Life of a wannabe Luthier!

2009-11-14T05:37:00.000-08:00

There are many things that go into the creation of all things. What starts out as a passing thought will soon be fueled by others, converstions, visions, and many untold desires!

Let me state this first- And this is my strongest belief- There is but One Creator of all things, and it was by His Grace that I was saved by Faith through Christ Jesus who strengthens me!

The guitar pictured here started out as a thought that I would build a "doubleneck" with the top neck being an short scale "octave" six string with a standard neck below- well a couple days go by and the thought of a twelve/six string combination started rolling around with the dust balls in my brain. Then a mandolin/guitar combo, and a whole lot of others that I'll not bore you with.

What spured the final configuration was a desire to not have to pack multiple guitars while playing out somewhere, yet retain the ability to have a plethera of tones at my disposal!

Top neck- 24 3/4 scale, Line6 Variax electronics, Seymor Duncan "Hotrail" at the neck with variable tap control. Thats a total of almost 50 distinct tones when all is said and done!

Bottom neck- 25 1/4 scale, Roland GK3 synth pickup, Seymor Duncan "Pearly Gate" neck and bridge pickups set up with mini toggles for phase/series/parallel configurations. Now this is where the whole plethera of tonal availablity starts to get REALLY bizarre!

Both necks can be played, so going from one neck to another, or if you where blessed with a second left hand- you get the point I hope. But using a Line6 POD X3 Live, a Roland GR33 synth board, connected to a Korg Tritin Studio thru MIDI ---I start to get overwhelmed at what is actually possable, and also what is practical and usable. Not to return to one of the original thoughts was to decrease the instruments I was packin', now I've added a keyboard! What have I done?!;)

In addition to coming up with the electronic configuration for the tone, guitars will take on - how should I put this- oh yea- different personalities- just by the nature of the types of wood and construction methods used. This guitar is comprised of both necks made from Curly Maple thru body. The body itself is constructed from Mahagony on the back and sides with a slightly arched Engleman Spruce top, and with the neck thru properties, that created a semi-hollow body type of final tone chambers - altho I will admit the hollow chambers are somewhat crowded with the electronic from the Line6 Variax and other wiring and components!

Once I sat down and started counting and cataloging all the tones I could achieve, (now this was before my tone deprived mind came up with the idea to add the keys to the mix), by turning a knob, fliping a switch changing necks, so on and so forth, 137!! before change amp setting- do ya see where this can lead!!

As time allows, I'll post pics and discriptions of the other instruments I have built. As for now, if you have read this far or just skipped to here- May you be Blessed by the Creator of all things!

"Gone Fishin'",

><>~J erri

The Stringslinger

Instruments by Eckel

Life of a wannabe Luthier!