I am not crazy about the name, EEL, but for now, that it is what I will call this one.E for my friend Eric (Badfinger), who gave me the Elmar pickup. I gave Eric a Lowe cone and he ended up with a similar looking guitar he calls the Pissonator.E for Elmar, who was the first I know of to make flat and great sounding pickups. Others try to do the same and do pretty well. I do not know if they have matched him. He is hard to match.And L for Lowe – Mike Lowe, out of Texas who made the resonator.1.This was first made to be a pretty guitar. It had a piezo and shinny brass. It was fretted and tuned DGB back in 2010. That was the only tuning I could play back then. I played it at the open mic at the first Kansas City CBG fest. I was pretty nervous, but the guitar and I did okay.2.Some time and a few builds later, I decided that 'pretty builds do not suit me'. I made this one a relic and it had a lot more dark paint on it and the brass was more tarnished.3. I recently picked it up and played it. The frets worked fine near the peg head, but not so fine up the neck and toward the body. This pissed me off. I stripped the frets off and sanded some black paint off and cleaned up the brass a little4.A different guitar, which I originally had the Elmar pickup on, SEEMED like the best guitar I ever made. I played it at Kansas City Fest #3 and also filmed a video of my friend Maddog playing it. But I had made the neck too thin where the pickup sat. Over time, the neck bowed up and the strings got higher off the fret board. When it got too bad., I stripped the good parts, but the Elmar pickup, which was hot glued in place, came up minus the wood trim5.Today I combined the Elmar with the reso build. It still has a separate piezo. Both sound good, but the Elmar is smoother and warmer and the piezo is dirtier. :) I can take my pick. I am happy with the outcome.
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I'm going to test using one of my Elmar 3 string Flatpups on the 4-string "pissinator" guitar, Grumpy Old Git. It will only take a bit of tape to try out and see if it works OK or not.
Sometimes builds that we finish just sit.......well wrong with a guy. I have some that I have built and I will play them and they just don't sound/feel right so I put them down. Then pick them up months later and low and behold.....they still don't feel right. Out comes the hammer and saw and they go thru a transformation, most times they are better.
I liked the first build you had the Elmar on but with the bowing neck issue it forced your hand to do something different, you did very well with this one!
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Thanks, guys.
I'm going to test using one of my Elmar 3 string Flatpups on the 4-string "pissinator" guitar, Grumpy Old Git. It will only take a bit of tape to try out and see if it works OK or not.
It turned out real nice John!
Sometimes builds that we finish just sit.......well wrong with a guy. I have some that I have built and I will play them and they just don't sound/feel right so I put them down. Then pick them up months later and low and behold.....they still don't feel right. Out comes the hammer and saw and they go thru a transformation, most times they are better.
I liked the first build you had the Elmar on but with the bowing neck issue it forced your hand to do something different, you did very well with this one!
Thanks, John and Duck. Duck, you are right. I needs no name.
Call it whatever you want, that's a beautiful build!
very nice
Silent that's pretty good.
Thanks Eric. I like it more the more I look at it or play it.