Pekka Helanen is the man behind my main instruments, Kunikunda 'BabyBlue' and 'DoubleNeck' bass guitars.

I've known Pekka since 1986, when joined a band (as a guitarist) in Hämeenlinna and Pekka was the drummer. Pekka had built wooden instruments since 1984, specialized in drums, but he had build, repaired and customized other instruments as well. Outside the sessions we started to talk about Pekka building me a new guitar. However, he knew that I had started to play bass and he told me that he always wanted to build a double- necked instrument, so the idea of building me a double- necked bass / guitar came from him. I got excited about the whole thing and we started to get ideas together about what this instrument should be like !!

The first thing Pekka pointed out was the weight and balance of the instrument. One possibility was to build it "Steinberger"- style, headless, and that's what we decided to do. I began to draw sketches of the shapes I thought would look cool and carefully presented them to Pekka. Also it was clear from the beginning that Pekka wanted to build it neck-trough-body - style, so the body would have three separate peaces, as small as possible, to keep it playable through a 2- hour gig. I came up with the final drawing and we were ready to go on with the project, and after this point there was nothing else for me to do than take pictures of Pekka putting this instrument together.

Both necks were put together from five peaces, ( maple & rose-wood ) and the body parts were cut from solid alder and they got a rose-wood laminating. As I like to play the bass a bit high up, putting the guitar below gave both of the instruments an ideal position. We went for Steinberger hard-ware and P.J Marx active electronics. After few months of hard work Pekka was ready to finish the final details to make the instrument unique. Volume- and tone- knobs were made of wood as well as the covers for the electronics on the back side.

The neck-prophiles were taken from my Aria Pro II bass and semi-acoustic Framus guitar to maintain the feel that I was used to. Both guitar and bass are very easy to play, Pekka made expecially good job with the necks, wich made my job learning to play both necks simultaneously by tapping quite easy. And even though we live in Finland where the climate changes from dry -20¡ during winter to +28¡ during summer, the double neck has not needed any adjustments at all. The real test came last summer when I was playing for a dance theater and we performed in a big circus- tent, the humidity together with very warm days and quite cool nights made the circumstances for musicians with wooden instruments very unfriendly, but the double neck kept its' playability through the two months of rehearsals and shows. The only time I managed to damage the instrument was when I left it in our cold tour-bus for four days during one winter. Fortunately the sound was not damaged, only the surface got some cracks.

I played the instrument for almost 14 years as the main instrument. Together with the Trace Elliot 200 amp and Kunikunda-made small cabinet with 15" speaker I managed to handle every situation from TV and recording studios to the stage-situations. Originally Pekka and me made the cabinet for my double-bass only, but it sounds really good with the electric bass also. And for the times I still needed the slap sound I had my own simple way of getting there, but enough of that, eh!?

'Baby Blue' was built for me 5-years-or-so ago, as I'd switched to bass only ... I wanted a 'normal' bass as I'd sold my Aria a long tome ago. I designed the shape of the instrument following the bodyshape of the double-neck. It was fitted with Alembics' electronics and again built in neck-trough-body -style. Pekka made some nice experiment with different choices of wood. Also the blue leds on the freatboard was a nice treat :) ... Martin Kantola helped me to fix the problems with the electricity and the instrument was ready!

I've played a number of recording- and live -sessions and the bass sounds great. As I joined Tommi Läntinen and needed some extra power on the sound I bought EBS 650 head with 8x10 cabinet. You can hear me play the set on Tommi's live-DVD from Lahti 2005, I had an extra 2x15" cabinet onstage to make my corner look even more powerful :)

I also play the 'BabyBlue' with Circo Aereo's performance 'Baby Dough' ... keep checking the gigs -page for live performances!!!

At the moment, and during the past years Pekka has specialized in building drums. His Kumu -drums are a well known brand and he's been in Frankfurt Music Messe for the past three years. Check out his website www.kumu.fi