First Impressions

PHOTO: Aidan gets acquainted with his new Birdseye Blonde ’67 guitar. Multi-year student of Chris Buono, it was a great learning experience to listen in on their lesson and jam here in the studio.

Having the chance to sit down with Rick and play this guitar was a tremendous experience. The craftsmanship speaks for itself: it’s wonderful to play, comfortable, beautiful to look at, and most importantly sounds excellent. The tremolo is incredibly smooth, and it’s amazing to pitch shift chords in tune. The tuning stability is also the best I’ve experienced on any tremolo. Being able to drop the low E and stay in tune is wild!

Thank you again for hosting us this past Saturday. Reflecting with Chris during my lesson tonight, it really was a joy to be surrounded by music in its rawest form, and getting to share in that experimentation was as eye opening as it was inspiring.

My biggest takeaway from playing and conversing between the three of us was the importance of respecting the music and composition versus “taking a solo”. Improvisation has form, and establishing lead sections (beginning, middle, end) is as exciting and engaging as supporting with rhythmic and/or ambient variations.

Black Wolf ’67

PHOTO: Black Wolf ’67 guitar. Relic nitro over Alder. Rosewood w/maple. Aircraft aluminum, black fiberglass.

I wanted to explore in a different direction with this build.

Black Wolf ’67 is the mirror of Birdseye Blonde ’67 — taking the same platform but radically flipping the electronics plus some subtle construction details. Lithe dark magic emerges from this forest, all glowing eyes and bright fangs in the gloaming.

Bare Knuckle alnico Nailbombs coil-split with superorganic woodiness into singles with punch and depth. Perfect gleam and ruthless clarity, there is no outrunning in this fairy tale. Slip between the trees…but full-on humbucking brings every soft creature in the valley to standstill.

PHOTOS: Bare Knuckle alnico Nailbomb calibrated set with 6-way switching. Simplified one volume + one tone. RICK TOONE™ patented tremolo system.

Birdseye Blonde ’67

PHOTOS: Polished stainless steel frets. Ultra rare ’67 guitar with my Advantage Neck Profile™ for ultimate comfort.

Playing through Tweedle this last month has been inspiring. The mids are just perfect, radio friendly. As you know, Tweed lows are infamously wild and wooly. But, as it turns out, those lows are tamed when matched with era-correct single coil pickups.

Leo was iterating his amps and guitars in parallel.

When you hear them together, the world comes into focus. Man, what tone.

PHOTO: Birdseye Blonde ’67 sounds as sweet as it looks. Light relic olympic white nitro over alder, combined with highly figured birdseye maple neck just invites touch. Seymour Duncan California ’50’s (rw/rp) set. Details like the anodized black RICK TOONE™ components bring the vibe. And of course, the awesome patented tremolo.

Sjuggs Jam

PHOTO: Something magical happened in the 1950’s. Gretsch drums, Fender Tweed, paired with (my ’67 version) Leo’s iconic guitar…they play together so well recording is effortless.
PHOTO: Sporting team colors, Sjuggs points out the Plexi/Tweed switch on this awesome Dumblesque “Tweedle” 5E3 build from Denver Amp Works. Fluxtone speaker tech is probably the greatest invention since radio — imagine your tone is perfect no matter what the volume in the room.

My good bud Steve Sjuggerud flew up from Florida this week to hang out in the studio and catch up. Our plan was to record a jam session, but we got distracted by amplifiers. More specifically, amplifier mods. Turns out, this might be the deepest rabbit hole of all time. We forgot to play and just talked for two days.

Choose your tubes. Pot values. Caps. Resistors. Rectifier? Schematic. Point to point. Switches. Wire gauge. Speaker. Magnet material. Cabinet material. Open back or closed? Pine. Birch ply. Finger joint. Tolex. Tweed.

Change out any of those variables and the amp becomes an entirely different beast.

Steve, so awesome to catch up in person. Thank you for our time together — and also this amazing amp.

PHOTO: Black anodize Rick Toone™ tremolo on the ’67. In the background the 5E3, patiently waiting to jam.

USM Earthshine

PHOTOS: USM Earthshine™ 6-string guitar. Quartersawn redwood body with birch surfacing. Quartersawn flame maple neck. Carbon fiber, aircraft aluminum. Patented and patents-pending Pisces™ tremolo system. 3D™ control system with 10-way switching. Bare Knuckle custom pickups.

Center city Philadelphia skyline, visible on the horizon, is not lit green this year. Eagles distracted themselves with internal politics, spiraling into the Delaware River, forgetting to come up for air.

The dog and I outside in the January evening darkness just now. Her senses alert to the movement of large animals, green eyes of deer bobbing in the field at the limit of my flashlight’s quick glance. I wonder what she thinks of the human hand’s ability to conjure light at will.

My attention is heavenward. Orion is our companion, now and for some months ahead. Jupiter too, alone this year for the most part, playing a solo in contrast to last winter when Mars and Saturn were constant accompanists.

Too much light at the moment, maybe Bortle 8. When we repeat our steps in the hour or two before sunrise, mankind will be asleep, skies maybe Bortle 6 here in the northeast. Perhaps visible a string of 19 space jewels moving south to north, a wink from Elon.

VIDEO: USM Earthshine. Fractal FM9.