Pictures first, long text later! (It's long, this one)
Won't let me upload more pictures
maybe I'll post more later on. It is so hard to photograph the curves on this thing!
I could talk about this guitar for literal days, but I'll try not to get TOO carried away. It'll be long though
hence why pictures first!
I also *might* (maaaybe) be recording a small video of the guitar tomorrow morning when there's more light, just going over the specs and doing a few closeup shots. I find it hard to find details on these guitars, especially pictures or footage that shows off the contours and the overall fit and finish.
Build details and specs:
- Figured River Red Gum top and headstock overlay
- Argentium silver purfling on body, headstock, and fretboard
- Silky Oak (aka Australian Lacewood) body
- Queensland Maple neck with carbon fibre laminate
- Richlite fretboard, 406mm radius
- Split purfling inlay on 12th fret
- Stainless steel e-scale frets, 680mm - 740mm
- Black hardware with Red Gum appointments (pickup selector, and knobs inlaid with argentium silver)
- Gotoh tuners with Red Gum pegs
- 1 Tone pot and 1 Volume pot with Silky Oak/Red Gum knobs inlaid with argentium silver (lovely detail with the waveforms on the inlay)
- Freeway 10-way pickup selector with Red Gum knob
- Oni Essi humbucking pickups (43 awg wire)
- Badass Oni E-scale 8-string brass bridge with Graphtech saddles
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I'm gonna get it out of the way because it's really the very first thing that deserves to be mentioned: Dan is about as professional and friendly a human being as I have ever had the pleasure to deal with. This dude seems to have a vision for how guitars should be sort of how Ken Parker did, and he keeps improving his designs constantly. He really cared to keep me informed and in the loop at all stages. I can't thank him enough for being so communicative and responsive the last couple of years. He really didn't have to entertain my probably dumb questions and my random anecdotes, but he chose to anyways. I was kept privy to all the little details on the changes he made on my guitar.
As for the guitar itself... well, it's immaculate and unbelievably good looking. I've been dreaming of one of Dan's guitars since about 2008-9, and I am SO happy to finally own one after having gone through the full process with him. It's my only custom (not counting my Carvin) and... honestly, the wait was grueling and the beginning of it all was kind of nerve-racking for me. I don't know that I would do it again for something that isn't at least as incredible this guitar and with someone as reliable and communicative as Dan proved to be.
It's great in photos, but much better in person. It's worth mentioning that I am still very much in a honeymoon phase, so make of all this what you will, but at the moment I feel like I've just peaked with electric guitars. I don't even want to know how many times Dan has iterated over this design to bring it to this level; it gives me anxiety. It is so comfortable and easy to play, even with the funny frets.
Other than a couple of aesthetic and functional queues, (maximum amount of sounds with a traditional or minimalist amount of knobs and switches) I pretty much told Dan to do what he thought was best. Aesthetically, I suppose this guitar would be a "sister" to the two other 6-string A-Types that Dan has built in the past with figured Red Gum tops and silver purfling and accents. After telling Dan what kind of look I was going for, he suggested a whole bunch of tops, among which was this Red Gum. After looking at it for a while, and really loving the silver purfling he had done on the A-Types, I requested he give the Essi the same treatment. Of course, the silver purfling is there for tone reasons, because more silver = more metal. I then got it in my head that it would be cool if it was all made out of local Australian woods for two reasons: 1) He had them readily available and would likely be cheaper/quicker to start and finish the build, and 2) they're woods that, while cheaper locally to him, I probably would never see on this side of the world and thus are more exotic/interesting to me. Super pretty stuff. That meant that we basically ended up with very similar (if not the same... I forget) woods and aesthetic to the sister A-Types but on an Essi 8 format.
The guitar is super well balanced, and both sits and hangs really comfortably. The contours on the body (and there are MANY) are extremely comfortable. Both the bridge and fretboard sit super low and flat on the body, so my forearm sits perfectly straight and my picking hand is unimpeded. It's a pretty light guitar, coming in at just over 7 pounds. It isn't as light as my strandberg 8 (which is just under 6 lbs), but the proportions and balance are such that it feels lighter than it is. It is also a very thin and petite body with a long neck, so I think there's an element of expectation there that plays with my head on how my brain thinks the guitar will feel vs how it actually does.
The neck is oh so glorious, I almost feel bad playing my strandberg after this, tbh... I am finding the e-scale actually serving its purpose. Even though the fan is larger than on my strandberg (1.5" fan on the strandy vs a ~2.36" on this one), I find it more intuitive to play. The thinner 5 strings do feel like parallel frets for the most part. The lowest string, granted, I have to think a bit more about since the fan becomes a LOT more prominent there, but it's really not a problem.
The neck also has a slight asymmetry that I hadn't realized was there, (I never requested a specific neck carve to Dan) but felt it after I got the guitar and it's great. It's a pretty flat neck profile overall that feels like it is on the thinner side, but it has a slightly more prominent shoulder on the treble side. As Dan explained it to me earlier today, the profile is basically the same as an egg's but sideways. That plus the oil finish on the neck makes it my most comfortable neck I have on any guitar.
Sound-wise, I am still very much learning this guitar. My first thought was that it was very loud acoustically, (jury's still out as to whether or not that means anything) but also very... mmm... I guess I am too illiterate to put it into accurate wording, but the word "crisp" comes to mind. That translates to the electronics as well. It's a bright sounding guitar and the pickups seem to emphasize that. The pickups sound pretty well balanced to my ears and seem to have kind a medium to medium-high output. My ears haven't yet picked up the actual "personality" or "soundprint" of these pickups; need to play them more, but so far so good!
It's very, very dynamic and responsive to whether I play it lightly or heavily. Dan put a pair of carbon fiber rods in the headstock between the tuner holes and the edge to increase rigidity and decrease dampening of vibrations. Neither of us knew if that would actually help, but we thought it wouldn't hurt and are both happy with how the guitar sounds and resonates, so we called it a win. I also finally have an 8 string guitar that does what I want it to do: sound like a guitar. The long scale length on the bass really helps with that. Compared to my strandberg, that 8th string sounds, again, C-R-I-S-P. Dan put an .080 there, and I think I may take it down to a .074. String tension with the 80 is satisfying, and I suspect a 74 will be great and will sound even better.
Now, about that 10-way switch... TONS of different sounds. Sure, some of them are pretty similar to one another and/or a little funky (3 coils in parallel? lol) but it's still fun to have them. It's wired like the diagram below, which I pulled off the some forum online. Kinda tricky to find wiring diagrams for this particular switch for an HH configuration as everyone seems to use this switch on SSS guitars. Changing pickups feels like I'm driving a JDM car down a winding mountain road, and ever since I made that association in my head... I love it even more. Dan was thoughtful enough to wire the side of the switch with the full humbucker sides (Side A in the diagram below) on the down position, so that it's easier to switch between full bridge humbucker and full neck humbucker. Probably a bit risky and/or confusing in a live setting, but I don't plan on taking this thing to a stage any time soon.
Anyways, I fucking LOVE this guitar. Dan needs to charge more money and people should give it to him so he can keep creating wonderful things. The only other guitar I have that I think comes anywhere near this in terms of "quality" (fit and finish, thoughtfulness of design, etc.) is my Ibanez PIA, and even that I am able to nitpick a looot more than this. Both feel like they were built with a purpose. Hard to overstate how happy I am with this guitar.
Won't let me upload more pictures
maybe I'll post more later on. It is so hard to photograph the curves on this thing!I could talk about this guitar for literal days, but I'll try not to get TOO carried away. It'll be long though
hence why pictures first!I also *might* (maaaybe) be recording a small video of the guitar tomorrow morning when there's more light, just going over the specs and doing a few closeup shots. I find it hard to find details on these guitars, especially pictures or footage that shows off the contours and the overall fit and finish.
Build details and specs:
- Figured River Red Gum top and headstock overlay
- Argentium silver purfling on body, headstock, and fretboard
- Silky Oak (aka Australian Lacewood) body
- Queensland Maple neck with carbon fibre laminate
- Richlite fretboard, 406mm radius
- Split purfling inlay on 12th fret
- Stainless steel e-scale frets, 680mm - 740mm
- Black hardware with Red Gum appointments (pickup selector, and knobs inlaid with argentium silver)
- Gotoh tuners with Red Gum pegs
- 1 Tone pot and 1 Volume pot with Silky Oak/Red Gum knobs inlaid with argentium silver (lovely detail with the waveforms on the inlay)
- Freeway 10-way pickup selector with Red Gum knob
- Oni Essi humbucking pickups (43 awg wire)
- Badass Oni E-scale 8-string brass bridge with Graphtech saddles
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I'm gonna get it out of the way because it's really the very first thing that deserves to be mentioned: Dan is about as professional and friendly a human being as I have ever had the pleasure to deal with. This dude seems to have a vision for how guitars should be sort of how Ken Parker did, and he keeps improving his designs constantly. He really cared to keep me informed and in the loop at all stages. I can't thank him enough for being so communicative and responsive the last couple of years. He really didn't have to entertain my probably dumb questions and my random anecdotes, but he chose to anyways. I was kept privy to all the little details on the changes he made on my guitar.
As for the guitar itself... well, it's immaculate and unbelievably good looking. I've been dreaming of one of Dan's guitars since about 2008-9, and I am SO happy to finally own one after having gone through the full process with him. It's my only custom (not counting my Carvin) and... honestly, the wait was grueling and the beginning of it all was kind of nerve-racking for me. I don't know that I would do it again for something that isn't at least as incredible this guitar and with someone as reliable and communicative as Dan proved to be.
It's great in photos, but much better in person. It's worth mentioning that I am still very much in a honeymoon phase, so make of all this what you will, but at the moment I feel like I've just peaked with electric guitars. I don't even want to know how many times Dan has iterated over this design to bring it to this level; it gives me anxiety.
It is so comfortable and easy to play, even with the funny frets.Other than a couple of aesthetic and functional queues, (maximum amount of sounds with a traditional or minimalist amount of knobs and switches) I pretty much told Dan to do what he thought was best. Aesthetically, I suppose this guitar would be a "sister" to the two other 6-string A-Types that Dan has built in the past with figured Red Gum tops and silver purfling and accents. After telling Dan what kind of look I was going for, he suggested a whole bunch of tops, among which was this Red Gum. After looking at it for a while, and really loving the silver purfling he had done on the A-Types, I requested he give the Essi the same treatment. Of course, the silver purfling is there for tone reasons, because more silver = more metal. I then got it in my head that it would be cool if it was all made out of local Australian woods for two reasons: 1) He had them readily available and would likely be cheaper/quicker to start and finish the build, and 2) they're woods that, while cheaper locally to him, I probably would never see on this side of the world and thus are more exotic/interesting to me. Super pretty stuff. That meant that we basically ended up with very similar (if not the same... I forget) woods and aesthetic to the sister A-Types but on an Essi 8 format.
The guitar is super well balanced, and both sits and hangs really comfortably. The contours on the body (and there are MANY) are extremely comfortable. Both the bridge and fretboard sit super low and flat on the body, so my forearm sits perfectly straight and my picking hand is unimpeded. It's a pretty light guitar, coming in at just over 7 pounds. It isn't as light as my strandberg 8 (which is just under 6 lbs), but the proportions and balance are such that it feels lighter than it is. It is also a very thin and petite body with a long neck, so I think there's an element of expectation there that plays with my head on how my brain thinks the guitar will feel vs how it actually does.
The neck is oh so glorious, I almost feel bad playing my strandberg after this, tbh... I am finding the e-scale actually serving its purpose. Even though the fan is larger than on my strandberg (1.5" fan on the strandy vs a ~2.36" on this one), I find it more intuitive to play. The thinner 5 strings do feel like parallel frets for the most part. The lowest string, granted, I have to think a bit more about since the fan becomes a LOT more prominent there, but it's really not a problem.
The neck also has a slight asymmetry that I hadn't realized was there, (I never requested a specific neck carve to Dan) but felt it after I got the guitar and it's great. It's a pretty flat neck profile overall that feels like it is on the thinner side, but it has a slightly more prominent shoulder on the treble side. As Dan explained it to me earlier today, the profile is basically the same as an egg's but sideways. That plus the oil finish on the neck makes it my most comfortable neck I have on any guitar.
Sound-wise, I am still very much learning this guitar. My first thought was that it was very loud acoustically, (jury's still out as to whether or not that means anything) but also very... mmm... I guess I am too illiterate to put it into accurate wording, but the word "crisp" comes to mind. That translates to the electronics as well. It's a bright sounding guitar and the pickups seem to emphasize that. The pickups sound pretty well balanced to my ears and seem to have kind a medium to medium-high output. My ears haven't yet picked up the actual "personality" or "soundprint" of these pickups; need to play them more, but so far so good!
It's very, very dynamic and responsive to whether I play it lightly or heavily. Dan put a pair of carbon fiber rods in the headstock between the tuner holes and the edge to increase rigidity and decrease dampening of vibrations. Neither of us knew if that would actually help, but we thought it wouldn't hurt and are both happy with how the guitar sounds and resonates, so we called it a win.
I also finally have an 8 string guitar that does what I want it to do: sound like a guitar. The long scale length on the bass really helps with that. Compared to my strandberg, that 8th string sounds, again, C-R-I-S-P. Dan put an .080 there, and I think I may take it down to a .074. String tension with the 80 is satisfying, and I suspect a 74 will be great and will sound even better.Now, about that 10-way switch...
TONS of different sounds. Sure, some of them are pretty similar to one another and/or a little funky (3 coils in parallel? lol) but it's still fun to have them. It's wired like the diagram below, which I pulled off the some forum online. Kinda tricky to find wiring diagrams for this particular switch for an HH configuration as everyone seems to use this switch on SSS guitars. Changing pickups feels like I'm driving a JDM car down a winding mountain road, and ever since I made that association in my head... I love it even more. Dan was thoughtful enough to wire the side of the switch with the full humbucker sides (Side A in the diagram below) on the down position, so that it's easier to switch between full bridge humbucker and full neck humbucker. Probably a bit risky and/or confusing in a live setting, but I don't plan on taking this thing to a stage any time soon.Anyways, I fucking LOVE this guitar. Dan needs to charge more money and people should give it to him so he can keep creating wonderful things. The only other guitar I have that I think comes anywhere near this in terms of "quality" (fit and finish, thoughtfulness of design, etc.) is my Ibanez PIA, and even that I am able to nitpick a looot more than this. Both feel like they were built with a purpose. Hard to overstate how happy I am with this guitar.
... just saying so the tech/science improves...
