RGB Guitars

"Viennawaterfalls", Sean Frenette, 3 String Guitar

2011-12-04T11:39:00.000-08:00

Fabrication d'une lampe triode

2011-12-04T11:25:00.000-08:00

This is an awesome vid, a perfect mashup of extreme crafting and a relaxing Sesame St. sketch. He casually pulls off a bunch of amazing things- notice the homemade spot welder, pen plotter, the induction heating coil... this is tool porn at its best. Sorry about the ad...

Fabrication d'une lampe triode by F2FO

Parlor Acoustic

2011-11-16T17:03:00.000-08:00

#015 24-3/4" Scale, Douglas Fir, Dark Meranti, and Cocobolo.
Simple and sweet- take it camping, let the kids play it, take it to the stage; she does it all
$700.00

Back to Work

2011-09-27T17:00:00.001-07:00

Finally back in the shop after a six month break for work and travel. Here's the first of what I plan to be an ongoing series of small acoustic parlor guitars. My favorite acoustic guitar was/is a 1920's spanish made parlor, but it is time to lay her to rest; the top and back are split in many places, the braces rattle. These will be pretty direct copies, with a modern bracing plan and a 24-3/4" scale.
The small body size makes them comfortable, sturdy, and easy to travel and live with; also they are just small enough that I can cut the plates on my bandsaw.
The first six will have Doug Fir tops and Dark Meranti necks, backs, and sides. Later versions will be made entirely from trees harvested locally, I've already started stockpiling wood from the neighborhood:)

Solar Sinter

2011-09-18T12:46:00.000-07:00

The latest in my ongoing fascination with printers and CAD/CAM. Not so crazy about the output, but this is a really classy, graceful idea, and a nice video.

Markus Kayser - Solar Sinter Project from Markus Kayser on Vimeo.

And then this is just ridiculous, skip ahead to see him printing human kidneys

New Scandal at DoJ as Illegal Guitars End Up In Hands of Mexican Drug Lords

2011-09-18T12:43:00.000-07:00

http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/dburge/2011/08/28/new-scandal-at-doj-as-illegal-guitars-end-up-in-hands-of-mexican-drug-lords/

New Scandal at DoJ as Illegal Guitars End Up In Hands of Mexican Drug Lords

by Iowahawk

Say ‘ello to my leetle fren’:
axe confiscated in border
rawk-out
WASHINGTON – Today’s uncovering of secret multi-agency program for shipping illegal Gibson guitars to Mexican drug cartels left red-faced officials of the U.S. Department of Justice scrambling for an explanation amid angry calls for a Congressional investigation.
“I have ordered all agency personnel to fully cooperate in any Congressional inquiries, including all reasonable document request, as soon as we can redact them with Sharpie pens and lighter fluid,” said U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder.
The secret program came to light early this morning in the border town of Nogales, Arizona, after what was described as a wild battle of the bands between members of the Sinaloa cartel and Los Zetas, two of Mexico’s most notorious violent drug gangs.
“Usually these guys are armed with Mexican Strats and Squires, Epiphones, small caliber stuff like that,” said Pedro Ochoa, 36, an eye witness to the sonic melee. “This time they were packing the heavy firepower.”
The steady barrage of power chords and piercing solo attacks attracted the attention of nearby U.S. Border Patrol agents, who arrived at the scene just as Los Zetas broke into Led Zeppelin’s ‘Immigrant Song.’ By the time the dust had cleared, U.S. Border Patrol Agent Oscar Jimenez was found in a catatonic state of headbanging. He was later flown to University of Arizona Hospitals, where his condition is listed as seriously rawked.

The spandex-clad suspects were able to flee back into Mexico, but not before abandoning their arsenal of axes – the quality of which shocked Border Patrol agents.
“I’ve been working the border for over 25 years and have never seen a weapons cachet like this,” said Patrol Supervisor Mike Foreman. “A ‘53 Goldtop, a ‘59 Black Beauty, Flying V’s, a whole armory of SGs. Enough for an entire guitarmy. It’s a wonder there weren’t any total shreddings.”
Suspicions that the U.S. Department of Justice was involved in the case first arose after agents noticed “Property of the U.S. Department of Justice” embossed on the back of each guitar. A trace of the serial numbers confirmed that they were confiscated only days earlier by DoJ agents from the Gibson Guitar Company in Memphis.
Responding to a Freedom of Information Act request, Justice Department officials admitted that the guitars were part of a complicated sting program know as “Operation Fast and Fretless,” ostensibly designed to stem traffic of illegal guitars and amplifiers between the U.S. and Mexico. The multi-agency program – involving Justice, ICE, TSA, EPA, IRS, FDA, Fish & Wildlife, USDA, and the Bureau of Whiskey, Groupies & Hotel Rooms – reportedly encourage border area pawn shops to sell the guitars to known drug kingpins.
Justice spokesman Gary Evans said the Nogales incident yesterday showed the program was a success. “By putting American guitars in the hands of Mexican gangs, I think we’ve proven what we’ve warned all along – that Mexican gangs have access to American guitars. Hopefully this will lead to sane and sensible guitar controls.”
Despite the defense of the program, Darrel Issa (R-CA), Chairman of the U.S. House Committee on Heavy Metal Affairs is expected to call hearings soon.
“We need to get to the bottom of this thing before it gets out of hand,” said Issa. “We have reports that Justice is also providing Colombian cocaine gangs with AutoTune.”

panner

2011-01-16T10:05:00.000-08:00

Been working on this panner box. This neck has copper inlays on every fret, and between each one is a series resistor. It tracks where your index finger is(or the lowest fretted note), and passes that info as a voltage to the box via the ring on a stereo guitar cable.

You plug two guitar effects into the loops, and, based on where on the neck you are playing, you will hear one or the other, or a mix of the two. If you do a long run up the neck, you will get a full pan from one sound to the other; or you can play the same figure in different positions and get different sound settings.

It isn't running yet, still lots of debugging and circuit fragments to include, but I feel close to being able to play through it. I think that it will produce a rad sound that no one is really capable of generating yet. How about putting a loop pedal on one side, then you could get a loop going, and depending on where you were playing on the neck, fade the loop in and out. yeah!

This thing is a distillation of my desire to see more analog synth/guitar crossover in ways that don't suck. Eventually I hope to have a device that pans consistently, which is fast, fully configurable, doesn't have a bunch of awkward crap like wristbands or neck stabilizers, and doesn't add thousands of dollars to the cost of playing electric. I think that there is a lot of room for new toys once you let go of trying to turn a guitar into a MIDI controller.
Learning about audio electronics has been really challenging and fun, and there are a lot of good resources online: geofex, tonefrenzy, and muzique are some of the best. R.Keen at geofex is the god of the boutique effects world and is worth knowing about if you use stomp boxes at all. The circuit I am working on comes from him.

New Guitar

2010-12-06T10:21:00.000-08:00

Here is a just-finished one painted by Steve Mathews. I am still waiting on the switch, but it was a nice day for pictures, so we had to go for it, so never mind that big hole in the top of the guitar.

24-3/4" Scale, Dual Humbuckers, Tune-o-matic bridge, Orange Drop caps. Meranti( mahogany) body; Rosewood and Meranti neck. Custom hardwood pickup rings, lathe-turned switch knob. Faux-Ivory inlay. Nitrocellulose laquer finish, tung oil finish on neck.

New Guitar

2010-12-06T10:10:00.000-08:00

Here is the latest one, #13. It has an amazing fumed glass marble in it that you can see from both sides. The marble spins around, and is fun to play with and stare at between jams. The top and back are carved, and the back is hand-painted. The inlay is faux-ivory in a tentacles theme. There is a lot going on with this one, and I spent a lot of time getting the little details just right. I am very pleased with it, and I think that you should buy it for someone for christmas!
24-3/4" Scale, Dual Humbuckers, Tune-o-matic bridge, Orange Drop cap. Meranti( mahogany) body; Rosewood, Bubinga, and figured Maple neck. Custom hardwood pickup rings, lathe-turned switch knob. Tung oil finish.

pan-o-rama

2010-12-05T12:54:00.000-08:00

taken with meag's fancy new cybershot.

Hello World

2010-12-05T12:09:00.000-08:00

I'm moving away from my old and busted junky site to this new blog site. Hopefully it will make it easier for you to look at and me to post to.