Over the last year or so I've been tossing around the idea of building a Djentstick, which if you don't know, is essentially a fretless, very low tuned, single string guitar usually made out of a piece of scrap wood. They look and sound like this,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhOYflyfOPM These strange instruments came about partially due to the joke that a lot of people who play 8 and 9 string guitars only use the lowest string. Of course there are also guitarists like Tosin Abasi who throw that stereotype totally out the window. I actually do have an 8 string guitar that I love playing, but still the idea of building a Djentstick sounds way too fun. So this last weekend I've been beginning to design my very first instrument, with a twist, an "Extended Range Djent Stick".
This take on the instrument will have 3 strings instead of just 1, and takes a lot of inspiration from the Chapman Stick in it's design and visual aesthetic. It's however much simpler than the Chapman Stick or a traditional extended range guitar, but significantly more complex than your average Djentstick.
Mine will be made out of a laminate of either padauk, rosewood, purple heart, or some combination of those woods. It will be fretless, but will have linear inlay markers where the frets would be. As for electronics and hardware I plan on using a single active EMG 81 pickup, 3 single string ABM bridges, and 3 Gotoh bass tuning machines. The scale length of the instrument is 34", and has an overall length of 50".
I've put together a simple 3D model of the instrument blank, and I rendered it to give you a rough idea of how it will look when it's finished. Please note however the bridge and nut in this render are for reference only, and it does not show the fret position markers.
In the end however the real reason I'm making this is practice for when I build my first 8 string guitar, which I'm still working on designing. I'll post updates on this project here as I progress.