This is El Pedro. THE El Pedro...Owner of the fine el Pedro bass created by Stephen Ziegenfuss.
Thankfully, I was on the end of the deal that I was - I couldn't imagine Z's reaction when he read my initial requests. A bit off the wall, for sure. But so am I. Let me explain how I came up with idea, so maybe it will assist the luthiers in understanding their customers' requests.
I am a Christian, and an avid hunter and fisherman. My nickname is El Pedro. I've spent a lot of time watching American Choppers (cheesy, I know), and have seen how they take ideas from customers and turn them into pretty cool bikes. I also had prior experience with some of Stephen's work. With all of these factors in mind, I decided that I wanted to have a custom bass, built to specification, and have Stephen use his artistic vision and capabilities to surprise me with the final result, incorporating my personal requests for the inlays - I really wanted the guitar to say something about me... I was interested to see how he would come up with some thing camo without paint. I knew I only had one shot at a custom instrument, so I really wanted to personalize it. I think the inlays went a little bit overboard - if it wasn't such a highly personalized guitar I would have asked for something a little different in the inlays. When I say the inlays went overboard, it was nothing Z did, he gave me exactly what I asked for. I suppose I could add here for all of you luthiers - If you think a customers' request is going a bit overboard, or just won't fit with the rest of the guitar, don't be afraid to use your experience and voice your opinion. I think the customer gets the final say, but they don't necessarily have the experience you do and may not be aware of what they are asking for - not only that, you may be able to offer them an idea that they haven't thought of which may be even cooler that what they were originally thinking about doing. Like maybe lining the fretboard with led inlays that activate when a certain fret is hit...Just kidding about the leds, but remember, I said I was a little off the wall.
Stephen sent me pictures of several pieces of top wood for the body. Without knowledge of his choice, my wife and I picked out the same piece of Myrtle that he was going to suggest. To answer the question regarding how this even looks like camo...one must get out of the thinking of camo being green, black, brown and gray splotches, and think about camo as being a blend of the environment. To me, when I look at the body of the guitar, I see a tall field of dry grass with seedling tassles - typical to what one would hunt rabbit, quail, pheasant, etc. in. Others may see something totally different, but I think the wood choice and the finish put on the guitar really captured my vision of camo "environment", which is all that matters
Other than choosing the top wood, Z was given free reign to pick everything else. I think my only other request was the neck be 5 pc and go dark-light-dark-light-dark, and be a bolt-on 35" scale.From a consumers standpoint, I obviously wouldn't go into a store and purchase this bass do to the "el Pedro" inlay - unless my name was El Pedro. That's maybe the ONLY thing I would change about this bass - maybe put the el Pedro on the back of the guitar somewhere. But, personally, I like it where it is. It's hard to explain, but I can look at that bass and say "this is MINE...made for me, specifically".
Now, from a fit and finish, playability standpoint, etc... I chose the pickups, hardware, etc for the bass. The workmanship on the instrument is better than anything I have ever seen. Absolutely incredible. The guitar screams quality. The playability of the instrument is awesome. The neck has a little more shoulder on it than what I was used to, but after playing it for just a couple of hours, the neck came into my hand perfectly. The tonal possibilities of the guitar are endless... I don't know what else to say about the guitar, really. I am just really really happy with how it came out. It is truly a playable work of art.
Stephen is an incredible luthier. I am very proud to be an owner of one of his creations.
Stephen - I'll be contacting you shortly to commission a build of a double cut 6 string guitar...with led's in the fretboard that light up when the frets are hit.