| The HESS Electric Guitar | |
| VITAL STATISTICS Electric Solidbody Guitar (6 strings) Scale Length: 24.5" (24 frets) Tuning: Regular (E-A-D-G-B-E) Construction: Headless Neck-thru-Body with slab fretboard Electronics: Active EMG: 1-MH and 1-S Wood: Oil finished Satin Walnut w/maple neck & rosewood fretboard |
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| HISTORY
Who Cares! (skip to the facts already) This instrument is a product of my life-long obsession with guitars, and the electric guitar in particular! My first exposure to Electric Guitar started with a Toledo ES-335 Copy, which came to me only a few months after I had been "converted" by watching Chuck Berry on the TV. I was looking at SG copies in a music store when a guy with only two fingers came in and tried to sell his recently purchased hollowbody to the shop owner. Apparently he had decided to take up the guitar "again" but found the digital shortcomings too much to overcome. The shop owner declined, so the gentleman offered it to me! Not long after that, a school chum begged me to sell him my Classic Sunburst hollowbody, so (making a small killing) I did, and then (at my brother's urging) promptly bought a Beatle Bass. But I digress... getting back to six-strings: next came a gold metal-flake teisco-style Pyramid (made in Japan) solidbody, which I bought myself for Christmas, only to find I had to take it back, my parents having bought me a much nicer "Walnut-Burst" Telecaster Deluxe. After that a number of sixstrings came my way, most notably a 1959 Gibson Melody maker, a 1974 Gibson SG 200, a fabulous "Hohn" Blue/black Sunburst Hollowbody (curse the day I sold THAT one),a 1959 gibson J-160E (which I sold to Bob Rock) , a 1976 Gibson Explorer, and an unmarked Hofner Hollowbody, which brings me full circle to that Beatle Bass again. That original "Hofney" remained my main axe until it perished at the hands of a jealous girlfriend in the late seventies. It rose from the ashes, the neck grafted onto an "alembic" style solid body, which was outfitted with one of the very first EMG Active mini-humbuckers (which now incidently serves as the HESS rythmn pickup). At the same time I outfitted early EMGs to a couple of Fender Stratocasters and a Gibson Les Paul custom, beginning a love affair with those active EMG pickups which continues to this day... but I digress! At some time after I had completed the construction of the BEBB bass, I decided that what I really needed was a fabulous EMG-equipped Headless Explorer Six String. |
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| CONSTRUCTION It all started with a yet another trip to our local Exotic Hardwood store. I began this time with a fretboard slab of very stripey rosewood. This was accented by some gorgeous bookmatched chunks of Satin Walnut, rich in colour, and equally stripey (almost Zebrano-esque) for the body. For the neck, I went with a Slightly Mottled maple. This guitar is neck-thru-body design, with a slight reverse arch to the back. It was built almost entirely during my lunch hours at the Government Engineering facility I had an office in at the time. Here's an interesting tidbit: it comes fitted with an EBONY nut! I also have a bone one (included,shown in photos) but I like tone of the ebony one better. |
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| ERGONOMICS Ease of use : going headless allows me to fret a note and simultaneously adjust the machine head without stretching "way up there..." As mentioned elsewhere, ergonomics was (and is) a key issue for me. Number two issue was simply that of scale length (again, personal preference dictated the use of "gibson" scale length.). The unique Explorer-like body shape allowed the perfect opportunity to try something I had wanted to do for a long time: mount the machine heads in a manner similar to a Pedal steel guitar. I had to do some metal fabricating , but it turned out to be an elegant solution! |
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| ELECTRONICS First was the acquisition of an EMG "S" active pickup, for the lead position. Joining that was my venerable active EMG-MH (virtually the very first one!) as the rhythm pickup. Then, continueing the "Gibson" theme, a regular SwitchCraft "Les Paul" toggle switch, allowing switching as so:
Then I used the stock electronics from the EMG-S harness to finish the wiring:
That was easy! The 9V battery for the EMGs fits in a little compartment routed in the back of the guitar. The output jack is the regular 1/4" mono "switching" type supplied with the EMG pickups (It switches the battery off when you unplug the guitar!) Also installed (but not connected to anything) is a panel mounted male XLR connector, which I had originally planned on using as a "direct-to-the-board" output, via a Jensen Transformer. |
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| HARDWARE Schaller M6 mini Chrome machine heads fitted to a custom fabricated right angle mount which is set invisibly into the guitar's top. A Schaller fully adjustable steel "telecaster" bridge (Chromed). One of the strap buttons is replaced with a "Strap-Lok", due to the unusal angle of the body where the upper strap button is mounted. Controls are mint condition chrome plated solid brass "skirted" knobs, taken from a VOX AC-45 amplifier from the 60s. |
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| FINISH Well, I never got around to finishing this guitar. Really!! I was so excited about it that I just rubbed on a couple coats of Tung oil. "Oil finish, thats the rub...." Actually my original plan was to ever so slightly stain it to bring out the (considerable) stripe even more, then finish it with Clear urethane varnish. Ever since its's birth, its been getting regular use in the studio, and I've never gotten around to "finishing" it! The eventual buyer should remove the hardware, sand the accumulated dirt & oils off, slightly stain it, and apply a clear finish. Or just keep rubbing on more oil! Condition: MINT (except for strings, which are pretty old) |
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| WHAT ELSE Case: Hard shell Case, rectangular, "flock" lined. Could be filled in with form fitting foam and velvet-lined. Or just buy a flight case. In any event the case fits the guitar with room to spare, and will be well packed with extra padding for shipping. Strings: The HESS does not require special strings. It has been designed keeping in mind the well-documented scientific fact that strings break (and batteries die) with a frequency proportional to the square of the distance between a musician and civilization! The tuners were fitted in such a way that regular 'garden variety' generic guitar strings will fit perfectly. I usually use either "9s" or "10s".... Fretboard Position Markers: Abalone dot inlays on top of fretboard. As well, there are small white "side dot" dot markers embedded in the side of the fretboard. (3, 5, 7, 9. Double at 12th fret, 15, 17, 19, 21, and Triple at 24th fret.) |
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| SUBJECTIVE STUFF Sound: it's WARM. Basically its like the fattest strat you ever heard. Playability: Frets have been dressed. I have it set up with extra light strings and very low action, but you can adjust the truss rod to suit your style and strings. (It has a Warmoth double-action truss rod) |
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