Guitar Components

Rick Toone Tremolo System Explained

VIDEO: Rick Toone ’67™ tremolo designed to retrofit Leo Fender’s iconic guitar. Conventional parallel frets. Traditional adjustment mechanisms, including spring claw tensioning. Instantly familiar intonation and string height settings. This retrofit tremolo has been optimized to fit the existing holes in the S-type guitar body.

Rick Toone tremolo system comes in two versions:

’67 — designed to retrofit classic S-type guitars

(and)

Pisces — designed for innovative new instruments

Both tremolos share the same design features:

• Pitch shift entire chords in tune
• Extremely wide pitch range
• String height action remains constant
• Intonation remains constant
• Use single ball-end commercially available string brands
• No need for a locking nut
• Simple fast string changes that don’t require tools

However, the internal mechanisms of the two tremolo units are quite different. Multiple patents pending.

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Q&A

Q: What are your plans for the tremolo?
A: I am actively seeking manufacturing partners and volume OEM licensing arrangements. If you are a manufacturer or investor who understands the potential, please contact me. RICKTOONE@GMAIL.COM

Q: Can I buy a tremolo from you at this time?
A: Due to limited quantities, both versions of the tremolo are available only on completed guitars I build.

Q: When will I be able to buy a tremolo?
A: Availability will depend on the manufacturing/licensing arrangement. Announcements will be made on this website. Please check back for ongoing updates.

VIDEO: Patented Rick Toone Pisces™ modular tremolo system. Multi-scale capable. 6-string, 7-string, and 8-string capable. Specifically created for innovative new instrument designs.

Ekaterina Gorbacheva

Spearfish Headstock
Spearfish Guitar
Rick Toone
PHOTOS: Spearfish™ 6-string guitar headstock machined from single billet aircraft grade aluminum. Patents pending. Hipshot locking tuners. (all images Ekaterina Gorbacheva)

I met Kate (Ekaterina) via Instagram and the excellent work she did filming Misha Mansoor playing his Reptile Spearfish™ 6-string guitar. I love the moods she is able to capture with her photography…levels beyond documentary.

“This is a very interesting path you’ve had, but I see all of it as being highly intellectual and more introverted and I absolutely relate to and admire your choices. On a side note your creations are beautiful and do have a touch of an intellectual to them.” (Ekaterina Gorbacheva)

Ekaterina Gorbacheva
IMAGE: www.ekaterinagorbacheva.com

8-String | Component Set

intonation cantilever tuner bridge
IMAGE: Patented Intonation Cantilever™ solo bridge. Securely anchors plain-end or ball-end strings.
eight string guitar neck
IMAGE: Ball-ends drop in effortlessly and anchor securely on the 8-string Element™ neck.
IMAGE: Slender, sleek and lightweight. Ergonomic contours with smooth flowing thumb surfaces.
element guitar neck
IMAGE: Element™ 8-string multi-scale neck. Single billet precision machined aerospace aluminum.
fretboard flare
IMAGE: Fretboard Flare™ allows exceptional string bending capabilities where you need it most.
intonation cantilever bridge
IMAGE: Patented Intonation Cantilever™ solo bridge. Stainless steel, bearing bronze. Lightweight, precise, stable tuning. Zero intonation drift. Intonation adjusts independent of tuning.

Spearfish | Moby Dick

spearfish guitar marshall amp
PHOTOS: Scrimshaw is the art of engraving the bone or tooth of a powerful animal. Spearfish™ 6-string guitar drives Yngwie Malmsteen’s original 1969 Marshall.
moby dick spearfish guitar
spearfish guitar
PHOTOS: Perhaps no mammal will ever (can ever) be as powerful as Herman Melville’s great white whale, Moby Dick. Nature, embodied. All that is untamed. You can recite the litany, but still it will not end with simply facts: patent pending Element™ aircraft aluminum neck, stainless steel Intonation Cantilever™ patented bridges, exclusive DiMarzio™ pickups, carbon fiber, resonant swamp ash.
dimarzio pickups
intonation cantilever patented guitar bridges

Testing, testing…

It is such a joy to get time with great friends, especially involving music. When Steve Sjuggerud invited me to visit him in Florida this past week, it was an immediate yes.

The occasion was a live performance featuring Steve, Dan Ostrowski (drums), and acoustic guitarist Mike Dawes. Mike was visiting from UK, enroute to tour dates of his own. Also, we would be filming video…of the live performance, plus interviews.

More on that soon.

The next several days were just Mike, Steve, and me hanging out and testing guitars. Steve owns a stunning collection of original iconic vintage gear, lovingly curated, in perfect playing condition: Trainwreck, 1969 100-watt Marshall, Fender 1959 Strat. Plus some of the best new gear: Gil Yaron 1959 Les Paul replica, 1964 Fender Tweed replica, Blug amplifier system.

Essential benchmark guitar tone references.

Against them, we would be comparing two Goshawk™ 6-string prototype guitars I’d just completed.

What you might not know, what you might not expect, Mike Dawes — although known for his acoustic skills — is actually one of the best electric guitarists I’ve ever heard. His playing is fluid, melodic, effortless. Metal, shred…

Mike and Steve ripping together through Iron Maiden’s “The Trooper” at concert volume still has me grinning ear to ear, a few days and a few thousand miles later.

rick toone steve sjuggerud mike dawes
PHOTO: Rick Toone, Steve Sjuggerud, Mike Dawes.
steve sjuggerud
PHOTO: Steve works through pickup coil combinations on Goshawk™ 6-string.
rick toone prototype guitar
PHOTO: Rick Toone original prototype 6-string (2012). Signatures of those who have played or helped develop this guitar. Note early patent pending tuner.
rick toone steve sjuggerud
PHOTO: Rick & Steve, mid-testing.
steve sjuggerud mike dawes
PHOTO: Steve looks on as Mike explores Blueshift™ 7-string ER. Antares 6-string in foreground. Photographer Adam King works the angle.
sugar pointe florida
PHOTO: Our location…overlooking a tidal marsh, Florida coastline.