NAMM 2025

IMAGE: Gunslinger Pisces™ and Tim Mills’ personal RICK TOONE ’67 will be on display.

Tim Mills (founder of Bare Knuckle Pickups) was kind enough to invite me to display at their booth again this year. Two of my builds will be at the show. Gabriel Levi earned his return spot as well, and will be delighted to give you a test flight on these awesome guitars.

BARE KNUCKLE PICKUPS (BOOTH 5737)

Tim’s personal RICK TOONE ’67 is wired with Bare Knuckle ’63 Veneer Board set with ‘RWRP’ mid coils and zinc plated steel baseplate on the bridge coil. Custom BKP 280K pots -‘A’ taper for vol and ‘J’ taper and Vitamin Q 0.022ufd PIO cap. Tim’s guitar features the patented RICK TOONE ’67™ tremolo which brings revolutionary pitch bend performance (and is a direct retrofit) to the classic standard Stratocaster™ body routes.

Gunslinger Pisces™ is wired with Bare Knuckle PolyMath pickups designed by Tim Mills and Nolly Getgood. Freeway 10-way switching brings out all the delicious coil splits plus humbucking tones. Gunslinger features the leading edge patented RICK TOONE PISCES™ multi-scale capable tremolo.

VIDEO: Gabriel Levi rocks Gunslinger Pisces™ 6-string pre-NAMM 2025.

Gunslinger

VIDEO: Chris Buono showcases the patented & patents pending Rick Toone™ tremolo on Pisces Gunslinger™ 6-string guitar. Fender Deluxe with an AEA and SM57.

More and more, I’m going retro. Touch the real world. I’m contemplating a flip phone. Analog has benefits.

I got a library card.

Zane Grey fills half a long shelf. Writer of westerns, a hundred years ago. Many of the books have not been checked out in fifty years. There is a wonderful smell to old paper and ink, spines that crack slightly with gentle opening.

1873 was within living memory when Grey was writing. Homesteaders, miners, ranchers, rustlers, prostitutes, lawmen. Winchester lever action. Claim a piece of land and pass your genes to the next generation. If you fail at the mating dance…there’s always the profession of gunslinger.

belt hangs heavy
steel against my hip
glint of brass
polished shells
checkered walnut grip

the hammer click
acrid stench of cordite
spaced between heartbeats

out here
the sun will take your breath
this trickle down the spine
reminder of slow death

somewhere a crevice
in a canyon
flowing cool and clear
wellspring of precious water
help a man to heal
wash the blood from his hands

PHOTOS: Swamp ash, carbon fiber, precision machined aircraft aluminum. Bare Knuckle™ custom PolyMath pickups with 10-way switching.

Spore

PHOTOS: Spore 6-string Pisces™ guitar. Swamp Ash, carbon fiber, aircraft aluminum, stainless steel. Bare Knuckle custom Alnico pickups for superorganic tone.

Spore is inspired by the connection between psilocybin and healing the brain from Post Traumatic Stress Injury (PTSI). The terminology PTSD is both outmoded as well as inaccurate. The difference in word choice between disorder vs. injury may seem insignificant, but it is the difference between disability vs. certainty of hope.

The brain can heal.

Childhood trauma, substance addiction, combat-impact related injuries, social alienation wounds, can be healed with psilocybin. Important work is being done by Johns Hopkins Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research (Dr. Matthew Johnson) and by UCSF School of Medicine (Dr. Robin Carhart-Harris). Michael Pollan’s exceptional book “How to Change Your Mind” is perhaps the most thorough introductory overview.

Humans are a social species, with a portion of our sanity outsourced to friends, family, and to a certain extent cultural figures. The people we choose to include in our lives form a network of nodes, with whom we share thoughts and perceptions in an effort to determine reality. The narratives we agree upon form in part the reality of our individual lived experience. When nodes in our societal network become emotionally dysregulated, survival itself may be threatened.

Healing begins with self.

These tiny spores, capable of surviving the intense cold vacuum of space and germinating into psychedelic mushrooms, provide the gift of insight. Perhaps most importantly the gift of connection.

PHOTOS: Patented plus patents pending Rick Toone™ tremolo with precise action and accurate relative string-to-string pitch change. Extraordinary expression. Element™ neck machined from single billet aircraft aluminum.

7-String Single Cut | Eclipse

PHOTO: Inviting contours. Light weight, balanced, minimalist.

I fell completely in love with this guitar. Something about the simplicity feels familiar. Sleight-of-hand simplicity, however. Unusual multi-scale plus the Advantage™ neck profile plus the ingredients adds up to a delightful playing experience.

Plus, that tone. Warmth, piano clarity, sweetness.

Deeply grateful to Andrew for allowing me a blank canvas and his patience as I thought through how to manifest this machine.

Have you considered designing a 7-string single cut? I have always been drawn to single cuts (mainly Teles), and I have been looking for a seven string. I can’t, however, find one that I like. Please let me know if that is something you would be interested in working on. I just love single cuts, but most people don’t push the limits of what they are capable of. I was thinking a headless multiscale, humbuckers (probably Bare Knuckle), 6-way switch, tone and volume. Simple finish, probably a nice black stain with a nice wood grain. (Andrew)

I am still a bit speechless…I have been playing almost non-stop, and I am completely blown away. Even when I am not playing it, I am still thinking about it. The design and aesthetic are incredible. It is so much fun to play, and I have barely scratched the surface. It is so comfortable, and you were right…a complete tone machine. The fun starts now, as I am already finding new ways to approach my playing. I can’t wait to see where she leads. Thank you so much, and it was definitely worth the wait. (Andrew)

PHOTO: “Eclipse” 7-string guitar. Torrefied swamp ash, quartersawn torrefied flame maple, ebony. Carbon fiber, aircraft aluminum. Patented Intonation Cantilever™ component system. Custom Bare Knuckle™ PolyMath pickups with 6-way switching.

Neck Over Strings Pickup

VIDEO: Killick plays Walrus multi-scale fretless guitar with neck over strings pickup. Signal chain is Neural DSP Quad Cortex > Logic. Listen on headphones or full range speakers. Audio left is guitar body pickups. Audio right is neck over strings pickup. Immersive and compelling soundscape.
PHOTO: Neck over strings pickup. Lace Alumitone Deathbucker. Aircraft aluminum, stainless steel.

“Fred Frith in the UK and Hans Reichel of Germany were the pioneers of the pickup over the strings at that end of the neck in the 1970’s.” (Henry Kaiser)

VIDEO: Adam Wilson & Killick Hinds fretless improv duet. Adam via Axe FX. Killick via Neural DSP Quad Cortex. Direct into Logic.