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EEL - it's a long story.

I am not crazy about the name, EEL, but for now, that it is what I will call this one.

E for my friend Eric (Badfinger), who gave me the Elmar pickup. I gave Eric a Lowe cone and he ended up with a similar looking guitar he calls the Pissonator.

E for Elmar, who was the first I know of to make flat and great sounding pickups. Others try to do the same and do pretty well. I do not know if they have matched him. He is hard to match.

And L for Lowe – Mike Lowe, out of Texas who made the resonator.

1.This was first made to be a pretty guitar. It had a piezo and shinny brass. It was fretted and tuned DGB back in 2010. That was the only tuning I could play back then. I played it at the open mic at the first Kansas City CBG fest. I was pretty nervous, but the guitar and I did okay.

2.Some time and a few builds later, I decided that 'pretty builds do not suit me'. I made this one a relic and it had a lot more dark paint on it and the brass was more tarnished.

3. I recently picked it up and played it. The frets worked fine near the peg head, but not so fine up the neck and toward the body. This pissed me off. I stripped the frets off and sanded some black paint off and cleaned up the brass a little

4.A different guitar, which I originally had the Elmar pickup on, SEEMED like the best guitar I ever made. I played it at Kansas City Fest #3 and also filmed a video of my friend Maddog playing it. But I had made the neck too thin where the pickup sat. Over time, the neck bowed up and the strings got higher off the fret board. When it got too bad., I stripped the good parts, but the Elmar pickup, which was hot glued in place, came up minus the wood trim
5.Today I combined the Elmar with the reso build. It still has a separate piezo. Both sound good, but the Elmar is smoother and warmer and the piezo is dirtier. :) I can take my pick. I am happy with the outcome.

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Comment by Uncle John on April 22, 2014 at 6:16am: Thanks, guys.

Comment by Bad Finger (Eric) on April 22, 2014 at 2:11am: I'm going to test using one of my Elmar 3 string Flatpups on the 4-string "pissinator" guitar, Grumpy Old Git. It will only take a bit of tape to try out and see if it works OK or not.

Comment by Maddog on April 22, 2014 at 2:06am: It turned out real nice John!

Sometimes builds that we finish just sit.......well wrong with a guy. I have some that I have built and I will play them and they just don't sound/feel right so I put them down. Then pick them up months later and low and behold.....they still don't feel right. Out comes the hammer and saw and they go thru a transformation, most times they are better.

I liked the first build you had the Elmar on but with the bowing neck issue it forced your hand to do something different, you did very well with this one!