This Custom Galletta Guitar Neptune Series "The Porpoise" was made by Eric J. Galletta. It is a one-of-a kind electric guitar and was designed and made by hand with love by Eric. It's shape is a semi-hollow alder Tele Body body with f -hole painstakingly covered in exotic Nautilus-shell pyramid shape seashell designs . .. The shell material has unique resonant qualities that add to the string vibration and sustain. .. Eric Galletta first apprenticed under the legendary guitar maker, Wayne Charvel, who was the Southern California originator of the hot-rod concept and designer of electric guitars. Galletta later became partners with Wayne Charvel under the guitar brands and co-designed for Ritz Guitars and WRC Guitars. He designed the Neptune Series using exotic Nautilusshell pyramid shape seashell designs. Quite a few examples of that period can be found in the TYS Collection. Galletta has also worked with legendary guitar maker and designer Bernie Rico of the famed B.C. Rich Guitars. Eric also worked and apprenticed with legendary guitar maker and pioneer R.C. "Dick" Allen, who also taught and enabled him to suss-out the construction secrets of the father of the modern solid-body guitar, Paul A. Bigsby and build guitars from Bigsby Guitar #2 Serial # 81848 completed on August 18,1948.
The specifics of this special guitar are:
- Scale - 25 1/2"
- Frets - Medium Jumbo German fret wire
- Controls - Volume , Tone 3 way selector shielded base plate made of ebony with Porpoise inlaid in it.
- Pickups - Bridge pickup hand wound by master pickup maker Scott Lawing -Zexcoil Bridge- Dr. A. Scott Lawing is the inventor of Zexcoil pickup technology and the technical driving force behind LMP. Scott has been a guitar player for over 30 years. He is also an engineer with a PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and numerous technical papers, patents and presentations to his credit. Recently, Scott has started applying his technical and creative energies to the business of musical instruments. The Zexcoil series of pickups is just the first result of this effort. LMP will endeavour to provide innovative solutions and quality products! The Zexcoil Vintage Series features a vintage level wind and a nickel plated steel baseplate for that classic Tele twang* (*The baseplate on the Vintage Series Tele bridge pickups adds a slight bit of buzz, so these models are not as quiet as the others in our line, including the higher output Tele bridge pickups where we don’t use a baseplate. We’re willing to deal with it though, as the steel plate and its role in shaping the magnetic field and providing some additional eddy current drag is part of the classic Tele Twang!). The neck pickup is warm, rich and full sounding. It has the right amount of highs, mids and lows . ..
- Fret board - Ebony inlaid Porpoise at 12 fret Paua dot side fret markers
- Neck - 1 piece constructed from quarter sawn birds-eye maple with adjustable truss rod
- Bridge - Features a Roland Hannes designed bridge . ... as per Roland Hannes. How does the bridge affect the sound of the guitar in comparison to other bridges? Does it use some of their properties? Roland think that the main property that it shares with other bridges is that it has six separate elements. He was aware from the start that by doing one element per string you would eliminate string crosstalk. When you have a common and shared base for all the strings, the vibrations from any string will trigger the other strings because the base also vibrates. Some of the overtones will be exaggerated and others will be diminished. The sustain will decay sooner because of the non-harmonious vibrations which cancel each other out. Besides that, Roland thinks that his bridge is much more efficient than other bridges when it comes to transferring the energy of the strings to the body of the guitar, because it is macro-coupled as opposed to being micro-coupled. Just look at a typical bridge which has two frontal height adjusting screws and a rear intonation adjusting screw. How does the energy go from the string to the guitar? Through the microscopic contact that the three screws have with the base. Obviously, this has not stopped people from getting some great sounds out of their guitars and he is not saying that other bridges are worthless. But maybe they could be better, and at least now you have the option of using a much more efficient bridge which emphasises the acoustical properties of the instrument. If you want an even, clear sound with great sustain and pronounced harmonics, then you’ll probably like the bridge. And on top of that, the bridge is much more comfortable than other bridges because it has an almost completely smooth, rounded surface. It just feels great to rest your hand on it while you pick the strings. It might even affect how you play the guitar.
This very guitar was out on tour with Reggae Roots Band "Steel Pulse" and was also used on tracks of their latest album release "Mass Manipulation". Both, David "Dread" Hinds and David Elecciri played it.
A great looking and sounding guitar !
