Great Deal on a one of a kind Megatar with Midi Output!

SOLD!

B-stock Custom Megatar for sale.   Beautiful, one of a kind, well appointed and fully functional instrument with minor cosmetic blemishes.  Uncrossed, Bass Bottom tuning with This one has midi output on the melody strings and a programmable knob and switch for the midi.   That means you can use the melody (guitar strings) as a controller with a modeler or a synth to produce any sound you want.  Imagine how much fun you could have with that!  

SOLD! 

Regular price is almost $3700.  Sale price $2250  includes free domestic shipping.

Contact me asap if your interested, I am guessing this won't last long.

SOLD!  Sorry.

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Contact me asap if your interested

The Good:

•All the usual megatar awesomeness.  

•12 strings, 25 frets, 33.5" scale length.

•Custom solid Neck-through construction with a figured maple core two sets of wenge stringers and a black walnut neck and english walnut body wings.   This is the only one of these in the world and there will never be another one just like it.

•Tilt back black walnut headstock, Jescar evo zero-fret and integrated wenge string guide (nut)

•Fret board is 1/4 sawn wenge with real abalone front and side dots.

•Carbon fiber reinforced neck and head joint.

•Bartolini humbuckers with dual tone controls, nested volume and stereo output.

•Graphtech midi output on the melody strings with onboard 13-pin lack, programmable knob and selector switch.

•Custom black hardware.  Knobs, tuners, bridge, schaller strap locks, ferules.

•Uncrossed hands, "Bass Bottom" tuning.  

•Includes Strap, tool kit, starter stereo cord, and 15' Roland GK cable ($50 value).  Plus downloadable fretboard charts and method books if you want them.  

•The price.  $2250 for a custom, one of a kind, bad ass, neck through 12-string double guitar with bartolinis, midi output, carbon fiber, free shipping and everything else.  Hand made in Northern California.  Not made in a factory overseas.  Not assembled from a kit of parts manufactured overseas. No.  I actually start with raw lumber and step by step form it into a musical instrument myself.  

The Not So Good/full disclosure:

•Various minor cosmetic imperfections.  The kind of thing that most people might not even notice, but I do.  Imperfections in how the cavity covers fit.  Small surface imperfections that are only visible in good light at certain angles.  Little nicks in the wood by the string ferules, and minor wear from being around the shop and being played/demo'd.  Over all it looks good and plays well, but it is almost, but not perfect.  It's lack of perfection actually looks good in this case.  It looks substantial and authentic, not like a perfectly polished gem to be hidden away in a case. No this guy wants to be played.  The midi jack is mounted in a piece of inlayed wenge wood in a somewhat less than perfect way, and the jack itself is not overly robust, so just be careful with the midi jack as a rule, but especially in this case, and you'll be fine. 

Contact me asap if you are interested

Future of The Megatar!

I am looking for someone to help manage the Megatar business.  If you were ever interested in making a living as a guitar maker I can save you years of development time.  If you are seriously interested contact me and we can discuss the details.  Please no tire kickers.  

Save almost 60% on one of a kind Megatar demo model.

SOLD!

Rare B-stock Megatar for sale.   Beautiful, well appointed and fully functional instrument with some "issues".   Regular price $3135.  Sale price $1350 (over 57% off!!!)

 Contact me asap if your interested, I am guessing this won't last long.

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I am going to leave out the exaggerated marketing claims, abstract emotional appeals, hypnotic double talk and nebulous guitar speak, if that's ok, and just keep it to the facts. If that makes you uncomfortable, you can add phrases such as "for a faster neck", "for powerful tone", "for balanced playability", "for a really sweet action" or "for a professional look and sound" after any line item below. 

Contact me asap if your interested

The Good:

•All the usual megatar awesomeness.  

•12 strings, 25 frets, 33.5" scale length.

•Solid Neck-through construction with a figured maple core two sets of wenge stringers and a 1/4 sawn sapele neck and body.  

•Tilt back sapele headstock, Jescar evo zero-fret and graphtech string saver string guide (nut)

•Fret board is 1/4 sawn wenge with real abalone front and side dots.

•Carbon fiber reinforced neck and head joint.

•Bartolini humbuckers with dual tone controls, nested volume and stereo output.

•Custom black hardware.  Knobs, tuners, bridge, schaller strap locks, ferules.

•Crossed hands, "Bass Bottom" tuning.  

•Includes custom hard case, strap, and a tool kit.  Plus downloadable fretboard charts and method books.  Note: The case is decent, as good as most, but is not as good as it looks.  Fine for around town and back and forth to school or something, but not suitable for a traveling pro as it would not stand up to the abuse.

•The price.  $1350 for a bad ass, neck through 12-string double guitar with bartolinis and carbon fiber and everything else.  In a hard case. Hand made in Northern California.  Not made in a factory overseas.  Not assembled from a kit of parts manufactured overseas. No.  I actually start with raw lumber and step by step form it into a musical instrument myself.  

•This instrument is the first of the latest iteration of the Megatar that I call the "fast back" version because the back of the body is flat and not humped as it was until now.  Why the change?  The instrument is a little lighter, sleeker and more comfortable, and it is a little easier to build.  I thought the hump looked sorta cool, but probably no one even noticed and the other advantages out weigh the aesthetic benefit, if any.  

The Not So Good:

•Circular patch on back of neck where neck was accidentally gouged. See photos.

•Fretboard is glued on slightly off center and therefore bridge is also mounted off center.  Oops.  It still lines up where it counts, sounds great and plays as normal.  See photos.

•Various minor cosmetic imperfections.  The kind of thing that most people might not even notice, but I do.  Very minor imperfections in how the cavity covers fit.  Small surface imperfections that are only visible in good light at certain angles.  Minor wear from being around the shop and being played/demo'd.  Over all it is well built and powerful, but it is not perfect.  

•This instrument is better suited to a beginning or intermediate player who wants to have the best tools they can afford but that who is not going to agonize over subtleties.

•Case has a few scuffs and scratches.

Contact me asap if you are interested

In-depth and informative articles on tuning, intonation, harmonics, temperament, etc.

All that and written in a plain, casual style that is easy to understand.

 

Click the link below to become a better musician:

 

http://www.endino.com/archive/tuningnightmares.html

“No way I can play that thing, are you nuts? I have a hard enough time with 6 (or 4) strings.”

I imagine that when seeing a Megatar for the first time a lot of people say something like:
 
 “No way I can play that thing, are you nuts?  I have a hard enough time with 6 (or 4) strings.”
 
In response I say:
 
If you have piano training, it helps a lot.   If you can play bass, your good to go.  If you can play guitar, great.  If you dabble on all of them, even better.
 
If anybody ever learned to play guitar or keyboard, then you can learn to play the Megatar.
 
Did you know that on a piano the left and right hands have to learn different fingering patterns for each scale/key and that each key signature demands a different pattern of black and white keys?  On the Megatar the patterns for major scale, minor scales, blues scales, chord forms, etc. are the same regardless of what key and where on the fretboard you are.
 
There are a lot of notes (300 to be exact), but you don’t need to play them all at the same time. 
 
It might look intimidating, but when tuned in straight 4ths the geometry and patterns of the fretboard are easier to comprehend than standard guitar tuning.
 
If you think you could figure out how to play bass, this is just more of the same, but the actual playing technique is easier than bass or guitar because both hands are using the same technique.  Such that one hand does not need to learn a bunch of different stuff like, picking, or finger patterns, slapping, strumming, etc.  Rather both hands use the same technique.
 
Organ players regularly play with each hand on it’s own set of keys while also using their feet to play bass patterns.  Playing a Megatar is easier than that.
 
Accordion players play with both hands, and work the bellows at the same time.
 
In fact there are a lot of instruments that are much more difficult to master than the Megatar, and thousands of touch-style players around the world have proven that it can be done.
 
Standard bass instructional materials apply to the 4ths tuned Megatar, especially those geared toward 6-string bass and/or fretboard tapping technique. 
 
Any bass player who knows their way around a 6-string bass will be able to make sense of a Megatar. And what the left hand already knows flows quickly over to the right hand.
 
Every instrument ships with a set of 4 method books, a fretboard map and a music theory chart to get you started.
 
Tappistry.org is an online forum dedicated to two-handed tapping on any stringed
instrument and is a great resource for asking questions, connecting with other players and learning to play the Megatar.
 
If you choose a Chapman Stick style tuning there is a wealth of great instructional material and resources out there and an active forum.  Just don’t let them know your playing a Megatar or you might get hurt.
 

Answering the Call.

Big thanks to James Davies for sharing this brand new Megatar video with us all.  The Mt. Shasta T-shirt is a nice touch, I wish I had one of those.  You rock Jim!

Where have all the Megatars gone?

Where have all the Megatars gone?

As I think about improving the video portion of the website, I have to wonder where have all the Megatars gone?

Middle aged guys picked them, every one.

Well mostly anyways and really they tapped them, but seriously, come on all you proud men and women of the Megatar!  It's time to represent! Playing the Megatar is part of what makes you so awesome.  You must have something to share.  Let us know your out there and what you can do.

When will they ever learn? 
 

Most of the Megatar videos out there are several years old, and back then a lot of people were already playing the heck out of them.  What have you learned in the years in between?

When will they ever learn?

And don't forget, if you are still learning to play the Megatar, Stick, Bass or Guitar you can grab a very useful fretboard map and music theory chart here.

MIDI OPTIONS

If you are a Stick player who is not satisfied with your midi options, I recommend having a look at The Megatar.  Already a fine custom built instrument designed around purity of tone and responsive feel, a Megatar set up with Stick tuning and hexaphonic midi output is the answer to a lot of questions that you did not even know you had.

While your at it why not throw in acoustiphonic piezo preamps and bartolini humbuckers. Can't you feel the power!?!

For a limited time (until I get to the bottom of this box of GK cables) every midi equipped instrument ships with a free "Umbilical Cord".  Consisting of 15-foot, 13-pin GK cables wrapped up with a high studio quality stereo output cable.  Providing high quality sound and midi transfer and keeping cable clutter to a minimum.  Go price a GK cable and you'll see why I bother to mention this.

Click here to read more about the GHOST MODULAR PICKUP SYSTEM from Graph Tech.

From Graphtech, the maker of the midi system that I use:

The hexaphonic pickup system featuring unparalleled tracking in an easy-to-install package. The Hexpander MIDI interface features a proprietary harmonic damping system that results in tracking unequaled by any other system on the market today. It provides responsive and accurate triggering, no more dead spots, and no need to slow down your playing so that your system can keep up!

The ghost Hexpander MIDI interface system adds MIDI capability to almost any guitar or bass.  Plug your guitar into pitch-to-MIDI converters by Roland or Axon and enter the MIDI sound universe.  The Hexpander MIDI interface provides responsive and accurate tracking unequaled be any other system on the market today.  Check out how affordable and easy it can be to make MIDI part of your music making.

Like Han in Carbonite!?!

That phrase kept on echoing through my mind as I was working on an instrument recently.  I was surprised to see that with the right amount of creativity, there is indeed something of a resemblance between the iconic image of Han Solo encased in carbonite from the Star Wars saga and a Megatar being carved out of it's solid ingot of tone wood.  See below for some of the abstract similarities that I saw.

On a side note.  I recently re-watched the original star wars trilogy with some of my kids, and honestly the movies didn't really strike me as being all that.  Yeah sure the effects were groundbreaking, but the story telling and the acting?  They are really just B-movies that struck a chord and mostly through the mechanism of marketing have carved out a niche in the collective psyche as something wonderful and nostalgic, without really being all that great.  Gasp!  Yup, I said it.  

Fretboard maps and music theory charts, exclusively for megatar subscribers!

Whether you are still deciding on what tuning to go with or are an accomplished performer a clearly presented map of the fretboard and a basic music theory reference are essential tools to have in your kit.

With that in mind I put together a set of fretboard maps for popular touchstyle tunings and combined them with a useful music theory chart.  These are available as a free download for list subscribers.

Click on the banner at the very top of the page to get access to the entire collection.

Available tunings:
Megatar and others - Bass bottom, straight fourths, crossed hands
Megatar and others - Bass bottom, straight fourths, uncrossed hands
Chapman Stick Tuning - Inverted Fifths, crossed hands
Six-string Bass - BEADGC
Standard Guitar

Also of note is that the charts are presented in conventional format and also in a mirror image format for more clarity.

Sample:

"High quality graphics, very useful information, indispensable, and worth every penny."

-Dick Whitman, Musician

Tappistry.org is back!

Tappistry.org, a place where we are all woven of the same cloth.

Announcing:

www.tappistry.org
 

An open forum dedicated to the art of Touchstyle guitar.

After some years in hiatus www.tappistry.org is live again!

As stated in the byline, Tappistry is an "open" forum, welcoming all those interested in Touchstyle and two-handed tapping techniques.  Reaching across the dividing lines between instruments and styles, Tappistry aims to build a supportive community of creative people interested in exploring and increasing awareness of this fun and innovative way of making music.

The forum is still in it's nascent stages, which makes it an exciting time for you get involved.

 Ask a question, make an observation, share an idea, and you will be shaping the way this community forms.



Photo was shamelessly pilfered form the web.  Check out: https://www.facebook.com/pages/E-Tap/165523653499530?sk=timeline   for more info on what these guys are up to.