Holcomb Guitars

Tabber Guitar

2012-02-14T11:54:00.000-08:00

A couple weeks ago, Robert Sanchez from Music Everywhere approached me about helping him creating a "Tabber Guitar" You can read more details about the project here:

http://gizmodo.com/5884767/tabber-will-teach-shredding-essentials-with-a-light+up-fretboard

Yellowheart and Wenge 8 String in Progress

2012-01-24T19:12:00.000-08:00

I've been steadily working on an 8 string bass for myself in between other projects. The through-neck has presented some unique difficulties paired with how I've been laminating all the pieces. I've approached the process fairly intuitively because of this. The geometric pattern top has to be attached separately from the through neck and the ash wings that are being glued on in these pictures.

The cutaway arm has a wenge and yellowheart piece laminated on to extend the patten of the top into the rest of the body. I chose that particular part of the guitar because of its visual and physical prominence. The headstock as pictured will have a cap put on it that matches the body's top.

Geometric Top

2011-12-17T15:13:00.000-08:00

I've recently embarked on an exciting new self initiated project. Basically, I've been dying to make something using wenge and yellowheart exclusively. The idea is that this is going to be a top and headstock plate for an 8 string bass that will be mine.

You can see the process photos below of different pattern arrangements, but this first one here is the pattern I'm going to go with.

Its going to be a neck through, this laminated arrow design will most likely not be seen very much, but I think it will be a nice snappy detail that you'll catch in glimpses of.

Double Neck Bass

2011-07-11T20:25:00.001-07:00

I've just recently begun work on a Double Neck bass. It is going to be a 30" short scale bass on the top with an active circuit, and a 34" scale fretless bass for the bottom with a passive circuit. The body is Honduran mohagany, the neck will be maple with ebony and rosewood fretboards. At the request of Jost (the musician this is for) I have routed in a series of shadow boxes and we've selected small objects and memorabilia to place in them.

Short Scale Bass for Nick Pagano

2011-05-29T19:12:00.000-07:00

I have I've been slowly plugging away at a new short scale bass for Nick Pagano of Fairhaven. This Glider is a 30" scale bass with a wenge top and matching headplate with an alder body and a 3 piece maple and wenge neck. It has one Seymour Duncan Ceramic Musicman Style Pickup by the bridge for a very detailed sound.

This bass was a lot of fun to build for a number of reasons. For one, Nick Pagano is an exceptional bass player. It was very exciting to make an instrument for a musician who can really bring an instrument to life. It was great to make something that was straight foward and less complex than what I normally produce, but it was also a challenge to preserve the quality of the Glider's shape & scale as the body on this bass is guitar sized.

Fairhaven Live

Nick approached me about building him a custom after I built him a replacement neck for his P-bass.

The 1st neck

The first neck I built was damaged in a loading accident, so I built him a Re-replacement. In the process of building neck #2, we sat down and modified some details for the new neck like a new headstock shape and a U profile instead of a C.

The New Neck

As you can see, the headstock has changed from an old P-bass shape to more of a Telecaster shape drawn by Mr. Pagano himself. We didn't include the outer wenge stripes as they don't photograph well (evidenced by the first picture). He was so thrilled by how this neck turned out, he broke down and put in an order for a complete custom.

New HOWL Video

2011-05-18T17:00:00.001-07:00

Congratulations to the guys from HOWL on their new Music Video for their song "Heavenless". Keep your eyes peeled for Rob Icaza's sweet custom amid the gore!

http://www.bloody-disgusting.com/news/music/1643

Brian Gibson Custom

2010-11-02T20:08:00.000-07:00

My rate of production has slowed down a little, but my most recent project to leave the shop has been one of the most exciting yet. While it may look plain, it's anything but.

This is a 34" scale 5 string for Brian Gibson of Lightning Bolt. This bass is made entirely out of maple (at least wherever wood can be used.) Brian had discussed with me that he was looking to get a similar aggressive sound like Cliff Burton of Metallica. Cliff started with a Rickenbacker 4001 which was made mostly out of maple. Taking this into account, I tried to play up as many of the qualities of a R4001 as possible to re-create the sound Brian had in mind. Brian wanted something that was visually toned down, so I used maple for the fret board, neck and body and nut. It's outfitted with a Seymour Duncan SRB-1B. I made a custom bridge out of a piece of angle iron so that I could achieve 1/2" string spacing. The neck on this bass is only as wide as a 4 string bass, but I've squeezed 5 strings into the same amount of space to give Brian strings that are close enough together to allow him to play the fastest he can.

Wheres Brian?

8 String Bass

2010-04-28T19:48:00.000-07:00

The newest project in the shop is an 8 string for Ryan Magoni. Ryan found a 4 String Schecter Stilleto body online and asked me to make him a replacement neck for the body. Since it was a 4 string body to begin with, I had to widen out the neck pocket to accomodate for a neck that is closer to a heel width of a 5 string.

The Schecter body is basswood with a Cherry finish over a maple burl veneer.

The neck and fret board are Bloodwood, Maple and Wenge. The neck is 5 pieces, the fretboard is 20.

Vermillion Tinyhawk

2010-03-31T09:32:00.000-07:00

The most recent bass to leave the shop was Joey Bence's Vermillion Tinyhawk. This is a pretty sweet bass if I don't say so myself.

I'd like to start off by saying that this is two firsts in one for me. This bass is both my first lefty and my first five string. Its fun being able to knock those two out at the same time!

Here's a rundown of the specifics of this bass.

Mahogany body w/ Paduak (Vermillion) Top

3 piece Maple Neck

Wenge & Paduak fretboard

Spar-Urethane finish to preserve the color of the Paduak.

It's equipped with a Seymour Duncan Quarter Pound Jazz Pickup in the neck position and a SMB-5D in the bridge position. Joe writes,

"Loving the bass, thanks again. The tone is simply astounding. Blows my other bass out of the water tenfold, and of the few people that have seen it, nothing but wows. "

2010!

2010-02-27T21:53:00.000-08:00

2010 has been a busy year thus far. I haven't really had a chance to update in a while, mainly because I've had so much going on in the shop. First off, Jimmy Lazer of Sick Electric has finally received his guitar. Here's a picture of it right before it was strung up and handed off.

This guitar was a pretty crazy project to work on. The most difficult part of this guitar was trying to turn an arcade button into a kill switch. After struggling for about a month, I discovered a type of kill switch at Radioshack. It's a fairly simple circuit arrangement, but it took a while for common sense to kick in.

Here are some pictures of Jim with it at the album release for "Death by Electrocution"

I've also been at work on Ryan Magoni's 5 string. Ryan recently gave me the piece of wood that he's selected as the fretboard. This piece of wood may be one of the the craziest pieces of wood I have ever seen. Its a piece of Black and white ebony (its definitely the craziest piece of ebony I've ever seen). I'm currently refering to this fretboard as the "Holy Shit Fretboard". More pictures will be up soon!

Intro to Guitar Building

2009-11-28T21:40:00.000-08:00

I will be teaching Intro to Guitar Building at Keeseh Studio in January. Sign up soon, space is limited!

http://www.keeseh.com/?page_id=9

"Using the Telecaster electric guitar design as a starting point, students will learn the principals needed to design and build their own guitar. Participants will learn to consider sustain, tone, and the balance of aesthetics versus functionality while designing. Starting with a brief history of the guitar in the world of stringed instruments, students will be introduced to the art of electric guitar building by using key power tools that are essential in any wood working setting including the bandsaw and router. Using these tools, students will produce a finished electric guitar to take away with them. No previous woodworking experience is necessary. Wood and guitar parts will be provided for $160 material fee."

Length: 7 classes, 2 hours each

Time: 1pm – 3pm

Dates: Sundays Jan 10, 17, 24, 31, Feb 7, 14, 21

Custom Bass for Rob Icaza

2009-11-15T21:08:00.000-08:00

Here are some nice close ups of Rob's bass after the finishing touches. Thanks Rob, for letting me spend a little more time with this beauty before I handed it off for good. Enjoy and I look forward to working with you again and seeing Howl soon!

Howl @ Middle East

2009-10-27T18:41:00.000-07:00

Sunday night, I went up to the Middle East to see Howl play at the Middle East. The previous Thursday, I handed Rob Icaza's bass off to him. It was awesome to see him playing in front of a big crowd in Boston, not only that, Rob gave me a shout out at the end of the show, that was really cool. I hung out with the rest of the guys from Howl, super nice guys who play some super brutal metal. Good show.

Nicks Neck and RAAB 900

2009-10-15T17:56:00.001-07:00

I recently completed a custom neck for Fairhaven bassist, Nick Pagano.

His neck is an 11 piece maple and wenge 34" scale Telecaster style. Two of the maple pieces in the neck are curly maple which makes for a really beautiful contrast to the rest of the maple. If you look close at this first picture below, you can see the reverse color scheme I created on his fretboard. His fret board is also maple and wenge and is a color reversal of the striping on the neck. Its got 21 frets and plays like buttah.

This is the RAAB 900 thats in progress. I'm actually letting the frets dry in place as I update this post so there should be some pictures of Rob Icaza playing this pretty soon. This bass has been a lot of fun to work on. Its got a curly maple fretboard with wenge inlays, and a 5 piece curly maple, mahogany and wenge neck. The body is made of 360 pieces, the woods being Paduak, Maple, Wenge, Ash, Purpleheart, Ironwood, Black Cherry, Poplar, Bamboo, Walnut, Brazilian Cherry, and Zebrawood. Including the neck, the entire guitar is made of 410 individual pieces of wood.

Diamonda Bus (complete!)

2009-09-30T06:53:00.000-07:00

You can bid on this bass here: http://www.cmarket.com/auction/item/Item.action?id=93872757

The body is made from a salvaged Oak door, (above) and like I said, it's being donated to PBS for their annual auction.

Dimonda Bus

2009-09-02T18:23:00.000-07:00

This is a new body style I just came up with called the Bus. This bass is going to be donated to PBS Rhode Island for their yearly fundraiser in October. Keep your eyes peeled, and if you're lucky you can bid on it and win it for yourself!

2009-08-30T18:07:00.000-07:00

This week has been a busy one. Here are some pictures of the newest works in progress currently.

This is Jimmy Lazer's "White Lightning"; Note the arcade button KillSwitch!!

Rob Icaza's 4 String bass, (cat not included)

I also had a great time at the Hope Artiste Village open house where my work and other tenants of H.A.V. were on display.

And lastly, the beginnings of a Dimonda Body Blank for a bass I'll be donating to PBS.

Window Guitar

2009-08-24T16:01:00.001-07:00

Window Guitar

FooFest

2009-08-16T19:51:00.000-07:00

Well, to say the least, FooFest was amazing.

Rachel, I and some friends journeyed into Downtown Providence to Empire Street just in time to catch Deertick (http://www.myspace.com/deertick) Rachel and I went to Highschool with some of them and it was great to see them playing in front of a huge crowd that knew the words and the melodies.

FooFest introduced me to the Metal-Samba sounds of Made in Mexico, I really enjoyed the bright yellow Gibson SG.

We stayed through to the megalithic headlining Lightning Bolt.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvSV9Emhz0c

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fj_m-f9FkAU

I haven't seen them in a couple years, it was really cool to see them live again, most of the time its treacherous to see them live due to over zealous music goers. HOWEVER, they played mostly new material that I haven't heard yet and it was AWESOME. Brian Gibson is definitely one of the most innovative bassists in the world right now. They're current catalogue of recorded material is pretty spastic and frenetic; last night there was some song they played that was really heavy and had this awesome groove to it, very muscular and menacing.

Its the Middle of August

2009-08-11T22:11:00.000-07:00

Currently I am in the process of working on several guitars; The first Tinyhawk Diamonda (in process)

A plying V (a flying V Made of Plywood), A guitar made entirely out of bible pages, a couple Tinyhawk Echos and maybe some other possible candidates. All these guitars I'm talking about right now are going to be a part of a gallery show at the RISD Museum called "This is a Show About Rock n' Roll" that opens on October 1st. Very excited and very exciting.

I'm also working with a few musicians in helping them bring their ideas to life.

Rob Icaza of the Providence metal band, Howl ( www.myspace.com/howlheavymetal ) and I have been working closely on a custom for him, I'll put up some pictures when that build begins.

Jimmy Lazer of Sick Electric ( www.myspace.com/sickelectric ) is going to be playing "White Lightning" until his bulb burns out or his screen goes static.

Nick Pagano ( www.myspace.com/nickpagano ) of Fairhaven (2009 WBRU RockHunt winners, www.myspace.com/fairhavenri ) has been gracious enough to be promoting Holcomb Guitars with a Tinyhawk Echo, most recently at the Newport Yachting Center as the opening act for Guster just this last Friday the 7th, 2009.

Nick is an excellent player and it was amazing to see someone so talented really play the shit out of something I had made.

This month is going to be really exciting. Check back for updates!