My Odessa Guitars Deadbeat Baritone build...and Degenerate?
It's been a while since my last blog post about my Odessa, and there is a little reason as to why that is and I'll get to that later in the post, but for now accept my apologies if you were following since the original build update article! We left off at the finishing stage, where the neck and body were undergoing numerous coats of Livos natural oil, looking rather nice it was too.
There wasn't a great deal left to do, with the final stages being decal applying, final hardware installation, and general set-up tweaks once assembled. It was very exciting to see it altogether for the first time I must add, seeing it with the pickguard powdercoated felt like the final piece of the idea puzzle and I was over the moon with the aesthetic result.
This was the stage that drove home for me how happy I was with the clean, unpolished nickel Firebird pickups visually, for me anyway, it seems to compliment the shape and styling points really well and it was a huge sigh of relief!
Whilst we're on a similar subject, you may remember from the previous article on the build, about my choice of tuners. I was heavily influenced here by Millimetric Instruments, and the Hipshot 'Industrial' tuner buttons Florian uses on his guitars. Seeing as I am lucky enough to have a Millimetric on order after raising the funds through selling my Custom Shop Fender last year, I really liked the idea of having both guitars on display with matching tuners. A bit odd to some, but I like the nod to each instrument and carrying that styling point over, well I'm glad I did as I love the look of the tuners on Mike's headstock design, and also note his rear headstock decal design which my son Miles absolutely loves. More on that later!
There we have it! Strung up and looking rather good indeed, needless to say I was over the moon when this photo was kindly sent over to me. It sounds odd, but seeing it with strings on really pulled everything together and I found myself grinning very widely at the sight of this photo. Only thing to do next was to head to Mike's to collect!
I'd been suffering with tonsillitis for a prolonged period, so collection had to be held back longer than we both hoped for, but on the final dregs of antibiotics I made the fairly short drive down to south Bristol to Mike's lovely home to collect this fantastic looking Deadbeat baritone, despite still feeling a little ropy that gave me enough energy to power through.
It was great to see Mike again, chat about the guitar world and of course, the build too. It felt great to round off the build with seeing each other in person, and reinstates my sentiment of friendship being an added bonus of a custom instrument build. The natural draw of a mainstream branded instrument of course has it's place, but there isn't anything quite like growing a friendship with the person who has made a musical instrument for you. However many other players I speak to that have had a positive experience of it, will share the same sentiment too, there clearly is something to be said about that. Rounding out the whole process by meeting up was the perfect way to do so.
Meeting the guitar for the first time was of course, positive. It looked superb in person and seeing the shape for the first time, first hand, made me love the design more than I did prior too. But whilst checking out my new baritone, Mike went to the other room and came back with another of his builds, the prototype standard 25.5" scale build of the Degenerate model design. I'd seen this guitar countless times on his social media, and that too looked even better in person. To cut a story short, I found myself loading that into the car with me to come home alongside the Deadbeat, it seemed they couldn't be separated and were destined to continue living together, who was I to separate them huh?
A little background on the Degenerate, this was the prototype build whilst Mike was working through the design ideas. As it sat, it needed wiring and a set of pickups, something I know a thing or two about we figured. So after a chat about it, it was decided upon to come and live with me and I couldn't have been happier to do so. I wanted to retain the all black aesthetic and went with a set of McNelly P90 Soapbars with custom black pole pieces, and kept it simple with the wiring with a 3 way toggle, master volume and tone. It's set-up with 12s for Open D tuning, and I'm absolutely adoring having McNelly P90s in my own arsenal again.
Back to the Deadbeat baritone build, seeing as is the main subject matter for this article series! I was rather smug indeed seeing it sat in my home after seeing it come together by Mike's hand. Hearing it for the first time was an equally great feeling, and the McNelly firebird pickups handled the low tuned big strings very well indeed considering they were standard wind models. But playing it plugged in made me realise my original ideas for the wiring style and switching wasn't quite as intuitive as I thought it might have been. This is often the case with a custom built guitar, your mind wanders and the excitement when varieties of ideas come to the forefront. None of this falls on Mike, as the wiring idea was all down to me, but I think ultimately I over thought it and simple is very often the best so it was a quick change over to resolve. Essentially with the balance of three pickups and general tone from the guitar, I found that there wasn't much requirement for the tone pot, so rather than have 2 volumes and a tone, I changed it to three independent volume controls, one for each pickup. Having this meant I could use them a bit like a tone control as each pickup position on this guitar really does sound unique, giving you an incredibly simple control layout yet an awful lot of sounds considering it's simplicity. That meant also I removed the pickup selector switch, as the independent volumes took care of that also. A very minor overthought on my part, now improved and I could begin getting to know the guitar and this all new (to me) B tuned 28.5" scale!
The neck, although a very large D shaped profile and fairly wide nut width, felt 'right' for the longer scale length and I quickly got used to it. It commands your attention, which is a blessing in a world of distractions. Over the moon with the tuner and bridge choice, both Hipshot products are incredibly well made, look very fitting with the guitar's design and boy, are those tuners damn good indeed. Speaking of the headstock end of the guitar, that little logo on the back is something my son loves. He remembered it from the build photos I shown him and upon showing him the guitar for the first time asked to see 'the little guy on it!', which continues to this day. Mike, your headstock logo has a very young fan (and a fast approaching middle aged fan with me too!).
Here's a few photos I captured a couple of days after it's arrival with me, enjoy.
I have very much enjoyed having this guitar at my disposal, continually drawing my attention and bringing out new sounds which I'm grateful to be making. The guitar is built like a tank, and the livos oil finish feels wonderful to touch, as well as looking incredibly solid and hard-wearing. The aesthetic pointers are just awesome to me, a very inspiring instrument to look at, and it hangs in my office as a continued distraction from working! That's by no means a bad thing.
~
The Degenerate, although seemingly a very similar instrument stylistically, is a very different animal. A thinner body profile, shallower arm contour and of course, shorter scale than the baritone give it a noticeably different playing feel despite similar looks and neck profile too. I do think this guitar was born for P90s for sure, they suit it very well and it begs you to play and enjoy doing so which is the important thing. Mike describes his guitars as tools for musicians, and I get that now. I genuinely want to get out and gig these creations, but for the mean time I'm certainly enjoying plugging in and creating my own sounds again, no pre-conceptions of what I should or shouldn't play. Can't ask for more inspiring instruments than that I think.
A quick thank you to Mike for bringing my Baritone idea to life. For me, being so involved in the spec and build process was a great experience and reminded my why it is I run my business really, the love of custom guitar gear. Mike was an absolute gent right from the start and I couldn't be happier now having two of his guitars hanging on my wall ready for me to play whenever I want too.
James.
There wasn't a great deal left to do, with the final stages being decal applying, final hardware installation, and general set-up tweaks once assembled. It was very exciting to see it altogether for the first time I must add, seeing it with the pickguard powdercoated felt like the final piece of the idea puzzle and I was over the moon with the aesthetic result.
This was the stage that drove home for me how happy I was with the clean, unpolished nickel Firebird pickups visually, for me anyway, it seems to compliment the shape and styling points really well and it was a huge sigh of relief!
Whilst we're on a similar subject, you may remember from the previous article on the build, about my choice of tuners. I was heavily influenced here by Millimetric Instruments, and the Hipshot 'Industrial' tuner buttons Florian uses on his guitars. Seeing as I am lucky enough to have a Millimetric on order after raising the funds through selling my Custom Shop Fender last year, I really liked the idea of having both guitars on display with matching tuners. A bit odd to some, but I like the nod to each instrument and carrying that styling point over, well I'm glad I did as I love the look of the tuners on Mike's headstock design, and also note his rear headstock decal design which my son Miles absolutely loves. More on that later!
There we have it! Strung up and looking rather good indeed, needless to say I was over the moon when this photo was kindly sent over to me. It sounds odd, but seeing it with strings on really pulled everything together and I found myself grinning very widely at the sight of this photo. Only thing to do next was to head to Mike's to collect!
I'd been suffering with tonsillitis for a prolonged period, so collection had to be held back longer than we both hoped for, but on the final dregs of antibiotics I made the fairly short drive down to south Bristol to Mike's lovely home to collect this fantastic looking Deadbeat baritone, despite still feeling a little ropy that gave me enough energy to power through.
It was great to see Mike again, chat about the guitar world and of course, the build too. It felt great to round off the build with seeing each other in person, and reinstates my sentiment of friendship being an added bonus of a custom instrument build. The natural draw of a mainstream branded instrument of course has it's place, but there isn't anything quite like growing a friendship with the person who has made a musical instrument for you. However many other players I speak to that have had a positive experience of it, will share the same sentiment too, there clearly is something to be said about that. Rounding out the whole process by meeting up was the perfect way to do so.
Meeting the guitar for the first time was of course, positive. It looked superb in person and seeing the shape for the first time, first hand, made me love the design more than I did prior too. But whilst checking out my new baritone, Mike went to the other room and came back with another of his builds, the prototype standard 25.5" scale build of the Degenerate model design. I'd seen this guitar countless times on his social media, and that too looked even better in person. To cut a story short, I found myself loading that into the car with me to come home alongside the Deadbeat, it seemed they couldn't be separated and were destined to continue living together, who was I to separate them huh?
A little background on the Degenerate, this was the prototype build whilst Mike was working through the design ideas. As it sat, it needed wiring and a set of pickups, something I know a thing or two about we figured. So after a chat about it, it was decided upon to come and live with me and I couldn't have been happier to do so. I wanted to retain the all black aesthetic and went with a set of McNelly P90 Soapbars with custom black pole pieces, and kept it simple with the wiring with a 3 way toggle, master volume and tone. It's set-up with 12s for Open D tuning, and I'm absolutely adoring having McNelly P90s in my own arsenal again.
Back to the Deadbeat baritone build, seeing as is the main subject matter for this article series! I was rather smug indeed seeing it sat in my home after seeing it come together by Mike's hand. Hearing it for the first time was an equally great feeling, and the McNelly firebird pickups handled the low tuned big strings very well indeed considering they were standard wind models. But playing it plugged in made me realise my original ideas for the wiring style and switching wasn't quite as intuitive as I thought it might have been. This is often the case with a custom built guitar, your mind wanders and the excitement when varieties of ideas come to the forefront. None of this falls on Mike, as the wiring idea was all down to me, but I think ultimately I over thought it and simple is very often the best so it was a quick change over to resolve. Essentially with the balance of three pickups and general tone from the guitar, I found that there wasn't much requirement for the tone pot, so rather than have 2 volumes and a tone, I changed it to three independent volume controls, one for each pickup. Having this meant I could use them a bit like a tone control as each pickup position on this guitar really does sound unique, giving you an incredibly simple control layout yet an awful lot of sounds considering it's simplicity. That meant also I removed the pickup selector switch, as the independent volumes took care of that also. A very minor overthought on my part, now improved and I could begin getting to know the guitar and this all new (to me) B tuned 28.5" scale!
The neck, although a very large D shaped profile and fairly wide nut width, felt 'right' for the longer scale length and I quickly got used to it. It commands your attention, which is a blessing in a world of distractions. Over the moon with the tuner and bridge choice, both Hipshot products are incredibly well made, look very fitting with the guitar's design and boy, are those tuners damn good indeed. Speaking of the headstock end of the guitar, that little logo on the back is something my son loves. He remembered it from the build photos I shown him and upon showing him the guitar for the first time asked to see 'the little guy on it!', which continues to this day. Mike, your headstock logo has a very young fan (and a fast approaching middle aged fan with me too!).
Here's a few photos I captured a couple of days after it's arrival with me, enjoy.
I have very much enjoyed having this guitar at my disposal, continually drawing my attention and bringing out new sounds which I'm grateful to be making. The guitar is built like a tank, and the livos oil finish feels wonderful to touch, as well as looking incredibly solid and hard-wearing. The aesthetic pointers are just awesome to me, a very inspiring instrument to look at, and it hangs in my office as a continued distraction from working! That's by no means a bad thing.
~The Degenerate, although seemingly a very similar instrument stylistically, is a very different animal. A thinner body profile, shallower arm contour and of course, shorter scale than the baritone give it a noticeably different playing feel despite similar looks and neck profile too. I do think this guitar was born for P90s for sure, they suit it very well and it begs you to play and enjoy doing so which is the important thing. Mike describes his guitars as tools for musicians, and I get that now. I genuinely want to get out and gig these creations, but for the mean time I'm certainly enjoying plugging in and creating my own sounds again, no pre-conceptions of what I should or shouldn't play. Can't ask for more inspiring instruments than that I think.
A quick thank you to Mike for bringing my Baritone idea to life. For me, being so involved in the spec and build process was a great experience and reminded my why it is I run my business really, the love of custom guitar gear. Mike was an absolute gent right from the start and I couldn't be happier now having two of his guitars hanging on my wall ready for me to play whenever I want too.
James.
