Reinventing the Guitar

I love guitars and I play them just decently, not great!!! That means enough to accompany myself while singing.

I own 7 of them. 3 are Fender Stratocaster.

I loved the Stratocasters from when, as a kid, I was listening to the "The Shadows". Remember the song "Apache"?

The magic of Hank Marvin, the lead guitar never changed through decades and it's still crystal clear!!!! Only the song "Maria Elena" from "Los Indios Tabajaras", in my opinion, is more fascinating than Apache in its perfect execution!!!

Anyway, back to the Stratocaster. I love it but it weighs 7 kilograms!!!! Your 14 pounds. To hold that on your shoulder for a few hours playing on stage, is really exhausting.

So, I got a crazy idea: make it…………….lighter!!!

Being decent with tools, I cut away half of the body weight arriving at 3.5 kilograms. Not too bad and also esthetically it looks good, at least in my opinion. You decide looking at the pictures below compared to a normal shape of a Fender Stratocaster:

When I sent the pictures to the Fender Company, they liked it but nothing more. I dreamed that they would make it as a "Stratocaster Evolution" but, we didn't dream the same dream!!!

Maybe if Mr. Leo Fender was still alive, he would have………dreamed more than the actual Marketing Director!!! ☺

Going in the direction of being "revolutionary", I decide to make the……."ESSENTIAL". That, was really crazy to design, to project and to build. And, also, very…………………… expensive!!!

I was helped by two different professional workers: one specialized in working with plexiglass and another in building guitars.

As you can see in the pictures below, I designed something really, really………..….different!!!

The NECK

Just the part with the 6 machines to tie the cords, is very courageous in his essentiality. Super thin and reinforced with 2 layers of carbon fiber!!! Positioning the 6 machines, in order to let the brand "Essential" be read without obstructions, was very hard to design and, of course, to build!!!

Going down the neck, I like to point out that, the "dots" that usually indicate the 3rd, 5th and 7th positions, are holes filled with Plexiglas that permit the light to go through!!! Very cool effect when played on stage with the lights that comes from behind!!!

The BODY

Made in plexiglass, very essential (that's why the name) allows us to see all the mechanical elements: pick-ups, knobs of volume and tones plus the switch pick-up that is very unique coming out from the bottom and not, as usual, from in front!!!! Even the "bridge" from where the cords start, suspended on top of the body, seems cool ☺

The RESTING ELBOW

This is the most fun part and you'll never get what it's made of: the main holder is a clothes hook that can be attached to the top of a door!!! And the "puffy thing" is something on which we can rest our wrist while writing on the computer!!!!

Please don't ask me to build one for you. You can only ask me to sell it to you by making an offer that no sane person "can refuse"!!! Please, not the offer that can't be refused as in the Godfather!!!!! ☺ ☺