Hell Guitars

[FrankenFretter]

I've decided I need a Number 2. The guitar, I mean.

 

[Eric]

I've decided I need a Number 2. The guitar, I mean.

Those guitars are the ****.

 

[Tig]

I've decided I need a Number 2. The guitar, I mean.

LOL (A Number 2 from Hell?)
Mine is a keeper!

 

[FrankenFretter]

Those guitars are the ****.

I wonder if I can get that in Brown Faded...?

LOL (A Number 2 from Hell?)
Mine is a keeper!

Man, I've had some of those after spicy Thai food. Oh, this thread is so derailed. Eric again...

 

[Eric]

I wonder if I can get that in Brown Faded...?

Man, I've had some of those after spicy Thai food. Oh, this thread is so derailed. Eric again...

:rotflmao:

 

[bcdon]

Moving right along...

My Zero Dot is quickly becoming my favourite guitar. It plays so easily and fills so good. Don't get me wrong, I love the Bender too but lately I've
been working on some clean songs and this guitar (and my Godin) are so awesome to play. Syo, you did a great job with these guitars!!

 

[bcdon]

Robert, I love this photo.

I have this exact guitar, and if you set aside the fact that you can actually play it (and that I'm fatter than you), I might even call that a self portrait! ;-)

 

[Monkus]

can we order yet?

 

[Robert]

Thanks Don, yeah I'm glad I'm blurry and the guitar is not!

It looks dang fantastic this guitar, and I love how easy it is to play. Not to mention the great TONE...

 

[crmartin]

I'm new to this forum and must say these guitars look and sound awesome. Looking forward to their release.

 

[syo]

Hello again...
It has been awhile since any Hell reports. I have been debating about doing so for awhile but as much has happened (both good and not so good), report I shall.

As for the good, our first small run sold out very quickly. Sold to both dealers and individuals. We now have three dealers in Japan and tons of enquiries/preorders from many good people all over the world. Frankly I was pretty much overwhelmed by it all. Between Robert's Youtube vids and a friend's efforts here in Japan, the word got out surprisingly fast. We have a larger production run finishing up in the next few weeks and distribution will be direct from Japan and the US. Although we ship to Europe now, we probably won't have a distributor there until sometime in the new year.

I am really excited that Hell is able to take part in an upcoming charity event benefitting the UCLA Daltrey/Townshend Teen Cancer Program and the UCLA Early Childhood Partial Hospitalization Program for Autism. A signed Hell Guitar ZeroDot will be auctioned off. Signed (I've been told) by the artists participating in the event, including Roger Daltry, Robert Plant, Dave Grohl and and others (2 of the rumored special guests make me want to buy the guitar myself!). It was my intent from the beginning to use a portion of profits to benefit others so I was very happy when this opportunity to participate came our way. Here's the invite:

Tickets starting at $2,500 (with packages up to $100,000) so it's sure to sell out fast...
More details here: http://www.uclahealth.org/site.cfm?id=535

More good news, we've had our first review (a good one) in a nice Japanese guitar mag called "Gigs". I'll try to post a translation somtime soon. I find that when it comes to guitars, the Japanese market is by far the pickiest and really demands quality. I've been very encouraged to find that our guitars have been (so far) given very high marks by both people in the business as well as regular players.

On the not so good side, I have been rather overly challenged of late with health problems. I was diagnosed about 12 years ago with an auto-immune type of arthritis. It never really caused much trouble at all, however about 4 months ago it started to become increasingly active. Fingers and toes swelling up like sausages and considerable pain, fatigue and stiffness over most of my body. I was given meds to deal with it but was taken off of them after some alarming blood work. Since then things have been particularly unpleasant. I should hear back from my doctor tomorrow if I can start back on the meds. I certainly hope so as they did seem to keeping the worst of it at bay. I am relating this info because I know that some of you have been following along and I wanted to continue telling the story as it is. I intended to launch the website some months ago but held up because of my condition. I had far more enquiries than I could handle without the finished site going live so I though it best to wait until either my situation was stable or I could get more people on the team to help out. I feel confident that I will get on the right track soon and I do have some very good people who can help out. All this has put me a bit behind schedule, but that's life. We're pretty much set to go for the next shipment in early November. So stay tuned! In the meantime you can see some of the Hell Guitars' gallery (not quite finished) from the website here:

http://www.hellguitars.com/gallery/index.html

Sorry for the long post. But it has been awhile...

 

[Eric]

Some good news and bad news there. Sorry to hear about the condition -- is it RA? The companies I work for tend to be big into autoimmune treatmeants, so I guess the upside is that right now is a good time for a lot of innovation in those medications. I hope you manage to get it under control soon.

 

[Tig]

I'm very happy about the good news and growth of Hell Guitars. I still absolutely love

mine even after the honeymoon period. The online guitar gallery looks very professional, and I recognize some of Robert's guitar work in the streaming audio.

I sure hope you get the arthritis controlled again. That is a pain that most of us luckily don't understand. I suffer from a similar joint condition and feel some of your pain. Playing guitar actually helps my hands.

Consider possible changes in diet to help manage the inflammation. Hopefully things will return to normal. Take care, and feel free to unload on us if you need to vent.

 

[syo]

Some good news and bad news there. Sorry to hear about the condition -- is it RA? The companies I work for tend to be big into autoimmune treatmeants, so I guess the upside is that right now is a good time for a lot of innovation in those medications. I hope you manage to get it under control soon. This one has been promising so far.

Hey Eric. It's Psoriatic Arthritis which is similar to RA in many ways. Right now (as of this morning:happy) I am back on the Methotrexate which is usually one of the first meds tried when an auto-immune arthritis is getting more serious. It is a chemotherapy drug that has been around for awhile. As you say, there are all kinds of new/amazing (and expensive- $25,000 a year!) drugs out there for RA/PA. I'm sure I'll find something that works well for me.

I sure hope you get the arthritis controlled again. That is a pain that most of us luckily don't understand. I suffer from a similar joint condition and feel some of your pain. Playing guitar actually helps my hands.

Consider possible changes in diet to help manage the inflammation. Hopefully things will return to normal. Take care, and feel free to unload on us if you need to vent.

Well Tig, guitar has been out of the question for me the past week or so. Hard to play with a few sausages posing as fingers. It has been rather depressing not to be able to play. Just got some very strong painkillers/anti-inflammatories this morning so hopefully I can bang around some this weekend. Regarding diet, I have been a vegetarian most of my life and switched to vegan because of this. Eating foods that supposedly decrease inflammation and avoiding salt and sugar. Haven't noticed much difference yet except that I crave pretzels and cake. :hungry

Thanks for the invitation to vent. I think I just did!

 

[aeolian]

My wife has RA with symptoms since she was in her 20s. The last several years she has been on Humira from Abott and it has helped fend off the worst symptoms. I don't know if Humira works for Psoriatic Arthritis, I take it that if it works your doctor would have considered using it.

 

[Eric]

My wife has RA with symbols since she was in her 20s. The last several years she has been on Humira from Abott and it has helped fend off the worst symptoms. I don't know if Humira works for Psoriatic Arthritis, I take it that if it works your doctor would have considered using it.

Humira, Enbrel, and Remicade (and now Simponi) all target the same thing (TNF alpha), and I think Humira is the one that's supposed to be the most compatible in people (i.e. a fully human antibody). I think at least a couple of those are add-on drugs to Methotrexate, where you have to already be on Methotrexate to take Remicade, for example. There's a whole slew of new ones out there like Stelara that are indicated for similar autoimmune conditions like psoriasis, PA, etc. I think Stelara in particular is in clinical trials for PA right now.

But yeah...I guess you're right that it's safe to assume the doctor is considering or has considered all of those already. Not sure what the point was of my blather above, now that I look at it.

 

[Katastrophe]

Man, syo, I hope you get better, and soon.

 

[syo]

My wife has RA with symptoms since she was in her 20s. The last several years she has been on Humira from Abott and it has helped fend off the worst symptoms. I don't know if Humira works for Psoriatic Arthritis, I take it that if it works your doctor would have considered using it.

I'm sorry to hear that your wife has been dealing with this from such a young age. She's on the good stuff though. Humira is often prescribed for PA too as well as the other TNF alpha inhibitors Eric mentioned (Eric, you certainly know your stuff!). One problem for me with these drugs is that I test positive for tuberculosis having been exposed in my teens. There is a danger of the TB becoming active when taking these drugs because one is left wide open to infection while taking them. So I will need to take a different drug regime to deal with the TB (for the better part of a year) before I can take any of the above mentioned drugs. But the one I'm on now is fairly standard and hopefully will have me right as rain soon. :dance

The timing of all of this has been the most unfortunate part for me. Honestly Hell Guitars could not be blowing up any better. I'm looking forward to feeling better soon and making my own small but satisfying mark on the guitar world. And if anyone out there is planning on going to The Who Teen Cancer benefit, let me know. I'll send you some free Hell swag!

Man, syo, I hope you get better, and soon.

Thanks Brother Kat. I certainly intend to!

 

[riverrick]

I guess I didn't see the the post here after all Michael. Its sounds a lot worst than I though, hope you can get healthy REAL SOON!!! I checked out web site demos and photo gallery. Really well done looks fabulous!!! By the sound of things looks like Hell is going to be a BIG hit!!! Kudos to you my friend. Keep up all the great work & get well soon.

 

[NWBasser]

Michael, I also have PA. I've had it for more than twenty years.

It really sucks, but I'm taking a fairly effective anti-inflammatory (Etodolac) which works well for me. I also find excercise to be a big help.

I hope that you can find a medication that will help you effectively deal with the swelling and soreness. Good luck to you.

 

[Duffy]

Best wishes Syo. Time has a sneaky habit of moving on and leaving us behind. That's why it's a good idea to make the most out of every day, and even though we might not be able to exactly keep up, we can do our best and make more of a contribution than we might be aware of.

A recent Pope, in denying a request to retire from one of his top dudes suffering from deteriorated health, said, "Pain is your friend. It keeps you humble." Not many people want to suffer pain, and I hope that your pain meds help you A Lot and keep the inflamation down. I have followed your developing endeavor and hope that you can continue your pursuit in the face of this adversity. Some of the greatest achievements made have been acomplished under adverse conditions.

 

[syo]

Hey Basser, thanks for the encouragement. I'm sure I'll be doing much better once the meds kick in!

 

[syo]

..."Pain is your friend. It keeps you humble." Not many people want to suffer pain, and I hope that your pain meds help you A Lot and keep the inflamation down. I have followed your developing endeavor and hope that you can continue your pursuit in the face of this adversity. Some of the greatest achievements made have been acomplished under adverse conditions.

Thanks Duffy! I totally agree with you. No one wishes to have pain and/or adversity but I do believe that our greatest opportunities for growth and positive development often come from them. And yes, certainly humility too!

Fortunately, the most demanding parts of developing Hell Guitars have been taken care before all of this recent unpleasantness. Now I can delegate certain responsibilities to others to take care of and I can spend more of my time designing and dreaming up new ideas. We are pretty much ready to go as soon as the guitars are finished and delivered. If this had happened a year ago I would have had to shelve things until I got better. But I fully intend to make Hell a successful brand. Successful in that we can make enough money to continue doing business and give as much as possible to help others in need. I'm excited...

 

[Tig]

Thanks Duffy! I totally agree with you. No one wishes to have pain and/or adversity but I do believe that our greatest opportunities for growth and positive development often come from them. And yes, certainly humility too!

So true! I remember my Dad telling me when I was a teen that "this [adversity] is a character builder", and my reply was, "I think I've have enough character built today, thanks!"

The funny thing about chronic pain is when it suddenly is lessened or gone, you realize just how bad it has been. You get so used to it, only increases or decreases in it are noticed.

Now I can delegate certain responsibilities to others to take care of and I can spend more of my time designing and dreaming up new ideas.

Um, I'll throw in a vote for something in a semi-hollow 335-ish guitar. Just sayin'...

 

[bcdon]

Here's to good health, syo!

 

[syo]

Time for some Hell updates...

Until recently Hell was mostly what I was feeling like. I had a fairly trying time both before and since my last post but things are trending more positive nowadays. My hands are almost normal size and I can play the guitar again. woohoo! Fingers have twisted a bit but it just seems to compliment the idiosyncratic nature of my playing style. Or so I choose to believe. Anyway, back to the REAL Hell news...

Sold our first $15,000 ZeroDot at auction earlier this month. Though I think it had more to do with the fact that it was signed by Roger Daltrey, Robert Plant and Dave Grohl than the actual value of the guitar. The Teen Cancer benefit was quite a success from what I hear and we were very happy to have been a part of it. My buddy tells me that Daltrey and the Foos did a ripping version of Young Man Blues. Wish I could have made it.

Just heard from the factory today that the guitars are ready to go. I just have to go over there to inspect the lot before it ships. Travel is still a little rough for me so I may wait another week or two, but we're nearly there.

I don't know if any of you remember some of the Gibby truss rod covers I designed but they are finally being made and should be finished in just over a week (I'll be sending you one Sean along with some other bits). I've also designed some copper/nickel pickup covers and am talking prices with manufacturers now. Hope to get some of those in too, some time in December. Oh and the website should be up (shouldn't it?!:thwap ) and really will be before too long. :whatever: Also we have a new Japanese dealer (chain of stores) who is currently displaying some Hell Guitars and will be carrying our brand. Not too shabby...

That's it for now. I have been quite absent in terms of posting in general at The Fret but it isn't because I haven't wanted to. Just went through a rough patch. It's nice to be back.

 

[Tig]

Good news, all!
I'm glad both you and the business are on an upward swing.

 

[riverrick]

That's some great news. Can only image how tough this has been for you. Looking forward to the website to be up & running. Not to mention the delivery of some of those beautiful guitars.

 

[Monkus]

Great news, inspiring stuff this....

 

[bcdon]

Glad you are feeling better, syo! When you get back to 100% I'll restart my status update nudges. ;-)