Recently I took possession of my newest custom Koll guitar, which we dubbed the “Sun Glide.”

The original idea for this guitar sprung from my love of the 70s Gretsch White Falcon with the wire Bigsby. However, the Gretsch isn’t quite what I want. For one thing, I’m a little guy, and the White Falcon is thicker than I am! For another, the wire Bigsby White Falcons haven’t been available left-handed for years. Also, I’m partial to the 24.6″ scale of the Gretsch Duo Jet, not the 25.5″ of the White Falcon. Finally, my head is in industrial/experimental music, and I like to program MIDI and play softsynths with guitars as well.

Saul and I discussed what he could do, and what you see is the result. The body is very much inspired by the White Falcon, right down to it’s control layout and compliment. The neck and headstock is pure Koll, however, with his classic design and logo. The electronics, emblem, and inlay, however, is unique. All of this combines to give the Sun Glide it’s mojo.

Please forgive the quality of the photos!

The Sun Glide, Full Frontal:

The Body close up:

Electronics
Neck Pickup: TV Jones PowerTron
Bridge Pickup: TV Jones PowerTron Plus
Piezo Bridge: RMC Poly Drive IV piezo/13-pin system installed
Horn knob: piezo/magnetic blend
Upper knob: Master volume
Lower knob: 13-pin volume
Lower switch: Kill Switch
Upper bout top switch: 3-way pickup selector
Upper bout lower switch: 3-way master tone switch (middle=true bypass)

The Headstock:

The tuners are locking grovers with the Gretsch imperial-style tuning buttons.

The Sun Glide emblem:

Koll Guitars is located in the Pacific Northwest, I’m in the Pacific Southwest, and to me the hollow body Gretsch sound, even in metal music, is a very warm, organic sound…and yet here I was excited about playing a warm and bright guitar in very heavy and moody atmospheres—in a sense, bringing the sun to the darkness. The whole vibe reminded me of the Pacific Northwest Native people’s myth of the Raven stealing the sun. This emblem is a stylized depiction of Native art revolving around that story. That is also where the name “Sun Glide” came from.

Fingerboard Inlay:

The fingerboard inlay is a wonderful synthesis of the Gretsch “neo classical” fingernail style of inlay, and Koll’s beautiful art-decco inlay.

Output Jacks:

I realize that output jacks are far from the most exciting elements of a guitar, but this picture shows the best view of the gorgeous gold binding. When a mono guitar cable is inserted into the output jack the magnetic and piezo signal can be blended, but when a stereo cable is used, the piezo and magnetic signal can be split. The 13-pin cable can transmit the magnetic, piezo, and hexaphonic (MIDI-ready) signal down one cable.

It has a warm but bright sound thanks to being (mostly) hollow and solid maple. The pickups are quite high output, but still bright and defined. The piezo gives it even more flexibility, helping it achieve a “jangly” electric tone not usually associated with humbucker or filtertron equipped guitars.

This has been quite a long post, but I’m quite taken with this gorgeous instrument. I cannot thank Saul enough for his creativity, skill, patience with my odd requests, and execution of the Sun Glide. Every Koll Guitar is a masterpiece!

It was perhaps writing on the wall when Apogee’s Ensemble and Duet weren’t released with Windows drivers.  But it’s now official: Apogee announced they are ceasing Windows development, although legally they have to support their legacy Windows products for a while.  For those just buying their converters, this doesn’t mean all that much, since they have been using other audio cards anyway.  But if you were a Windows user waiting for Apogee to write Windows drivers…well, now you know.

To be totally honest, I don’t blame Apogee.  And that’s not because I’m a Mac snob (although I kinda am) since I’ve got two PCs running Windows XP and an Eee PC running Linux.  But it’s hard work getting drivers right just for one platform.  Just ask Ensemble users—I hear the drivers are okay now, but I know that for a long time the users were screaming that the drivers were extremely shaky.  And at least with the Mac, Core Audio is the only driver game in town.  With Windows, you’ve got ASIO drivers, you’ve got WDM drivers, etc. If you’re a big company you can afford different teams to develop drivers for each of those different formats.  But Apogee is a small boutique (relative fame in the industry aside), and it had to have been tough to split their energies.  Especially when you consider that even in the music world, Windows machines are popular, this was a decision that I’m sure will cost them sales.  You don’t take a decision like that lightly.

Do you think this will have any impact on the PC as a viable recording platform?  Personally, I don’t.

This is already mentioned on the news blog, but since I mentioned NAMM here, I should also mention this:

Ember Member Barry Wood has once again gathered his collection of the weird, the wonderful, and the wacky that was on display at the 2009 NAMM show.  Be sure to check it out at http://www.otheroom.com/namm/

Enjoy!