Playing in a trio with the late master pianist John Mehegan inspired Mike to want to push beyond the known technical boundaries of the guitar. In an attempt to achieve those same tightly-voiced chords and pedaled legato phrases used by contemporary jazz keyboardists, Mike developed the concept of the 8-string guitar. His idea centered on adding 2 inner strings, rather than bass or treble side strings, and had never before been utilized.

Mike first met master luthier Jim DeCava of Stratford, Connecticut in 1985 when he brought Jim a Gibson L5 that needed repair. As their acquaintance grew, Mike shared some of his ideas for a guitar that could produce the chordal voicings and tones he wanted to achieve. Based on Mike's design, Jim created the first 8-string guitar ever to utilize the inner strings as tuning variables.

Jim DeCava eventually built three 8-string guitars for Mike. While he was pleased with the unique phrasing and chords these instruments enabled him to produce, Mike wanted to take the concept of inner string tuning even further. He commissioned Jim to produce a guitar with nine strings, another innovation unheard of in guitar design. This "Hydra" was followed by two more nine strings, a semi-hollow and a classical cutaway, both also constructed by James DeCava