Rick Toone | Luthier

Um...

EDITOR'S NOTE: Content relocated to www.trapezoidneckprofile.com

Asymmetrical Trapezoidal Neck Profile

EDITOR'S NOTE: Content relocated to www.trapezoidneckprofile.com

Where do you live?

I love it when you say "Hello!"

I'm always fascinated by the colorful throng of visitors who wander by this website to talk politics, philosophy, or instrument design.

Quite literally, from around the globe.

Some stay for an hour, some for less than a minute: looking, reading, thinking. Powerful currents of intellectual energy leaving tiny electronic footprints.

So here's your chance to give a shout out.

In the past year pen pal friendships developed with visitors from several different continents, including my own. Leave a comment, and your city. I'm waving from the red circle in northwest New Jersey, USA. If you can find me in the cluster. Click map to enlarge.

Headless Monster

I suppose it was inevitable.

Monster's parting comment after our video shoot was, "You're lucky Orchid belongs to a 16-year old girl. Otherwise the bass would be going home with me."

It might have been a threat. I'm not sure.

So I called him a few days later to see if we were still friends. Conversation went something like this:

Me: "Yo, Monster!"
Monster: "Wassup, Dude!"
Me: "Hey, I was thinking of..."
Monster: "...5-string."

Seemed like marching orders.

In collaboration with the Maestro, a beast emerges: "HEADLESS MONSTER"

1. We are cutting off Orchid's head (gasp)
2. I've designed, prototyped, and am machining a new type of bridge & tuning system (?!)
3. Asymmetrical trapezoidal neck profile (?!)
4. Curly maple stacked laminate neck
5. Curly walnut, Honduras & Philippine (ribbon grain) mahogany, and ebony (accented) body
6. Stainless steel hardware throughout, including frets & bridge/tuning system
7. Pickup system under evaluation
8. Monster (very scary) inlay at the octave
9. I might just run out of fretwire at the 5th...

:)

HEADLESS MONSTER SERIES:

Aaaahhrrrgg...they're MULTIPLYING!!!
Headless Monster
Lever Tuning System
Asymmetrical Trapezoidal Neck Profile
Um...

Tadpole

Harrington swam by yesterday, lured by the crunching sounds of Monster eating Orchid.

Gotcha!

His Amphibiousness has been scarce of late as he swims in mud puddles surrounded by fatherhood and mixed martial arts training (with an emphasis on endurance racing). Obviously not a tailed aquatic larva you want to meet in dark backwaters.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Naked guy in photo below.

He chided me for underrepresentation on this website — as perhaps he should — given his powerful presence permeating all things foul and rifted. So, in homage to Anura melodiousness, the enigmatic...

TADPOLE MP3

state-of-the-art, and yet obsolete
a pounding rythym that isn’t on beat
so scarred in victory as well as defeat
a little frog with no hands and no feet

ooh—tadpole

with every failure, wallowing in shun
this education has barely begun
too many years ‘til that refrain is sung
a quiet pet who swims all day for fun

ooh—tadpole

combined wisdom can not reveal why
this ancient process’ well has run dry
too hard to walk when your will is to fly
so hard to catch, same as that little guy

ooh—tadpole

Voice | Lyrics | Acoustic : Harrington
Bass : Monster
Drums : X
Electric : Toone
Other Naked Guy (not shown) : G