I recently got an email out of the blue asking if i would be interested in collaborating with Dan Spitz on a guitar he would use on the upcoming Red Lamb tour. There’s no way i could NOT jump on the opportunity to work with a Grammy-nominated metal legend. The next day we had a great chat on the phone and talked rough specs and wood ideas, and have been sending a flurry of emails back and forth as we sourced woods and shared ideas.

Here’s where we’ve started: Read more

I’ve had the good fortune to follow the meteoric rise of Misha Mansoor and his band Periphery over the last few years through some guitar forums i’ve been on for quite a while. Once Proto1 was finished, Misha sent me a message asking how he could try it. I told him that when Periphery came to Toronto, i’d get the guitar into his hands. They finally announced a tour date with Veil of Maya and Darkest Hour, and came to town on November 17.

I spent a few hours getting the guitar set up to Misha’s specs… heavier strings, tuned to drop-A flat, and tweaking the neck to get the action as low as possible but still playing clean. I showed up at the venue before the show and Misha took it for a quick whirl, and then played it for the first two songs of their set. (He would have had more time with it, but they arrived in town late and had almost no time to load in and set up.) Here are a couple of videos of his first playing impressions and then the opening of the show.

Enjoy!

I got a lot of positive feedback and constructive critique from Misha, which will help improve future instruments. Thanks again, Bulb and the rest of Periphery for such an awesome show.

I’m in the process of moving into my own shop… there’s still a lot to do, but i’m getting a bit of build time here and there. I’ve built up a small inventory of roughed-out parts, so i thought i’d take some pictures as a little teaser of what’s coming up…

Take a look at the Prototype 1 page for the full progress of this build.