The Ongoing Concept Builds Their Instruments From Scratch For Their New Album Handmade

There are some bands that have instrument builders in their midst – Sacha Dunable of Intronaut builds guitars as Dunable Guitars; Kurt Ballou of Converge builds guitars under the name God City Instruments; and Doyle Wolfgang von Frankenstein famously builds his own guitars in his machine shop.

But Solid State Records artists The Ongoing Concept have taken that idea one step further: They built ALL the instruments they used on their new recording, aptly titled Handmade, from scratch. Drums, guitars, bass.

Guitarist Dawson Scholz had this to say about it:

“Well, I don’t want to give the idea that we were dirt-poor growing up but we always were inclined to build the redneck version of things we needed. I built our guitar cabs years ago and people always comment on them. So not too long ago, we were sitting around and just had the idea to really build our new album from the ground up including our instruments.

“This process was undoubtedly long and challenging. In the case of building the drums steps included setting axe to pine trees, drying the wood of sap and moisture over long arduous hours, shaping, sanding, and attaching the pieces together, to drilling and installing the hardware to the finished drum. In the case of the guitars different pickups and electronics were soldered on and off to match the tonal aspects for each individual song.”

Talk about going the extra mile for a unique sound. THAT, ladies and gentlemen, is what care and dedication to your craft looks like.

Check out the first teaser video below (or on Facebook if the embed is acting wonky), in which they detail the building process for the drum set they used:

It may be a little bit of a publicity stunt, but in comparison to, say, a sex tape, or pretending to be kidnapped, I’d say it’s light years ahead.