We took a look at some Mark Behme guitars a while back.
Mark sent me an email about a new piece, “The Offender”.
The “Offender”, a silvery-colored, carved, baltic birch ply body with two Lace Alumnitone pickups. Reversed strings into a Wilkinson floating tremelo with a locking feature. Output is passive or active through an EMG Afterburner switch.
Tell you what…I haven’t been bitten by the whammy bug since I was a young ruttin’ buck but, I would surely plug that baby in and take it for a spin.
As a result of the continuing art guitar conversation (which I’m really digging, by the way), I have had some correspondence with Mark Behme.
Mark is going in a different direction than the other artists we have been looking at. He is incorporating sculpture along with primo components.
Here is the “Corvina”…
“Corvina” A crow-theme 6-string with Seymour Duncan P-90s, concentric pots for volume and tone. Schaller locking tuners and a Schaller roller bridge. Body is swamp ash with a bolt-on maple/ebony neck. Feather details burned in and aniline-dyed and oiled. Headstock is carved as a crow wing. Painted eyes and fully carved back.
Here we have “Dicey Clown”…
“Dicey Clown” A baritone length clown-theme guitar with through-the-body green-glass eyes that transmit the back light through to the front for a “flashing” effect. Body is hard ash and painted with enamels. Maple through-the-body neck with ebony fretboard and peghead carved as a clown hat with an eight-ball top. Multicolored Steinberger tuners finish the hat. Hot-wound Carvin humbuckers are painted into the teeth of the mouth and mounted from behind to make a very clean look (see back detail photos). The piece also has a Wilkinson tremolo, mini-switch for coil-tap, two tones controls (0.05 cap and Black Ice gain tone). Dice knobs complete the look.
I’m real sure that is the first baritone art guitar we’ve seen. You see what I mean about primo components? Every one of Mark’s guitars are highly unique down to the the parts. Not only is there a ton of sculpting work going on with each piece, they are customized as far as pickups, tuners etc..So, it’s obvious that Mark’s knowledge extends to guitar specific, deep geeking stuff. And, as I look at more and more art guitars I think that type of knowledge is essential.
Find out more about Mark Behme at his website and, view more of his guitars at Neptune Gallery.
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