Thank You Black Francis! My former @eastworks_ma neighbor and Pixies front man Frank Black, aka Charles Thompson, is one of a kind. This is the second Healer we’ve built for him but the first with 6 strings. Much like the first it also has one of his wisdom teeth in it.
A couple of years ago Charles brought in a massive pile of wood to his studio that was freshly cut maple from his property. We picked out a few choice pieces worthy of guitar making and rough cut it to air dry. Last year he brought us another tooth, so we had start building!
The neck and top are both maple from his backyard in Amherst. The body core is alder, a classic instrument wood that is always nice to work with. Instead of putting the tooth in the headstock like last time, I made a cavity in the back so you could peer inside to see the tooth. A little more stealth, and more for Charles than anyone else.
His main guitar in the Pixies is an early 50’s tele and he always uses the bridge pickup. We wanted the Healer to have a humcancelling bridge pickup that would be quiet in the studio. We also put in a more vibrant neck pickup that he might even turn on every now and again. Ohad made this set, an alnico magnet P-90 style pickup in the neck with a brass baseplate. It has a lot more harmonic content and a bit of compression when hit harder. The bridge pickup is a stacked coil and can be run in series or parallel with a push pull on the tone pot. Series is the main “down” position. It’s got a nice bite but is also really clear.
Ohad and I brought the new Healer over to him in the studio last week and had a blast handing it over. He showed us around and introduced us to the band (!!!), we had coffee, and tried not to be too giddy while he took the Healer for a spin. Quite a day!
I’ll post more specs on the next post, but for now I’ll just say thanks again Charles! #healyguitars #blackfancis #frankblack #thepixies #pixies #madeinmassachusetts #healyhealer
