First and foremost, I want to make it clear that this project has germinated from a long-standing, genuine love and respect, for both the music of Tom G Warrior and the art of H.R. Giger…
Back at the tail-end of January, I acquired a 2003 made in Korea, Epiphone Explorer, manufactured at the renowned Unsung Plant – I’ve always loved it’s futuristic shape, it is truly a child of the space-race 50’s!
Ideally, I’d been after a stock Korina model but this, “Limited Edition” pewter finish boasting “boutique” hand-wound pickups, seemed too good an opportunity to pass up…
Fast-forward a couple of months and for as much as I loved the guitar, I literally just couldn’t “warm” to the cold metallic finish for some reason, so my mind and DIY punk ethos, began to wander…
Anyone having read my guitar collection post of last year, (link here) or of my pilgrimage to Zürich to witness Triptykon in 2016, (link here), will be aware of my abiding homage to all things Tom G Warrior.
On and off, I had looked at online listings for Tom’s signature, Ibanez Iceman Giger ICHRG2 but they always remained tantalisingly beyond my financial reach, or outwith the EU, where the spectre of CITES renders them all but unobtainable.
Then it struck me that the Explorer body shape, was not unlike the Ibanez Iceman, then I imagineered some whimsy along the lines of – I wonder if I could get a transfer of the Giger graphic ‘NY City VI’? After all, the base pewter colour could provide the perfect backdrop…
After a few enquiries, I found that a water-based, semi-opaque transfer was unfeasible but that a vinyl graphic may be the answer. Necessity as they say, is the mother of invention!
A call to local guitar and Amp Repairs NI guru Tony Hamilton, put me in touch with a fantastic bloke called Lee Hedley – Lee has a signage business and if his own Telecaster print of Muddy Waters was anything to go by, he was the man I was looking for!
A quick call and an explanation of what I had in mind, at the very least confirmed that I hadn’t (entirely) lost the plot and that this thing might just be do-able!
Initially I was so blown away with the idea of the transfer, that I fully intended to keep the already upgraded electronics as is but the more I thought about it, I figured if I was going to do this it had to be done right, so I set about sourcing the hardware to make this project, the one-off tribute that it has become.
An unholy trinity, a triptych of Tom G Warrior, H.R. Giger and a guitar that though not quite the real deal, would be transformed in heartfelt honour to the artists who had spawned it.
The original powder cosmo finish hardware produced by Ibanez just wasn’t available to complete the project, after all the ICHRG2 came out in 2005 and is rumoured to have run to only 150 pieces.
I soon discovered that the black chrome, “Cosmo” finish was still out there in sufficient quantity and with the help of a handful of distributors dotted around Pax Europa, I found all the exterior harware I needed.
Knowing that many ICHRG2 owners had swapped out the pickups for EMG’s, at this point I still thought I’d stick with the boutique SWLE’s that came with the guitar – but that gremlin in the back of my head, also knew that the mystique surrounding Tom G’s Iceman and signature sound, came from the fact that it was stock, with the original pickups still intact. So the search began again…
I could not trace a pair of Axis AH1 & AH2 humbuckers but I did find an “as new” set, of Axis AH1B & AH2B humbuckers on ebay, for a fraction of what one of those vintage pickups usually go for! (If anyone can enlighten me as to the difference in the “B” edition, I’d be most grateful as I couldn’t find anyone with a definitive answer). I even managed to track down the correct potentiometers and capacitors – thanks to Ibanez and Gotoh, my shopping list was now complete!
The only parts to really cause a headache, was the pickup rings. My research had shown that yes, I could get a set of Ibanez pickup rings in Cosmo finish, but the fixing holes would not line up with those already drilled into the Explorer.
Because the graphic was already applied, I didn’t want to start messing with it over the ring fixings! In my naivety, I assumed I could just buy some metal Epiphone ones and then have them refinished in black chrome… After a few weeks and many dead ends, I found that it simply could not be done or that no-one was prepared to do it!
Thankfully, Tony assured me that when he put it all back together, provided the old fixing holes were covered by the new pickup rings, (which they were), he could fill them so that no-one would be any the wiser!
All that was left for me to do, was deliver the components to Tony, then wait like an expectant father for the re-birth of my progeny…
What happened next, was so totally, inconceivably unexpected, that to this day I am still numb when I think about it! Brian at Preloved Guitars NI, who I’d bought my Fujigen Signature Les Paul Custom from, listed an Ibanez Iceman Giger ICHRG2 for sale and he was only 40 minutes away by car!
Incredulously, by the time I had seen Brian’s Facebook listing, the guitar had already sold! I’m not sure that I’d ever experienced the all encompassing range of emotions I felt that day! How in the hell could an ICHRG2 not only have materialised in my “back yard” but how could I have missed out on such a rare, needle in a haystack opportunity?
“Why did you cast me into a bottomless pit of pain?”…
Hindsight as they say, is a wonderful thing! I had at one point meant to say to Brian, if he ever heard of one for sale then to let me know – but I dismissed the likelihood of one showing up in Northern Ireland, of all places, as being so infinitesimally small, that I just didn’t see the point!
Ironically and or serendipitously, it was also Brian who had sold the Explorer to the guy I acquired it from – everything that goes around, comes around…
Gradually, I succumbed to my default destiny setting of, it just wasn’t meant for me – as my grandmother was fond of saying, “If it’s for you, it’ll not go by you”…
In a bizarre way, on some level I was actually relieved I’d missed out, after all the care and attention to detail lavished on my very own Frankenstein, it would have somehow felt hollow had my creation been usurped at this point in it’s mecha-morphosis…
Whilst I’d been waiting, I remembered that my trip to Zürich had yielded a load of photographs from the Triptykon gig, so phase II of my sonic search kicked in.
Tom’s use of the Ibanez Tube Screamer and preference for B Standard tuning is well documented, less so is what other effects contributed to that signature sound. Sure enough, my photographs held a glimpse of the answer…
The Tube Screamer Mini I already had, so one down three to go! The Korg Pitchblack Tuner has been upgraded, so it was a little tricky to source, particularly one in good condition with the original box. Everything comes to those who wait and sure enough I found one, courtesy of ebay.
The Boss OC3 Octave pedal is still in production, so Andertons filled that gap.
That just left the Ibanez Weeping Demon Junior Wah – again, these are long out of production and my initial search only uncovered one used pedal in the US.
I dug deeper and incredibly found, what may be the last “end of stock clearance” model in the backwoods of North Bay, Ontario!
Fortunately, my good friend John Westhaver, owner of Birdman Sound Record Shop in Ottawa and drummer with The Band Whose Name Is A Symbol, was able to help me facilitate the purchase and postage of the pedal…
I had also spent the time in limbo, searching in vain for a white truss rod cover, to replace the white on black Gibson cover that came with the Explorer, to complete the ICHRG2 headstock aesthetic. No-one is making a 3 hole, bell-shaped truss rod cover for an Explorer in white… No-one!
This proved ultimately to be a good thing because I had to get my thinking cap on again. With a little bit of elbow grease, I was able to polish up the reverse side of the original which was white and it just fitted in the reverse position!
I knew there was a Celtic Frost shield-font generator out there, albeit a flawed one, which did not exactly follow the original Steve Warrior design. The off kilter font seemed entirely appropriate for an off kilter guitar… as for the name, there could be only one…
I had no real idea at the outset of this quest, where this 3 month journey would take me. The guitar has quite literally taken on a life of it’s own, the biomechanical hatchling trapped within, is now exposed and “glistening like wet leather”…
I owe an inestimable debt of thanks to the inspiration that is, Tom Gabriel Fischer, H.R. Giger and the Ibanez Iceman ICHRG2.
In addition, the following contributors all played a part in the realisation of this project… Gotoh (Japan), Axesrus (UK), WD Music (UK), Rockem Music (UK), Guitar Store Graz (Austria), Bam Music (Slovenia), Emma Music (France), Arcade Music (UK), Acclaim Music (Canada)
