• Type: Electric
• Manufacturer: GUITARTEC
• Model/Stylename: Volcano
• Serial Number: 0000002
• Serial Number Location: On custom gold neckplate
• Condition: Perfect
• Description: 3/1/12- This is a guitar I originally put together as my company's test axe. It's called a Hexomorph Volcano. It's basically an exotic Warmoth FrankenTele (Telecaster-style) that I spent countless hours designing with the help of Spike at Warmoth. The body's top is highly figured Koa. This type of Koa is only grown in the deep volcanic ash on the Hawaiian Islands where it rains a lot. The Koa is mated to a flawless single piece of Honduran Mahogany. I French polished the body using blond shellac which took many weeks of rubbing. The neck is Warmoth's "FatBack" neck in AAA-grade flamed maple. THIS IS ONE BEEFY NECK!!! It has a compound radius of 10"-16" and has Dunlop 6230 stainless steel vintage (small) frets. Most players who've played it start out by complaining about how their hand doesn't fit a fat neck, then, about 10 minutes later, I cannot get the guitar away from them. So ends the BS about fat necks! The Lindy Fralin Blues Special Hybrid lead pickup in this is just amazing (it's the same pup Brad Paisley has in his #1). I won't get into the useless adjectives which plague pickup descriptions everywhere, but I will say the Lollar Gold 52T neck pickup compliments the Fralin perfectly. The string to string clarity is amazing on both pups which make the Volcano a genuine tone monster. Although the controls all work like any other Tele, the electronics are not "normal" in the Volcano. I've installed a "ToneShaper" control unit which makes certain electronic components "variable". For instance, you can make the volume pot a 250K or a 500K at the flick of a DIP switch. You can instantly change between 4 different tone caps, or you can even gang them up. The ToneShaper also gives you two different treble bleed circuits to choose from so you won't lose high-end as you roll off the volume. Finally, the ToneShaper allows series/parallel pickup selection including blending of pickups depending on your pickups and if you use a 3-way, 4-way, or 5-way selector switch. We have a 4-way Oak-Grigsby selector switch in the Volacno, and I must say... the Series position is a truly useful fat tone that has long been overlooked on Teles. Even the blood-red pickup selector switch tip is an original Daka-Ware Tele tip from the 1950's. Just this tip cost $45. The strings sit on GraphTech TUSQ (man-made ivory) at both ends, and to tighten the ropes are 6 gold Wilkinson split-post tuners (you'll never see locking tuners on any of my guitars). The 4-bolt neck attachment is also custom. The neck is mated super-tightly to the body via 4 McFeely stainless steel threaded inserts in the neck's heel. This allows the use of MUCH stronger stainless 8-32 machine screws for attachment than the normal wood screws, which, as you may know, can easily become stripped. The body has a Strat pup cavity under the pickguard which is not currently being used. In the future, this will allow the Volcano to be converted into a "Nashville" style 3 pickup Tele. I'll post picks when that happens. One last thing, as I stated at the beginning, I originally assembled this guitar for my company, BUT, it is such an amazing guitar, I decided to buy it, cause I just HAD to have it.
• Vintage Guitar? No
• Modifications: Modified
• Custom Graphics: As of these pics -Feb. 2012- the graphics have not been finalized yet. I am having a custom neck plate made that reads "Hexomorph" Guitartec Repair Test Axe, #000002
• Comments: This guitar incorporates an Acme ToneShaper circuit which was not originally part of the initial design. The ToneShaper will be a key element in allowing the guitar to "morph", so I decided it was vital to what this Hexomorph guitar is about.... Morphing!

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Additional Information

• Original Owner: Yes
• Year Manufactured: 2011-12
• Country of Origin: USA
• Logo Style: Volcano Original Copywrite
• Guitar Weight: 9

Guitar Body

• Body Color: Koa. French polished. Not pore-filled (so it looks natural)
• Body Shape: Single cutaway
• Fretboard Radius (Neck Width): Compound Radius 10" to 16". This allows easy chording on the first few frets, where as the 16" radius is much flatter as you head up the neck so solo work is much easier with less note choking.
• Body Wood: Mahogany
• Neck Wood: AAA flamed Maple
• Fret Board/Fingerboard Wood: Maple
• Top Wood: Koa
• Finish/Laquer: Body is French Polished with shellac. Neck is poly'd
• Body Options: Fixed Bridge

Accessories

• Pickguard: Yes
• Pickguard Color: cream

Control Knobs

• Color: Other
• Volume: One
• Tone: One
• Pick-up Switching: 4 Position
• Tremelo: No
• Knob Shape: Dome, knurled with red dots to indicate position
• Knob Color: Gold

Electronics

• Other Options: Passive
• Description: This guitar has a ToneShaper by Acme Guitar Works. The ToneShaper, which BTW is "passive" (does not require a battery), allows the volume pot, tone cap and the treble bleed circuit to be "variable". It also allows you to quickly and easily change which pickups are controlled by which switch positions. Blending of pickups and series and/or parallel wiring using a 4-way and 5-way switches can also be done. The ToneShaper is very well made and fits easily into the electronics cavity of any Tele with no modification and no soldering. It uses some cutting-edge high quality parts. For instance, the circiut board is triple laminated with the outer layers being shielded so electromagnetic interference isn't a problem- it's VERY quiet, and neither of the pickups on the Volcano are noise-canceling. The pots are CTS solid shaft and the pickup selector is an Oak-Grigsby 4-way.
• Jack Location: There is a gold Electrosocket in place of the standard Tele output jack cup

Pickups

• Number: Currently, two, but body has a route for a center Strat pup under the pickguard. 3 pup Teles are known as "Nashville" style teles
• Neck Pickup Manufacturer: Jason Lollar 52T
• Neck Pickup Type: Standard Tele Neck pup, but this sounds amazing
• Middle Pickup Manufacturer: Not yet, but maybe next year
• Bridge Pickup Manufacturer: Lindy Fralin Blues Special Hybrid stagger
• Bridge Pickup Type: Standard Tele bridge pup design, but with BALLS
• Other Bridge Pickup Information: This Fralin is the exact same as in Brad Paisley's #1 Tele. If it's good enough for him, it's good enough for this phenomenal guitar.
• Fret Board Wood: Maple
• Position Inlay: Yes : Black Dot- I kept it low-key.
• Truss Rod Cover: This neck has a unique Gotoh Side Adjuster that allows for minor neck adjustments w/o having to take the neck off.
• Number of Frets: 22
• Neckplate: Yes
• Description: SEE PIC-HERE'S SOMETHING YOU DON'T SEE EVERY DAY... The Volcano has a custom 4-bolt neck plate. A new process was used to embed color graphics directly into the plated metal. These colors are not "on" the plating. They're IN it! The plate has an normal engraved s/n at the top, the name HEXOMORPH" in black (which is the series), a short phrase that explains what the guitar is and when / where it was made. Then there is a color graphic volcano island spewing orange lava that spells the name "VOLCANO". The year it was built is on the bottom of the plate in black.
• Nut Width: 1-11/16th
• Special Features: I usually dislike gold on guitars, but this axe SCREAMS for gold hardware. Everyone who sees / plays it in person agrees that gold was the right choice here... Whew!

Provenance Documentation

Have all receipts and a full cost sheet with shipping charges included