2017 Deimel Firestar

Frank Deimel has been a hero and inspiration for us since we first ever laid hands on one of his creations. Whilst a fair few "boutique" guitars really focus on how they look, Herr Deimel focusses on versatility, specification and also has some visual tricks up his sleeve too. As normal, prices for such guitars seem almost obtainable, but then you get an options list which tempts you into abject poverty while you wait years for the guitar to arrive and sell more vital organs when the taxman clears his throat and holds out a hand.

This is a particularly high spec Firestar model from 2017 - a one-owner guitar here in UK that has formed part of a managed collection, and whose mileage is purely the journey to the MOT station every year - it is genuinely in 'As New' condition, complete with Certificate of Authenticity.

A lot of option boxes were ticked: this Firestar has a one-piece Swamp Ash body and the "highly Figured" maple neck to the JM59 standard - a bit more to get hold of, but not too much. The saddle and tremolo are Mastery products - supremely engineered and constructed and the long arm encouraging warbles, but happy to go further if required.

The Magenta aluminium scratchplate contains 2 Curtis Novak pick-ups - a JM-V at the neck and a JM-90 at the bridge. The JM-V is a classic take on the Fender sound; the JM-90 being a P-90 style construction and resulting beefier tone. This has a master volume and master tone both using 500k CTS pots, the tone being governed by a Sprague 1813 capacitor. That, in itself, provides a great sounding guitar - each of the 3 fundamental tones sounding expensive and there on purpose. But this is just the beginning.

Between the saddle and bridge is another pick-up - a Mojo Jaguar bridge unit; Alnico 5 with 42awg wire just as they were in 1963. This pick-up, known as Behind-the-bridge, delivers the subtle vibrations that make it past the saddle. Plucking the strings over this pick-up will give the very strange effect you'd expect, but there is method behind this madness. A slider switch by the selector toggle allows you to decide which bridge pick-up is in play - either the JM-90 or the Mojo Jaguar. If the Mojo is selected, and the toggle in the bridge position, then all you will get is those post-saddle vibrations that do change with chord positions, but only as far as the scale is altered by the chord. The demo video will show you what this means to your ears. If the toggle is selecting neck and bridge, then the neck tone will dominate, but the parallel connected Mojo will enable some shimmering harmonic effects to add colour to the sound in fascinating and slightly discordant ways. If the neck pick-up is selected on its own, the Mojo has no effect on the tone regardless of the position of the slider. And there is more...

The slider switch next to the pick-up selection toggle activates a piezo disc that is mounted in the control cavity. This piezo disc operates independently from the magnetic pick-ups and the presence of the effect is governed by reducing the magnetic pick-up volume. Once again, the demo video will describe this effect more than words can. This piezo effect applies to tones using the Mojo pick-up too - already a huge palette is available. But there is still more...

There is a further slider switch and two roller wheels on the upper horn - these govern the LesLee controls where further magic happens. The slider switch activates the effect, and the roller wheels govern the rate and depth of the effect. Producing an effect similar to a rotary speaker and a tremolo (guitar effect, not bridge). Activating the Leslee overrides the pick-up selector toggle as the signal alternates between the neck and bridge pick-ups either slightly in terms of which pick-up dominates, or at its maximum effect the time it takes to sweep the whole signal between them. This is controlled by one rotary wheel, the other rotary wheel will determine how quickly this happens. When the controls are set to near maximum effect, the effect can almost resemble a slicer. If the Mojo pick-up is engaged as the bridge pick-up, the LesLee will provide an even more intense effect as the signal sweeps between the neck pick-up and the Mojo, which as explained above is only reporting the vibrations of the string between the saddle and the bridge to the signal path. If words aren't enough here, please check out the demo video. Engaging the piezo adds yet more character to the tone.

Complexity accepted, and with sufficient time to familiarize yourself with the controls and functions, this is a creator's dream. Ideas and experimental work will flow easily from this instrument as the controls are well placed, the rotary wheels are weighted perfectly and the guitar feels like a very premium instrument indeed. The Pyramid 1508 frets are, as their name would suggest, a triangular style fret, similar to Jescar 51108, an unusual but interesting fret - another characteristic of the guitar that sets it aside from most others.

This exciting and indulgent specification added over 40% to the basic spec Firestar price - the resulting guitar is breath-taking; a fastidiously well built instrument offering you a huge opportunity to experiment and get very creative.