Skeletar

My electric guitars were once described as encompassing 3 major themes of rock and roll: love, sex, and death.

This guitar could be dedicated to any of the guitar heroes who died in their prime, and it also appears as the "Miss October" of the Exotic Guitar year 2000 calendar.

The image was conceived on a tour of the Hapsburg Palace in Vienna. In the basement are the family crypts and funeral vehicles, all elaborate Rococo sculptures glorifying death: Skeletons with Angel's wings larger than life in black cast iron.

It's interesting that because so much mass of the guitar's body is carved away (a bare bones guitar), the entire instrument is LIVE. Touching the neck is like tapping pole pieces on the pickup. Running your fingernail over the ribs makes a sound like a xylophone. Excellent sustain. The jack is located at the end of the tailbone, and while some guitars have coil tap, this one has a spinal tap.

One spring Saturday morning I was carving the skull in the backyard. I often work out doors to have more air while using high speed grinders. When I had finished I was showing the skull to a neighbor when we heard a shriek from an upstairs window of the house behind. His neighbor saw us examining a skull, and my neighbor had been gardening and still had a shovel in his hand. Don't you hate those moments when your life starts to feel like an Alfred Hitchcock film.