Finally: My Sweet One – Building A Guitar (Part 5)
We’re at the end of the journey! Last time, the final touches were applied – this time, we’re embarking on a journey across the Pacific…
With all the decisions finally made it really came down to Eric and his process as the finishing dried and he installed the electronics.
Once it was all set up, he kept it over the weekend to see how it settled. Erik’s comment on its character was that it sounded a little different than he expected:
“Kind of a smokey, raspy voice. Like really good whiskey”
I had no idea what to make of that, but I do like good whiskey…
Shipping Out To Sydney
Shipping was the next debacle as we tried to get it from Iowa to Sydney amid the Covid pandemic and Xmas madness. It turned out to be ludicrously expensive; despite getting a 3 day delivery service with USPS, the guitar got lost at the Fedex facility just 20 minutes down the road from me for over a week. Besides the obvious desire to get it in my hands as soon as possible after such a long journey, we were coming up to our yearly sojourn self-named “Jambaroo” where a small group of ex band-mates/friends hire a house in the woods and play/record music for 3 days straight.
With this being the best possible way to get to know the instrument at band volumes and to use it in our recordings I was really worried it wouldn’t arrive in time. Needless to say I was a little stressed and made sure I was home for the better part of a week in case it arrived. Eventually I went to down to the facility to ruffle a few feathers and amazingly connected with a musician who worked there and went the extra mile for me to find it and so it landed in my hands teo days before our music trip... I was not disappointed.
In fact, as beautiful as the photos were, it was considerably more beautiful in person. More importantly – when I got to plug it in to play at volume I really began to understand the beauty of the full hollow body experience.
My Sweet One
The guitar was clean, articulate and sweet. The harmonics pure, and the pickups/electronics were very responsive… But all this is expected from a builder of repute such as Erik. The real surprise was the effortless feedback blooms that were tonally sweet and exactly what I was hoping for after 20 years of listening to Trey Anastasio wield his hollow-body Languedocs. I did however see why he always had his finger on the volume knob. There was certainly adjustment required in Volume, standing position and pickup selection but that’s all part of the fun right?!
The only problem I have now is that playing quietly below feedback levels will never hold the same appeal …
Finally, to experience the sweet voice of this thing singing, check out this video I threw up on YouTube: