gUitarREN

CDs non reviews: the CDs I bought in the last months #2

2012-01-18T06:15:00.000+01:00

As I’m currently travelling on some remote island, with no scanner and limited access to the Internet, it’s the perfect time for a new batch of vaguely reviewed CDs. Like last time, there are too many of them for real reviews, and again I insist on buying CDs – for me the safest support for long-term music storage (I don’t believe in the sustainability of our society and I think that virtual music can very easily vanish, together with our high technology and wobbling economy – but that’s another story…)

So, first you have Magma’s Mekanïk Destruktïẁ Kommandöh – it should have been in the previous non-reviews post but I forgot to put it in –, one of the few hundreds vinyl LPs I was listening to during the first half of my life, and haven't been fully replaced so far... When you want to listen to something that sounds like absolutely nothing else, go for Magma, one of the greatest band ever, with its unique mix of rock, jazz, choirs and avant-garde music. I’m amazed how musicians in the 1970s could be so steadily crazy and create and perform such radical music, when it’s so difficult nowadays to put a post-rock band together! Then comes Natalie Dessay singing Haendel – the kind of voice you need hearing just once on the radio to order the CD right away – can be rock or baroque music, it’s the same for me! Vic Chesnutt I just discovered recently – too late unfortunately –, and what caught me was the sound of the guitars on Splendid, the mix of heavily effected electric and acoustic guitars… I’m not used to this kind of music, the only thing I can relate it to is Neil Young – and Neil Young is grand!

Stephan Orins Trio is a piano/bass/drums jazz trio from France whose subtle music I enjoy a lot – it’s their third CD, and they are part of the jazz and improvised music collective Circum that has released good music in the last years – and that I cheerfully recommend to you (the fact that they are friends from my hometown doesn’t influence my judgement, I swear!) The Rolling Stones’ Let it Bleed and the Doors’ first eponymous album were also in my vinyls collection and I listened to their music avidly as a teenager (secretly, since I was in the post-punk/industrial music scene!) Still as good, fresh and wild as on the first day!

Gil Scott-Heron’s last CD should have been his great comeback, would he have survived it… I love how he respects no rules, and recycles any kind of music – from folk to batcave via electronica, hip-hop or blues – to support his soulful voice (BTW, have you seen the excellent video Chris Cunningham made on his own remix of New York is killing me?) H.F. Thiéfaine is probably unknown out of France, and it’s a shame since he’s been one of its best rock musician – if not the only one – for over four decades, and this album from the 1980s is a landmark in a long series. You’d be surprised, look for his live videos on YouTube! Kouyate and Neerman are two percussionists – one plays traditional balafon from West-Africa, the other plays vibraphone enhanced by electronic effects, and together they play quite unique music! The album is not as intense as their live performances – but it’s often the case with jazz…

Here comes the controversial stuff – well, the storm-in-a-glass-of-water kind. I do listen and enjoy a lot Lou Reed + Metallica’s Lulu and I’m amazed by all the hateful comments I could read from Metallica’s fans and rock critics about this album! I never really listened to Metallica before, and I understand that with Lou Reed, they do something different than what made them sale a lot of albums before, but the lack of tolerance of their own listeners should make them quit the business out of shame! Anyway, who cares? Energetic, hypnotic, inspiring, deleterious, that’s the good surprise of last year. Marc Ribot’s Exercises in Futility is my first Ribot’s album in years – he’s one of my favorite musicians ever but I kind of lost him in his Cubanos Postizos phase… This fresh and joyfully provocative minimal solo acoustic guitar album reveals again how Ribot can shake conventions of guitar playing to create his own music. And last but not least, Pat Metheny’s Zero Tolerance for Silence was a CD I listened to a lot ten years ago – until I lent it to someone who never gave it back to me –, and I needed to listen to it again. Falsely controversial for the same shallow reason than Lulu – Metheny is not playing the music he’s famous for –, it’s also an album showing a free mind – even free of the canons of free impro or noise music…

more sketches

2012-01-08T00:27:00.000+01:00

more sketches

2012-01-03T13:29:00.000+01:00

Pedalboard

2011-12-22T20:16:00.000+01:00

OK, a pedalboard is not much if you consider that I ambition to build guitars - a sloooow process as you might have noticed - but at least it is really useful - since I switched back to pedals after a long multi-effect phase (I've been an avid user of Korg's Pandora - that fits in one's pocket), I've been carrying around a few kilos of pedals (and I don't even have boutique ones!) and lost a lot of time plugging and unplugging!

So this pedalboard made of aluminium mesh fulfills my needs: it's compact, light and cheap. I'm not super happy with the red rubber bands - there's a clear lack of coolness there -, but the system works and that's what matters! It fits in a basic alu tool case and I have a trolley for it, so I won't have a broken back anymore when I arrive at the rehearsal studio (knowing that I usually also carry two guitars, it was time that I take care of this!) At some point, I'll have to get new cables with proper length and flexibility, but this is not en emergency.

OK, the next project is another planck guitar for a friend in France, that should quickly be used on stage for his current act - more about this later.

more sketches

2011-12-17T19:09:00.000+01:00

As you can see, lately I've been interested in ergonomic hollow body guitars... I was wondering if it would be realistic to make one myself, and I came up with the idea of an aluminium front hammered in an archtop shape, and I combined it with a straight neck / pickups alignment with a Fender style bridge...

pedalboard troubles

2011-12-06T23:30:00.001+01:00

I can't believe that I've spent two hours rearranging these pedals just to make them fit in the case! Now I found the right disposition, with zigzagging cables, but I can't understand why MXR pedals still have their power jacks on the side on the 21st century, it's so unpractical!

Anyway, a little bit more drilling, cutting and screwing, and my super-light portable pedalboard is ready!

more sketches

2011-12-01T16:58:00.001+01:00

more sketches

2011-11-23T14:06:00.001+01:00

Meet Leo Lospennato

2011-11-22T12:24:00.001+01:00

Yesterday I met up with Berlin-based Argentinian luthier Leo Lospennato, and it was a nice meeting. I first noticed Leo when I saw is book 'Electric Guitar & Bass Design' in Steward-MacDonald's catalogue, and I was very interested as it's quite an unique book!

The dominant opinion about guitar design being "we already have Les Pauls, Telecasters and Stratocasters, why invent anything more?", it's refreshing to find someone who made the effort to gather and share knowledge about guitar design, and proposes creative tools to expand it. Leo kindly offered me the book and I will avidly read it in the coming days - and probably review it here.

I was happy to discover on Leo's website that 1) he's living and working in Berlin and 2) he's giving guitar-making workshops, something that I'm willing to do to reach another level. Not that I want to become a pro guitar maker myself, but I still would like to collaborate with a luthier or a company to have some of my guitars built, and I need to master more the subject to do that. I still have to decide if I will take his workshop in Berlin over the next few months or go to France to have a 10-day intensive one next summer with luthier Xavier Petit, but during our one hour meeting, Leo gave already interesting insights about guitar design and building - a.o. how to vectorise my sketches to rework them on my computer in scale one.

concert review: The Horrors in Lido, Berlin

2011-11-14T23:01:00.001+01:00

On sunday I saw the Horrors, and I'm sorry to say that it was quite a disappointment. I'm probably partly responsible for this, because I expected something like their debut album Strange House, the thrilling tongue-in-cheek faux-garage-goth I enjoyed so much when it started to be visible on YouTube (one of my favorite way to discover new bands, always more interesting live than in studio) and didn't listen to the following albums.

Well this is not the same band obviously, not the same music, not the same spirit - the musicians look bored - not the cool blasé look of wannabe idols they sport on earlier videos, but more going-to-the-factory-to-earn-the-daily-bread bored. Most of the audience was bored too actually, if you except a bunch of drunk over-excited teens who could have been in front of Justin Bieber (to be honest, I don't know Justin Bieber's music, I just noticed his hairdo on top of pimpled faces), bawling the single's words. The music is mostly layers of synths with cheesy factory sounds covering the rest (but the drummer - Spurgeon was super sharp and prevented me from falling asleep).

Badwan's voice matured nicely and he has now some late Peter Murphy vibes, but with their current music it's just a waste. At some point I realized with horror that this music reminded me one of the worst band I've ever heard: Simple Minds! At least when Kaiser Chiefs are pillaging the Boomtown Rats, they have the good taste to steal interesting music. Only the last song was a little bit exciting, with a chaotic and noisy guitar and a long crescendo, but I felt too frozen to enjoy it, it was too late. No songs from Strange House, no Sheena is a Parasite, no She's the New Thing, alas...

Let's still talk guitars: Hayward plays Jazzmasters and Jaguar - Fenders and an unidentified copy - and a AFS Ibanez semi-hollow (with tape on the headstock, maybe Ibanez isn't cool enough, but for me their semi-hollows are highly desirable), and plenty of effects. Webb plays a precision bass with a cool metal pickguard - I liked him much better playing organ and leaving bass work to Cowan and his Dan'o Longhorn... If someone's interested, here is a pic of Hayward's pedalboard.

They could have been cult, they will just be successful, the Horrors have lost their mojo!

more sketches

2011-11-13T01:33:00.001+01:00

pedalboard project

2011-11-09T21:01:00.000+01:00

A man my age should have a proper pedalboard, thought I last week, mostly because I'm fed up loosing 20 minutes unpacking, plugging, unplugging and repacking my pedals each time I go to the studio to rehearse. Because I never have enough unachieved projects, I started working on one right away, with two constraints: keeping it as cheap as possible, and as light as possible (these are not gratuitous constraints I'm afraid), but still make a nice object.

I settled for aluminium mesh with wood structure, and I still have to decide if it should really fit in the case I planed to use, because it's on the edge of no room enough. These are the pedals I use for my current music project, though I have to admit that the Wrong Side of Uranus and the Rat are a little too new to have found their definitive place in my rig and my sound yet - but they will, I'm working on it... And I have a few pedals that I will want to use some day - the rehoused-to-be Rocky Road, a reverse delay also by Danelectro, my DYI fuzz box... And I will need a few more - a MXR equalizer, a EHX Freeze, a Chi-Wah-Wah... (and one day I will replace the Boss Fuzz by a real Fuzz Face because that's the only sound I use on it).

Then I will probably need 2 pedalboards anyway...

more sketches

2011-11-03T12:39:00.000+01:00

concert review: Acid Mothers Temple & the Melting Paraiso U.F.O. in NK, Berlin

2011-10-20T12:41:00.002+02:00

Acid Mothers Temple & the Melting Paraiso U.F.O.

Last monday I had the great pleasure to see Acid Mothers Temple & the Melting Paraiso U.F.O. in NK - a cool place for alternative and experimental music in Berlin (where I've been performing last june). I utterly enjoyed their powerful and noisy psychedelic post-rock, and I am very interested in their artistic process evacuating the issue of novelty (that is often problematic in improvised music or dance in my opinion) by totally diving into psychedelic genre, using all the expected sounds and licks, and able then to focus on pure intensity and communion. I've had similar experience with butoh pieces that some people thought too cliché because they always expect something looking new, where I was marveled by the physicality and acuteness of the dancers.

So yes you could dance yourself into trance at their concert, but you could also take it as a pure musical moment - just like you can listen to a Johann Sebastian Bach mass without having to go to church! Of course Kawabata Makoto shone at the guitar, combining slide cosmic whispers with chaotic shredding and heavy riffs - almost made me feel like playing a stratocaster (though he wasn't playing his famous left-hand strat - I always thought that if I'd play one, I'd do the same and play reverse!). And other musicians are not just supports, they are such a powerful rhythm section that they could send the building into outer space!

A great moment (at the exception of the two stupid headbangers who arrived late and stood just in front of me when I was already on the first rank, and danced as if they were at a Motörhead concert in 1985 - I know what I'm talking about, I was there, but I grew up since)!

Edit: I didn't mention gear, but I was agreeably surprised to see that the musicians of AMT avoid the current trend of indulging in vintage/custom guitars plugged in a impressive line of boutique pedals. They play with basic Fenders - Precision Bass, Telecaster, Stratocaster - and each have no nonsense Zoom G2s multimeffects, a couple of Boss pedals - a looper for the bass a.o. -, a wah, a big handmade unknown metal cased pedal, that's it... Considering the sonic mayhem they can produce, it's all the more impressive!

Musima Eterna in Guitarz 2012 calendar

2011-10-20T12:01:00.003+02:00

I told you already about the release of Guitarz 2012 calendar (that you can acquire here) featuring both my Doppelcaster (on the front page) and my good old Musima Eterna, about which I published a detailed post here.

Rehousing a Danelectro pedal

2011-10-15T14:55:00.001+02:00

Pedal time! After the Mystery guitar (still no better name - I like die Planck, a mock German name suggested by Guitarz co-poster David from Barcelona, but I'm not sure), let's go back to my DIY fuzzbox project - and while I'm at it, I plan to rehouse my Danelectro Rocky Road.

I like the sound of this cheap version of a Leslie - I bought it to check if that would be a sound I could include in my music, before getting a more serious one, but it's good enough - or at least it would be if it was not so unpractical! The foot switches are too low, too small and to close to each other - as are the pot knobs... So I tore it apart to look how it would be modifiable, and it's going to be difficult - it's super compact and everything that I should replace is connected directly on the PCBs - and here again I know so little!

But the only way to learn is to try, so I can only hope that I won't screw it all, and just go for it!

more sketches

2011-10-11T00:42:00.001+02:00

Mystery Guitar (until I found a better name)

2011-10-07T01:56:00.001+02:00

It takes so long to conceive and build my projects that I decided to go for it and make a guitar as quick as possible, and keep it as raw as bearable! So I gathered some gear laying around, bought a cheap neck on eBay, sawed a piece out of a big planck I picked in the street, cut, routed, perforated, drilled, sanded, soldered, oiled and here it is, my new baby - of which I'm very proud, I must say!

Here is the flabbergasting Mystery Guitar aka the 2 weeks guitar (the time I spent on it) aka the Rough Planck.

Simple, elegant, combining rough authenticity and high-tec design, and trendy recycling.

Full-frontal pic - see the cool round sound holes!

Neck is bolted, and something makes me think that I should visit my friend Pedro in Brazil one of these days.

Electronics are installed on the pickguard.

I soldered the push-pull knob (to split the humbucker) without any help - I'm so proud of myself.

The planck is too thick for the neck screws, I chisel a cavity for the plate.

De-branded headstock.

The body is routed and sanded - to remove the dirt and the splinters -, the pickguard is also roughly sanded, and perforated.

Got myself to finally use my plunge router to chamber the body, scary but efficient.

Gear plus pickguard.

Cutting the alu pickguard - one cut; see my bathroom tiles!

Now I can place the gear more precisely.

Drawing of the chamber and the pickguard - with the same pens I use for my sketches!

The pickup is a slanted dual blade hum bucker bought on discount from Eastwood's e-shop.

All the pieces together for a first impression.

Used strat-like neck branded Charisma from eBay (super flat - no radius).

A construction wood planck I picked in the street - cut to dimension 46 x 24 x 4,5.

mystery unveiled

2011-10-04T21:27:00.000+02:00

Here is the mystery guitar project I posted about a couple of weeks ago: my idea was to make a guitar as quick as possible, without design (that's what slows me so much usually) and without the pro smooth finish that is so painful to me to reach considering my total absence of building skills...

Anyway I'm super happy about it - and it sounds much better in real than recorded with my computer's internal mike -, though I still have to set the bridge saddles to have a proper intonation, but just couldn't wait any longer to post about it!

I will make a detailed post tomorrow, and since I don't have a name for it yet, I welcome suggestions!

Wrong Side of Uranus

2011-09-20T00:00:00.000+02:00

It took a few months (out of stock, then holidays, then out of money, then address confusion...) but I finally received today my Wrong Side of Uranus, a wicked bit-crusher/LFO by Montreal Assembly and I'm really not disappointed. It's a complex little machine and I just tried random settings but it has terrific sounds (all the metalheads with ominous names for their distortion pedals should listen to its scary shrieks and have the genuine feeling of having their brains torn into pieces, then they'd learn about real ferocity).

It has so powerful outbursts that this afternoon I lost more neurons than in the last ten years (since I quit pepper vodka!) Anyway, I finally found a pedal after my heart, and I will try to record a demo of it next week!

more sketches

2011-09-17T11:09:00.000+02:00

the Doppelcaster in the Guitarz calendar 2012

2011-09-17T00:30:00.000+02:00

GL Wilson from the Guitar blog just released a guitars calendar for 2012, and he chose the Doppelcaster to put on the cover; you will also find my Musima Eterna (that I actually never showed on this blog now that I think of it) inside!

Mystery project

2011-09-11T11:14:00.000+02:00

No I'm not building my fuzz-box, I started instead a mystery project, you will know more about it very soon...

My first DIY pedal project

2011-09-05T12:38:00.003+02:00

Another project to add to my (too long) to-do list, another domain I know nothing about and need to explore: I got myself a little fuzzbox from Das Musikding - apparently the best e-shop for this kind of things on continental Europe...

Here again I feel so helpless when it comes to technology and making things, when I relay on this all the time, and I wish I'd learned all this in school... Not too late to start I guess - and I hope I will show the process in the coming days (already had to buy a smaller iron and realized that there are very different kinds of pots and knobs)...

more sketches

2011-08-22T00:36:00.001+02:00

Ikea birch wood butcher block, an ur-telecaster...

2011-08-16T14:20:00.000+02:00

Here it is! I hinted at it last week, and due to the generosity of a benefactor (a little bit surprise to be asked for her humble kitchen appliance), I managed to put my hands on a second hand (with vintage patina) Ikea butcher block (out of production) made of glued birch cubes (I still don't know why birch is not a common tonewood for electric guitars, when it is used for its resonance for drums and speaker cabinets...), with the perfect dimensions to cut a telecaster out of it, Zachary style!

Now I used the sitar bridge on the Doppelcaster so it would be a more standard project (also I have a lot of tele gear leftovers from my previous projects) though with a slightly different design (time to try the double lower horn) and the new mini-humbucker I bought lately in neck position. Also I don't know if I will use my Micro-Frets neck with its shorter scale or get a tele neck, or even a baritone mod one...

Sitar bridge and pickguard polishing

2011-08-15T23:39:00.005+02:00

So I finally installed the sitar bridge on the doppelcaster, though until the last moment I thought that it would not work - the vintage bridge is really smaller, and I was about to give up when I decided to not use the string-through holes - it's not so important since the sitar saddles remove anyway most of the sustain (and I took the occasion to re-polish the pickguards). Anyway the sound is brilliant and I'm convinced now that this was the best move, a guitar + sitar makes more sense than a guitar + baritone, and I have already some songs ideas with this beastie.

I will try to make soon a video demo of it but I need to set precisely the sitar saddles, and it will take a while, then I'll have a pro setting to have the guitar at its best, also I'm curious (and a little bit anxious) to have a pro point of view on this instrument. Ah, and the P90 still doesn't work, if anybody knows where to find a wiring diagram for a P90 in neck position on a telly, it's welcome!

more sketches

2011-08-07T12:41:00.000+02:00

a sitar bridge for the Doppelcaster

2011-08-06T13:37:00.000+02:00

Ordered sitar-guitar saddles from Rockinger, and a vintage style telecaster bridge, but I overlooked the fact that the Squier teles I used to build the Doppelcaster had modern bridges... I will see if I can make things fit - and I still have the option of making another telecaster-inspired guitar, I'm on the tracks of an old-school Ikea Butcher Block.

more sketches

2011-07-27T14:02:00.001+02:00

more sketches

2011-07-21T16:20:00.004+02:00

the slowest guitar project in the world

2011-07-14T17:41:00.003+02:00

So here it comes again, I could put a couple of hours into the 7-string guitar project, I finally assembled everything and it works not so bad, but a buzzing problem that requires that I rework the neck pocket - I need to remove 2 mm of wood... The lower horn isn't a problem as I feared once, and I really like how the pickup rails follow the frets!

more sketches

2011-07-12T22:32:00.000+02:00

of,

more sketches

2011-07-05T19:35:00.000+02:00

more sketches

2011-07-02T13:41:00.000+02:00

pedals

2011-06-30T15:05:00.000+02:00

How to transform the sound of a theremin into a quadrophonic storm of heavily effected white noisy thunder, with the help of a few guitar pedals...

No guitars but plenty of pedals

2011-06-24T14:36:00.000+02:00

Didn't post here for a while, but for honorable reasons, being busy with a project in real life. No guitars this time but plenty of pedals, as you can see on these pics, connecting a theremin to a quadrophonic sound system for an heavily effected drone music concert together with text projection - another episode of my on-going Angel Meat transmedia project.

more sketches

2011-06-04T00:45:00.000+02:00

CDs non reviews: the CDs I bought in the last months...

2011-05-30T00:36:00.001+02:00

Last year I started to review some CDs, and I planed to go on, very subjectively and only about the stuff I'm interested in, but I failed at that - started some then postponed and now there are too many to do it seriously but without turning it into a serious job - this blog is but a hobby...

So I just post the covers of the CDs I bought these last months, excluding the stuff I download or copy - I still favor CDs when it comes to owe music, and I do want to remunerate the artists whose music I enjoy so much (for the industry, it can collapse, I don't mind). I listen to a lot of music online, but it's interesting for me to see what I've bought over a certain lapse of time - I realize that I'm mostly into guitar based rock music nowadays, and that after 20 years I'm still not finished replacing my vinyls collection - I really had a lot! - and I need some more classics...

The Dead Weather is without any doubts the most exciting band I've heard for a long while - I had lost my enthusiasm for raw rock for years but I really enjoyed their concert in Berlin last summer... I also discovered Broadcast but sadly only the very day their singer died, and I listen to their last album a lot. I keep enjoying medieval music and Anne Azéma is a luminous singer. And after having listened to a lot of jazz-rock in the last years, I have a strong minimal phase, in very different styles but always quite pop, at the exception of This Heat that is an interesting crossing of experimental music, krautrock and post-punk from the early 1980s...

Two last things, the artist I pirated the most lately is Burzum - not only his CDs are not easy to find, but I mind financing a half-nazi, that is probably quite stupid since I do value his music... And again I will miss a great concert in a couple of weeks, but I really cannot put 200 € to see Roger Water's The Wall, even though that's the only chance I'll ever have to see it in my life... Again, when did rock become upper class entertainment?

my own signature guitar 2

2011-05-25T00:10:00.002+02:00

Another version of my own signature guitar, after I had another look at the Mosrite Combo, and remembered the ultra cool sound holes on some metal front models of Helliver Guitars, plus a Wilkinson auto-tuning bridge...

concert review: Olaf Rupp & Julian Sartorius in -able, Berlin | 13 May 2011

2011-05-16T09:57:00.000+02:00

On friday I had the luck and pleasure to see Olaf Rupp and Julian Sartorius playing in a small galery in Berlin.

Olaf Rupp is a stunning guitarist, who developed a very personal style of free improvisation on acoustic nylon string guitar. You could feel the legacy of Derek Bailey, the master of improvisation on acoustic guitar (but who isn't his heir in this domain), but Olaf Rupp's technic derives from classical and flamenco, played with fingernails, that make his music quite unique, and very emotional - I have to say that the audience was quite mesmerized! And this doesn't mean that his register is limited, he produces a huge array of sounds, far beyond the suave notes one expects from the nylon string guitar, from thundering chaos to soft micro-melodies, everything very organic and inspired.

For the occasion Olaf Rupp played with drummer Julian Sartorius, who was not less excellent, I rarely saw such a creative improviser in front of a drum set, combining endless different technics with a great accuracy, avoiding the usual trap of the accumulation of tricks.

I appreciated the fact that the concert was dense but short, many improvisers fall in a kind of trance and loose track of good timing, where Rupp and Sartorius, who had something to tell, just told it and stopped (though the audience insisted for an encore!) A word also about the place, this small gallery in Neukölln called -able, who organizes more and more interesting concerts - I'm happy that they are in my neighborhood and that they are my friends, and I advise my fellow berliners to keep an eye on their program...

a killswitch on my Dot

2011-05-04T20:14:00.000+02:00

I'm very happy with the brand new killswitch I just installed on my Epiphone Dot Studio, it's so cool that I wonder why I've been waiting so long to do it!

more sketches

2011-05-03T22:04:00.000+02:00

And here comes the last batch of guitar sketches - there's been 145 posts showing these sketches in the last 3 years, usually 8 guitars each time, that's over 1000 proposals of guitar designs... I remind the readers and followers of this blog that one of its purposes is to establish connections with guitar makers - companies, luthiers or amateurs - who would be interested in collaborating with me to design and build guitars... So feel free to contact me and spread the information - and feedback is always welcome!

my own signature guitar

2011-05-03T04:39:00.000+02:00

I usually sketch many guitars, week after week, any kind of guitars, just for research purpose and without any restriction. Then I was thinking about the guitar I would really want for myself, and I came up with this model that gathers a few things I like and others I though about...

Lately I'm using mostly my Epiphone Dot, that fits better than any of my other guitars for my current project. It's not a high end guitar and I have more sophisticated, but the sound and the feel are what I need for now. So my dream guitar would be a semi-hollow - not all curves like the ES-335, but with a Bison style florentine double-cutaway, like a Zen-On Morales from the 1960s - the only model I know with such a design.

The gear would consist of an universal pickup, two or three universal knobs, a 3x3 aligned tuners headstock and a moon-shaped stoptail - plus moon crescent holes and a contoured metal scratchplate... Though since I designed this guitar I start to have a need for a self-tuning bridge à la Wilkinson, that would not only keep my guitar tuned but could also shift from one open tuning to another... Also this one has seven strings, I'm not sure about that - didn't finish the 7-string project yet, the lower horn is bothering but I'm not happy about just removing it!

more sketches

2011-04-17T13:04:00.000+02:00

more sketches

2011-04-13T00:43:00.001+02:00

re-refinishing the Televangelist

2011-04-06T09:19:00.001+02:00

You may remember, last year I refinished my Televangelist with a glossy varnish that was right away abused in a performance (you can see how on this video).

I thought first that I would slightly sand this varnish by hand and put a mate one, but the layer was so thin that it lightened the black paint, so I decided to remove everything and refinish it with wood stain and oil...

and

Microfret neck and Sitarcaster

2011-04-03T02:41:00.002+02:00

Just bought on eBay this MicroFrets neck - from a 1968 Calibra - at a fair price, but missing its trademark MicroNut. Before I received it, I had planed to use it for my Butcher Block Sitarcaster project, so I wouldn't have to wait until I've saved enough money to buy a baritone neck for the Doppelcaster and recycle one of its necks for the new project (is it clear?)

But then I found out that the Calibra has a super short scale, and that it doesn't fit at all for a tele - and on top of that, Ikea has discontinued its famous massive birch butcher block of 48x38 cm in which you could cut a tele body, so the project goes back to limbos - not for too long I hope...

Here you can see a cardboard model of the Sitarcaster body with its double lower horn - I'm quite proud of it, a classic design with a killer detail (the MicroFrets headstock would have looked terrific with it, with its Starcaster look)...

Now I have to figure out what to do with this neck, my best idea so far is to make quickly a total junk guitar out of a battered plank I picked up in the street and the left over gear that lays around on my desk for month... But the frets are really micro and this guitar would require super low action, something you don't improvise!

more sketches

2011-03-27T15:34:00.000+02:00

more sketches

2011-03-17T14:57:00.000+01:00

shaping aluminium pickguard

2011-03-16T01:22:00.001+01:00

A few days ago, I was asked about how I made my aluminium pickguard, here is a quick overview of the tools I use, it might interest unskilled beginners such as I was one year ago. So I work on 1,5 mm alu plate, and I start with cutting roughly with a jigsaw (with an alu blade), then more precisely with snips, then large flat file to finish with small files with different shapes for the details. I drill the screw holes with a small screwdriver (I like it because it's quite slow and easier to control, I'm not good with too powerful tools - for the same reasons I gave up grinders or Dremels that always do more than I expect...)

A sanding sponge is a good way to start the sanding, then thin sandpaper used with water - then I finish with polishing wheels mounted on a drill. It's quite primitive but it worked so far, and each time I'm getting better at it! I hope that I will manage to do some engraving in the coming months...

Universal Pickup

2011-03-13T00:12:00.001+01:00

There are many things about electric guitars that are never questioned - things that stung just because they worked for pioneering models and nobody saw why one should do it another way, then it became habit, tradition, cult, whatever - but that I can never take for granted. Amongst these is the necessity to have these two pickups in neck and bridge position (plus in centre when there is a third one) with specific use and sound... Even extremely experimental guitars such as the Teufel Birdfish stick to this! I've always had in the back in my mind: 'what about a big pickup that would go from the neck to the bridge and contain multiple combinations?' - today I decided to check how it would look...

I'm not an engineer so there is maybe a major flaw to this idea that will jump to the eye of anybody more learned about sound and electronics, but I wish I could meet someone who could put some thinking in it. Imagine 36 magnet plots plus a few blades, that could be combined in many ways (with rotary switches, I love rotary switches!) It feels more exciting that all the emulating gizmos stuffed in the last Gibson luxury models, and might create completely new tones (and not fake ones that are already commons)...

Feedback is welcome!

the

more sketches

2011-03-11T12:51:00.000+01:00

customized Epiphone Dot Studio and First Act Westerberg

2011-03-07T21:05:00.001+01:00

These are two guitars that I recently slightly modified: first an Epiphone Dot Studio (I have generally a very limited use for tone and volume on a guitar - I relay more on pedals to sculpt my tone - so the two knobs Dot Studio fits me better) to which I added a rosewood pickguard (bought more than one year ago), chrome pickup covers and rings, chrome bridge, stoptail and big knobs. I like the discreet bizarreness of the result! I'm considering changing the pickups later for humbucker size P90s.

The one on the left is a First Act Westerberg signature for which I made an aluminium pickguard (another one, but this time I'm getting better at polishing, not perfect yet but it's getting better each time!) It's a cheapo but sounds terrific as soon as I put some overdrive... Also I'm so used to humbuckers that I'm baffled but the brightness of its sound... I also plan to upgrade the pickup though, and ordered a Dream 90 from GFS - it's on its way.

Still have to make alu trussrod covers for both guitars, and file the frets of the First Act - its only but big flaw...

more sketches

2011-03-05T12:38:00.000+01:00

Concert review: Lysn in HBC, Berlin - 19 Feb. 2011

2011-02-21T01:24:00.001+01:00

Lysn is a electro-acoustic impro act created and fronted by trombonist/electronicist Hilary Jeffery, with guitarist/vocalist/electronicist Marc Weiser, trumpetist Franz Hautzinger and drummer/pianist Steve Heather - all four familiar to European impro scene followers.

I quite enjoyed Lysn music and after having a look at their website I understand why: their project meet many of my current concerns about music - psychedelism, drones, trance -, and many of their references are also mine - a.o. Gong, Angelo Badalamenti, Can, Public Image Ltd, the Velvet Underground... The flesh of the music is provided by heavily effected trombone and trumpet building solid layers of rich and complex brass sounds, combining bright drones and shorts hypnotic loops. Jeffery completes his trombone with a gizmo box (the whole thing he calls the 'tromboscillator') that allows him to reach extremely low notes; he often settles the pieces on three slowly looped notes, simple and solid harmonies on which his colleagues can go wild.

Weiser's voice work - filtered by a Kaos Pad - ranges from Pink Floydian etheral voice to clownish hectic speeches, and his guitar provides rhythmic patterns and noises; Heather is apparently not a regular player of the band but his contribution was highly appreciated, either with minimal piano harmonies or hit-hat/shakers tiny rhythms - seems to be an adept of limited instrumentation, I appreciate that.

Again, I didn't think of bringing a camera, reviewing concerts in a new trend on this blog that I start to enjoy - gotta do it seriously...

12:56 AM

more sketches

2011-02-18T00:26:00.000+01:00

strat based sketches

2011-02-10T00:44:00.002+01:00

A couple of weeks ago Kenray proposed me to design guitars to be cut out of a strat body - I took the challenge and here they are. I printed strat blueprints in light grey to be sure it would be accurate and drew from them, but didn't stick to the pickup/electronics routing - too constraining.

It was not so fun as I thought, because strats are extremely well balanced (this I have to acknowledge this, though I really don't like strats) and reshaping them is just about cosmetics, where I'm mostly busy with ergonomics, even if it's not always obvious in my drawings.

While drawing I often reached designs typical of 60s Japanese guitars like Teiscos, and it felt like it's exactly how they proceeded at the time... And I also easily obtained Paul Stanley style guitars, that is embarrassing but not new - I wish he would have chosen between KISS and guitar design, because his guitars are spoiled by bad taste finishes and who wants a guitar conceived by a clown?

concert review: KTL in Festsaal Kreutzberg, Berlin

2011-02-05T00:49:00.003+01:00

Yesterday I saw KTL, the project of Stephen O'Malley from Sunn O))) - on guitar - and Peter Rehberg from Mego - on electronics (I didn't think of taking my camera so I have no picture, anyway the stage was very dark and full of smoke so there wasn't much to shoot).

KTL plays the expected but enjoyable drone/doom characteristic of Sunn O))) and to be honest the electronics in it doesn't add much to the genre. Thought its sharpness, amplitude and aggressiveness, Rehberg's sound lacks the richness of O'Malley's guitar and after a while it falls on the wrong side of minimalism, becoming almost tedious (and I don't have a pro-guitar bias, I enjoy and play electronic music as much as guitar one; I actually witnessed something similar with a guitar duo gathering Keiji Haino and JF Pauvros, where Pauvros was completely overwhelmed by his partner - after a while you couldn't even hear him at all but it was better like this).

KTL played two long pieces, the first one a two notes drone song, beautiful and intense. O'Malley played with an e-bow and most variations came from imprecisions and accidents - e-bow playing is very difficult to master - and I always enjoyed this approach to experimental music. As I noticed in my Altar review, it sounded quite like heavily distorted 4AD, let's say it felt like the crossing of Dead Can Dance and Popol Vuh played in a sawmill, the soundtrack of a 2099 Werner Herzog/Klaus Kinsky movie we'll never see. Quite tripping indeed.

The second piece was less interesting, based on a super slow and heavy doom riff by O'Malley, sometimes evolving in seemingly improvised bridges, with Rehberg making some noise on top. It feels that the complete sonic chaos I enjoy so much in Japanese ultra-noise doesn't work for drone/doom sound and prevents the expansion of complex frequencies that makes it so special. The lack of inspiration was quickly blatant; with such intense music it is counterproductive to play a one hour set as expected in a rock concert - even if you pay the same price...

And now a little bit of guitkism, O'Malley played his trademark Travis Bean TB1000S down-tuned probably in A (though it's not a baritone scale), plugged I assume in Sunn model-Ts but the amps on stage didn't bare a logo, but one big Fender. Most of the pedals on his pedal board are unidentifiable - customs or DIY in alu boxes covered with tape - but a ProCo Rat and I think a Blue Beard. There was also a lot of reverb and echo, and the sound is so low that I thought he used an octaver - though it's never mentioned in his rings descriptions.

And in echo to my previous concert review, I must add that unfortunately this year again I won't see PJ Harvey on stage, the next concert is not sold-out this time, just unaffordable. For 60€, I'd rather go to the opera - it seems that now live pop music is an upper-class recreational activity.

Gretsch inspired headstock

2011-02-04T16:08:00.000+01:00

A couple of days ago co-blogger David from Barcelona posted on Guitarz about a beautiful 1947 Gretsch Electromatic and its peculiar headstock (that you can see on the right).

I've never seen anything like this before, and it's quite inspiring, so I've drawn here my own version of it - a little bit more ergonomic in my opinion... I like the idea of combining a paddle headstock with tuners aligned with the strings!

more sketches

2011-01-25T01:54:00.000+01:00

I've been working more on the last baritone model, curving the straight lines and now I'm getting really happy with it - the H drawing being the best one... I'm also quite sure with the pickup being in middle position - it's a Kent Armstrong double HB Motherbucker that I first thought I would put in neck position, though it's made for bridge... I've been also playing with the idea of having a piezo bridge - a tune-o-matic then because the other ones are only with trem - but a quick search shows that to have a serious one plus a pre-amp is roughly the price of the new Epiphone Nighthawk that I'd be happy to have too... Still I will check if the alu front can be used with a piezo for acoustic instruments - 10 times cheaper!

more sketches

2011-01-20T16:40:00.001+01:00

more sketches

2011-01-14T22:33:00.003+01:00

Have another project to add to my long list, but like the Doppelcaster, something concrete and not overly difficult to do - it requires just a little bit of money...

After the Doppelcaster I have some leftover gear that allows me to make another telecaster, I always loved the idea of the Ikea Butcher Block Tele created by Zachary, and I discovered recently that Rockinger proposes sitar bridge saddles for teles, so I was almost ready to make a Butcher Block Sitarcaster, but something didn't work: I don't see the point of just copying a tele since I'm mostly interested in guitar design. So I've been playing for a while with tele variations, unsuccessfully until I finally found what I want to do, it's the model H above.

I found this idea of the double lower horn a while ago and it didn't feel promising until now - I'm very slow in my process but it's not a waste of time after all!

more later...

About guitar blueprints and blog stuff

2011-01-10T01:28:00.001+01:00

Several people ask me regularly about the blueprints I posted 18 months ago (tele, strat, SG, LP - courtesy of Paul's guitar blog) since I proposed to send the real size ones to whoever would request it (couldn't manage to make them downloadable) - I sent many, but so far it doesn't seem that any guitar has been built from them unfortunately, or I wasn't told...

Anyway, there's been some mess in the blog's comments lately so if I didn't answer you, ask again, because usually I send them right away (the only way not to forget...) Also, some people post comments about the blog then ask for the blueprints and give their e-mail address - if you do that, I can't publish the comments otherwise your e-addresses would be exposed, so it's better to add the e-address in another comment.

more cardboard

2011-01-08T11:51:00.001+01:00

more sketches

2011-01-05T15:22:00.000+01:00

more sketches

2010-12-28T18:45:00.000+01:00

blog information

2010-12-25T10:39:00.000+01:00

Guitarren is now smartphone friendly, in case someone is interested.

more sketches

2010-12-24T00:38:00.000+01:00

more sketches

2010-12-19T12:41:00.001+01:00

Guitar Haiku

2010-12-17T11:26:00.003+01:00

As they showed the Doppelcaster on the Guitarz blog, I figured out that I'm sometimes too discreet with my work, and also guitars are to be played above all. So let me show you what I do with a Fender Jaguar Special HH - still my favorite guitar though I got several since, probably because it's the easiest to use - plugged in a Marshall MB30 via a Boss FZ-5 fuzzbox. The Jaguar may have less personality than my Dan'o Longhorn Baritone or my Musima Eterna - just to mention the recent ones - but when it comes to pure playing, that's the first choice.

This video was also produced for and presented in my current Angel Meat exhibition.

more sketches

2010-12-15T02:13:00.000+01:00

more sketches

2010-12-11T13:20:00.001+01:00

Time to go back to guitar sketches after all the Doppelcaster frenzy... (actually I never stopped drawing but lately I find the scanning process tremendously boring... chacun sa névrose !)

Self playing Doppelcaster

2010-12-07T23:00:00.001+01:00

Life is cruel: the very day i finished the Doppelcaster, I played on it one hour - enough to understand that it will take a long time of practice to figure out what to do with it - then I turned it into the sound installation for which it's been made. So it's currently hanging on a wall of the Akademie Schlos Solitude in Stuttgart, next to the video I posted previously, both being part of the exhibition Angel Meat I already mentioned. Now I'm back home, won't see it before one month - then the hardest will come...

Dancing on Ashes (Kalifornia)

2010-11-23T01:45:00.003+01:00

Don't only draw or build guitars, I play some also, though not often in conventional ways - that would be for example to play songs in front of an audience ; not that I have anything against this, I did it and plan to do it again, but I'm busy with other things for the moment... Anyway, here I am playing a brand new Ibanez Talman acoustic guitar and singing with my partner, for a video currently exhibited in a show I have in Stuttgart, about which you can know more here.

Doppelcaster

2010-11-19T23:08:00.001+01:00

Ladie and Gentlemen, the Doppelcaster!

2010-11-18T02:44:00.004+01:00

Here it is, the Doppelcaster is born (and I must say that I'm quite proud of myself)!

The lower neck is stringed in Nashville tuning (you can buy the set from D'Addario), the upper one is supposed to be replaced by a baritone one as soon as I've saved enough money to buy one. There are two outputs, so I can play each neck with its own effects... Better pictures will come soon, and a demo once I figured out what to do with a double neck guitar... I feel like playing like John McLaughlin but I'm not able to, so I have to find my own way...

You can also noticed that I'm extremely bad at soldering, but after a lot of sweat and some help from Seymour Duncan's wiring diagrams, I managed to do the job - and it works...

more pickguards

2010-11-13T00:37:00.000+01:00

Ferrules and pickguard variations

2010-11-01T23:38:00.001+01:00

the finish

2010-10-27T14:37:00.000+02:00

Two layers of wood stain and one of oil - still drying...

in spite of the hours of standing, there's been a few small patches of the previous finish left, that I discovered too late, after I put the color. At first I was desperate and decided to cover it all with lack, then I put all the gear on and after all, the few flaws end up looking like a slight relicking - absolutely involuntary since I usually hate that - and it feels good. Tonight I finish the oiling and tomorrow I start soldering (gasp!)

sanding the doppelcaster

2010-10-18T13:00:00.000+02:00

Had to interrupt the Doppelcaster making for a few days because of performance tonight (yes, the performance for which the guitar was initially planed - didn't make it!)

Thought I would post a few some beginner's considerations. First, the polyurethane finish goes deeper than I thought, I made a first sanding that felt good enough, but when I tried wood stain on it, it proved not enough and it needed a few extra hours sanding to reach the bare wood.

I learned a few things doing this: it's way better to work in your basement with protecting goggles and dust mask than in your living room (yes, I can be dumb sometimes)! And you shouldn't spend three hours machine sanding in the morning when you rehearse music in the afternoon - I actually still have sore hands one week later! And wood stain is not the best solution for refinishing, because it requires a perfectly neat wood.

more sketches

2010-10-15T19:12:00.000+02:00

doppelcaster project | stage 8

2010-10-07T23:44:00.001+02:00

pickguard sketch 2

2010-10-03T11:41:00.001+02:00

I'm know thinking of 2 pickguards Jumior style...

Doppelcaster body

2010-10-02T16:54:00.000+02:00

Here it is! Body adjusted and glued, thanks to my friend Brita and her carpenter's skills and machines!

The next stage requires a little bit of plastic wood to fill unused screw holes and a lot of sanding, then the next difficulty is drilling for the string-through-body system - probably a details if you have a drill press but quite tricky made by hand on the kitchen table...

the 7-string guitar come-back

2010-09-27T22:12:00.000+02:00

On Friday my carpenter friend came to check the Doppelcaster, she looked pitifully at my chisel, my rasp and the mutilated tele bodies, and decided to take them to her workshop, rectify them with her machines, and glue them since she was at it... Lucky me!

But since all my tools were ready for action, I decided to spend a little bit of time on this semi-abandoned 7-string project, and if I can find a few extra hours it can be finished quite soon - at least the technical work, then I'll do the cosmetics...

more sketches

2010-09-27T15:52:00.000+02:00

pickguard sketch

2010-09-21T00:07:00.000+02:00

Was watching yesterday at the short lived Tele Junior with its very cool reduced pickguard - on the Doppelcaster it would look quite good... Now I'm suffering trying to make the two bodies fit exactly to glue them together... Will ask soon the help of a pro because I have the feeling that what I try to do might be completely stupid!

doppelcaster project | stage 7.2

2010-09-18T18:29:00.002+02:00

more sketches

2010-09-17T15:33:00.002+02:00

Doppelcaster project | stage 7.1

2010-09-12T18:59:00.001+02:00

more sketches

2010-09-04T12:41:00.000+02:00

more sketches

2010-09-02T14:40:00.000+02:00

more sketches

2010-09-01T11:50:00.000+02:00

Tatsumi's minimal guitar

2010-08-19T21:21:00.000+02:00

Saw yesterday in the gallery -able a noise concert by Tatsumi Ryusui and Kyota Koyama - and here are a few pictures of Tatsumi's home made guitar, plus some of the effects and other sound generators he uses.

Doppelcaster project | stage 6.2

2010-08-17T21:44:00.000+02:00

Melobaritone project 3

2010-08-14T13:14:00.002+02:00

Melobaritone project: gear

2010-08-11T09:56:00.003+02:00

I had the opportunity to acquire this B-stock Steinberger-like tremolo that will fit perfectely to the Melobaritone project - yes it is now a concrete project, I decided to go for it (have to find a better name though, this is not a Melobar copy anymore)!

I've been thinking about the aluminium neck (with some help from the Aluminium T-beam Guitar blog) and consider a.o. a tubular neck - since a fretboard is unnecessary -, a little bit like on a Gittler guitar.

Doppelcaster project | stage 6.1

2010-08-09T12:29:00.000+02:00

Doppelcaster project | stage 5

2010-08-08T20:43:00.003+02:00