The body of every Model I is cut and carved by hand, making each one a bit unique.  This design is one that I’ve been building and tweaking for years now and I’m convinced that each one gets better.

    For example, the electronics in this guitar must be packed in pretty tight for the shear volume of stuff we (the customer and I) decided we would use.  Based on the space issue of stuffing so much into a smaller bodied guitar, I laid out the controls based on the guitar I had built for Chris a few years ago and tweaked positions based on wiring and ease of use.  I kept the bridge, pickups, neck pocket, and volume control in the same places and made everything else fit accordingly.  With Chris’ approval I drilled all the holes and continued carving the body.

    Chris and I discussed putting a piezo equipped bridge in for acoustic sounds and, more importantly, MIDI access.  Unfortunately the bridge I had put on Chris’ earlier guitar was one of his favorite features and I wasn’t as hip on the piezo version in production.  Also I had wanted to use the GraphTech Ghost preamps since they are quite small and track and sound good.  What I ended up having to do in the end was buy a non-piezo bridge and modify it to accept the Ghost saddles.  The end result should be great and this guitar will now feel very similar to Chris’ first Model I.

    The system does call for a 9 volt battery to power the piezo buffer preamp and the LEDs in the neck need 2 AA batteries so I decided to route a battery cavity instead of simply using a battery box for the 9 volt.  This way I could store both sets of batteries in a fairly tight space at keep at least some of the wood in the body.  To make changing the batteries easier I’ve made two control covers, one separate for the battery compartment.  I make it a point to not use wood screws when possible.  Rather I use threaded metal inserts in the wood along with machine screws to attach cavity covers, pickups and even my necks.  I try to build everything to last and, though it seems small and simple, I don’t like stripped holes for neck bolts or control covers.