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I don't know where to start with this guitar....instrument. This project would represent the epitome of truly custom work.
Ryan is a musician...he also happens to be a
guitarplayer. The music he heard in his head could only be played on this
instrument. Actually, I can show you what he pictured in his head. Here is a
sketch Ryan did of what he figured this instrument had to be like. I think the
original idea was to use 10 strings. It ended up being 11 because of how he
envisioned himself needing to play and tune this tool.
The basic idea here was to be able to generate a wide
range of Bass notes, both fretted and droned. A conventional seven string was
not going to be enough for what Ryan had in mind. In order to create the range
of bass tone Ryan wanted, I knew we need to go with a Baritone scale
length (28 inches) and he figured 5 of the eleven strings would be dedicated to
'bass' notes. 
The 'guitar' section (the 'bottom' 6 strings) was
now pretty well stuck with this scale now as well. One other wrinkle was that he
wanted to be able to tune the guitar section in the usual fashion...not tuned to
A or B. This required some gauge experiments , but in the end the guitar
section is perfect. It has a very large and beautiful tone. The Baritone sound
is wonderful. I have made six string Baritone guitars before but this instrument
sounds a lot different...even though it is basically the same. I expect that the
size of the body and the mass of the neck are the big contributing factors. This
body is also chambered with a very thin flamed Koa top.
The body is Mahogany, chambered as I said before. We
ended up using the JZ-S body style as a platform for this guy. Ryan thought a BT
might work (as you can see from his sketch), but I figured a BT would require a
total redesign. The JZ-S required zero body mods. 
I used the special Ebony bridge with Graph Tech
piezo saddles. There is a piezo section for both the 'bass' and guitar
sections. The mags were separated as well. There are 4 outputs for this
instrument. Bass and guitar mags....bass and guitar piezos. Each section also
has their own respective controls for tone and volume utilizing stacked pots. I
have made provisions (at his request) for Ryan to eventually add the Midi option
is he gets the inclination one day. It is a lot easier to do this during the
design/construction process than working on a finished guitar.
The neck is taper laminated with the center
tapered piece being a nice quartered and figured Rock Maple and the outer pieces
being Cherry with little black Ebony accent lines. There are two double action
truss rods and lots of carbon fibre reinforcement ...plus the lamination itself
to provide all the stiffness and stability needed. Its' size is not for the wee
fingered lot. This neck is 3 1/16" wide at the nut and 4 3/16" wide where it
joins the body of the instrument.
Actually, you could look at this layout as a double neck...we just
combined both necks into one.
The
'bass' pickup is designed and hand made just for this instrument. The six string
guitar section used TV Jones hand made 'Filtertron' type pickups. Tom winds
these guys so that they are a more even output match. All the pickups have
worked out very well for the tone we were after.
I used all locking Sperzel tuners. Some were the
larger bass variety, but all the tuning buttons are the same size.