something weird that came to my attention

[Estin]

nancy's post got me thinking about the origin of all the EBMM instruments.

LUKE is the sig of obviously Steve lukather
the Morse is sig of Steve Morse
the Abert Lee is sig for Albert Lee
the JPM for john petrucci
the Axis was formerly the sig for EVH


so what about the Silhouette? where did it come from? all the other EBMM's seem to have been made especially for the artists. these models were never availible before the artists hooked up with EB. if they hadn't, what would EB be selling? this is very weird!

 

[Jimi D]

so what about the Silhouette? where did it come from?

from my website :

Back in 1984, shortly after Ernie Ball acquired Music Man Guitars, they tasked former Valley Arts guitar designer Dudley Gimpel with the task of designing a new six string model to complement the company's successful bass lines. It was to be a thoroughly contemporary guitar that didn't deviate too dramatically from the traditional, something that would appeal to professional guitarists of all stripes. The Silhouette was first shown at the June, 1985 NAMM, and a refined version went into production a little over a year later. Among it's earliest advocates were Albert Lee, Ron Wood and Keith Richards, who - in a Guitar World interview - went out of his way to praise it as a modern classic worthy of the Stratocaster and Telecaster...

The Silhouette's super-Strat design started as a scaled-down version of the Music Man Sting-Ray bass, but Dudley included a number of innovations in the new guitar. The Silhouette is nearly three inches shorter than a Stratocaster while maintaining the latter's 25.5" scale length. Stretching and contouring the horns kept the guitar perfectly balanced on the strap and provided easy access to the neck's full two-octave complement of 24 frets, while additional edge, top and back body contours ensured the instrument feels comfortable and familiar from the first. The clever and compact 4x2 head stock helped reduce the overall length (early advertisements proudly claimed the guitar would fit into an airplane's overhead storage compartment) while establishing a distinctive look for the brand, and the easily accessed adjustment wheel set at the neck heel makes subtle tweaks to the teflon-coated truss-rod quick and simple...

The bottom line is that the Silhouette is really Dudley's design, as is every other EB/MM guitar to date to a greater or lesser degree... The AL was an original design Dudley came up with and named the "Axis" until Albert Lee decided he wanted it as his sig. (Albert was playing a Silhouette prior to that)... The name got recycled, of course, when Eddie left EB/MM and they wanted to tweak the EVH model... Dudley and his team are brilliant guitar designers - I think his name is worthy the same resprect and recognition offered Leo Fender, Ted McCarthy, Paul Reed Smith and Grover Jackson (among others)...