Butternut body with green milk paint finish
Cherry neck with persimmon fretboard
Salvaged textured aluminum sheet pickguard
Homespun single coil pickups, 6.8k/5.7k dcr
Weights 6.5 pounds.
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This was a custom commission for Swan Real, who really liked Undine #2105, which had already sold. Fortunately I still had some of the same color milk paint, so I was able to make another, with different bridge and pickups as requested.
Body is basswood. Neck is maple, with persimmon fretboard and turquoise recon stone markers.
Aqua Boomerang Formica pickguard.
Aluminum compensated bridge/tailpiece combo, Hipshot classic tuners.
Homespun P90ish pickups; 8.4K/7k DCR
Weighs 6.7 pounds.
I took this photo just before Swan contacted me about the guitar.
This is Messier 17, the Swan Nebula, in Sagittarius.
It’s classified as an H II region, which is characterized by large clouds of ionized hydrogen; a place where stars are born. -
This was pretty amazing.
My first time seeing Mercury, and it was perfect!
That’s it above the others there, about as far as it ever gets from the Sun; having been at its greatest eastern elongation on the 21st.
Here’s a closer view of them all:
Venus heading for the trees:
Moon and Mercury following:
Goodnight Moon…
The view from where I set up. It was really cold up there!
Little sliver of a moon:
Caught first glimpse of Venus while snapping pics of airplanes out towards Nashville:
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New year, new look, new content
Changing things around a bit… I’ve added pages for my photography; one for celestial, and one for terrestrial subjects.
I’m also going to start including my photos and associated ruminations in the blog, along with other projects and things I’m doing.
Enjoy….
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(Sold)
Butternut body with moderately distressed milk paint finish. Walnut neck with Osage orange fretboard. 25” scale, 22 frets. Homespun single coil pickups, brass hardtail bridge, Hipshot classic tuners. Weighs 6.8 pounds.
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In mythology, undines are elemental beings associated with water, and include naiads, mermaids, and many other such creatures. I settled on this name as a suitable companion to my salamander model, and because of the watery vibe they have so far taken on.
This one has a cucumbertree body with a walnut neck and persimmon fretboard. Pickups are a p-90ish version of my homespun single coils. Aluminum compensated bridge/tailpiece combo and Hipshot classic tuners. 25” scale, 22 frets. Weighs 6.6 pounds
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Basswood body with moderately distressed milk paint finish.
Maple neck with black locust fretboard.
25” scale, 22 frets.
Homespun single coil pickups.
Brass hardtail bridge, Hipshot classic tuners.
Weighs 6.8 pounds.
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This was a custom commission for a friend. It’s the first banjo I have built both the neck and rim for, and really the first fully acoustic instrument I have successfully built. The rim is composed of alternating segmented layers of red mulberry and walnut, with an integral flange, instead of the more common array of metal brackets; with the tension nuts recessed in the back. The neck features the same woods, in a complimentary arrangement, with a persimmon fretboard. The headstock inlay and position markers are turquoise recon stone, and I recessed the area around the tension hooks, and painted it a similar color milk paint.
1/4” round brass tone ring and grooved tension hoop by Balsam Banjo Works; Pisgah Hawktail brass tailpiece; Rickard brass coordinator rod set; Waverly planetary tuners.
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This was a custom commission; a 22 3/4″ scale electric tenor guitar, tuned GDAE.
The body is sassafras, with an arched chestnut barnwood top, walnut/maple neck, and black locust fretboard.
The finish is milk paint, in a color decidedly reminiscent of the “avocado” enamel on many mid-last-century appliances, as inspired by the “Frigidaire” name badge I used as a switch bezel. The pickguard, as well, is cut from a diamond-textured sheet of thin aluminum which looks like it came from the inside of a freezer. The Bigsby B12 tailpiece also resembles a piece of old icebox hardware.
The bridge is by Mastery, and the tuners are Hipshot.
Pickups are a four pole version of my homespun single coils.
weighs 6.3 pounds.
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So yeah… it’s been a while.
Over a year, in fact; a really long year, in which I got very little done.
This is the headstock of an electric tenor guitar I started last summer. I’ll post more about it soon, but right now I wanna talk about my fancy new logo. Don’t worry, I’ll still be using the old one too, but Dismal Ax is a thing I have been hiding behind for too long. I started using it, rather than my name, because my name always seemed weird to me when I saw it in print; and seemed even weirder to apply to my work for some reason. I changed that name several years ago, and feel like I’ve finally grown into it enough to start putting it on my instruments. My more basic solid body electric guitars and basses will continue to get my old logo burned into the front of the headstock, but my fancier custom work, and other kinds of instruments will get this new “GF” inlay. This one is done in aluminum, to go with the hardware on the body. I’m not sure what other materials I will use yet, though. I kinda want to avoid pearl and abalone and such, but we’ll see. Anyway, I’m really happy with it!
Dismal Ax 