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The Experimental Guitar

Dirk Dresselhaus
©DirkDresselhaus

Being inspired by offset guitar players in the world of noise, punk, alternative, and so many other forms of popular guitar music, we started building the Deimel Firestar in 2012 with an experimental approach in mind.

Over the years we have developed more and more useful onboard features and are still developing more.

 

  • The piezo disc that is glued to the body wood is a standard feature in any Firestar. It allows to take the direct sound of the guitar, a very intimate sound directly from the inside of the guitar, by picking up its wooden resonance.
  • We made a more meaningful use of the „slider“ switches (that decorated so many of these 60ies Japanese and American low budget guitars) as for example a serial/parallel switch for both single coils and a surf switch that cuts the bass frequencies. 
  • The Pickup LesLee® is replacing the use of the famous wheeler pots for speed and intensity control, which have been duck taped on so many vintage offset guitars (as the original intention of those circuits were hardly used by the young musician). 
  • The LesLee® allows you to alternate the sound of any 2 pickups, adjustable in speed and intensity. The effect results in an oscilating soft waveform, based on the sound source of the neck and bridge pickup, a feature that we offer as mono or stereo version on our guitars exclusively. 
  • Making use of the extended string section behind the bridge, we offer to add a third pickup exactly between the Mastery bridge and vibrato. While being switched alternatively to the regular bridge pickup, the possibilities start to be endless in combination with the LesLee®, the piezo disc, and the often requested feature:
  • the kill switch. While pressing the button the entire sound or individual pickups of the guitar are killed for that very moment.

All of these become a new play ground for the experimental approach to guitar sounds. The endless combinations inspire to yet unheard guitar textures, something we always search for.
With the Deimel Firestar this is not happening on the floor board any more, but on the guitar, directly controlled by the player during his performance, to unfold the creative, intuitive process with the guitar. 
Deimel Firestar »Saturn Lavender« w/ LesLee™
Deimel Firestar »Black Matt«

We are very happy to have reached this personal milestone of our guitar works and proud to present the Pickup Leslee® Synchronizer in stereo built into an Experimental Deimel Firestar.
By joining the pulse, generated by the Pickup Leslee® using wave in/wave out patch cable connectivity, it is possible to either send or receive a waveform or sending out a CV signal. It is even possible to do sync recording by using a CV to Midi generator, or to be in sync with video signals for performing artists. We are very much looking forward to see performing artists create interactive art between guitar, electronic music, and performance in the near future.

Deimel Firestar LesLee Synchronizer

– experimental electric guitar hand-made in Germany
– taking sounds to a new level
– Pickup LesLee creates a pulse/clock
– connectivity to and interaction with modular synth
– via wave in/wave out and break out box
– separate guitar and clock signals
– built in piezo discs pick up resonances from neck and body
– pickup behind bridge amplifies bridge-to-vibrato
– string section
– perfect for stage and recording
– optional performance guitar stand
– free choice of woods, pickups, and colors
– we are open to custom requests

Read more 

Deimel Firestar LesLee Synchronizer

Meeting Your Needs

Each guitar player has different wishes and needs that can’t be always fulfilled with an »off the rack« instrument. For over 20 years we have been building guitars customized to the individual player. The Deimel Firestar as our most experimental guitar is serving quite a few modern composers around the globe to find their unique sounds as for example Alexander Formosa, Bryce Dessner (The National), David Chalmin, Dirk Dresselhaus (SchneiderTM), Gary Marlowe, Juozas Milasius, Kyan Bayani, Lee Ranaldo (Sonic Youth), and Vitja Balžalorsky (Laibach) (client list).

Below you find a few examples of very experimental Deimel Firestars made to the needs of our customers.

Deimel Firestar »Laguna Bay« Experimental
Deimel Firestar - Experimental Guitar
Deimel Firestar - Experimental Guitar
Deimel Firestar »Pastel Green« w/ LesLee and expression poti + out
Deimel Firestar - Experimental Guitar
Meeting Your Needs FS #075
Deimel Firestar LesLee Synchronizer
Meeting Your Needs FS #151

Videos

Ordering process

The easiest way to order your customized Deimel Firestar is to contact us directly via e-mail or phone, see contact information on bottom of page (we can also make Skype appointments). This way we can talk together about your ideas. Usually after this first talk, we can already nail it down and send you a detailed list of specification incl. an estimate. If you already know what you want, you can also just fill out our specs + price lists and send it back to us. Download here.
Once the specifications are approved, we send you an order confirmation asking for a 40 % deposit that allows us to start working on your guitar. During the building process you will be able to follow the build on Instagram »DeimelGuitarworks_onthebench« by using the personal hashtag we will send you. If questions arise we will contact you during the building process, so we can find the ideal solutions for your instrument.

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