Ellie Erickson: A Bass, A Doubleneck and A Goldtop Guitar [photos] - created 03-27-2006

Erickson, Ellie - 03/27/2006.12:11:44

The bass:

The Goldleaf six string:

Basswood body, rosewood/maple neck, thick rattlecan finish over black cold variaged leaf

The doubleneck:

Six string guitar/ 8 string ocatave mandolin, rosewood/maple necks, white pine body.

The pickups are all wound by me on the two guitars, except for the hacked rail style neck pickup on the mando neck. That is half of a rail style mini humbucker with the rail pulled out and an alnico bar magnet stuck in.

Great job on all three! I really like the finish on the tele-style guitar, and the lower "swoop" on all three.

Cool! How does that pine body sound?

The Ellie Swoop (TM) is one of my favourite 'nowhere else' design features. I wish I could, in good conscience, steal it (it's that good) :)

Good looking instruments. You certainly have a steady output of instruments.

The pine body sounds a lot like an alder or basswood body, it has good sustain and a bit of the acoustic zing I like. It's from some boards my dad cut back in the early 70's.

I built it because my bandmate Bob kept arranging our set list so I had to swap between guitar and mandoblaster every other song. I wish now I'd have made the string spacing on the bridge a little tighter, it's feeling odd to switch between the long scale mandoblaster and the neck on this one. I've been taking all three to gigs and band practice. So much for simplicity.

The swoop is something I stole from a very early 60's Decca electric, but it keeps morphing on me when I'm not looking. It has an added effect of moving the strap pin to a place where the balance seems better, and the strap wraps around it and stays on better, too.

Go ahead and steal it, Bob. I already did, from somebody else.

You certainly have a steady output of instruments

I've been slacking a lot, I got this year's flu and then the March doldrums, otherwise I'd have gotten more done. I'm pushing 49, I have little daylight left to burn.

That doubleneck had three different finishes on it before I finally sanded it back and stained it bright yellow. I bet it's 1/8th inch thinner than when I started, and I had to take at least that much off the back of the heel on the mando neck. I'm surprised at how well it balances, and how light it is. It's only about five pounds.

Nice, Ellie, the bass looks great. That swoop does nice things for the basic J-bass configuration.

They look great, as always. One question - on the mando side of the double, it looks like you have 6 string ferules on the back. Are my eyes weak?

I like all 3. I like the bass a lot, I like the finish on the gold one, and I also like the way you made the double neck have a sensible sized body. Lots of doublenecks have HUGE bodies, yours looks like less of a backbreaker.

Nice job. As far as your instrument count goes, does the double neck count as one or two?

I quit counting a while back, Greg.

Jamie, I am not an optician, nor do I play an eye doctor on tv, and therefore do not feel empowered to offer up a qualified long distance diagnosis on your eyesight. Some current famous people on the eastern seaboard do indeed feel that long distance diagnosis via video works, but I eschew such wishful thinking wherever possible, and instead prefer to believe a dozen truly impossible things before breakfast instead.

But I can tell you that there are indeed six ferrules for the eight strings, and that your eyes are accurate in this regard.

I just used the standard tele holes, and run two strings through one of the ferrules. That instrument was a speed build effort, and I had hoped to make it another one week project. Winter and illness sucketh mightily.

Great work, Ellie. Could I revisit that question about pine? What makes a good piece of pine to work with? Any particular variety of pine? Since pine is so knotty, is it tough to get a decent section of board?

Some people say there's no such thing as a good slab of pine to work with when it comes to guitar building. It will dent easier than some hardwoods, but that doesn't bother me on my own guitars.

Look for something that is well seasoned, free of pitch pockets, and fairly knot free. I have had good luck with douglas fir, hemlock and the big slabs of white pine I've been dragging around since my dad quit logging in 1978 or so, but less aged pine can be a sap oozing pain in the buttocks. I like finding used or old boards in attics when I use it.

I really like the way the grain on the bass flows with the body shape (or is it the other way around, I guess - the shape follows the grain?)

Very nice all 3!

Ellie

I still like the Gold Leaf best. (Tina votes for the doublneck) Gonna have to just make one-got the leaf from Pearl- just gotta find the time.

Rick

Its always a joy to see your stuff. I like the gold leaf finish alot, but I love the double.

I like the gold finish a lot; it's exciting to see how many finish tecniques you have mastered. The double neck is great too but has less appeal if you can't play it.

The bass is very attractive but are you sure about the red knobs? I think I would like black speed knobs on mine although this does not constitute a firm order for said guitar.

Red knobs were all I had

but some would say they're not that bad

others see red and just get mad

perhaps I'll order

some big black knobs

for all the elegant fashion nabobs

I'll call up the store

and get some more black

but will it look like a goth style attack?

But I do agree with AL my pal

black would be far from muy mal.

That bass is a throw together deal, the neck is a very inexpensive unfretted but shaped thing from GuitarpartsUSA, the body was much bigger, and had some serious spalt drymush goin' on, and was a gift from my pal Jeff, who for reasons beyond my understanding had somebody give him a stack of partly cnc done bass bodies that weighs more than my less than small farm girl chasis.

It's the shape it is in large part because that's where I had to bandsaw away the soft parts. On the bass, that is.

Great work as always. What is the offset angle between the two necks (offset angle is probably the wrong term here)? And are there 9 poles on the slanted Mando pickup, and if so, is there any proformance reasoning behind it? Thanks.

I have no idea what the angle is, I just took my harp guitar body shape and pushed the two necks around until it looked and felt right.

I was wondering when somebody would mention the number of poles on that pickup.

I watched a documentary about this awesome heavy rock band a while back, and all their knobs went to 11, I figured if I had 9 poles on that magnet, it must be better, right?

It's all in the details.

Ellie-

Is this shape descended from the Larsons' harp-mandos?

I love them so much I bought the company!! I dig the double neck the most. The yellow color is just my thing. I'll take one that is freted fretless bass! Killer stuff as always!

Any resemblance to a Larson is unintended, but possible. I love that guy's work, and have had a modified version of a couple of his things on the drawing board/list for a while.

I took the doubleneck out to the gig we played last night, and it sure sounded good in the noisy mix that is our band. It's hard to find something that fits in a six piece band that fills just the right spot, and this one did fine once I shifted mental gears to get used to the wider string spacing on the mando neck.

I saw these guitars in person, the pictures don't do them justice. The doubleneck is really cool and surprisingly light. They sound great, too.