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question about custom guitars


Foxhull
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Ok, looks like I'll be the first to give a direct answer to your question:

How much would it cost? Thousands. Note the use of plural. Any custom guitar is gonna be expensive, and one as bizzarre as this may well cost upwards of ten thousand dollars.

Where could you get one? Well, I don't know of any big guitar company that would do anything like this, which means you'd have to contact a luthier (guitar maker) in person. (please allow me to take this opportunity to pimp my cousin's business: he makes very good, completely custom-built guitars. He doesn't have a website, but you can e-mail him at rebickguitars at earthlink dot net. Honestly, though, I'm not sure if even he'd do something like this.)

Now the answer to the question you SHOULD be asking: is this a good idea?

No. First of all, this design would be a huge pain in the ass to build, to play, and to store. Honestly, such a guitar would have almost no use beyond decorative, "wow that looks cool" effect. It would weigh a ton and make your shoulders and back sore very quickly. It would be rediculously off-balance on the strap, so you'd pretty much need a third hand to hold it in place while you play it. And it would most likely sound like shit, no matter how well it's built.

In short: if you have more money than you know what to do with and want this guitar solely for the purpose of looking cool, you might try contacting my cousin (rebickguitars at earthlink dot net), or searching for other luthiers to build you one. Don't expect any luthiers to take you seriously unless you're offering exorbitant sums of money.

In shorter: forget it. This idea of yours, creative though it may be, is never going to happen.

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If you are looking for a good custom guitar building shop, look here:

http://www.edromanguitars.com/custom/main.htm

But yes, it will cost you thousands, maybe up to 10,000 if you want good quality. But the main question is why? Unless you a professional musician in some famous band there is NO point in this guitar. It's just an extremely bad idea.

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Why not just get 3 different guitars to suit your needs? It'd probably be cheaper and they'd be way more playable. The coolness factor goes away, but seriously: Do you think you could actually play that for more than a few minutes?

What coolness factor? If you have to rely on some flashy or rediculous guitar to make up for your lack of impressive playing, that is anything BUT cool. If in the course of one set a guitarist plays a regular six-string, a 12-string, and then a bass, I would be impressed, assuming he could play each well. If I saw some guy on stage with the guitar illustrated, I would be rolling on the floor laughing, even more so if he wasn't in a joke band.

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If I saw some guy on stage with the guitar illustrated, I would be rolling on the floor laughing, even more so if he wasn't in a joke band.

I guess it depends on your tastes :D:D:D

He's not playing the solo in that video; he's finger-synching. Or trying to, and failing miserably.

I have a hunch that solo wasn't even recorded on the quad guitar.

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Why not just get 3 different guitars to suit your needs? It'd probably be cheaper and they'd be way more playable. The coolness factor goes away, but seriously: Do you think you could actually play that for more than a few minutes?

What coolness factor? If you have to rely on some flashy or rediculous guitar to make up for your lack of impressive playing, that is anything BUT cool. If in the course of one set a guitarist plays a regular six-string, a 12-string, and then a bass, I would be impressed, assuming he could play each well. If I saw some guy on stage with the guitar illustrated, I would be rolling on the floor laughing, even more so if he wasn't in a joke band.

SUPPOSED coolness factor. Better? :P

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The tonal qualities of a guitar with multiple necks is much, much poorer than normal guitars. The reason for a dual-neck guitar is to have six strings on one neck and 12 on the other. This is the only real reason to use a dual neck guitar. Almost any other sound you might want to make can be produced using effects processors and will cost a lot less than buying a triple-necked guitar.

I would check out the Vox ToneLab SE before you buy a multi-necked guitar.

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This would be one of the few instances of a multiple necked guitar being used creatively using all the necks i've seen. I know it's probably been shown to hell and back on ocr but it still amazes me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2EokjFIE5g

I hadn't seen that before.

And holy monkeyfucking shit, the fretless neck sounds gorgeous. How's that set up? I mean, the description says it's a fretless with a sustainer, but what's a sustainer? Is it just compression, or is there something more to it?

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This would be one of the few instances of a multiple necked guitar being used creatively using all the necks i've seen. I know it's probably been shown to hell and back on ocr but it still amazes me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2EokjFIE5g

I hadn't seen that before.

And holy monkeyfucking shit, the fretless neck sounds gorgeous. How's that set up? I mean, the description says it's a fretless with a sustainer, but what's a sustainer? Is it just compression, or is there something more to it?

I would assume it adds a lot of sustain? There might be some problems getting a long note out of a fretless guitar for some reason.

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This would be one of the few instances of a multiple necked guitar being used creatively using all the necks i've seen. I know it's probably been shown to hell and back on ocr but it still amazes me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2EokjFIE5g

I hadn't seen that before.

And holy monkeyfucking shit, the fretless neck sounds gorgeous. How's that set up? I mean, the description says it's a fretless with a sustainer, but what's a sustainer? Is it just compression, or is there something more to it?

I would assume it adds a lot of sustain? There might be some problems getting a long note out of a fretless guitar for some reason.

My question was how it adds sustain. But sixto already answered my question on IRC.

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