NGD: Oni Essi 8 in bloody Red Gum and silver

[Bloody_Inferno]

Thanks man, I would friggin LOVE to see what you and Dan came up with. When I think of Australia and guitars, you, Dan, and Like Thieves come to mind first, and two of those deal with Oni, so get cracking! I think several of us owe him quite a few beers, honestly

I'm glad that I'm associated along the likes of Dan and Oden from Like Thieves, which is good company. Thanks! Speaking of Oni, turns out Dead Kelly's guitarist also uses them. Look up Legend Of Borry for some Aussie metal hilarity.

Regarding the beers, I actually met Dan 11 years ago when I had my very last gig with my old metal band in a festival in Queensland. Great dude and we pretty much spent the whole day hanging out and talking random crap meeting other musos, and the like. He joked that I didn't buy him a beer when we grabbed dinner, so it became a running joke. I'd love to just catch up with him again when the opportunity to go up north presents itself.

 

[Alberto7]

I'm glad that I'm associated along the likes of Dan and Oden from Like Thieves, which is good company. Thanks! Speaking of Oni, turns out Dead Kelly's guitarist also uses them. Look up Legend Of Borry for some Aussie metal hilarity.

Regarding the beers, I actually met Dan 11 years ago when I had my very last gig with my old metal band in a festival in Queensland. Great dude and we pretty much spent the whole day hanging out and talking random crap meeting other musos, and the like. He joked that I didn't buy him a beer when we grabbed dinner, so it became a running joke. I'd love to just catch up with him again when the opportunity to go up north presents itself.

Aaaaahhaha true! I'd forgotten Dead Kelly, I came across them while researching Onis shortly before talking to Dan, and I'd go back to their guitarist's YouTube videos when I wanted to hype myself up. I was so confused initially, I had no idea what they were on about it eventually clicked though. They got some tasty stuff! Listening to Legend of Borry as I write this

Haha that's a great excuse to go see the guy and talk specs over a beverage I love how much overlap there is with some of the Aussie peeps I follow. Makes Australia feel small.

 

[Alberto7]

Also, I didn't write about it before, but initially Dan fit the guitar with all black hardware before he made the woody bits, and I think it looks really fucking slick that way also. I may actually go full black hardware some day in the future, though I am sure I'll miss all of the wooden stuff shortly after. He sent me the original black tuning pegs as well as the black pickup selector knob. Dan actually took all of his sick pictures with the black hardware:

 

[Sermo Lupi]

You've gotta keep the wood tuners at least. That detail really sets it off. The black knobs look great and easy to swap, however.

Hehe it is a special guitar to me, and I guess I gotta put that energy somewhere, so I share but I am also partially indignant that there aren't many detailed overviews of these guitars anywhere I've looked online, and they really deserve to be appreciated in full detail, so I kinda wanted to fill that gap by putting all I can think of out there.

I noticed you're in Canada; there was a guy I think in Edmonton selling and/or demoing his Oni at a luthier show. I thought that was a nice gesture, as it allows people to get their hands on Dan's work before considering putting in an order. I'm sure that generated some discussion on FB groups or whatever, but otherwise, the most discussion I've ever seen Oni get has been on this forum. All glowing praise, of course.

 

[budda]

If Northerner decides to stock them that would be a good sign. Was kind of surprised they carry Aviator.

 

[Alberto7]

I noticed you're in Canada; there was a guy I think in Edmonton selling and/or demoing his Oni at a luthier show. I thought that was a nice gesture, as it allows people to get their hands on Dan's work before considering putting in an order. I'm sure that generated some discussion on FB groups or whatever, but otherwise, the most discussion I've ever seen Oni get has been on this forum. All glowing praise, of course.

Interesting, I'd have loved to catch one of those shows but haven't yet. A few years ago (I think 2019) there was an Oni Essi 6 that was traveling with the Boutique Guitar Show. Sadly, at the time I had no idea the show existed, and I wasn't much interested in guitars back then.

I also see some discussion of them on Reddit, soooometimes. I actually never posted mine there; the r/guitar sub is kind of a clusterfuck of information lmao it's a little off-putting.

If Northerner decides to stock them that would be a good sign. Was kind of surprised they carry Aviator.

Interesting, I hadn't heard of Northerner, good to know they exist and that they are this side of the border! They stock some neat stuff.
For now I think the only person that stocks them are Pyramind Guitars, off the US. (Though "stocking" is a bit of a stretch Dan doesn't have that kind of output at the moment, sadly.) I believe they have 2 or 3 ongoing builds with Dan, one of which has a Tiger Myrtle top that I almost chose instead of the Red Gum. It'll look killer:

Oni Essi 7 Tiger Myrtle – Pyramid Guitars Co.

pyramidguitarscompany.com

I actually got in touch with them first when I decided to order the Essi, but it seems at the time Dan was handling all orders for custom Essis himself, so Corey redirected me to Dan directly.

 

[Alberto7]

So, as promised, here's a few things I recorded over this week with the Essi:


Excuse the heinous playing, I rushed all of these and playing cleanly on the first take is NOT my forte
Most of the tracks are just DIs sampled and exported at 48000 Hz. I would have recorded at a higher sample rate, but by the time I remembered that was a thing I had already recorded half of the samples

Feel free to download the tracks and use them as DIs to upload to your DAW and apply your own presets, run through your rig, whatever you want, so you can get as good of an idea as you can of how the guitar sounds without actually playing it. All of those little riffs, licks, and things, are all my own anyway.

Also, I noticed I have a heavy bias towards recording a lot with the neck pickup, and using the bridge pickup only for heavier riffs. Full humbucker and split neck modes were the focus. Recording all 10 pickup positions is a pain.

A couple tracks have NDSP presets applied to them (Petrucci and Nameless) so I could hide all the crappy playing. (I actually totally forgot to mute the plugins in my DAW before exporting, and I couldn't be bothered to re-record...)

Also, I've been playing the guitar A LOT over the last week. The strings are already starting to dull out, so newer samples may sound a bit different.

@LordCashew @kriff should probably tag you guys, since you requested this!

 

[narad]

Also, I didn't write about it before, but initially Dan fit the guitar with all black hardware before he made the woody bits, and I think it looks really fucking slick that way also. I may actually go full black hardware some day in the future, though I am sure I'll miss all of the wooden stuff shortly after. He sent me the original black tuning pegs as well as the black pickup selector knob. Dan actually took all of his sick pictures with the black hardware:

I dig it with the black. It looks less expensive, but better vibe (for SSO anyway)

 

[Sermo Lupi]

Interesting, I'd have loved to catch one of those shows but haven't yet. A few years ago (I think 2019) there was an Oni Essi 6 that was traveling with the Boutique Guitar Show. Sadly, at the time I had no idea the show existed, and I wasn't much interested in guitars back then. I also see some discussion of them on Reddit, soooometimes. I actually never posted mine there; the r/guitar sub is kind of a clusterfuck of information lmao it's a little off-putting.

Looks like that guitar is still for sale, actually. Pretty sure it was this one that was advertised for the show; the seller is located in Calgary, which would fit.

You went on reddit to read about something you're already informed about? You poor soul

 

[Sacha]

Pretty awesome to see Oni still crushing it year after year, when so many luthiers go dark / screw people over / hate minorities etc. Not that delivering quality guitars should be a very high bar for a luthier, but here we are.

 

[Alberto7]

I dig it with the black. It looks less expensive, but better vibe (for SSO anyway)

Yeah, definitely more of a "metal" look.
It looked so good we actually momentarily forgot the wooden bits needed to be made until Dan sent me a message saying he was gonna start packaging the guitar but realized it didn't look right yet. After all, part of the point was to match it up with the two other A-Types he's built in this style. He whipped up the 8 tuner buttons, the knobs, and the selector switch very quickly after that, despite the fact that the knobs are a new design.

Looks like that guitar is still for sale, actually. Pretty sure it was this one that was advertised for the show; the seller is located in Calgary, which would fit.

You went on reddit to read about something you're already informed about? You poor soul

Aaahh yeah, I've been seeing that poor thing for sale for a long time now. If it's been treated well and it is still in good condition, someone would be getting a really cool guitar.

And hey...! Yes I spent so many hours looking up anything related to Oni on the web until I eventually got the guitar. It was, indeed, torturous. I do not recommend that approach.

Pretty awesome to see Oni still crushing it year after year, when so many luthiers go dark / screw people over / hate minorities etc. Not that delivering quality guitars should be a very high bar for a luthier, but here we are.

In my particular case and the couple other Oni owners I've talked to, not only does he deliver a fantastic instrument, but it was just a pleasure dealing with Dan. He's a cool dude. I really did feel like he had something he was making for me, not just another serial number to be pushed out the door. I got more than a guitar, but also a really cool experience with a person that is super knowledgeable and dedicated to his craft. He didn't need to do any of that, but it's just how he seems to work and I appreciated that a lot.

 

[G_3_3_k_]

@Alberto7 every new post you make in this thread increases my GAS exponentially.

Do it.

That is totally insane. What a stunner! I would love know what it sounds like as well.

Oden from Like Thieves has a lot of videos posted with an Essi 8 on Instagram. His are all well mixed clean album worthy takes.

I’ve posted a few on TikTok of mine. It’s in the room, and always best take out of 5 as a challenge to myself. To sort of deal with my red light anxiety and see my progress on some things. You’ll also see some of my Oni A-Type.

@Alberto7
“In my particular case and the couple other Oni owners I've talked to, not only does he deliver a fantastic instrument, but it was just a pleasure dealing with Dan. He's a cool dude. I really did feel like he had something he was making for me, not just another serial number to be pushed out the door. I got more than a guitar, but also a really cool experience with a person that is super knowledgeable and dedicated to his craft. He didn't need to do any of that, but it's just how he seems to work and I appreciated that a lot.”

My build process was similar to yours I believe. Dan was a gem of a human. Kept me updated. However, I basically told him a color, and then said, you do what you do. He offered some options at certain points and the build changed slightly. The Ovenkol fretboard originally supposed to be on my Essi I think ended up on the A-Type I bought second hand later. Working with Dan is more often like chatting with a buddy than it is a business deal. And the end result…. Well, it speaks for itself. He’s an absolute maniac about details. They really are like no other guitars.

Can’t believe I took about a week to come here to see the NGD. Glad you’re so stoked about yours. We talked a few times about your build over the two years, and I think I was one of the people encouraging you to dive in the most. I’m glad I didn’t steer you wrong. Enjoy the guitar. It’s a looker. I already know how good it plays and sounds.

 

[Alberto7]

@G_3_3_k_ you did encourage me to get it, and I am so happy I did. I feel like if you're into Dan's past work, especially his more artsy stuff (which as far as I know has been mostly his designs), your best bet is to give him a concept for what you want in a guitar (color, specific features like electronics, straight frets vs e-scale, an overall aesthetic, and an overall kind of souns you want) and just trust the man that he is more than capable of coming up with all the details that'll make you happy. After all, he is the designer and the craftsman with a bajillion years of experience, not us.

I also love how I can trace myself back in the Oni thread to like 2013 raving about these guitars and to 2016 saying how I really wanted one of these and... what do you know. I never considered myself a very goal-oriented person, but I guess lowkey I always had this as an objective.
Honestly, I'm waiting for the honeymoon period to wear out to see if I calm down about it and can talk about the guitar like a normal person without frothing at the mouth. I wonder if this is what those people on SSO felt like 15-20 years ago when getting a new custom. I had no money at the time, but that seemed to happen like every other week back then. That's around the time I first saw Dan's work, back in 2008 or 9.

 

[G_3_3_k_]

@G_3_3_k_ you did encourage me to get it, and I am so happy I did. I feel like if you're into Dan's past work, especially his more artsy stuff (which as far as I know has been mostly his designs), your best bet is to give him a concept for what you want in a guitar (color, specific features like electronics, straight frets vs e-scale, an overall aesthetic, and an overall kind of souns you want) and just trust the man that he is more than capable of coming up with all the details that'll make you happy. After all, he is the designer and the craftsman with a bajillion years of experience, not us.

I also love how I can trace myself back in the Oni thread to like 2013 raving about these guitars and to 2016 saying how I really wanted one of these and... what do you know. I never considered myself a very goal-oriented person, but I guess lowkey I always had this as an objective.
Honestly, I'm waiting for the honeymoon period to wear out to see if I calm down about it and can talk about the guitar like a normal person without frothing at the mouth. I wonder if this is what those people on SSO felt like 15-20 years ago when getting a new custom. I had no money at the time, but that seemed to happen like every other week back then. That's around the time I first saw Dan's work, back in 2008 or 9.

I’ve had my Essi since June of 2020. I’m still in the honeymoon phase.

Probably was how they felt. But you don’t see as many people buying instance customs anymore. You see one every couple months here. But not like every 3-5 days like it used to be.

 

[narad]

I’ve had my Essi since June of 2020. I’m still in the honeymoon phase.

Probably was how they felt. But you don’t see as many people buying instance customs anymore. You see one every couple months here. But not like every 3-5 days like it used to be.

The old days were the best. So much choice, and so little hands-on experience. Each NGD felt like an important source of knowledge. Fanned frets!? What are those like!? A bunch of endorsed artists posting up their latest customs. Probably my fav SSO days.

 

[Alberto7]

The old days were the best. So much choice, and so little hands-on experience. Each NGD felt like an important source of knowledge. Fanned frets!? What are those like!? A bunch of endorsed artists posting up their latest customs. Probably my fav SSO days.

Those were, indeed, good days. Now I just need a 1-piece KxK and I'll have fully lived out my 2008 dream. We all became jaded old men without the ability to get excited about things anymore now it's all just "mojo". Guess imma go do some boomer bends on my banana frets now.

 

[G_3_3_k_]

The old days were the best. So much choice, and so little hands-on experience. Each NGD felt like an important source of knowledge. Fanned frets!? What are those like!? A bunch of endorsed artists posting up their latest customs. Probably my fav SSO days.

Those were definitely the days here. There were more active members. There was more drama. More talking about stuff. I think the whole Facebook forum thing killed it. I’m not on Facebook anymore. Way too toxic.