When Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal talks about “getting extra notes,” he’s not speaking metaphorically. The guitarist’s one-of-a-kind setup, a double-necked guitar featuring both fretted and fretless necks, is a marvel of engineering and imagination. Inspired by Eddie Van Halen’s fearless spirit of innovation, Bumblefoot’s creation pushes the boundaries of what a guitar can do, both sonically and mechanically.
Here’s a closer look inside one of modern rock’s most fascinating custom instruments, and how Bumblefoot turned a simple idea into a revolutionary guitar hack.
The Birth Of A Hybrid: One Guitar, Two Worlds
The concept started in the late 1990s, when Bumblefoot was exploring microtonal melodies and slide-style phrasing that a traditional six-string couldn’t fully capture. “I wanted to hit the notes between the notes,” he explained. “Eddie Van Halen inspired that curiosity, to ask, ‘What else can this thing do?’”
The result was his signature Vigier DoubleBfoot, a double-necked instrument combining two separate necks:
- Top neck: Standard fretted 6 string tuned to drop D or standard E.
- Bottom neck: A fretless 6 string, coated in a glass-like polymer that allows for ultra-smooth gliding between pitches.
Each neck runs through its own output, allowing Bumblefoot to blend them live or process them separately for contrasting tones, clean on the fretless, distorted on the fretted, or vice versa.
The Fretless Advantage: “Notes Between Notes”
Fretless guitars aren’t new, but Bumblefoot’s mastery of the format is. By removing frets entirely, he’s able to create fluid slides, microtonal bends, and expressive vibrato that sound more like a violin or human voice than a typical guitar.
“You’re not locked into the tempered scale anymore,” he explained. “You can bend half a note, or a third of a note, or anything you want. It’s freedom.”
He uses heavy gauge strings to maintain tension and sustain, often bending notes in ways that mimic Eastern scales, giving his solos a distinctly vocal, almost exotic feel.
A Hidden Trick: The Foot-Controlled Tuner
Perhaps the most fascinating part of Bumblefoot’s rig is his foot-operated tuning system, a custom mechanism that allows him to bend the entire tuning of the guitar mid-performance.
“It’s a concept inspired by Eddie Van Halen’s whammy bar, that sense of total control over pitch,” he said. “But I wanted to take it further. Instead of bending one string, I could drop the tuning of all six strings instantly, hands-free.”
Using a custom pedal that controls fine-tuned servos in the guitar’s bridge, Bumblefoot can shift from standard tuning to drop D, C#, or even microtonal intervals without touching the headstock, a live show trick that’s become a fan favorite.
Electronics And Effects: The Dual Personality
Each neck is routed through a dedicated signal chain. The fretted neck often runs through Bumblefoot’s signature overdriven tone, a snarling midrange with high-gain crunch. The fretless neck, on the other hand, is processed through delay, chorus, and volume swells, emphasizing its fluid, vocal character.
“I treat the fretless like a singer,” he explained. “The fretted one is the band, tight, rhythmic, grounded. The fretless is the soul that floats above it.”
This duality allows him to create complex harmonies live, sometimes playing rhythm on the fretted neck while soloing melodically on the fretless, all without switching guitars.
In The Spirit Of EVH
While Bumblefoot’s setup is uniquely his own, he’s quick to credit Eddie Van Halen for the inspiration to push limits.
“Eddie didn’t just modify his guitar, he reinvented how we think about it,” he said. “The Frankenstrat, the homemade wiring, the way he made mistakes into techniques, that’s the blueprint. He taught us that the guitar isn’t sacred. It’s a playground.”
That same spirit drives Bumblefoot’s constant experimentation. From fretless tone exploration to bizarre tunings and sound design, his work remains a living tribute to Van Halen’s mantra: there are no rules if it sounds good.
The Future Of The ‘Extra Notes’ Guitar
Bumblefoot continues to refine his designs, hinting that his next model may include a built-in microtuner or even a partial fretless option, where only the upper register is fretless for greater control.
“The goal,” he says, “is to keep finding new sounds. The second you think you’ve found it all, that’s when you stop growing. Eddie never stopped, and neither should we.”
From Eddie Van Halen’s Frankenstrat to Bumblefoot’s fretless hybrid, the guitar continues to evolve, one mad scientist at a time. And as Bumblefoot puts it best:
“Eddie showed me how to think beyond the fretboard. Once you do that, you get extra notes.”
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