CUSTOM GUITAR DESCRIPTIONS

The Redding Elemental-

After seeing my designs on paper, my son (in the 6th grade at the time) began noodling around with some ideas of his own. He had some wild contraptions
that our builder was not quite conident about building. Eventually my son decided
upon a Washburn 7 string, but his weapon-like bodies stayed in my head.

As I began to get more and more into bass guitar playing my finger style got
a great workout. My classical training transferred very easily onto the
bass. I became more adept at slap and pop as I soon took over most duties
of bass on my original music projects. I could now express
the most influential part of the music that I grew up with - the bass.
All the lines from Verdine White (Earth, Wind, and Fire)
or the straight forward groove of Ohio players could now resurface from
my memory. I became the bass player on the metal project Sanguinary, Miguel's
tremendous demands on musical intricacies, constant movement, non-repetition and
overall virtuosity pushed my bass talent up a few notches and beyond.

I decided I must have a customized guitar for every
occasion - so why not a bass. After aiding in some of my son's infant
designs I had found a shape I could work with and simplify a bit.
What started as an axe weapon, morphed into a rain drop. It had the ability
to look like either depending on the eye of the beholder.

The first builder I approached about the bass was not positive about its practicality.
He was concerned about it's ability to balance between the neck
and the body. I employed my brother-in-law instead, who took right to
the design with enthusiasm. He had just finished studying privately under the
top luthier in town and was eager.

Upon searching and interviewing fellow players as sounding boards, I went
with a 6-string bass design for the Elemental. At the time, I calculated
adding a lower string would only increase
the note range by eight frets, but the thin 1st string
would give bass a higher frequency
for soloing and bright fills. Later, at the finished project, we added many
more frets than the average design. The actual prototypes has 26 frets,
plus extra fretboard mass after the final fret allows for a fretless sound up
to what would be considered the 30th fret!

A metallic blue dawns the shape of the prototype, accentuating the
vibe of cool water. EMG built us an active pickup, which we've pre-amped with,
not one, but two 9-volt batteries. Eighteen volts of "in yo' face"!
We tossed out the tone control EMG sent to us and had them upgrade
to a tone control with a much
wider sweep from treble to bass. You get much more tonal variety with
one pickup, eliminating the need for two.
The hardware is hard as steel
and built for power. Don't forget the skull knobs, and don't forget the
Redding drawn personal touch inlay, representing the 4 elements.

As it turns out, there was a big balance issue, where the neck would sink to
the ground unless held. Through trial and error, I was determined
to conquer this problem. Thus, the tri-strap system was designed to keep the
bass body close to yours while raising the headstock safely.

 

The Redding Fireball-

My degree in college was music education. I studied a lot of the great classical
composers - Bach, Mozart, etc. and my favorite - Stravinsky. I craved the
unconventional arrangements and clever time signatures of Stravinsky, but I
loved his passion most. I often arranged classical orchestral pieces to
play on the guitar . The finger-picking technique required for this type of
performance is intense compared to the plectrum style of electric shred.

Expanding my finger-picking finesse, I gained an interest in flamenco guitar.
Somehow I obtained a copy of "One Friday Night Live in San Francisco" featuring
Al Di Meola, John McGlaughlin and Paco de Lucia. Wow! This recording changed my
life. Eventually, I collected solo recordings of Di Meola and de Lucia
and eventually, their phrasing and scale language weaved
their way into my style - even in my electric playing.

I am a minimalist and prefer the reliance on the least amount of tools.
When I play electric, I use very little exterior sounds beyond a single amp
and guitar. I love the thought of solar power and building your own house.
I believe in the beauty, power and infinite creative possibilities
derived from the Earth's elements.

The "fireball" reflects the elements of fire.
It's classical nylon strings are purely reproduced and amplified by the
same pickup used in a mid 90's Gibson Chet Atkins guitar.
Gibson went back and built the model for my prototype. The strings are widely
spaced for accurate finger-picking technique and the action is low if you'd like
to grab a pick and thrash across a fiery scale. Volume, treble and bass knobs
are placed on the bottom of the guitar so as not to take away from the flame
affect on the face of the body.
The tuners are bulky and strong for great grip and longevity.

The swirls of canary yellow and bright red emmulate the cartoonish flames on the
side of a 70's muscle car. The headstock resembles the tail of a comet. The
Redding trademark skull-head figure is placed on the 5th fret to remind you
to live! Another subliminal anatomical signatures
is placed on the butt of the body for your amusement.

I am thankful for having heard Yngwie Malmsteen on the live
album from Alcatraz. He played a guitar solo that stuck out in my mind.
He inserted his version of Bach's Bouree from the lute suite in E minor. That
song was my goal and new direction to building my guitar technique. From
that performance I was inspired to study classical
guitar to seriously upgrade my guitar skills.

I am also thankful for the earlier influence of funk groups, particularly
Earth, Wind, and Fire. Their classy fusion of elemental spirituality \
and cool helped me appreciate raw talent and minimalism.

The Redding 1-

This was my first realized design. At one time ,
as a starving musician, I sold
one of my coolest guitars to help with rent,
thinking I would not miss it in the future.
I was wrong! As I desperately tried to work with
the company, Ibanez, to help me pick and choose parts
to recreate it, I hit a dead end. They would not sell
me parts separately. I missed my Ibanez Jem model.

Out of determination I told myself I'd build my own guitar.
I would build in my mind "beyond" the
Jem in style more suited and specified to my
\tastes. Influenced by the Jems unique asthetic monkey
grip handle, I invented the hole grips. At one time
I remember playing a Cort 6-string bass in a very
small music store. It had a top extended horn that
reached much further than other basses.
I thought it gave it distinction. I designed my top horn
longer and
the bottom one shorter to accent the top. They would also
become pointier - "ouch".

My major instrument in college was classical guitar
and I've always tried to keep up a
repetoire and study schedule of that style. It's rigorous
stretching, finger acrobats, and reading demands
seem to give me a foundational workout aiding in keeping
my chops up for electric guitar shredding
and bass finger-picking. The headstock on
the "Redding 1" is a classical guitar headstock.
The tuners used are Planet Waves. They
lock those strings in tune very well.

The bottom part of the guitar is
one of my favorite anatomical interests.
It's subliminal.

Originally, my prototype
Redding 1 was to be bright yellow.
Once we saw the beauty of the natural
grain, we kept it natural - an ode to nature.

I think of my electric guitar as an extension
of my acoustic. All of the subtleties of
expression on the acoustic should be just as possible
on the electric. If you have too much
distortion a "blur" sound results and all of the hard work
your'e putting into interesting chord voicings,
arppegios, picking dynamics, etc. are lost. For
this reason, the prototype pickups I chose were hot
output, but clean. You have squeal with clarity.

I must also give props to Prince for not
only his musical genius, but inspiring me to be
creative in guitar design. I first saw his white custom
guitar from the pawn shop in
the movie Purple Rain and that originality gave me spark.