Tulsa Sound Guitars is run by android-originals.com, currently based in Tulsa Oklahoma since 2003, as an experimental site to post information on guitar art, decorations, accessories and prototypes. The use of the term “Tulsa Sound” is provisional and cannot be truly earned until a sufficient number of Tulsa, Oklahoma musicians can evaluate, use and publicly comment upon android originals prototype guitars. So far, only a few Tulsa guitarists have seen and played a few prototypes, and the comments have been favorable.
I’m not really a musician, having only played clarinet one year and drums the next in Junior High band. But during my last stint in grad school, I kept having these dreams where I played killer guitar. Yeah, right – dreams. But after my last job as a scientist (who used to be an electronics engineer), I went on disability and bought my first guitar in March or April of 2005 to help pull myself out of the blues. It was a blue Fender Squier.
As far as playing went, my skinny arms lacked the strength to press the strings down for chords. And my fingers have gotten too clumsy and sensitive to stand the pain of if, even if I could. To this day, I still lay it down on my lap and use my left thumb on the frets.
I have other talents. First thing, I shot pictures of the Bullet and made up a PhotoShop template to put my artwork behind. See http://www.theandroidsaxe.com, an older web site. Second, I started modifying the body to make it lighter and easier to play on my lap. Third, I routed out the area under the pickguard to add extra pickups, and an electronic breadboard, designing my own preamp and distortion circuit around a nine-volt battery and a couple of dual op-amp chips.
Then I started making skeleton guitars. The first sounded good, but broke apart under string pressure because it was made of poplar. The neck and pickups came from a used Austin strat. The second, made of red oak, survives and plays well. The third turned out so ugly, no one will see it. The fourth has been covered by a Provisional Patent Application. Hopefully by this time next year, it can be made public along with reviews by a number of accomplished Tulsa musicians.
Stay tuned.
