. (…)

The surface of the guitar is a machined cross hatched texture. You can definitely see the patterned tool marks. Then the machined body is coated with the latest in scratch resistant clear coat just developed by AkzoNobel for use on ultra luxury cars. This gives the machining a sense of depth, it is an amazing 3d look with an absolutely stunning luster.

Because of the unique way we build our guitar bodies the “noise floor” is near zero. There is no hum, no extraneous noise. The pick-ups are absolutely shielded, isolated and the tone that results is pure, clean and strong. With an absolutely clean signal into your amp or board, your options for tone become immense.”

In January of 2008, Premier Guitar reviewed the Liquid Metal guitar line at a show in Boston, and came away impressed. The review is worth the read.

“Now for the big surprise: plugged in, this guitar has a fundamental like a nice, dry, decades-old Strat, combined with the quick initial attack of a LP Junior or a Telecaster. Yeah, I didn’t see that one coming either. The last thing I was expecting was a traditional sound from this instrument. “