Hello there and what are you doing here in such an unglamorous cyberspace backwater?

 

   Anyway, I am called Ron Berry and I have been making musical instruments since 1988 as a hobby

and I started as a business under the Neis scheme in 2005 and hope to show a profit some year soon...

   I have some instruments for sale at present, mostly frankenaxes (rebuilt wrecking yard creations

lovingly revortexed and tweaked (with ample skilled help from my buddy Steve who is a gem of a human)

made for the discerning players on a budget who want something unique, with a good set up, straight

and with a lot more character and quality than the factory guitars have for a similar price. Most of the

guitars, a six string fretless bass and a good selection of mouth harps are to be found in a shop in

Nimbin called `Happy High Herbs' which I used to work in and that my ex partner now owns and manages

There is also a double-bass banjo in the front window of the Lismore Music Shop (thanks guys, I think you

are wonderful) so drop in and I am sure you can have a go of it, and buy something else too please before

they disappear! That would be a shame. They have a nine string frankenstrat there too. Russels Music in

Lismore has a few things so check out the last second hand music shop still around while it lasts, perilous

times for shops and business in general. I think sustainability and efficiency are worth working on now.

Also there are always some of the special musical treasures I sell at my market stall which I set up in The

Channon and Byron Bay markets, sometimes Bangalow markets and a random assortment of small festivals

and dance parties. You'll find things like the jaw harps and mouth harps, hand blown pyrex glass guitar

slides made by my mate Al at ussher glass, nylon wound bass strings, an Ashbory rubber string bass and

strings, maybe a frankenstrat or recycled resonator, local handmade double ocarinas, stacks of plectrums,

strings ... 

Here is a pic of happy high herbs nimbin a while back when I worked there complete with the 18" double

bass banjo;

 

   Here is a picture of me and my son Kian when he was a baby and one of my ex Nell standing between

Birtha the Double-Bass Banjo and the banjo bass viol.

 

Here is a view of the culdera from down the hill on the way to Nimbin.

 

This one is looking west from the top of the border ranges.

 

  The 8-string fretless electric bass below was the first instrument I completed for my business (but for the 

control cavity cover being put on) in November 2006 and it unfortunately was almost immediately stolen from 

my home before I even heard it plugged in! It sounded awesome when I played it with my chin against the

body the night I first strung it up and I hadn't even done the intonation.

  Should you happen to see it (with a bone nut, a single strange `music tech' black humbucking pickup, chrome

and abalone topped knobs and a chrome Schaller bridge, flat wound strings and a canon output jack) I would

verymuch like to have it back (and so would my customer.)

   A handsome reward will be paid to the person who returns it, or for information leading to it's recovery. I can 

be contacted at:

ron*unheardofinstruments.com. (the * is a @) if you at least want me to know it works

.

   I play bass, guitar, percussion and drum kit (in rapidly descending order I dabble in all sorts of other

quasi-musical endevours) and my housemates play piano and bass and trombone/trumpet/tuba in a fan-

tastic local reggae band Imandan and do their own stuff and moonlight in other bands.

 My 5yo son Kian will play anything I let him get hold of and has his own trumpet which he loves. My amazing

little 3yo girl Alia Rose who was showing dancing prowess already at 9 weeks is now learning some songs too

and sings and dances beautifully.

   I live on an intentional community with glass artists, musicians, a designer of clothes, environmental

activists and wierdo's. Occasionally a bush tucker teacher, a horticulturalist, more dancers, musicians and

artists and fellow hippy traveller types blow through regularly or do woofing and together we try to grow

organic vegetables and tend the fruit orchards, etc. The larger community around the hills constantly amaze

me and give me a great sense of community and of being part of something special. I like to feel part of the

solution in some way and the alternative movement has deep roots here.
  

   I am currently working on some other interesting projects, mostly a velocycle, as the end of my drivers

licence approaches, as an alternative form of transport. It will be built from two mountain bikes and be a

solar/LiFePO4 battery powered electric assist linear drive recumbent with shock absorbers, regenerative

braking, full fairing and perhaps even a small petrol RC motor if the range doesn't work out big enough. It

has been very instructive and fun already. 

 

   If you have a fantasy instrument that you would like to have me make and\or need my advice or services

I am most interested to hear from you so don't be shy. Feel free email me or even to make an offer on any

of the instruments weather unfinished or marked for sale as 'bids' are retractable, non-binding and fun. If

you are the highest bidder so far and I am feeling like I need some cash at that moment, who knows?...

Ensuing negotiations could lead to one day when an unheardof instrument arrives in your life... and things

will never be the same again...

   To see where the prices are currently sitting on items for sale see the "I think I want it" page by clicking 

this bit here. I have not once gotten a bid and some say that leaving others to value your work is too

confronting for them and never going to work but I am not insulted by any offer and am merely interested in

what people think a bargain price for something like this is. I don't know of anyone who has sold a double-

bass banjo although I'm considering pricing one... If you would like to send me a message you can email me

 

ron*unheardofinstruments.com (the * is a @, I do that to reduce the spam bots from emailing me crap.)

  Sure you're not burning the toast? I am...