Creston Lea and the Visualizer

Before my son was born I decided that I would sell a guitar (or two) and have one custom made. After several months of looking for the right builder, I found a gentlemen named Creston Lea in Burlington, Vermont. One long evening spent looking at the instruments on his site, listening to various players play them, reading, reading, reading, and a Creston Electric was in the cards. Over the last few years I have learned quite a bit about the seemingly endless number of things that make guitars sound the way that they do, and I felt that I had finally come to some conclusions about what I wanted, and didn't want in an instrument. Of course Creston and I wrote back and forth and back and forth and back and forth and back...(you get the idea) before making final decisions. Let us just say that I had some requests that were not so easy to implement.

I would genuinely like to write and write and write about these numerous details, but I fear that you, dear reader, would for the most part be bored. I could tell of the different sounds that different woods make, what scale length means regarding tonality, and a thing or two about electro-magnetics and how it relates to pickups, coil, etc., etc., etc. Believe me, my poor wife heard it all. So I will spare you. I will say though that Creston made me something of a masterpiece. A strange gift that man has, which came as no surprise. I figured by the list of players he is building for, and the number of them who return for a second instrument, that I must have been in good hands. Really, no pun intended. I could of course relay to you the detailed mastery of his work, but again, I will spare you.

Perhaps the most surprising thing about all of this, is that he somehow created exactly the guitar I had in mind. The degree of accuracy is rather baffling to be honest. True, some of this was my doing with regards to wood choice, color choice, knob choice, pickguard material, etc., but to be honest he was the captain of the ship, me a lone watcher in a crow's nest, occasionally hollering down ideas. (More Images of my guitar here)

At some point during the process I drove out to Burlington to meet with him and discuss some particulars, feel some necks (guitar necks), and get acquainted. Though wouldn't it be funny if instead there as some ancient custom that guitar builders and their customers had to size up each other's necks? Anyway, we spent some time in his shop, then went out to lunch and walked the town a bit. The whole of the experience gave me hope for this crazy world. Aside from making great instruments, he is a good man and one that I would even dare to call a friend. (Not to mention he has good taste in literature, and we've talked babies a bit).

So any of you guitar (or bass) playing readers of mine, really should buy one. I mean that. Don't think about it, don't look around or check him out first, just buy one. Trust me. I am not kidding.

On that note (guitars) I post yesterday's improvisation. I'm not quite sure what to say about it, (am I ever?) but I can say this: I seem to have recorded a nearly perfect piece of music for the new iTunes visualizer. (This may be a bad thing) I downloaded the new iTunes sometime in the last week or so, and last night as I listened to the track (in an otherwise dark room) I turned on the visualizer. Much to my surprise, things were quite different; and dazzling if not a bit repetitive. Not necessarily better than the old visualizer, just different. I tried numerous other pieces of music, and I must say that none struck me quite like my own. (Regarding its effect on the visualizer and vice versa).

I then thought, "wouldn't it be interesting if I started composing music specifically for the visualizer, trying for the perfect relationship?" Then I thought, "maybe not. Maybe that would be really lame. REALLY LAME. A 2008 version of the laser show. Ugh."

You should know the trick by now. Go to the "Other Work" page of my site, click on Sunday Sessions.....

Posted by jeff pitcher at November 17, 2008 03:52 PM

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