|
Moments of illumination happen everywhere in the world of music—from a songwriter who suddenly figures out the missing piece of a song’s puzzle, to the onstage performer who stumbles upon the perfect lick, to the audience member who finds an emotional connection in the simplest lyric. And there’s magic in the creation of an instrument too.
In the summer of 2006, Jesse Hopkins began working at First Act’s Studio for Artists custom shop in Boston. His first assignment was to build a very complicated double-neck instrument–a guitar/bass combo. The instrument was a custom order from Saunder Jurriaans, guitarist and bassist for the alt-metal trio Priestbird. In live performances, Jurriaans plays both instruments. A musical task as challenging as his required our luthiers to build a very unique instrument.
Jesse explained some of the difficulties of the process: “This guitar was loaded with challenges, like the spacing of the two necks and headstocks. Binding the guitar was also tricky—it had to be carefully bent around the vertical axis of the arm carve as well as the normal tight curves of the body's horizontal axis. There was also the sandblasted band logo with its fine-line detail that was etched into a block of inlaid pearl in the guitar’s headstock. We got that on the first try.”
The guitar’s gorgeous dark sunburst finish was given a retro hue by the addition of a coat of yellow stain over the brown finish. The result was an instrument that was totally righteous looking, but the electronic workings inside presented another challenge. Jurriaans wanted the instrument to be wired so that each neck could be individually activated as well as simultaneously operational with the other neck. The initial attempts at designing a neck-selector switch for this function led to some signal leakage.
“The problem was that when a particular neck was being used by itself, the other neck could still be heard faintly resonating and bleeding through. It wasn't a lot of bleed-through but it was enough to be a potential problem,” Jesse told us. As usual, our luthiers would not settle for anything less than perfect, especially considering all the special care that had already gone into building the instrument. After three marathon days of mad-scientist experimenting and soldering, says Jesse, some thoughts and ideas from previous discussions on the matter suddenly came together and the solution presented itself!
“I made some modifications to the switch that I was using and it worked beautifully and flawlessly. I'm very pleased with the results and I'm not aware of anyone else in the industry that has come up with such a novel solution to this problem. This was easily the most challenging guitar that I have ever built but also the most rewarding.”
The shop’s head luthier Kelly Butler praised the accomplishment, “Jesse really came through and made the whole thing happen. He created a custom double-neck with elaborate electronics that would be a true standout in any collection.”
Saunder Juriaans was the most pleased of all, “The guitar is so versatile - I can get anything from a sustained warm tone to a thin twang. The bass is nice and full and has a nice dirty growl.It's so heavy, yet so classic at the same time. It demands attention.”
See more about this guitar!
|