Neat Bass Guitar

Greg Barnes brought in another interesting bass guitar on Sunday. It's a heavily modified Modulus 6-string bass. Count the strings -- yep, he's removed a string, making it a 5-string bass. The graphite neck also used to have frets, those have been removed and the slots filled in with epoxy. The electronics are all custom, too.

It's a beautiful instrument, and sounds great. Greg is fussy about the ergonomics of his basses, and goes to extremes to make them sound and work the way he wants. The results speak for themselves. Thanks Greg for sharing this one!

Modifications on Whidbey Island.

Another Neat Guitar

Greg Barnes came to our Sunday jazz jam session this weekend. Greg's a well-known and extremely talented local bassist. Greg owns several fantastic bass guitars, and he brought this one to the jam.

It's a Veillette Mark 6, made to an unusual 35-inch scale, with full 19mm string spacing at the tailpiece. With 6 strings and no frets, this bass provides excellent ergonomics and versatility. Plus, it's gorgeous.

I love this high-dynamic range top-down photo. Thanks Greg for bringing in this neat bass guitar!

Bass guitars on Whidbey Island.

Steampunk Guitars

Jeff Ritzmann of Thunder Eagle Custom Guitars makes fantastic art guitars. His latest efforts are in the 'Steampunk' genre, and are making quite the splash across the art, gadget, and guitar cultures. Featured in Wired, Brass Goggles, and Gizmodo, The Nautilus is a fantastic blend of art and guitar technology.

Not only does it look great, it sounds great. Here's a video of The Nautilus in action:

The Villanizer, the first Steampunk guitar Jeff made, is also very neat. Comparing the two guitars you can see how the Steampunk theme is progressing and being refined. It will be interesting to see what Jeff comes up with next!

Here's a video of The Villanizer in action:

Steampunk guitars on Whidbey Island.

Nice Guitar

Anthony Easterwood came to open mic tonight with a nice Gibson guitar, so I had to get some photos.

It's a Songwriter deluxe, with beautiful inlays, and an absolutely gorgeous finish. Anthony fell in love with the guitar, and tried to have his friend talk him out of it, but that didn't happen. All to the good, I think.

Guitars on Whidbey Island.

High-Tech Guitars

Leave it to Beverly Graham. She's so into nature, organics, and new-age spiritualism, it makes perfect sense that she'd have the least natural, most mechanical, highest-tech guitars we've ever seen.

First up is her matte black Ovation. She likes the matte black finish because it doesn't reflect the stage lighting into the audience. This way, she avoids lighting up random people in the audience with a bright flash, only seeing their grimacing faces!

Next up is her graphite Rain Song 12-string. This one has an amazing sound -- no doubt because it's perfectly engineered. The inlay is beautiful -- I particularly like the sharks!

Beautiful, wonderful, and perfectly matched instruments for a pure professional. Thanks for sharing these great instruments, Beverly.

High-tech guitars Whidbey Island.

Guitars

As usual, new band, new guitars. Tonight Sound Exchange brought in a nice Ibanez electric guitar and another lovely Taylor guitar.

George brought this nice custom Ibanez. Pictures speak louder than words. George was a good guitarist, and this guitar sounded amazing, particularly since he wasn't using a separate guitar amp. The bands Yamaha sound system had a 'guitar' input, and George just plugged into that. Amazing.

Jason brought the Taylor guitar. It's a limited edition 414 CE. Sweet guitar -- Taylors always look so nice.

Guitars on Whidbey Island.

Ronald Ho Guitar, Warren Davis Violin

Here's some photos (finally) of Erik Christensen's fabulous Ronald Ho guitar.

The flame maple back and sides are amazing, and the detail work is very nice. The logo is unique, and the label is interesting, simply his PO Box in Port Townsend.

Hopefully someday we'll learn more about this wonderful luthier. Until then, I guess Rockhoppers Daily Grind is the internet showplace for his work.

Che played his Warren Davis six-string electric violin. It's a very odd-looking instrument, but note the beauty of the body -- nice piece of wood there.

Odd luthier work on Whidbey Island.

More Guitars

Jewbilee & Midnight Hour played last night, and there were some neat guitars in the group.

First up is Shirel's '61 Gibson, clearly a working guitar. Check out the mic placement. It's either a luthiers dream, or nightmare, depending on one's outlook. Still, the guitar sounds great, and the real attraction is Shirel's powerful voice.

Next we have two guitars from the guitarist for both bands. This one is a nice Sparrow guitar, with hand-painted pinstripes. What a beauty!

Below is the Fender Stratocaster he plays for Midnight Hour. It's a reproduction of the big-head 70's style strats.

Guitars on Whidbey Island.

Guitars and Such

Our Saturday night musicians brought some cool instruments with them, so I'll continue my series on guitars that have played here. First up is a fantastic mandolin, brought in by Harvey. It's a Regal Custom Grand, a true antique, nearly 100 years old. It's quite lovely, with very rare styling and features, including a real tortise-shell pick guard, oval sound hole, lovely detailed edge binding, and unique fretboard.

Next up is Michaels Taylor guitar. I love the sides of this instrument, and in the future I'm going to take more photos of all the instruments, including the back and sides.

Kate also has a nice Taylor guitar. It was interesting to see the differences between hers and Michaels.

Thanks for bringing in such great instruments to share with us!

Guitars on Whidbey Island.

A Slew of Neat Guitars

The Bards of the Koad brought a selection of neat instruments. First up is a unique one, Michael Brown's Cittern. His cittern is a celtic version of an Irish double mandolin, based upon the Greek Bouzouki, but made in Mexico. It's a small, oval-body ten-string instrument, with a strong unique sound and flexible tuning. Michael uses the cittern for a few songs in the Bards of the Koad video we captured.

Daniel Randall's Olympia, by Tacoma, Acoustic Bass guitar. Similar in configuration to Will Jobsen's Tacoma guitar, Daniels bass does a fine job accompanying the Bards.

Karen Hay's beautiful old Ovation guitar, a family heirloom, named 'Ruby'. It's one of Ovations's first efforts, and truly special to her. The sound is incredible -- as one would expect from an Ovation.

It's nice to see the variety and amazing quality of guitars and other stringed instruments our musicians bring to Rockhoppers.

Citterns on Whidbey Island.

Another Nice Guitar

Will Jobsen came by with his Tacoma guitar. This is his favorite, and, hearing it, I can certainly see why. The sound is very nice and full, for an acoustic guitar.

Guitars on Whidbey Island.

Remarkable Guitars

Here's a nice set of really, um, unusual guitars. Some of these are truly hideous! Note that these are only the top 10. There are more here and here.

Found at Spiral Pocus.

Never any ugly on Whidbey Island.

Another Interesting Guitar

We managed to squeeze a few songs out of Vinnie Labrador at tonights open mic, and he was playing a beautiful classical guitar.

The guitar is a Breedlove nylon 6-string, with a nice tone and beautiful tuning. That's the company logo in the first fret.

Neat guitars on Whidbey Island.