The Ergonomic archtop project I’ve been having so much fun working on is a wrap. It left the shop Thursday for Chicago to meet Dan, and will eventually find its home in Bangkok Thailand where he teaches. I have a bunch of stuff to present in this post about it, Ive had TONS of interest in this style of instrument and I thought I’d take the time to do a nice big post on how it turned out.
First pictures of the completed guitar!
Now the sound! I got some friends together (Trifon Dimitrov Bass / Gernot Bernroider Drums) to play some trio and recorded the results. This came together Thursday afternoon and I boxed the guitar up and shipped it literally a couple hours later. Heres the scoop:
Guitar: Dan Phillips Ergo model- w Lollar High Wind Imperial humbucker pickups. I used the neck pickup with volume on full, slight 10-20% roll off on the tone knob. Strings are Ernie ball 12’s set (12-52).
Amp: Very OLD model polytone with a little chorus and delay effect added.
Mic: Zoom H2N recorder- i actually used 2 of these. I just bought them last week for doing clips and i like them a lot so far. I used one on the guitar, and one on the bass and drums. In the future i will put one on the drums and a separate 3rd one on the bass to give it a bit more clarity. We got together at the music rehearsal spaces downstairs in my building and the drums arent the greatest, a typical rock kit. Overall the sound is not bad for a home recording, but certainly rough.
These are all my compositions and the guys did a great job of sight reading it.
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Audio Track: Into The Conversation
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Some of my thoughts on the guitar:
Playability: The guitar sits very comfortably on your knee, and the ergonomic design really works. The neck sits at a much higher angle than a regular guitar and this allows the arm to extend naturally with no twist to the wrist. Its very balanced since there is no head to drag it down. The guitar is very lightweight even with the large aluminum bridge.
Sound- the guitar is very well balanced in all the registers. The guitar is largely hollow and there is a lot of air to the sound. I didnt notice any dead spots. As with any guitar with 24 frets it has a more mid rangey sound to the neck pickup. This is because the pickup is closer to the bridge than a guitar with less frets, and acts more like a “middle” pickup. 24 frets is a very popular thing among ergo players. I personally would rarely (if ever) play that high, i’d really only need 20 frets like on a regular archtop. If i were to make one of these for myself I’d redesign it with less frets, and that would make the tone even fatter.
Bridge: There arent many options at all for headless guitars of course. This one is made by JCustom headless research. Its a quality unit, but is hard to tune and intonate. If i were to make one of these guitars for myself i might opt for a regular (small) headstock and traditional bridge and tail. Or perhaps i’d do an original take on the headless system with something custom made here.
Center Blocks: Dan and I decided to experiment with some removable center blocks to convert the guitar to semi hollow. Regrettably i didnt have time to experiment with them much. They insert quite nicely though and were fun to make!
OK!! I’ll be updating more thoughts on the project soon as i think of things. My fingers are sore from typing for now :^). If you have any questions dont hesitate to ask!!
