Rick Toone | Luthier

Blur | 8-String Extended Range Guitar

Blur 8-string extended range guitar was awarded Premier Guitar's Editors' Picks: Day 1 at NAMM 2012.

Blur has also sparked speculation and controversy at sevenstring.org where folks are trying to decide if I've built the world's ugliest instrument or (perhaps) something quite beautiful.

Personally, I find the guitar to be evocative of a deep sea creature. Part-organic organism, part-machined device, surfacing in the present moment to remind us of the future.

Blur's intended work has already begun.

"I kinda like it, but i am kinda disappointed in myself for doing so. So confused!"

HumanFuseBen
sevenstring.org

The purpose of this instrument is to reposition the musician far outside his comfort zone.

I wanted to create a tool that would necessitate exploration and reach. An entirely different physical reference point for approaching guitar playing. Something deliberately alien, yet fully centered within ergonomic principles discovered from my own explorations.

Tosin Abasi is the only artist poised to make this leap at this time.

He is a driven innovator, with an intense work ethic best understood via his magnificent playing technique. View Tosin as an exceptional athlete — that frame of reference will help you appreciate the coordinated skill his hands bring to the guitar.

He has been bumping up against the physical limits of traditional guitar design. What I have attempted to do with this instrument is remove all impediments to his hands.

More and more, the work I do is made possible only through coordinated efforts...

Appreciative thanks to Bill Goldy and Tom Pilant for precision machining, giving shape to mechanical art. Dave Johnson for CAD skills. Bart Townsend for sharing this uncompromising vision: TOONE & TOWNSEND.

Thanks also to Tony and Tom at DR Strings who spun custom Sunbeams on a moment's notice.

And most especially to Tosin for trusting me to take this risk.

So...at this one moment in time, I am the only person who has ever heard this instrument assembled and amplified. I completed Blur late Wednesday afternoon, and it went directly from the solitude of my shop to the shipping services of UPS. Tosin takes delivery this afternoon.

"blur has. landed. Currently shredding. Details to come!"

T. Abasi

EDITOR'S NOTE (UPDATE): It would seem at least one other person has now heard the guitar...

NAMM 2012 | Evan Brewer & Sketch

NOTES: Bass player Evan Brewer coaxes melody from Sketch 7-string guitar. Note how his style contrasts with Tosin Abasi's playing in the video below, although they are playing the same instrument. NAMM 2012.

I think Evan's music is astonishingly beautiful.

Watching him open for Animals As Leaders (Long Island, NY) I was captivated by his ability to tap rhythm and melody simultaneously. His music is like abstract complex math given voice.

I stood at the mixing desk during Evan's performance, hiding my broken toe (trail running accident) from the crowd. Tosin joined me at the board, his hand on my shoulder, and said: "You and Evan should work together. He is as great a human being as he is musician, which is saying a lot."

Performance over, Monster turned to me and said: "When was the last time you heard a twenty minute bass solo...where the audience did not leave for the bathroom...and listened so intently you could hear a pin drop?"

Never. Maybe Stu Hamm playing Linus and Lucy during Joe Satriani's Surfing With the Alien tour.

Evan visited me at NAMM 2012 were we had a chance to continue our conversation. I'm going to build him something interesting. Not sure what, yet, but a few ideas are forming in my mind.

The first step was to have him play a few of my machines to get a sense of what would fit him. Sketch guitar is a good starting point for his posture and how he aligns with an instrument.

I grabbed the iPad and shot this rough video to take notes. You can see how Evan's right arm and shoulder begin to relax as he plays, despite an unfamiliar instrument and a cluster of people around us. Note posture difference between 0:04 and 0:34 as his elbow drops. Tension is releasing as his forearm flows smoothly over the body shape.

The IPNP-DOWN neck profile fits his hand comfortably as seen from above starting about 0:50.

What is really cool about this is Evan is not a guitar player. This is also the first time he had ever held or played this guitar.

Yet, in just over one minute of performance, he takes us on a musical journey that begins with interwoven melody and ends with him effortlessly creating something that sounds like tabla drumming. Every note is clear, organic, and percussive.

NOTES: Tosin Abasi (Animals As Leaders) blisters the fretboard on Sketch 7-string experimental prototype. Playing backstage through a 15 watt Crate practice amp. Same guitar as above, before modifications.

NAMM 2012 | Learning & Laughter

PHOTOS (from top): Spurred on by Monster's quick wit, "booth babes" Bart Townsend and Bill Goldy (plus visitor) dissolve into laughter. Wonderment at the strangeness of the neck on Blur guitar. Javier Reyes listens intently.

One large packing crate filled with guitars, amps, and my (desperately awaited) tools arrived at Townsend Machine in New Jersey yesterday. Who knows what adventures they encountered on their road trip from California, but everything survived transit, safe from the evil clutches of airline baggage handlers.

We four horsemen gathered too. My body is back. 80% of my hearing. Half my spirit, perhaps. The other half flickering and blurry but stumbling toward NJ from the desert solitude.

Okay, NAMM...what did we learn?

Most important to me, our booth was a place of laughter and learning. An atmosphere of exchange, discovery, and wonder — fueled by hilarity and great conversations.

If we were better marketers, we'd probably be pimping Facebook with arm-around-the-shoulder look-at-who-I-had-dinner-with publicity photos. But sadly my Nikon SLR was destroyed in transit (airline baggage handlers), so what we have instead is an amalgamation of action snapshots from cell phones and iPads.

I think it is better this way.

The value of the show is the amazing discussions taking place person-by-person, second-by-second. Eyes opening, a snapped head turn, a collision in the aisle, a string of questions. An invitation to play. Hesitancy and uncertainty yielding to exploration and a smile: "How can something that looks so...weird...feel so...intuitive?!"

PHOTOS: Tosin Abasi and Rick Toone try to figure it all out. We collaborated intensely to create a tool that will allow him to extend his playing. Results are as yet unknown, but Tosin's parting comment was: "I think it will shred." A flashed grin, scribbled notes, and a pending tour date. Go!

Just like my lutherie, this entire NAMM adventure was exploration and risk. The value of the human experience is to learn, grow, and share. We tread this earth but once.

I would like to thank my booth mates — Ola Strandberg, too — for making our little space a destination, an oasis of curiosity that invited and welcomed repeat visitors, content to settle in for a while to discover.

Most especially, I would like to thank Bart Townsend and Bill Goldy for making the adventure possible. Cindy Vonschmidt and Tricia Toone for managing logistics and travel. Monster for his humor, psychological insights, and cute little Mesa-Boogie Walkabout that thunders with a mighty voice.

Next we will begin to discuss specifics. If any of you have photos or videos from the booth, drop me an email.

PHOTO: Me & Monster. He is one of the funniest men alive. Swamp ash T2.

Four Horsemen

PHOTO: Self-portrait, post-NAMM.

The driving rains of Los Angeles shredded to tendrils, as sharp peaks of the San Jacinto Mountains eviscerated moisture-laden Pacific air. Twelve lanes of traffic condensed to four.

Sunlight hunted remaining moisture, evaporating a thousand miles of desert in the rain shadow of the eastern slopes. Emotion welled and water streamed from my eyes, involuntary tears of joy, and relief.

The intensity, pressure, and excitement of the trade show uncoiled itself from around my internal organs. Alone, I laughed out loud at the first saguaro, as if an old friend. The gentle shimmering in my ears an audible reminder of thunderous cacophony left behind.

"If you believe god is music, NAMM will make you an athiest."

FMoF

And yet, there were moments of sublime musicality, and musicianship. Great camaraderie, as the four of us rustled like outlaws. A realization that sparks we struck are about to grow into something much larger. We will talk about those moments soon enough.

"Your guitar sticks in my head, and I can’t stop telling my friends. Millions of guitars at NAMM...yours is the one I remember."

LH

Companions dispersed, I drifted south, to Tucson.

I sought council from those who had passed before me, in the form of artifacts at the Amerind Foundation. Master craftsmanship revealed in every chip of each arrowhead, a necessity when working tools are stone. Efficiency, displayed as delicate aerodynamic functionality — a few ounces of precisely aimed rock capable of dropping two thousand pounds of running animal in a collapsed meat pile.

My cousin Scott built the beautiful Mission Style rift sawn oak couches in the main display hall of the museum: BAKER + HESSELDENZ

Mostly, though, I needed nature. My soul is acclimated to solitude, my mind to flowing streams of thought. Metaphorically naked I immerse in the forms around me, artifacts of wind and water.

NAMM 2012 | 1219 Exhibit Hall E

TOONE & TOWNSEND will occupy booth 1219 located in Exhibit Hall E at NAMM 2012. Sharing booth space with us is Strandberg Guitarworks. Ola and I thought ours would be a great pairing.

Come explore leading edge guitar innovation!

Designing a display is an art form of its own. Essentially the goal is to create an environment that welcomes visitors, reflects your ethos, is lightweight, easily assembled and transported.

It was important to me to reflect my own values in the design...

Every item in the booth has another purpose in the outside world. Nothing is wasted, and everything is high quality, for years of service.

Food grade maple butcher block tables with stainless steel legs will support the instruments. The tables ship to Townsend Machine as component assembly tables, after NAMM.

Oak artist easels will display high resolution B&W photographs printed on fine art canvas. The canvases will adorn the offices at Townsend Machine, after the show. The easels will be donated to Tricia's Frenchtown Elementary School art classroom, for use by her students.

All of these, made in USA.

My beloved THD Univalve tube amp, built by Andy Marshall in Seattle, will allow the guitars to whisper and roar in dulcet tones. An EVM-12L pairs with the Celestion Classic Lead '80 to express the lower fundamentals of seven and 8-string guitars. This revoicing is a bit magical.

I am very much looking forward to meeting you in person. So many of you have contacted me to share support, or excitement at meeting up and getting a chance to play these instruments. Thank you! See you next week!