GUITARS

This is the web site of guitarist Tonnie van der Heide

For many years I played mostly Gibson guitars, like: the ES-175 DN, the Howard Roberts Fusion, the Johnny Smith JDD WR, ES-347 B and of course the Ibanez AF 207.

 

Since January 2005 I  mostly play my lovely hand-built Chris Larkin 7-string.

 

Although this is a seven string, I have connected a Roland GR 33 guitar synth (which only works on the standard  6 strings) to this axe. I tune the lowest string to an "A" (one octave lower than the 5th. string). 

Thereby I can play  6-string type chords, move my finger from the 5th. to the 7th. string and getting a much "bigger" sound. This works very nice for chord melody arrangements, but also for Freddie Green-style rhythm playing. Everything is built into this guitar so I do not need to use a GK-2A Hex pickup.

With the ASAST I use a "break out" box, called Poly-Drive II.

Details on my Chris Larkin guitars

My first Chris Larkin guitar was commissioned autumn 2004.  Chris Larkin of Ireland built me a  handmade 15 inch (38.2 cm) custom 7-string. He calls it a 7 string ASAS semi.

It is brown like a violin or cello. There is a photo by Chris on the right hand side. 

 

Some of it's technical features are:

  • built-in RMC Piezo saddles under each string, with 7-string acoustic output 

  • 6-string RMC MIDI-output

  • two Chris custom 7-string humbuckers

  • switches to select the different outputs etc.

Some of it's cosmetic features are:

  • The inside area of the back plate under the F-holes is colored, to avoid ugly white f-holes on flash photos

  • The lacquer is satin, to avoid the very shiny surface of "normal" guitars, and to create more violin/cello-like looks

Spring 2006 I ordered a second Chris Larkin guitar.

A seven string ASAST, with a 17 inch (43.2 cm) body, which was delivery in June 2007.

It looks like a bigger brother of the guitar on the right.

Cosmetically and technically it is the same, but with only one floating humbucker.

 

Since Jan. 2007 I also got a "Honey Blonde" Dale Unger American Legend 7-string.

 

This means that I have two Inbanez AF-207 (7-string) in perfect condition for sale!

Photo taken by Chris Larkin in his workshop 

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