Tachi
The classic sword of feudal Japan, progenitor of the better-know katana, is called Tachi. Long, single-edged, worn suspended by straps from the belt, it was not just a fearsome weapon but an icon of ritual, art, and craftsmanship. While I cannot hope to achieve the mastery of those ancient swordsmiths, but I can create a homage in my own art form.
Tachi is that homage. The neck is incredibly thin, but being reinforced with carbon fiber and equipped with a two-way truss rod it is remarkably stiff. It is made of multiple layers, bent and laminated together to form the headstock angle. The natural sapwood of the kabo rosewood surfaces imitates the “hamon”, the temper line that is a hallmark of Japanese bladework.
The body is a single piece of purpleheart wood, treated to my proprietary “Dragonskin” finish of stabilized charred wood, infilled with gold. The edges are then cut away to expose the shocking purple colour of the heartwood itself.
The electronics are unusually simple, yet designed to dial in the perfect tone: two humbucking pickups (made in-house) are mated to two slider potentiometers individually controlling the output of each. The rest of the hardware is Gotoh’s 510 bridge and locking Stealth tuners in black chrome finish. It is thus fast, sleek, and deadly effective at producing killer rock tones.