“The trem is incredible. It can howl like a demon when hitting harmonics.” (Andy)
Spearfish Guitar
Spearfish Tremolo | Blueprint
Testing and refining the Fender-compatible tremolo design over this past year, I thought the extraordinary bridge performance could be best realized with a purpose-designed guitar.
Pairing the Rick Toone™ tremolo with the Element™ aluminum neck allows for seasonal stability, across continents and climates. Perfect, consistent, string action in changing temperature and humidity conditions. No adjustments required.
String action is also consistent — even during radical tremolo use. New musical techniques become possible.
Spearfish™ platform was chosen due to its proven design and delightful ergonomics.
The result is a reliable, light weight, balanced, comfortable guitar ready for professional touring/studio.
I picked her up Friday morning, broke it in for about an hour, and then took it straight to the bus to give it a test run at the show Saturday night.
Rick, this one is IT. I don’t think I’ve adapted to a new build so quickly before. It was just perfect. Whatever the changes made with regard to the neck are, they are exactly what I needed. It just works for me. Pickups are amazing. Add that to the now perfect weight… Blueprint is 100% manageable for a 2 hour, high energy show.
The trem is AMAZING. It’s SO musical. More so than any other bridge system I have encountered. I have a couple of good friends asking me for my thoughts. The word I kept coming back to is “delicate”. Yes you can dive bomb like a mad man, but never before did I feel like I had TOTAL control of the pitch/vibrato/etc… It’s SO stable, yet also can be manipulated with the lightest, gentlest touch. The analogy I used is it makes all other tremolo systems feel like 720p, and yours is 4K. Much like when you saw 4k for the first time and it felt like the cellophane was taken off the screen, so it is with this bridge. The increased accuracy and clarity have to be experienced first hand to be fully understood. (Matt Richard)
Spearfish Vapor
(begin)
screen will now go dark
not just this screen
every screen
everywhere
if (no = ipadphonecarsmarttvterminalAI)
if (can’t poke box for answer)
then (what happens next)
IF: you want to run a software self-diagnostic — abstain from all screen interactions for 24 hours. Do not allow your brain to access any electronic or media content: visual, sound, written. (24 hours)
>> Return your sensory input to: only what you can directly perceive using your own five senses.
IF: you want to run a simultaneous hardware self-diagnostic — abstain from all nutrition input for 24 hours. Including water. Do not allow your body to access any calories or fluids. Dry fasting. (24 hours)
>> Allow your body to: only breathe.
Q: What do you notice?
Adam J Wilson Live
Before we get into the details, here is the overview. Adam is playing multi-scale fretless Spearfish™ 6-string guitar through a signal chain of electronics controlled by software he wrote. Output is into an 8.2 channel speaker array.
“I made an mp3 clip that is suitable for posting on your site; a little over a minute excerpt. I am trying to post/share only clips from the forthcoming record; still trying to figure out how to contend with AI/scraping/etc.
“The title is 2024.2, it is a 16-channel electroacoustic piece, and the personnel includes me, playing the second fretless spearfish (‘Plectrodon’) you made for me, and my real-time improvisation software (collectively called ‘Skronkbot’). The first 30 seconds of the drums is composed, and the remaining 6 minutes are generated algorithmically from that kernel. The bass and harmony instruments are generated in real-time in response to my playing. The harmonic resources are based on a 16-tone just intonation scale with a variable reference frequency.
“I am really enjoying the sound of the latest Plectrodon. I am definitely converted to a bridge pickup guy. I feel like with the sustainer and the Bare Knuckle in the bridge position, I was able to achieve a cello- or saxophone- like timbre using a massive amount of gain on a tweaked ENGL model.
“Funny story: I was contemplating getting a tube amp, and I auditioned a lot of them. My favorites were ENGL amps: the Savage 120 and the Founders Edition. Then I discovered that my favorite stock model on the Axe Fx, ‘Angle Severe,’ which I have been modifying to get my sound for a couple of years, is based on the Savage 120! The ear wants what the ear wants!” (Adam J. Wilson)
Thank You
Hi Rick,
I acquired Sea Monster approximately 10 months ago. I intentionally wanted to wait a while before providing my thoughts. I appreciate your patience.
Prior to Sea Monster I was playing shorter scale hard-tailed fiddles. So Sea Monster was different for me in many ways. The Advantage neck profile is the best feeling neck I’ve ever played. The neck profile alone makes me feel like a better player in that I’m able to comfortably execute difficult passages on a longer scale neck – I went up a heavier string gauge because I found my attack more aggressive due to the ease of play. The new trem is so much fun and so much easier to manage than a Floyd – unlike a Floyd, this trem appears to move chord shapes together in tune, which is amazing and changes the whole approach to playing a trem – excellent tremolo design.
The 10 way switching provides so many useable tonal options and again, makes it so much fun to play.
Over the past 10 months I’ve been asking you various questions and you patiently answered all of them. Since day 1 I have loved Sea Monster but it took time for us to fully bond – no fault of the guitar, but rather I’ve been accustomed to playing certain guitars/specs, and soon realized with Sea Monster, that I needed to make some changes in setup re: string gauge/action in order to fully connect – I learned all about the Rick Toone tremolo when I performed the setup. So, not only have I bonded with Sea Monster via the physical act of playing but also by learning the components that make up Sea Monster – many of those components are specific to Rick Toone guitars. I’m now a big fan of Rick Toone guitars. (Rick. R, 2024)
Hey, Rick! I just want to send another thank you for the incredible guitar you built for me. Of all the luthier built guitars I own, yours stands head and shoulders above them all. The Spearfish excels at all styles of music, from rock to blues to jazz and even finger style. Clean, distorted, ambient, the Spearfish sounds great no matter what style and no matter what amp I put it through. It is the standard I use for seeing how an amp sounds. The volume and tone controls are far and away the most responsive of all the guitars I own and the single coil switch is the closest to true single coils. The neck is supremely comfortable and intonation and string balance are superb. I have considered selling all my other guitars, as the spearfish is really all I need. One of the nice features about it is that I can go from super light gauge (I’ve used Billy Gibbons .07’s all the way to .13’s) and not be concerned about the neck. Everyone who has played it is instantly impressed at how effortlessly it plays and how full and rich it sounds. A truly stellar instrument. Thank you and I wish you continued success. (Bill Mitchell, 2024)