Etherial Guitars

[foreright]

Let me ask you this. If you were buying an off the shelf production guitar like ESP, Schecter or Jackson, would you be content with any 4 of the issues that I pointed out above?

IMO this is the crux of the matter... if I had bought a production guitar, even a relatively cheap one with some of the "issues" highlighted above, it would be going back for replacement quick smart. This is far less acceptable on a "custom" instrument where you've paid a lot more... If I were throwing thousands of dollars/pounds/whatever at a custom build, I'd certainly not expect to receive it with obvious cosmetic flaws.

Edit: The above sounds a little harsh - Etherial are really putting some amazing stuff out there. The "tron" guitar is truly astounding for example. It's just the attention to detail and the final finishing touches that elevates a luthier above the rest

 

[HOKENSTYFE]

I was immediately floored when I first saw Matt's, Ephemeral Veil 8-string. Wanted one. Needed one. But, I recognized that as some sub-G.A.S. As time has gone on, I have come to realize Etherial Guitars is a work in progress. Nobody is doing what Matt is doing, bottom line. He is making mistakes, in the same breath.

This is an innovative custom shop and it's making serious waves, early in it's development. I hope Matt is learning from his mistakes and we are truly witnessing something awesome.

This thread is making me reconsider Etherial and consider AcaciA. It's good to be sure though.

Good luck to everyone involved.

 

[jkiernanguitar]

I wonder if Sarah Longfield or any others playing Etherials could weigh in here?

I've talked to Sarah Longfield before about the guitar and she said she's loved the instrument. The only thing she would have changed is not getting Bareknuckles in it XD

 

[BIG ND SWEATY]

I'm going to be working with them on a guitar coming shortly with art done by Spire Art (the art here is not the guitar art, but a sample of April, the artist's, work):
Spire Art (April Ness)'s Photos | Facebook

not to shit on your taste in art but that style really irritates me, theres absolutely no flow or symmetry to it, its just a bunch of random stuff thrown together for no reason

 

[jkiernanguitar]

not to shit on your taste in art but that style really irritates me, theres absolutely no flow or symmetry to it, its just a bunch of random stuff thrown together for no reason

I love her art. It has a bit of tribal/Final Fantasy which are things that I'm huge into. There are some pieces of hers that have symmetry, but the build I'm doing has a load of symmetry. I can't wait to unleash it

 

[Winspear]

I've talked to Sarah Longfield before about the guitar and she said she's loved the instrument. The only thing she would have changed is not getting Bareknuckles in it XD

Check out post #9..
Each to their own and maybe it plays fine, but not many people would be happy with a custom looking that rough.

 

[LIPCoelhoq]

this is such a boner breaker i was really digging the Etherial vibe

 

[jkiernanguitar]

The Noyan build is pretty flawless. The Exotype guitars are the most recent and they are pretty damn incredible. Check them out as well. Those are expertly crafted.

 

[Alberto7]

The Noyan build is pretty flawless. The Exotype guitars are the most recent and they are pretty damn incredible. Check them out as well. Those are expertly crafted.

Holy shit, I had not seen those...

EDIT: Apart from NoYan's.

EDIT 2: I mean... http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.412246928868747.96041.214731091953666&type=3

 

[Konfyouzd]

They do some damn cool stuff, but I feel like their work could be cleaner.

 

[Alberto7]

They do some damn cool stuff, but I feel like their work could be cleaner.

Yep, that's exactly the premise of this thread, I reckon.

I find their designs to be excellent, and I love how they've had their own kind of vibe (look-wise, at least) from the get-go. But their work does seem rather sloppy. Not horrible, but sloppy. I see them as a work in progress. Hopefully their newer builds really are better, and hopefully they'll just keep getting better. I feel their designs really do merit a higher standard of craftsmanship.

 

[Konfyouzd]

Someone on here just recently got one I thought was pretty cool. The back was all blue I think. And it had these trippy ninja star looking things all over it.

 

[Overtone]

The more recent builds have pulled off some cool ideas fairly well. I'm surprised nobody has ragged on their headstocks yet... they are gigantic... even the headless guitar for some reason looks exceptionally wide and stocky to me.

 

[jkiernanguitar]

The more recent builds have pulled off some cool ideas fairly well. I'm surprised nobody has ragged on their headstocks yet... they are gigantic... even the headless guitar for some reason looks exceptionally wide and stocky to me.

You know what they say about people with gigantic headstocks....

 

[Valennic]

I have a build underway with Matt.

Now all you guys are just being damn nitpicky. We are talking about one guy slaving away by himself to do everything. In case you haven't noticed, Matt has now finished and shipped out six custom built guitars in the past month. Now, speed is not what I am getting at. But he takes his time with the process. I am sorry that every damn Gibson turns out perfect coming from the assembly line where fifty people build guitars day-after-day, hour-after-hour, doing the same shit every day until they become good at it. (*sarcasm*) Mass production guitars can have their flaws too!

I have full faith and confidence in Matt's abilities as a luthier. While I am not supporting nor backing anything in this thread, nor am I necessarily backing his craftsmanship, I am slightly nervous that there could be little "flaws" like this. But for now, I am overlooking my slight fear.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that quantity doesn't mean jack shit. Most of us who care about a quality product do not give a single flying fuck about how many guitars a luthier can put out in a month. That means literally nothing. Small flaws on something that costs thousands is unacceptable. Literally. It's bullshit. If a luthier has the gall to charge that much, then you have every right to "nitpick". Have you bothered to think about all the other guys who are one man operations who DON'T have all these problems? Daemoness and Vik are two that immediately come to mind. Artinger too.

In case you haven't noticed, a custom is not a production model. Your comparison makes no sense whatsoever. It doesn't matter if Gibson has flaws, they're made by people who don't give a shit. A luthier is SUPPOSED to give a shit. That's what you pay for.

If you had confidence in his abilities, you wouldn't worry about flaws. In my personal opinion, worrying about flaws in a build you're waiting months for and putting out thousand for, should not be a thing.

Stop defending him. He fucked up, and I believe he admitted it in the past, and if he didn't, shame. It's a learning process, guitar building that is, but you shouldn't sell to people before it meets your own standards. And if these are his standards, then he should probably think about raising his personal bar, or getting some more practice in on guitars that AREN'T' coming out of other peoples paychecks.

His concepts are badass. Incredible in fact. Execution just leaves a lot to be desired in some builds, where it's pretty good in others. Inconsistency is the death of small luthiers. So if he wants to take this seriously, he should take that into consideration.

 

[AwDeOh]

Seems to me that he has the talent to make it as a builder. He just needs to slow down and not put every last idea on the page into a guitar.

 

[BlackMastodon]

I think his carbon fiber builds look a lot better than the tribal ones. The tribal designs just seemed incredibly tacky to me; I actually laughed at the initial photoshop mockups that were dripping with tribal patterns and weird colours. But after NoYaN's build I think there is definitely hope for this guy. Like everyone said, though, he has quite a few things to work on but if he can iron those out then he should do quite well as he does put out a pretty damn original product.

 

[capoeiraesp]

I don't tend to believe that the recent carbon fibre builds are all that much better. Yes, they have full body wraps but that just makes it easier to cover things up i.e. your attention is drawn to all the cool designs and glow in the dark aspects.

This is by no means an attack on Noyan as a person or player, but look closely at these pics.

If I received a BRAND NEW custom guitar, I would not be happy that mounting or intonation screws and bridge itself had ANY damage or scratches. It's supposed to be a brand spankin' new instrument. Again, the intonation looks questionable to say the least.
The bridge extension piece on the high e (1st string) is the wrong way around.

Why is nut arced so sharply towards the treble end of the fretboard?
Have a close look at the pickups. There's a lot more length from them on the treble side than on the bass side, so what does this mean for alignment of the bobbins underneath?

I get it, this nut probably works but there's no good, skilled reason as to why it should be cut so wide and deep. The strings can potentially rattle and slide around. Also, they hit the headstock and the truss rod cover, causing friction, which will cause tuning problems, especially when using the tremolo.
I know that Kahler don't make locking nuts for multiscale tremolos but a brass nut that does not have smooth slots is going to also add a fair bit of friction. I can only assume that Noyan doesn't use the tremolo for dive-bombs because it won't keep tune.

Glow in the dark paint is simply an additive, added to normal paint. Clear, colours, all the same. It's no harder to mask the line for glow in the dark, as it is for normal paint. So why aren't these lines clean and consistent?

 

[ExtendedRange]

Guys, if we act fast, we can sully the reputation of this company as well!

 

[capoeiraesp]

Can we please keep this thread civil?
I am pointing things out as a matter of accountability, not to sully, defame or maliciously attack Etherial. Given that its hard to portray intention and emotion in text I will leave it open to you all to interpret my intentions.