- Thread starter Big Poppa
- Start date
Eilif
Well-known member
Big Poppa said:
OK, I'll dive in--the water looks great!
Could you say something about your design philosophy? Maybe why things are done a certain way with regards to how the guitars look and play the way that they do. A general statement which could maybe end up in an "About Us" section of the web site.
Some specific questions:
1) Is the Silo Special basically a Luke with a different neck and pickups? Is there any difference in the bodies?
2) How much of a hand did Luke have with the styling of the Luke body? Did he come up with a specific design, or maybe he had a general idea of what he wanted and subsequently gave his approval to a design originated by EBMM?
3) Same question re. Eddie and the EVH body.
4) Why the creation of the Axis Super Sport line? Is there a fundamental difference from the Axis Sport? Obviously, it was decided to not make the Super Sport as just a different set of options for the Sport; what was the reason?
5) Why are the Sub necks not unfinished like the other guitars? It would seem that finishing the neck would cost more...but I'd guess that's not the case since the Subs are "budget" instruments.
6) The Luke neck is based more or less on Luke's favorite Valley Arts neck, and the EVH neck was similarly based on Eddie's favorite neck at the time. What is the origin of the Silo, Silo Special, and Sub necks?
Thanks for being such a great company and making these wonderful instruments!
Alright. I just joined last week. So, I'm brand new. I posted a couple of things, and decided to look around some more. Oh yeah, and I'm going to the Open House in September. I signed up me and my husband. He doesn't know we are going yet.
No, I'm not _really_ a guitar player, but I have a radio show - the Guitar Shop (in Portland, Oregon). The show features guitar (and bass) players who are virtuoso or well-respected in their particular genre: rock, classical, jazz, blues...a bit of experimental. . . you get the idea. I'm still in the process of revamping my website, but you can look at it at www.guitarshopradio.com. If you wish to listen to the show, it airs Pacific Time 4-6 p.m. every Wednesday at www.kpsu.org.
My favorite guitarist is Steve Morse. I've seen the Dixie Dregs/Steve Morse Band/Steve with Deep Purple about 25 or so times since 1982.
I am VERY much looking forward to the Open House event.
No, I'm not _really_ a guitar player, but I have a radio show - the Guitar Shop (in Portland, Oregon). The show features guitar (and bass) players who are virtuoso or well-respected in their particular genre: rock, classical, jazz, blues...a bit of experimental. . . you get the idea. I'm still in the process of revamping my website, but you can look at it at www.guitarshopradio.com. If you wish to listen to the show, it airs Pacific Time 4-6 p.m. every Wednesday at www.kpsu.org.
My favorite guitarist is Steve Morse. I've seen the Dixie Dregs/Steve Morse Band/Steve with Deep Purple about 25 or so times since 1982.
I am VERY much looking forward to the Open House event.
tommyindelaware
Well-known member
Victrola said:
me loves vicky..........you'all will too. can't wait to see ya out there. it's gonna be a blast ........
tommy & vicky aka pk & the l.a. namm show
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francric
Well-known member
Victrola said:
That's what the rest of you need to do............
Big Poppa
Well-known member
welcome Victrola I have previously welcomed you so double welcome
Would definitely go if i actually wasn't so damn far away. Literally on the other side of the world. Hopefully in the future, as i am intending to study over there in about a year more or so. Btw....3 more weeks to the teal pearl and moonstone silhouette!!!
Big Poppa said:
Ah, Big Poppa. I must have missed that welcome. Thank you for double-welcoming me! I am most honored. *formal Japanese bow*
I'm glad to be here .... I've contributed to a few posts. And one of the polls. Can't remember which one. Anyway, hi to everyone!
kbaim
Well-known member
Victrola said:
Was it the "WHY DOES TOMMY PLAY OUT OF TUNE POLL?"
Big Poppa
Well-known member
Eilif
You asked a ton of questions so here are a ton of answers.
Our design philosophy is pretty simple. We make tools for artists. We believe in form over fashion, we place a high priority on ergonimics. Quality is number one. It is not a buzz word, it is very difficult to make quality instruments without a great design. The difference between a good guitar and a great guitar is about 100 details.
With the basses Leo gave us a great headstart. It was up to us to either capilatize on it or screw it up. With guitars it was different as Leo's post Fender guitars were not that well recieved. The Silhouette was the first guitar designed by Dudley Gimpel and myself. We started with a Stingray bass body and shrunk it 90% and then tweaked the horns a little, and added the horn contours. It was a little tribute to the SG. We wanted the guitars to be light weight and the best way to achieve this is to take body and headstock mass out of the axe. When we met to talk about guitars and things we kiked and things that bugged us several thinks came to the forefront:
1. You love you old guitar but the trend has changed and you wat to put a humbucking in the neck pu of your guitar, HOw many great vintage instruments have been ruined by crude routing away from stock. Solution was to create a master route adn make it so you could replace your pickguard assembly with a plugin pickguard.
2. Noise. We extra shielded and painted the pickup cavity with a special shielding paint.
3. Truss Rod. How many times did did your guitar or bass go out of adjustment and with a fender you would have to take the strings and pickguard off on the pre-bullett models and guess. How many vintage fenders did you see where the owner tried to adjust the neck without taking off the stuff and carving up the pickguard. With a gibson you had to hope you had a small phillips and the right wrench. With the fender bullett ones you had to make sure you had that special wrench. I belive that guitarists should never have to carry a wrench. Our Wheel is the perfect truss rod adj and has been copied many times.
4. Truss rods binding. We coated our truss rods with teflon.
5truss rods not working on the higher frets causing a "ski Jump" Our truss rods work the entire length of the fret board.
6 Balance. We want all of our instruments to be balanced on the strap and the lap.
NOw to some oif your specific questions
The starting point for the Luke was the already in existance Silhouette Special minus the horn contours and more room for the hands for higher access. Luke Dudley and I were very involved but this guitar was 80% done onver the phone between the three of us.
The EVH was Dudleys morphing of a tele and les paul .
THe axis super sport was a was to make the axis without the floyd with different pick ups and body wood
THe sub necks are painted because it enables us to use wood that may be structurally fine but maybe not comestically good. That is the reasaon why gibson came out with the Les Paul customs.
Luke neck was really based on a classic vintage Fender V, Steve morse was based on his old tele, eddies was a digitized of his frankenstein the silhouette was what Dudley and Ithought felt best with the body.
Hope this helps. You really tested my dedicatiion with this post. Note to forumites nmake Big Poppa happy and try not to PM me, your killing me. Also please try to only ask me one question at a time. thanks
You asked a ton of questions so here are a ton of answers.
Our design philosophy is pretty simple. We make tools for artists. We believe in form over fashion, we place a high priority on ergonimics. Quality is number one. It is not a buzz word, it is very difficult to make quality instruments without a great design. The difference between a good guitar and a great guitar is about 100 details.
With the basses Leo gave us a great headstart. It was up to us to either capilatize on it or screw it up. With guitars it was different as Leo's post Fender guitars were not that well recieved. The Silhouette was the first guitar designed by Dudley Gimpel and myself. We started with a Stingray bass body and shrunk it 90% and then tweaked the horns a little, and added the horn contours. It was a little tribute to the SG. We wanted the guitars to be light weight and the best way to achieve this is to take body and headstock mass out of the axe. When we met to talk about guitars and things we kiked and things that bugged us several thinks came to the forefront:
1. You love you old guitar but the trend has changed and you wat to put a humbucking in the neck pu of your guitar, HOw many great vintage instruments have been ruined by crude routing away from stock. Solution was to create a master route adn make it so you could replace your pickguard assembly with a plugin pickguard.
2. Noise. We extra shielded and painted the pickup cavity with a special shielding paint.
3. Truss Rod. How many times did did your guitar or bass go out of adjustment and with a fender you would have to take the strings and pickguard off on the pre-bullett models and guess. How many vintage fenders did you see where the owner tried to adjust the neck without taking off the stuff and carving up the pickguard. With a gibson you had to hope you had a small phillips and the right wrench. With the fender bullett ones you had to make sure you had that special wrench. I belive that guitarists should never have to carry a wrench. Our Wheel is the perfect truss rod adj and has been copied many times.
4. Truss rods binding. We coated our truss rods with teflon.
5truss rods not working on the higher frets causing a "ski Jump" Our truss rods work the entire length of the fret board.
6 Balance. We want all of our instruments to be balanced on the strap and the lap.
NOw to some oif your specific questions
The starting point for the Luke was the already in existance Silhouette Special minus the horn contours and more room for the hands for higher access. Luke Dudley and I were very involved but this guitar was 80% done onver the phone between the three of us.
The EVH was Dudleys morphing of a tele and les paul .
THe axis super sport was a was to make the axis without the floyd with different pick ups and body wood
THe sub necks are painted because it enables us to use wood that may be structurally fine but maybe not comestically good. That is the reasaon why gibson came out with the Les Paul customs.
Luke neck was really based on a classic vintage Fender V, Steve morse was based on his old tele, eddies was a digitized of his frankenstein the silhouette was what Dudley and Ithought felt best with the body.
Hope this helps. You really tested my dedicatiion with this post. Note to forumites nmake Big Poppa happy and try not to PM me, your killing me. Also please try to only ask me one question at a time. thanks
J-Nick
Well-known member
Wow! this is all great info... it's great to get insider info like that. Thanks BP!
francric
Well-known member
Interesting stuff BP!!!!! Is there a history of EB book? If not, you need to write one.
SteveB
Well-known member
Since this thread has veered so far off track, I'll chime this in:
I've been dying to try a Silhouette. I am hoping to get my hands on one at the Open House. I have to decide what my next EBMM will be, after all. I was originally thinking a 2nd Petrucci (might have to wait for the neck-thru mahogany one), but the Sil or Sil Special has been calling to me...
I've been dying to try a Silhouette. I am hoping to get my hands on one at the Open House. I have to decide what my next EBMM will be, after all. I was originally thinking a 2nd Petrucci (might have to wait for the neck-thru mahogany one), but the Sil or Sil Special has been calling to me...
Eilif
Well-known member
Big Poppa said:
Thank you!
(Eilif respectfully bows to Big Poppa.)
caucajun
Well-known member
"water's fine"
............"luke warm to me!"
............"luke warm to me!"
