Discontinued...THE
DRIP (t.m.) guitar with hidden Wah Probe!
Preliminary description:
This guitar is shaped like a classic 60's unit... you know the one. Under the pickguard is a hidden probe antenna, which controls an onboard wah like the one in the wah probe floor model. Unlike the floor model, there is no boost, just a wah.
The guitar is U.S.A. made, with Holy Grail (t.m.) pickups by Lace Sensor (noise canceling single-coils with tone like a vintage strat), an on-off push-push button in the volume control for the onboard wah probe, and 25.5" scale-length, maple neck with rosewood fingerboard, a round backpad that snaps off for easy battery compartment access, and custom candy apple colors with glitter pickguards standard on many units. The colors shown in the pictures are a few examples of about 10 different color combinations made in the first batch of 30 units. I know, I should have made them all black, but I just can't leave well-enough alone.
The wah unit requires some
practice to get used to it... the easiest technique is the funk 70's sound (wooka
wooka) you get when you swing your hand past it as you strum the strings, but
if you park your pinky carefully on one spot on the pickguard and rock your
hand as you play, lots of interesting wah modulations are possible.
The wah action takes place primarily in the lower part of the pickguard.
I guess the only way to see and hear and feel what it's really like is
to experience one in person.
I'm extremely pround of the
tone of the guitar. It chimes like
a piano, with grand lows and super round-wound highs on the rhythm pickup and a
ferocious spank on the lead pickup. The
middle position is exceptional... the combinaton of the two Holy Grails in those
distances from the bridge is truly unusual and memorable.
My prototype unit had some other pickups in it at first (I won't say what
brand) and I was so completely stunned by the Holy Grails when I replaced them
that I had to call the Lace people and thank them immediately.
The pickups are nearly as noise-free as a humbucker but the tone is
buttery, bell-like single-coil vintage-sounding heaven.
Yeah, yeah, I sound like I'm full of it, but you should hear the pickups
just as proof that a modern invention can completely recapture the tones of
yesterday with a drastic improvement in noise and buzz.
Battery life is long... I was
able to leave mine plugged in (battery is connected by plugging in the 1/4"
cord) for three days straight with no appreciable loss in sensitivity or tone.
Changing the battery (I recommend an alkaline) takes about 20 seconds
after you've done it a couple times so
if you discover that it's gone dead and you are about to play, no big whoop.
You just snap off the backpad partway, lift the battery out of it's compartment,
and push the new one onto the contacts into the holder.
A few snaps later, the guitar is ready.
Zachary Vex
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