Rick Toone | Luthier

Guitar Control Locations

Another (unanticipated) benefit of Uni-Neck construction is it allows for some nifty control relocations. My favorite of which is the pickup selector switch on the underside of the neck structure, where fingertips can easily locate and flick to change settings, even mid-arpeggio. And there's no danger of an unhappy accidental bridge pickup selection during passionate rhythm strumming.

I learned guitar on a Les Paul, and developed the habit of hooking my right hand pinky under the PAF pickup bezel, a feature I've strongly missed on other guitars over the years. It just feels like home. My hand seems centered and balanced during complex picking. Skele caused me to fall back in love with this feeling, with the newly acquired ability to slide hooked pinky and ring fingertips up and down the neck for bell-like tones or metallic grace flourishes.

I relocated the volume knob closer to the bridge, so when performing a partial palm mute, the rounded contour falls comfortably in the crevice of the first pinky joint. A slight pull or push of the pinky will roll the volume for those amp sweet spots.

In the photo below Skele is assembled to test and tweak electronics. The pickup configuration is quite interesting, which we'll discuss soon. At the moment, the guitar is disassembled again so Tricia can complete the skull and crossbones painting (depicted here in an intermediate state).

LEARN MORE: Skele

Interchangeable Guitar & Bass Bodies

Don't you wish you could sometimes change bodies?

One of the benefits of Uni-Neck construction is instrument bodies are interchangeable around the neck structure. Are you feeling a bit purple today? Or angular? Perhaps you have a gig with an all-girl Japanese sugar-pop band and need a guitar shaped like a florescent lollipop?

I digress. Ahem.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Active fantasy life, have we?

Lately, as you know, I've been feeling like a pirate. Or like I want to be a pirate. More specifically a pirate like Ragnar Danneskjold. Every effective buccaneer needs a suitable weapon, and mine will be a guitar. What more appropriate guitar could a pirate have than the Jolly Roger?

I rearranged the difficulties of the Telecaster body into a shape that is both a pile of human bones as well as more comfortable to play, at least for me, in terms of balance and ergonomics. My inspiration (concept sketch) was a beautiful vanitas painting by Dutch still life painter Pieter Claesz, painted around 1630.

I built the body from 5-ply marine-grade (waterproof) mahogany — in keeping with our nautical theme — to form a light weight rigid structure. Period correct forged rosehead nails, heavy distressing & antiquing, combined with a deep mahogany tobacco-burst finish give the body the feel of an ancient relic.

My wife Tricia Toone is a skilled painter, and she kindly offered to translate the idea into fine art. As I write this, she is in the studio applying the underpainting to define the volume of the bones.

LEARN MORE: Skele

Alec John Such & Trace Elliot

This is a gruesome tale.

One dark and stormy night about six years ago Monster and I visited a music store at the Jersey shore, where he lived at the time. He'd dropped by to grab strings prior to our recording session, and in the used gear section suddenly found himself wandering through a newly-arrived forest of black and neon-green tree trunks. Trace Elliot bass stacks. He'd called me, excited.

I hit PAUSE and met him at his house.

Driving at dangerous rate through the rain, he blurted the results of his sleuthing. Due to the 1) geographic location, and the 2) quality of the equipment (pro-grade touring), plus the 3) just finalized and highly publicized divorce...he believed the equipment to be a fire sale of excommunicated Bon Jovi bassist Alec John Such.

We arrived ten minutes before closing and sprinted for the monoliths. Without the need to play stadiums, Monster narrowed the selection to a mythical Trace Elliot AH600x (1992) amp head, combined with a 4x10 and a 1x15 cabinet. As we looked over the gear in detail, sure enough, there it was: written on the back of the head were the initials AJS.

Here was a chance to own a piece of history.

Monster borrowed a truck and arrived at the next Foul Rift rehearsal where the four of us teamed up to build the bass tower. Monster is 6'3" 230 lbs and let me tell you it is a formidable sight to see him looming in the semi-darkness beside a blacklit refrigerator-sized leviathan ominously spewing styrofoam peanuts and elephant crippling 15 Hz sound waves every time he hits a low B on the 5-string.

For those of you with weak stomachs, now is the time to click away.

Life jumped in the way. Grad school. Home construction. Sprogs. So, for the past three years, the Sarcophagus has anchored one corner of the barn loft at Toone's Farm. Two weeks ago, I pulled it out of storage and made the sad discovery it had become a rat condo. Those furry little bastards decided the inner guts of the head would make a perfect place to rear their young and provide a commanding view of the storage area. Photos below.

The question now is what to do?

1. Restore the amp to its former glory

2. Donate it to the Hard Rock Cafe

3. Accept an offer from someone who will cherish it

4. Gasoline + lit match

Angular Cupid

Dr. Dominic and I have been intensely collaborating on Cupid's design. He is a well respected plastic surgeon with highly developed aesthetic sensibilities, as you would expect. When he wrote me a few days ago, he had just completed restructuring a patient's severely fractured skull.

Imagine the visualization skills it must require to predict not only the former shape of a skull, but also how the elastic — living — tissue will finally resolve upon healing. Makes what I do seem simple.

There is a significant amount of data in the concept sketch (below). Cupid is now more angular, a departure from the previous rounded form. As you can see, the lower surfaces of the instrument are designed to rest on the tops of both thighs — extension of a concept Goran and I discussed earlier this year — while maintaining an ergonomic neck angle. The reason for this is to accommodate a seated playing position for extended periods of time. As the musician transitions from a seated to a standing position, Cupid's body orientation will not deviate.

The rounded form version accomplishes much the same task, with the benefit of allowing variable repositioning of the neck angle by adjusting knee spread. But after spending significant time with the mock-up, Dr. Dominic discovered an optimal neck angle, based on personal preference. The sculptural aspects of the body are retained, as per the scale clay model.

Alongside my 'Tele is Dove (under construction) and a template for Cupid. The progression of ergonomic thinking is clearly visible. Evolution of a species.

LEARN MORE: Cupid