This year, Oddities favorite Visionary Instruments had a guitar with a dizzying array of buttons, switches sliders, and touch pads
which all generate data as a class compliant USB device. This opens up an amazing number of possibilities for laptop guitarists.
I also loved that binary notation was used for the fret inlays.
No, not big hair and gated reverb, it's the Gittler guitar that had a limited production run in the 80s.
No, it's not big hair and gated reverb, but the Gittler guitar that had a limited production run in the 80s.
If you're old enough to remember when MTV actually played music videos, you'll remember this as the guitar Andy Summers played in the Synchronicity video.
"Trixie" (and her matching combo amp) took Rob Mock around 1100 hours to carve. That's almost 7 months if you worked 8 hours a day, five days a week.
Make sure you check out the gallery on the Triple C site.
Before you start thinking that 3D printing is going to give you Star Trek Replicator-like
abilities to pop out quality instruments on demand, you should know that doing so is going to run you $3-4,000.
Technology does have the tendency to get cheaper as time goes by so it may just be a matter of time.
That would be an Ace of Spades, hidden in your sleeve, next to the Derringer two-shot.
This guitar comes complete with a rattle snake tail encased in resin and rattlesnake skin wrapped around the sides.
The pièce de résistance is the use of wood with a knot hole.
I nearly missed these because when they were sitting on stands they just looked like they had oversized pick guards.
Until the builder pulled one down and started playing I had no idea there was a built-in light show like the old
Rickenbacker 331LS.
Guitars made from metal made a strong showing at NAMM this year. I don't think there's anything I can say about this guitar that the picture doesn't already say.
This one isn't a solid chunk of aluminum. It's got a Tulip Wood core with an aluminum skin. It gets boonus Oddity points because it's also got an X/Y pad below the bridge.
Too bad these weren't around when Buddy Holly was still with us. We could have had Holly's Holey of Holies.
Last in my round up of metal guitars are the anodized solid aluminum guitars from BOSStosh.
I suppose the inclusion of a pseudo pick guard is there for purely aesthetic reasons.
It's not like you're going to damage a guitar body made from a solid billet of 6061 aluminum.
This flashy axe looks like, well, an axe. Around the other side of the display is an ultra-distressed guitar that looks almost as bad as
one that I saw at NAMM last year.
The old vinyl LP makes an excellent pick guard. But of course my first thought is that I would like to see them wire up a cartridge needle that you could manually
drag along the grooves. Kind of like Laurie Anderson's tape bow.
I may have included these guitars just because of the company name: Peekamoose.
Once I found out that the body was made of laminated 2x4's it definitely qualified as an Oddity.
Apparently "Peekamoose" is a ski run in New York which was most likely named by a surprised skier.
Just like Ikea furniture, the Loog Guitar is shipped unassembled.
These 3-string beginner guitars are intended to be simple to build so they can act as a project for the child interested in learning to play.
If a kid builds his own, he/she might be more motivated to spend time playing.
Not only did Musicvox have guitars that appear to be "really glad to see you," they also have 12-string basses,
thus ensuring their inclusion in the Oddities.
I quite liked the simplicity of the paint jobs on these lightweight carbon guitars. Maybe that's because they remind me of
lightweight carbon mountain bikes.
The shape and thickness of this neck reminds me of my Ironwood Chapman Stick (before Emmett worked it over).
With a Stick you never wrap your hand around the back of the neck, so thickness isn't an issue.
