Singularity

it was nearly 25 years ago that I bought a tree. A row of majestic black walnuts (juglans nigra) had been felled to make way for a new highway on-ramp, and at the lumberyard I had first pick. I selected a large log, over 3 feet across, with a large branch splitting off one end. After sectioning it into eighths, I discovered that the branch had caused a split in the tree, partially healed. The grain was lovely to behold, but the cost was a bunch of difficult-to-use pieces. I kept them, and looked at them, and thought.

I used some for furniture; some for sculptures, some for children’s toys. Finally I found a use for the last chunk; it would be an electric harp-guitar, body and secondary neck carved from a single piece of walnut, revealing both the live edge of the tree and the internal texture resulting from that long-ago wound.

Singularity is the result. In keeping with the theme, the bridge too is a single 3d printed bronze-steel unit designed specifically for this instrument, while the pickup is a split-single design with a single volume control.

The primary neck is by necessity a separate piece, a perfect monolithic slab of kabo rosewood (dalbergia lanceolaria) with multi scale frets splayed to match the harp strings. There are six sub-bass strings, tuned as desired at the body end with my wrap-lock tuners. This results in a harp-guitar that is uncommonly light and compact, easy to wear and play.

It is undeniably nothing but itself, a singular expression of my commitment to my craft.