Development
Once the first prototype guitar was complete, the development and honing could start.
The prototype was shipped to Arielle in February 2022. Once she was back in the UK in April, we got our heads together and started to establish what work needed doing. There were three main problems.
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The third problem was the sound. It was just too bright. So much so that it was virtually unusable through a full stack at Arielle's stage volumes (10!).
I enlisted the help of Matt Netherwood of Yonderbosk pickups who is the recognised expert in building Trisonic pickups. Matt built a set of pickups with the correct resistance, but we had no idea of the inductance value. Arielle was due to visit the workshop in early January 2023 to evaluate the new 'darker' set. Arielle arrived and we started a back to back test between the prototype and her original Two-Tone. It was soon apparent that these pickups had swung the other way. On this day, I learn't just how dialled in Arielle is with her guitar, and just how keen her hearing is. Her comment was that the new set of pickups sounded like Two-Tone with the tone rolled down to 8. Yes, just two notches on the tone control! She not only analysed the problem immediately, but knew how to exactly replicate it on her own guitar just as quickly. |
It was decided that only way we could get it truly 'bang on' was to leave Two-Tone and the prototype in the workshop for further investigation.
I disassembled both guitars, laid the pickup loaded pick-guards on the bench together, and took readings for resistance and inductance. I relayed the measurements to Matt at Yonderbosk, and he asked me to give him details of my workshops temperature too. Later that day, after having synced the temperature of our workshops, he got to work with the winding. A few days later, the new pickups arrived with their new 'Arielle Two-Tone' engraving. I installed them and re-assembled the prototype taking care to match the set-up exactly. As well as this, the Ilitch noise cancellation circuit was synchronised too....and there it was! The sound was there! Arielle came to the workshop to compare the guitars again, and confirmed that all was good. We'd nailed it! |