http://davidbernabo.bandcamp.com/album/that-overpass-down-there
Above is a link to Dave’s first recording with the double neck just a few days after picking it up from my studio.
Hellablaster prototype #2
The body is made from reclaimed cedar and the neck is made of reclaimed maple with 12 inch radius rosewood fretboard. Hipshot bridge, vintage Gotoh tuning heads, Hallmark single coil pickup and Yamaha P90 sized humbucker. Beneath the pickguard is a soil map of an area in western PA that was printed 100 years ago.
Production versions of this guitar will feature Hipshot hardware and Nordstrand pickups. Available in a slightly textured solid color matte finish or natural wood finish.
Racer Jr. Prototype
Originally called “The Green Machine” and now know as the Racer Jr.
This little guy stumbled back into my studio battered and bruised and got completely reworked. After the new textured finish and black/white/black headcap were added, this one really came back to life.
OZMA in the press!
“20” for Rich Bess
Here are a few shots before final hand sanding and finish details.
This one will be finished in a see-through nuclear green!
Won’t be long now!!!
OZMA Racer
UPDATE: Jan 18, 2012
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I’m working on a special project right now for Steve Borne, the guitarist for Princess Racer and sound guru for some great films and television shows.
Right now I’m keeping alot of it under wraps, but here are a few pieces of info: The body is styled after The Green machine featured on my blog and made out of mahogany (painted in a fantastic glitter green color) and will sport a full rosewood neck and tremolo bridge. Some of the bells and whistles are still undecided, but Steve and I will figure all of that out soon.
Big thanks again to Steve for giving me this fantastic project!
Here’s an up date on the Ultra Green Machine (now dubbed the OZMA Racer).
Since there are different shades of green glitter applied, the color can vary due to angle of view, lighting or surrounding colors. In normal lighting it looks much less yellow than what the photos show. It’s pretty wild, and possibly not the final coat of glitter. Steve wanted bigger, chunkier glitter- but after this step I had to stop to get his opinion on going further since it’s already amazing! I’m trying my hardest to complete this in time to play at a special show this Halloween.
It’s also time to decide on the controls and their placement- we still haven’t decided if there will be a science kit of knobs and switches or just a simple volume control and a single pickup selector. The plastic oval pickups surrounds are being made now and I plan on having them available to order online soon.
The Green Machine
The Green Machine’s small size, light weight and highly-sculpted space age stylings make it perfect for intergalactic travel, or any other travel for that matter. This one uses an uncommon wood for the back – cypress. I chose this for its light weight and its ability to be easily sculpted. This was matched with a hard maple top and chambered out a bit to give it a warmer, more open tone. You may expect something like this to have lots of switches and knobs, but this guitar is stripped down to the essentials. The single DiMarzio X2N pickup really turns this one into a rock monster and a variety of sounds can be had by adjusting the volume and tone controls as well as the pickup phase switch.
This little guy was lent to an experimental musician who played it with drum sticks. It took alot of abuse and is back in my possession and is being offered for sale as a used instrument.
Barry
Barry began his life quite confused.
He was born as a ten-string electric guitar, the strings in courses, like a twelve-string.
He liked the fact that he was unusual, but found himself wandering around the studio, wondering why no one would play with him.
People gawked and pointed at him, some even laughed. Musicians were intimidated by him.”How can I play my favorite riffs?” they cried.
The point with Barry was to make something familiar, yet alien. Some OZMA instruments are created as a songwriting tool rather than a conventional instrument. Play for an hour on an oddly- tuned, multi-stringed guitar and you’re bound to come up with some new ideas to freshen up your own playing.
But let’s get back to the story of Barry.
One day a baritone Warmoth guitar neck walked into the studio. Barry took notice to her lovely dark wenge exterior. Exotic, natural and smooth. “The perfect mate for me!” Barry exclaimed.
They courted for several months and were united. A perfect match!
Since things were going so well for the happy couple, Barry and his new partner decided to splurge a little and get some nice new things. A Hallmark bridge and vibrato unit styled after some Mosrite classics were added, as well as some vintage pickups. The bridge position pickup is a late ’70’s high output Bill Lawrence designed for bass guitar and the neck position pickup is a ’70’s Mighty Mite clone of DiMarzio’s “Super Distortion.” It really let’s them shout out to the world about their deep and beefy love.
UPDATE: R.I.P.- Barry. He was fantastic, but no one wanted to take him home. As a result, he was taken apart again and turned into a different Baritone guitar for my pal Will and I used the body to finally construct a guitar for myself. Those entries will be posted soon- and probably tagged onto this post. It’s fun to see the evolution of different instruments.
Remember- All of the instruments I post are for sale. Act fast before they turn into something else!
Birds of Paradise
Conversion instruments are fun for me and the sky is the limit when it comes to these. I had my wild, hippie musician friend Jim Lingo in mind when I created this one.
Jim, a member of the local band Centipede E’est, likes nature and polyester fashion, so I stretched a ‘70’s polyester bird print shirt over the reshaped body and neck and encased it all in epoxy resin.
I created a new pick guard from a sheet of Plexiglas and fixed another piece of the polyester bird fabric to the underside of it to continue the bird theme.
Not everything went as planned — after all this was an experiment. Any space that had a seam or wrinkle in it was covered with bird photos from a used nature guidebook and covered in a another layer of resin. This guitar turned out much weirder and wilder than I expected.
Birds of Paradise is being offered up to Jim first, but if he lets this one fly away – catch it!
UPDATE:
Jim has taken this lovely beast home and plans to unleash the birds for the first time this coming Saturday night.
Cabinet of Curiosities 