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Greetings from switzerland
http://w-ww.luthiersforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10123&t=30900		 Page 1 of 1
Author:  helldunkel [ Sat Jan 29, 2011 11:15 am ]
Post subject:  Greetings from switzerland
Hello everybody, I just wanted to introduce myself to the forum here and share some pictures of some of my creations.

I'm a full time guitar builder living in switzerland. I've been building guitars since 1996, the year when I went abroad to learn guitar building in the United States. I've also been playing guitar since 1987.

I mostly specialise in extended range and baritone instruments and I have my very own pickups for which I have designed the external appearence and which are handmade by my friend Kent Armstrong.

Looking forward meeting you all and spend some nice time on this forum,

Kind regards,

Patrick

a few pics which will give you an idea of my building style.
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Author:  SteveCourtright [ Sat Jan 29, 2011 1:32 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Greetings from switzerland
Welcome to the OLF, Patrick. You make very beautiful instruments. I look forward to your contributions to the forum. Cheers!
Author:  Ti-Roux [ Sat Jan 29, 2011 1:38 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Greetings from switzerland
Welcome!
Bienvenue!
Author:  Gabby Losch [ Sat Jan 29, 2011 2:45 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Greetings from switzerland
Welcome to the forum, Patrick! Those are some nice looking instruments!

On the (I assume) Firebird inspired guitar, is that red button a kill switch?
Author:  helldunkel [ Sat Jan 29, 2011 3:12 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Greetings from switzerland
Thanks for the welcome and kind words!

Gabby Losch wrote:
Welcome to the forum, Patrick! Those are some nice looking instruments!

On the (I assume) Firebird inspired guitar, is that red button a kill switch?


yes its a killswitch, pretty cool design I found on ebay thanks to a customer of mine :)

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Author:  Mustang_jt [ Sat Jan 29, 2011 7:52 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Greetings from switzerland
Welcome, great looking guitars, I really like the beveled edge around half of the lower bout, very unique
Author:  alan stassforth [ Sat Jan 29, 2011 9:42 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Greetings from switzerland
Nice work! [clap] [clap] [clap]
Welcome to da forum.
I'm curious as to what the 8 string is tuned to.
I don't think I've ever seen one.
I do have an old National 8 string lap steel electric that is in ACEGACEG.
Author:  turmite [ Sun Jan 30, 2011 12:34 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Greetings from switzerland
Welcome to the forum. Nice work and now for the questions! What kind of bridge is that, and can it be used on a carve top as well as a flat top? Love the pup design as well.

Mike

hufschmid wrote:
Thanks for the welcome and kind words!

Gabby Losch wrote:
Welcome to the forum, Patrick! Those are some nice looking instruments!

On the (I assume) Firebird inspired guitar, is that red button a kill switch?


yes its a killswitch, pretty cool design I found on ebay thanks to a customer of mine :)

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Author:  helldunkel [ Sun Jan 30, 2011 3:18 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Greetings from switzerland
Mustang_jt wrote:
Welcome, great looking guitars, I really like the beveled edge around half of the lower bout, very unique


Thank you :)

I'm originally a trained acoustic guitar builder and this bevel comes from the acoustic guitar world, the famous integrated armrest bevel which was invented by William Laskin. That's where I got inspired from :)

On the electric it makes more sens to me because I build super thin bodies. A regular armrest would look funny because that portion of the body would look very thin. So this bevel is kind of my signature now in some ways.

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alan stassforth wrote:
Nice work! [clap] [clap] [clap]
Welcome to da forum.
I'm curious as to what the 8 string is tuned to.
I don't think I've ever seen one.
I do have an old National 8 string lap steel electric that is in ACEGACEG.


Customers want me to tune them most of the time to F# B E A D G B E altough I recently had an interesting request from a customer playing touch style and who tuned it to E B E A D G B E...

turmite wrote:
Welcome to the forum. Nice work and now for the questions! What kind of bridge is that, and can it be used on a carve top as well as a flat top? Love the pup design as well.

Mike


Its the Schaller Hannes bridge, here are some links for you :)

Its a very elegant bridge, very high quality, you can actually buy them true LMI, they have some in stock.

I myself prefer Hipshot which offer way more options anyway, but the hannes has a certain look which makes your instrument look sharp. Its also difficult to install beware. Its for flat mount.

http://guitar-bridge.com/hp188177/Hannes-Bridge.htm?ITServ=CY46254e4eX12dd5fdc125XY7bd0

http://schaller-electronic.com/hp317343/Page-Layout.htm


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Author:  helldunkel [ Sun Jan 30, 2011 3:26 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Greetings from switzerland
turmite wrote:
Love the pup design as well.

Mike



Here are some pictures of the making of the master templates. These are not the pickups, the idea is to use them for building a silicone mould in which the real pickups will be built, its an epoxy cast. The template will therfore transfer the imprints to the moult and the result will be a pickup which looks like flame maple.

Its my friend Kent Armstrong who invented this technique for guitar pickups 30 years ago when he was building the original Benedetto pickups. It looks so real that you think its wood and the cool thing about casting is that I can now duplicate the pickups as much as I want, they will always look the same and come out exact identical which is great when you sell them for exemple.

Many companies use this epoxy cast technique.

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Now here is the final result, I also have MATT versions of my pickups, the templates have been made out of aluminium and micro blasted to give the MATT effect...

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Here is a video I once made to show the flame maple effect on the pickups on my 7 string pickups...
I had this made for 6 - 7 - 8 string pickups both flame maple effect or MATT :evil:
Author:  helldunkel [ Sun Jan 30, 2011 3:38 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Greetings from switzerland
And for those who love tops, I have to share these pics of some new tops which I am currently working on... :o

intense figured myrtlewood, my all time favourite wood for making tops!
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some crazy candle shell extremely figured quilt western maple!
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And some more highly figured myrtlewood!
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:lol:

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Author:  turmite [ Sun Jan 30, 2011 9:28 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Greetings from switzerland
So the pup core is completely potted inside the cover???

Mike
Author:  helldunkel [ Sun Jan 30, 2011 9:44 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Greetings from switzerland
turmite wrote:
So the pup core is completely potted inside the cover???

Mike


There is not cover, the pickup is a solid epoxy cast... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casting

Nothing new, Kent Armstrong invented this for guitar pickups, then EMG, Bartolini etc are also using this technique...

The back...
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