MODERN BUILDER VAULT
Peter Malinoski
BY CHRIS KIES
“Inever wanted to make someone else’s instrument any more than I wanted to
copy someone else’s painting,” says artist and
luthier Peter Malinoski. “I make one-of-a-
kind guitars one at a time.” This philosophy
pushed Malinoski—a bassist who learned
guitar—into building guitars in 1986 because
he wasn’t satisfied with what was available in
stores. “I’ve never understood the idea that
companies still believe solidbody electric
guitars should be built as they were 60 years
ago,” says Malinoski. “From that first instru-
ment, I was hooked on the idea of making
wildly different electric guitars. I see one-
piece, bolt-on necks, and bodies with form-
less, flat backs that lack acknowledgement of
the third dimension as a compromise.”
For the past 25 years, Malinoski has
applied his Master of Fine Art degrees in
Woodworking and Functional Design with
his creative vision to construct instruments
that are aesthetically influenced by 21st-
century design. “I developed a system to
mount the electronic components onto a
single wooden plate that attaches to the
front of the guitar body,” says Malinoski.
“There is virtually no neck pocket—the
three-piece neck is glued and screwed to the
top of the body and the pickup plate rises
up to meet the height of the neck.”
This approach allows Malinoski to sculpt
and contour both the front and the back
of the guitar to accentuate its form and
eliminate the need for cover plates. He says
the combination of woods and mounting
the pickups directly to the wooden plate
produces a truer overall tone that’s enhanced
by sensing vibrations transferred through the
body, as well as the strings. As for the reason-
ing behind the three-piece neck, he believes
it “creates a stronger, more stable structure
and prevents the neck from dead spots
because it is unlikely all three pieces have the
same resonant frequency alignment.”
While not everyone might find his gui-
tar designs visually appealing, Malinoski is
more than okay with that. “My guitars and
basses are not meant to be the do-all, end-all
instrument for every utilitarian player,” says
Malinoski. “They aren’t built the same, they
don’t look the same, and they don’t sound the
Fez #65
same as any other instrument. My intention
is to create unique and beautiful instruments
for making unique and beautiful music.”
Fez #65
This semi-hollow model has an oiled Spanish
cedar body with a white ash pickup plate. Its
oiled zebrano neck has a 24. 75"-scale bird’s-eye maple fretboard and a walnut headstock.
The guitar is loaded with a Malinoski Type
2 humbucker that he describes as “being a
Fender-style pickup, but with more midrange and a darker sound because I use
larger magnets.” In addition, the #65—like
all other Malinoski models—comes with a
passive piezo transducer under the bridge “to
Toro #48
add an acoustic brightness while maintaining
the low end of the magnetic pickups.”
Toro #48
One of Malinoski’s more adventurous creations, the Toro #48 looks like a rounded
cross between B.C. Rich’s Mockingbird
and Virgin models. This particular Toro
has a white ash body, a handpainted acrylic
green finish, and a pickup plate carved
from quilted maple. Made from mahogany
and white ash, the neck sports a 24. 75"-
scale olive fretboard and 24 large frets.
The Toro comes with two Malinoski Type
2 humbuckers and a passive piezo bridge
transducer.
184 PREMIER GUITAR MAY 2011
premierguitar.com
