DasViken Le Trépas 2022 - Radiator

"LeTrépas" is not an usual Explorer guitar...

Made out of local woods, with no plastics, no chemicals and no exotic woods, it is designed for the purpose of ergonomy, lightness, and loud sound ! This is a concentrate of technology and strongly made choices. This guitar has it's own personality (and is quite mean in fact...) !

It's body is made out of walnut, the 5 ply neck from cherry and walnut, and the fingerboard from torrefied ash. Those local britton woods are light are really nicely resonant, not qualified as tone woods by majors, but...well... we don't care! They are stabilised with numerous coats of linseed oil and beeswax (no chemicals means also no varnishes... you know the sounding properties of plastics? No? Me neither...!)

It's zero fret and single bronze nuts design, with fingerboard getting through the headstock is a unique visual signature. The neck profile has been studied to help playing real fast (if you want it), but without the inconvenience of those way too thin shredding necks that leave no matter in the hand. So, even if The Trépas' pickups are mostly oriented for heavy and loud riffs, this guitar can be played for devilish leads. And most of all, it has a multiscale (25"/26") which allows low tunings as well as standard E tuning, with perfect attacks and intonation. It's bridge has been designed specifically to ensure the saddles would be perpendicular to the string, it's been screwed directyle to the body so the maximum vibrations are transmitted to it. This technique, and the design of the bridge, machined in stainless steel with bronze saddles, allows to recover 20db in the bass and 6db in the treble and harmonics, thus balancing the timbre of the instrument compared to what is usually done in the industry.

The electronics are as simple as possible with a 3 way (switchcraft) toggle switch and a (Bourns Sean Silas) volume knob, but wired with floating grounds so there is no hum at all even with high gain.

It's right arm chamfer helps playing comfortably. The metal plates are oxidised steel. And the pickups show no wings so they are rear mounted. Even the strap buttons have been re-thought, with simple stainless steel screws...

No... The Trépas is not just another Explorer.

It is a completely redesigned instrument, contrary to industrial problems. It is not meant to please everyone. And so much the better! But are you sure you’re ready?

-----
Not available in the USA, free shipping everywhere else
Delivered in gig bag, with its own hand made leather strap
-----

DasViken means "For Ever" in briton.

This name has built itself the identity of my instruments that feel out of age, just as if they would have been created a long long time ago, but without the flaws of hype vintage instruments.

I use local or reclaimed woods, with no chemicals, no plastics, and most of the parts are designed and made for me. I often work on the basis of traditional shapes, bringing my ideas, my tastes, my methods. As a result, a LP by DasViken will have little or nothing to do with its inspirer, except its contours. All the elements are selected together, the woods, the spare parts, the technical parameters, etc...

200m of hedgerow is planted for every guitar I build, in the country around my workshop. Hedgerows are essentials to keep the rain in the ground to avoid irrigation and floods, to cut the wind and avoid the soil to dry too fast, to protect the cattles from the sun, and to give a home to a lot of various species of mammals, insects, birds and plants ! This is no "carbon compensation", this is just the little I can do to protect the nature around my home and keep hope for my children !