Making Something Your Own

It has been going on since time began... a caveman gets his first toga, and has to make it his own. So he modifies it to suit his taste. Trouble is, there is always a few cavemen who later become famous...er.. rock stars, and so the legacy of making something your own goes forward. SRV (Mr Vaughan) had his 'Lenny' Strat, given to him by his wife. He cut out an old piece of inlaid wood and implanted it into his Stratocaster™. John Lennon had his scrunchie hat, worn low and off to one side (circa 1965, around the time he made Help™ ). Brian Setzer had his Gresch 6120, with Black Cat, Horseshoe and Yellow Skull stickers on it (self applied). How about all those who remained in happy obscurity (and never became RFM... Yes, RICH, FAMOUS and MISERABLE)?. How about the guy who finished off (literally) the 1953 Sparkle Green Tele I bought 6 years ago. I got it for five thousand dollars.... However, it was mint... totally original, apart from being totally refinished in someone's garage with sparkle green paint... the type that never totally comes off. I used to play that guitar with my eyes closed... (the fretboard was luckily unsprayed). It felt just like it should have... a 1953 Tele... with your eyes closed. The guy who sold it to me told me said it was '... a totally original 1953 Tele, without case... that some idiot has covered in the most ugly green paint'. The store even included a modern form-fit case for me to go with it... boy... I wish I had never sold that guitar..it was worth more then, and a lot more now. But someone (other than Kurt Cobain) painted it, in a moment of inspiration, even though he probably had little or no skills in a paintbooth... but you see.. I don't think Brian Setzer had experience decorating with stickers either. So what are we to do? My solution... leave your guitars alone... if you need one with a humbucker, trade for one. If it sounds too good to trade, then add the humbucker... but please, don't paint it sparkle green.

Jonathan's Details....

Jonathan at GVCG (Greenwich Village Custom Guitars) went to excruciating details to get his guitars exactly period-correct. As mentioned earlier, my guitar tech informed me that he had removed the surgical rubber grommets under the bridge pickup, since they were outdated. He replaced them for me with more modern springs, which he said were more gig-friendly. He meant well, but for MY taste, I believe whatever is there in a period-correct early 60's Tele, should NOT be updated, unless it makes it unplayable. Thing is, those rubber grommets looked just like original's I've seen off REAL Tele's from that period. Jonathan also hand machined most of his bridge parts (if not ALL of them, apart from the bridge itself). Cloth wiring is obviously period correct too... just in case that has any effect on vintage tone. I just got another pair of his Tele pickups (which he still makes), and they are covered in a wonderful layer of vintage dirt... and also have wonderfully intact cloth wiring. He apparently marked his guitars in hidden places, to avoid confusion with actual Vintage Strats and Teles, and to avoid crooks selling them as such. He even used 100 % nitro paint, which is apparently illegal now. (My investigation into this is still on-going... Leo shot early Tele's with 'thinned' nitro. I don't know if this affects what painters refer to as the paint being 100% nitro solids, since the thinner does evaporate... mostly). In any case... GVCG's are obviously easily as exactingly made as Masterbuilt Fender Guitars... only thing is though... they are as hard to find as an honest electrician... but they are out there (both the guitar and the electrician... maybe together).

How to Buy A Guitar on EBay....

Here it is folks... free advice, but it isn't bad just because it's free... well, guess it's five minutes of your life, and a little electricity. Up until now, I have bought about 10 guitars on EBay (also sold 8 guitars on EBay). In the beginning I just winged it... all I looked for was a PERFECT FEEDBACK SCORE OF AT LEAST 200. We know God takes care of idiots, and is on their side (generally)... so I actually got 3 great guitars, that were as described (ie. no 'empty' insides, and Chinese humbuckers in a '73 Les Paul). That is my RULE #1. Then I got a set of '63 Strat Pickups. He had the little do-dad that measures the ohms on each one, and they all looked like they were alive in the photos on the listing. I got the pickups, and three months later I found out that one was dead. Was it bad luck? Mishandling in transit? Or did the guy lie... RULE #2: MAKE SURE THE GUY YOU ARE BUYING FROM ACTUALLY KNOWS WHAT HE HAS. It is no good if he or she is honest, if they are an honest fool. Somewhere around gutiar #7, I got a really nice sounding, down-to-earth EBayer, selling an '88 PRS Standard. He said in his ad "Some people drill out the sweet switch and mess with the electronics... but this baby is original, totally original...man." He passed the first 2 RULES (over 200 feedbacks, 100 percent rating, and had bought and sold many high-ticket guitars). Guess what? It had a 20 cent Radio Shack 'Sweet Switch' in it (Radio shack makes one that looks really close), and the hole had been drilled out. I wrote to him about it, but he kept lying. Even when the guy I sold it to, and also myself, wrote to him... he went into denial. (I ended up covering MY puchaser's lost $$$ myself... bad Karma will certainly be after the guy that sold it to me... but I am not wishing it on him). He had never got bad feedback, because he had 'held feedback' as ransome (on his end), pending the buyer leaving feedback and just moving on from the whole thing... in fact, I don't think he EVER left feedback for me. So... RULE #3... MAKE SURE THEY ARE IN THE GUITAR BUSINESS... EITHER AN ON-LINE STORE, OR AN ACTUAL STOREFRONT. For instance, I have dealt with a guy called tuneOmatic, and he was strait up with me. (There are others like him that are honest). So, 3 rules-for-the road, to avoid sadness... Happy New Year!

String Me Up

I started with a nice set of D'Addario .09's on my PRS in 1986. Boy... I really loved those .09's. Then I found out that Rich Robinson used .095's... so I went to them... I also became a blow-hard... telling everyone that they were the best of both
.09's and .10's... and in the middle too. Once hand strength has been built up though, it seems to be good advice to go
higher, unless you REALLY need those .09's (for bending notes)... but even then, this doesn't necessarily make all that much sense. I currently play .10's (.10-.46) Fender Vintage strings. I was thinking of moving up to .11's... and eventually .12's. Stevie Ray usually played .13's, and then detuned. (This actually gives you more ooumph to your strings, and then allows you to ALSO bend that string more easily... because of detuning.. sort of like having the cake and eating it too). I asked my Luthier whether I should go for .12's... his answer... "either .09's or .10's are what the guitar is 'set up' for". I didn't question him, or necessarily understand his answer, but went with the .10's. I found my answer last night though in a Fender Stratocaster book... the NUT is filed for strings in the range of .09 to .10 for the high 'E'... and anything bigger probably will require filing. Without filing, you will probably get binding of the string and also 'pinging'. The book mentions a touring musician, who would start with .09's on tour, but by the end of the tour, he would be setting up and playing .13's... (as his hand strength adjusted on tour, I guess). This drove his tech nuts (literally), since he had to get out the file, and work on all the nut's on all the guy's guitars. So string me up, but unless I want .13's.. and will detune... AND plan on permanently filing my nut... Hey, stay down to earth on string gauges.

Relic Guitars

Jay Munn Guitars (http://www.jaymunnguitars.com/)is another guy who will in his case actually relic YOUR guitar, to fit YOUR playing, as if you had played it for the past 40 years. He sums up well on his home page why relic guitars might make sense. As you know, I have been indecisive about whether relicing a guitar (beyond neck feel) actually makes any sense. I just admitted to my friend Rob that I indeed had 'fallen off the wagon' a short while ago. I had contacted the Music Gallery (a big Fender Custom Shop Dealer), regarding making me a Jagstang (like Mr Cobain's). I wanted one made in the good old USA. I wanted it in 'Blackie' black, with an aged, well worn neck feel. Then I let it all hang out... I added that they should distress and age the guitar with everything they could throw at it in the custom shop. (This would have been one b*tchin' guitar). The custom shop contacted Mr Cobain's girlfriend, but since the 'contract' for them to produce Jagstang's had expired, my idea was (for unstated reasons), not going to be allowed. BUT... I had asked for 'relicing' on the body... does this really make a difference? Whenever there is some new trend...it is hard, at the time, to tell if it is an artistic trend, or a 'collector' trend sometimes. Keith Richards and Andy Summers are playing reliced guitars (to replace their old ones on tour). What's the use of beating up a perfectly good NEW guitar? Mr Munn sums it up on his website....to quote... "...If you're a manic vintage guitar guy like I am, you know that there is something incredibly cool about a heavily-played, well-worn guitar.
The neck feels great in your hand - the worn body contours fit your body. The guitar takes on a character and a personality". I am still on the fence (or on and off the wagon on this one)... but if REAL vintage instruments are going to cost thousands and thousands of dollars, it may be what we are all looking for.

Variac

I just read an article in VGM (Vintage Guitar Magazine) about Variacs...they are used to drop the voltage down from the current modern voltage of up to 130 volts, to the more 'old fashoined' voltage of 115 volts (or lower). The VGM info says that once you get below about 80 volts, benefits are lost. When I ordered my rebuilt Variac from the rebuilder in Van Nuys, I mentioned this to him. He was very familiar with what variacs are used for by musicians, including EVH ... he said you can actually 'dial in' lower voltages, and get great results with either your authentic vintage amp, or a newer tube amp. He told me that the mistake is to go to 'higher' voltages, which should be avoided. I will be playing around with the variac and reporting back...

Sparkle Dunebuggy

Before I get to my new variac I just ordered (rebuilt, from Van Nuys CA)... How about legal powers? I just saw a pricey Pre Lawsuit Scott Lentz S-type guitar on ebay... it is listed as 'resonant, spanks and sings'... and has pre-lawsuit mojo...I know GVCG's are surrounded in the same mystique... the mystique of something elusive, now illegal, and possibly possessing above-average powers (because of the first two items). Every GVCG made was technically 'pre-lawsuit', so has these powers. So do some PRS guitars we all see listed on EBay (as pre-lawsuit), also the Lentz guitars just mentioned, and also an extremely short run of Keith Richards Telecasters that were possibly made by Fender a few years ago. I saw one of the Keith Tele's (with humbucker of course), and (yes)... it was listed as resonant, spanking, and singing. Is it the mystique, or is it just our imagination, that these guitars supposedly are better than others? And let's not forget the most famous Pre-Lawsuit guitar ever... the Fender Broadcaster. Maybe it's like the guy I knew with a sparkle dunebuggy in high school... there were guys with other (more sexpensive) cars, but it was always the guy in the sparkle dunebuggy that had three or four hot blondes riding with him.

Next Up... EVH & Variacs

Fire Test

Your house is on fire... your girlfriend is throwing all her new Victoria's Secret™ underwear into a trash bag to carry out, and you, naturally, think about grabbing a baby...the electrical kind. Which one? Tuner to your head... right now... WHICH ONE?!?!? Whichever one that guitar is, it's now "Fire Test" your #1 (yeh, like SRV's #1, only yours). So you bump the case down the stairs, pretending that once you get this guitar out and away from the house (and any risk of fire damage), you WILL be back to help her with some of the furniture, photos and Gammie's Bowl collection. You come back in the front door... the East Wing is still burning... what's next? How about getting ONE more out... WHICH ONE?!?!?!? THAT is your number 2 (like SRV's #2, only yours). You yell to your girl "I am going upstairs to see what I can grab..."... your heart beats... you just need to get out that front door with #2, without being caught by her, like a deer in headlights, holding a guitar case close to your chest, your scared, beady eyes aware you have been caught. The rest can burn, Right? NO! Darn it! NOTHING musical can burn... if time allowed it, the last thing out will be your cables and gig bags. Meanwhile... Gammie's bowls are definitely a gonner... unless they come after the gig bags...

Resolutions...

Let's all make new year's resolutions to put old terminology away... and make up some new ones.
How about the much-overused term "Tone Monster"... as in "...This 1958 Strat is a tone monster".
I just got back from my luthier down the hill... he really thought my guitar sounded good... so he
told me..."This guitar sounds great".Next on my list.... "Gotta thin the herd", as in "I am selling this
guitar on Ebay, even though it is a tone monster, but I gotta thin the herd a bit". We all know that
this term is overused, so let's just say the truth.... either "I spent too much on guitars, and this
guitar sounds great, butit won't look good after my wife/ girlfriend hits me with it"... or ... "I want
to sell this guitarbecause I need to get rid of one I don't want anymore". Ok... guess maybe that might
hurt sales,
but let's try one more... just for fun....the term "The Real Deal", as in "This is the REAL DEAL, vintage
1955 Tele with amp, from original owner, it is a tone monster and I need to thin the herd". Let's try this
instead: "Vintage 1955 Tele with amp, from original owner, sounds great, need to sell".
Just to be fair, I personally will try to stop using dots (...,...), using 'Er...", and "ok..." in my posts
next year. (and remember, like the guy at the Laugh Factory told me last night... this is all in fun...)...
Happy New Year and Happy Holidays... all of 'em.

Sleeping Beauty...

I just read in a Fender Stratocaster book I have that a vintage instrument...if not played, will die (musically). I know this is true when it comes to things like old Violins... I have heard story's of old concert violins that were put in a closet and left for 80 years...when they went to sleep they were beautiful (tonally), but when they woke up, they were 'all-gone man'. I don't believe this is true with solid-body (SOLID BODY) electric guitars. Why? The sheer number (enough to make this point work) of early 50's telecasters that were purchased new, played for a few lessons, and put under a bed for 40 years or more. There is one in "The Blackguard Book"... no checking in the finish, just like new. All the metal shines... and guess what... it apparently plays wonderfully (after it's long sleep).

Point Taken....

Please check out my friend Rob's info about Silvertones, Harmony's and more: http://www.myrareguitars.com/silvertonerare.html
He makes a good point in one of his posts... (see them all here:http://www.myrareguitars.com/guitar-articles.html). As I posted a week or so ago... there is NO formula for a great guitar really... and money seems to play less into that equation than someone might think. Like most people as a kid, I wanted a Fender or a Gibson, (or if it was the eighties... a Jackson or PRS). If I was smart money, I took my $1400 in 1986 and bought an old Broadcaster. If you buy 'Relic' guitars, in the high-end price range, you can certainly increase your odds of finding a great sounding guitar, without too much effort going from store to store and sitting on lots of guitar stools... but SMART MONEY can certainly get a great guitar for less money than that. Fender (I am sure) would even admit this. Rob says something to the effect that relic guitars are dumb... Musicians self-immersed in how they look are a little dumb. (Poison were sort of cool though). Remember... the point of this BLOG is to let everyone know Fender makes some great guitars, but you will have to be ready to go for some of their high-end stuff. Do I personally care about 'Relicing'... well...er... yes... personally... but only for the FEEL. Fake visual ageing is not my personal gig... but a nice old feeling neck is... A $300 Harmony might have a similar feeling neck by the way....What I believe is that Fender IS making some great guitars right now... new ones. Their 'thin skin' guitars seem to be taking a little flack. Some people say if you put almost no paint on any piece of wood, it will sound good. Some point to them being overpriced. These guitars also do cater to some people who want a lot of 'glam' relicing....thanks Rob...MORE LATER........"Nothin' But A Good Time".....

Youtube

Youtube clip of the week.... (for the drums and guitar):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyEnG_DEB1I

If I Ain't Sick....

If I'm not sick, I don't believe in doctors. They actually do not exist. Why not? Well... that is actually almost every guy friend's attitude I know, including my own. Why get myself poked and siphoned, if nothing is there right now? Preventive maintenance... hogwash! That (it appears) is also most musician's attitude towards their guitars. I just bought a wonderful 80's Strat, of which I will rave as time goes on... got it from a real musician too... it also needed a refret. It also looked like the string grooves in the nut had been filed a bit, since the frets got lower, and the nut needed to be filed to match. Did it still play great...? Of course it did. Was anything wrong with how it sounded? Not at all.... not yet. The jack plug also cut out when the cable moved in a certain way... so whoever was playing it just sat down, and didn't move the guitar too much, in relation to that cable... and it never cut out. Total bill to fix it all properly was $410... and the guy was fantastic... the best luthier I know (Performance Guitar, Hollywood) took care of it. I just took another guitar I purchased from a playing musician to him too... it played fine... but three frets were loose. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" seems to be the musician's motto here... and I don't mean physically broken... that's ok, as long as it doesn't effect how it plays... especially if the toilet just broke again at home, and the paperclip job on the toilet chain in the tank just isn't working anymore, and the plumber wants $$$.

Old Guitar = House

I just discovered that if I hadn't sold my 1958 Blond Strat a few years back, it would have got me a house, sauna and 15+ acres of land in Alaska, with the following description: "Turn Key Recreational Remote Getaway with view only minutes from Takotna River. Watch the Iditarod and the Iron Dog go by then grab your friends and relax in the 12 man sauna. Great salmon fishing and miles of trails to explore!".. I am naive, and don't know what Iditarod and Iron Dogs are, and why they go by the house, but this still a HOUSE. I wonder if those guys playing gigs in 1963, with their old 50's Strats in some smokey bar for food and tips ever thought the thing in their lap would one day be worth a whole house. Will these things keep going up? 1980's guitars are now disappearing from EBay... yes... they are being 'sucked up' by guitar dealers, and toted as the next realm of valuable collectible instruments... I am referring only to the '57 Reissue Strats made between 1982 and 1988/9. There is even one for sale for (gasp) $10,000 (and no, it was never owned by anyone well known). With possible economic hardships ahead... will instrument prices keep climbing, leaving musicians to buy Lap Harps, as the only thing they can afford? (Danelectro/ Silvertones are already leaving their 3-digit range, as musician affordable guitars). Luckily, Harmony Rocket's are still affordable....But my prediction is...NO... people investing WANT things to keep climbing, but things will level off. Will you ever get that '53 Blackguard you want back again? Probably not... they are now priced above 35K unless they have a broken neck(some people want over 75K for them)... demand and people willing to PAY those prices will dry up for sure, but those with them are likely to continue to hold them, patiently awaiting the price they will not back off from... now this doesn't mean that in 18 months you might now wave $37K cash under someones nose.. and get them to part with one... but hey... how about a house in Alaska?

Don't Fret...

I just took my latest Strat down for a refret at Performance Guitar in Hollywood... at first, I thought maybe I could get away with one more "fret dressing" (you can generally do this up to 3 times on a set of frets)... but the wear was too much. My normal fear when this is done is that most luthiers have to refinish the fretboard to some extent when the frets are replaced. Sometimes, with older instruments, little pieces of wood are lost when the frets are removed and then must be re-glued back into the fretboard again (which also means re-sanding the area lightly with some sort of refinishing also). When this occurs, a lot of the 'mojo' we all love with an old guitar's fretboard can be lost (the darkened areas on a maple fretboard, where fingers have been playing for years). A friend of mine took his mid-seventies Tele for a refret to HIS luthier (not mine), and it came back with a neck that looked brand new... ugh! I got my guitar back today. I had asked the guys at Performance to try and leave my fretboard as original as possible... which they did! This is difficult to do, since much more skill is required to safely remove old frets, without any visible damage to the fretboard (that would have required some loss of mojo). I cannot even tell it has been refretted (from the top sides!). How did they do it... well Performance Guitar has been building custom guitars for years, so if anyone could have done this type of job, it was them... wow! (Practice makes perfect...)

Christmas Spirit

.... also check out Keef's "Run, Run Rudoph", as well as Dwight Yoakam's version (which has some great finger-picking and mean synthesizer on it)... to liven up that old Christmas spirit....

Santa Can't Stay

Have to give Dwight Yoakam credit... his Christmas song somehow fits a niche that to my mind really hasn't been filled, until he did that song (Santa Can't Stay). Johnny cash had Blue Christmas, and Elvis covered Christmas from every angle... but nobody had really addressed the Christmas described in that song. I don't want to admit to it, but I can identify with a dysfunctional Christmas. There is always someone trying to reload happy Christmas songs somewhere, possibly to try and save the whole event from the total disaster it seems to be headed for, like the premonition of some train wreck. None of us can escape the holidays, so we hunker down like the guy on the trap seat of the water dunk at the county fair. All this is said tongue-in-cheek... more of memories of childhood Christmas's (like in Dwight's song) long past... Christmas's got a lot better, but that doesn't mean all those memories can't be used to make great songs (and maybe some royalties). Check out the song...if you're tired of the usual Christmas fare. It's the stealth hit of the season, and only 99¢...

Shopping for Parts....

I was just reading about a well-known English musician( John Porter) who put together a parts guitar (parts is parts)....then he played it, and basically set it up to his liking. It had a route for a humbucker, missing frets...and a broken pickguard... all the things that are meant to say 'stay away' today... but this was a long time ago. It ended up sounding so good, that all sorts of well-known people played it on their albums... Clapton and many more... So how come HE can assemble a lot of parts, and make this wonderful instrument? I see a lot of tele parts on EBay... like a 1953 Tele Bridge with serial number on it, for two thousand dollars. I ask myself "Will this money pay off in some special mojo for MY parts guitar?". I think metal is metal. The brass saddles MIGHT make a difference, but do I have to spend two thousand dollars on the bridge? NO! Next up... a 1950's era Esquire BODY only, covered in what looks like nice thick clear coat of Poly paint (I have had one of these myself, a 1952 Tele, sealed in Clear Poly, like a Diploma). If I strip it all off, and get someone to shoot Nitro on it, will it make a great parts guitar? I doubt it, sorry, I do ... unfortunately, if you had hand-assembled a parts guitar yourself in the sixties (like Clapton did with Blackie), you would at least be getting a guitar with original paint, un-soaked wood (no stripping), and a bridge from the time. Remember... when Leo painted his guitars in the mid fifties, MANY steps were involved... first a filler coat, then sanding, then a color coat and sanding, then a final coat, then more sanding... and if the color coat was accidentally sanded through, it was stripped down again, and repainted all over again... what does all this add up to? A parts guitar that starts off with potential to begin with. I have bought parts on EBay (61 Strat Neck, 63 SB Body, 61 Pickups, Green Guard... everything original). I took it to my Luthier who is Japanese (and a whiz)... and it was a 9/10 guitar... but I didn't mess with the original paint. And I kept everything original... so I DID do it the way they did back in the day... if you want to do it, do it that way. Now... to the Christmas list... Grandma has the pickups, Dad the neck...er, sorry, Uncle Leo buys me the neck...

Pickup

The three major parts to a pickup are: The Magnets, Copper Wire, and the Bobbin. The wire is wound around a bobbin, to make the pickup coil. The machines are not very complex usually, and someone like Abby Ybarra, who has been at Fender since the 50's, can guide the wire by hand into the winding machine. There is a counter on the machine, and hence the terms "underwind" and "overwind" a pickup. The tension can also be varied when making the winds also. Coils generally have between 6000 and 8,500 winds. Now to charging the magnets; Magnets are usually charged after the pickups have been manufactured (wow). They are charged in a similar way to some of the science experiments we all did in High School, where the pickups are introduced into a magnetic field, which is electrically generated. Does this all sound like a Wolfgang Puck recipe? Why do you think Lindy Fralin and Abigail Ybarra are so well known... if everyone and anyone could wind an amazing sounding pickup (or cook a great mulligan stew)...well...they would all be doing it.... wouldn't we?

Who Makes the Best Guitar For Me?

It's official... the answer is: Fender, Gibson, GVCG, Linhof, Nash, Danelectro/ Silvertone, and virtually anyone else one can think of...! I was looking to buy one of those great Silvertone Guitars, on EBay. It was the one that comes with the speaker built right into the guitar case, and three tubes you can see inside the case. It is made of Kitchen materials and wire, and at the moment is available on EBay for around $750. Mick jagger is seen playing one, and so is Beck. I checked out how Jagger sounded on his Silvertone... (check it out...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Yvu69jw5QY). He sounds great! Maybe amazing. So after plowing through many guitars, many makers, many prices... which guitar is the best sounding one I've played? Well, one was a Nash (a green one). Also a John Cruz Relic.... and some others that you would NOT think should have sounded good for the price. So it has NOTHING to do with price, and EVERYTHING to do with luck, luthier, and apparent mojo that comes together in a moment in the universe. I have played two John Cruz relics, and one sounded noticeably better than the other (both were Relic guitars, but around 150 sn's apart). Why did JC have one day better than the other? Maybe he has good days and not-so-good days like all of us do. Maybe there is hot and not-so-hot wood in his wood bin (but this is obviously not noticeable before the guitar is painted and assembled. What I want to say is... honestly, I have never played a good MIM (made in Mexico) Fender Tele YET, but I would be a fool to say (after Mick's SIlvertone video on youtube™), that someone in 30 or 40 years might not be getting great sounds out of one, on some stage in front of thousands of fans. Remember; SIlvertone's were not made out of gold (though apparently some did have Brazilian Rosewood fretboards!).

Lemons....

No... not talking that old car at Ed's Used Cars that is 'hot'....how do you treat you Nitro? (...cellulose). Nitrocellulose finishes are notorious for interacting in all the wrong ways with many things. I just saw a bass guitar on EBay (think it was a '59 Fender Bass).. someone had left a coiled rubber cord under the guitar for a few months or years... resulting in what the seller referred to as "raptor bites" in the finish. We all know guitar stands can eat away a nitrocellulose finish too...as can other plastics, and anything that will not allow it to breath. As long as your guitar case has nothing else in it, and you don't live in a jungle or some place with weird humidity problems, a case is the only thing you really want in contact with Nitro for a long period of time. Now... on to LEMON oil... Dennis Galuszka at Fender told me he uses lemon oil on some guitar necks, when doing the aging. Meanwhile, there is an on-going urban legend on-line that lemon oil can damage nitro finishes. Martin apparently tells people not to use it on their guitars, as it breaks down the finishes, and can corrode frets. Then, along with Dennis and other luthiers, there are people who have used it on Nitro fretboards for years, with no apparent problems... maybe it's best not to pour on the whole bottle, and make sure you DO pat it down afterwards (ie. No drips). The problems may be due to overuse (just like my cousin Vern, and his alcohol problem). Seriously... what hurts Nitro? Some guitar makers say ANY material, if left in contact for a long time with the guitar finish (apart from the case!). Remember...Nitro can take over a year to cure... avoid prolonged contact with guitar picks, straps, cables, guitar stands... etc. (especially with a new Nitro guitar). What is GOOD to clean your guitar finish with? A warm, damp t-shirt (old) would be great to remove oils and sweat.... and no damage!

Rewind

How many people love old pickups? (No.... not the trucks....but they are cool too). What makes an old pickup sound like an old pickup? Jonathan at GVCG makes a great aged Tele set with Jason Lollar. Mr Lollar sourced the MAGNET SLUGS. What is next... the pickups get wound with wire (maybe by hand). During the winding process, clear lacquer is sprayed at various times to insulate what needs insulating. When all this is done, the pickups used to be 'potted'... in wax (and sometimes still are). Sometimes string is wound around the outside of the windings, or black tape added. Does this sound like a recipe? Well...it is. What if I went back to 1952 and asked Fender to use a different wire...the pickup would most likely sound different. What if the lacquer coats are done differently? What if one person makes the slugs a little different in height here and there? You get my drift I hope... let's take it a step further... what if I purchase a REWOUND PAF pickup on Bay (from a reliable seller who knows what he is doing and has high feedback)....will it sound the same as one that is NOT rewound? Let's answer that now...if my Picasso falls off my wall (or that guy in Las Vegas punches it for me)...(no, I don't have a Picasso)....will a repair look the same? We all know it depends on who is doing the repairing... My guess is if Fralin is doing the rewind for Joe Bonamassa it will be pretty much as close as we can get today to a vintage job... but not if I go and buy wire, read a few books, and inbetween doing a home-tile in my kitchen I rewind myself a pickup. By the way... I have asked Jonathan at GVCG for more of his pickups twice... but am scared I am in his 'Bad' book... so Jonathan.....I love your guitars... but if I don't speak my mind honestly, this blog means nothing. PLEEEASE allow me another set of pickups......Sorry man if I said anything wrong...otherwise, maybe you are just away! (.. Jonathan apparently used 100 percent nitro for these guitars of which I am so happy to own one... which is THE way they were painted in the fifties... nobody shoots 100 percent nitro anymore at the factory. Also... he actually used what appear to be REAL rubber spacers on his bridge pickup...made of surgical tubing... either that, or a totally believable ageing job... but more on his guitars again at a later date... hope he let's me have more pickups....)

GAS

John replied to the last post, referring to a great term, that I can assume stands for G uitar A quisition S yndrome, or G.A.S. We all don't count sheep going to bed... instead, our last thoughts as we go to sleep are of '56 Strats and '59 Tele's, or some other as-yet-not-acquired instrument, that once acquired, will enable us to continue on our stairway to heaven. If the path to hell is paved with good intentions, then the path to the lights going out in our house (due to past due lighting bills) must be paved with the acquisition of amazingly expensive instruments that we can all neither afford or find the space to house. It is said that Gorky the painter used to buy $300 tubes of paint, even though he had told his wife for weeks that they couldn't afford any food....to him, food didn't matter... only paint. Is it really that bad for us too? To end on a holiday note... if unaffordable instruments have been coming through our doors and windows all the past year (at times when family members are not home to tease us about an affliction they will never understand)... even if some of the guitars arriving were got through trading other guitars that departed (aha! Where were the family members when the other guitars left?)...what are the chances of convincing anyone around us that what we REALLY want for Christmas is musical?

Shopping....

Do you spend more time shopping for guitars than playing them? Is the excuse that you are searching for the Holy Grail of Guitars? What does Keith Richards do? Ahhhh... all will be answered, please sit down. We are all similar. We are all looking for the perfect guitar. Ideally, we would like ONE guitar, that we can identify with in sound and feel, that we can strap to our bodies and also go to bed with. When we become famous and die, it will be the guitar they identify with the legend (haha). Bo Diddley had his square guitar, and B.B. had his Lucille... but how did they do it? How did they manage to pick just one? Isn't that what all greatness does... find one guitar at a time to lavish their time on? How about Clapton... and "Blackie"? How about Jeff Beck and his Esquire? I think most musicians know... to get great on guitar... you should connect with one, and make it an extension of your being. After that, when you ARE well known, roadies give you a guitar they've found for you, friends and luthiers send them to you, and you go shopping at the Vintage room in Hollywood... and your girl gets you one. Only when you are well known does the collection grow.... I know Mark Knopfler has tons... he actually owns one I used to have too...Mick Jagger admits to over one hundred now I think...so let's go to our closets, get all those guitars out, and pick one or two we feel we would take to our grave... and sell the rest.... then really...I mean REALLY... get to know those few remaining guitars well....

WOOD...

Is Indian Rosewood the same as South American Rosewood? Where does Korina come from? How about a guitar built from Thomas Jefferson's tree? Which one sounds the best? My final word: It doesn't matter where the wood comes from, as far as your wood sounding good... but if you want to sound like Muddy Waters, in the 1960's... woods from modern sources will NOT be able to reproduce the sound effectively". Ok... what does that mean? ....Paul Reed Smith (of PRS Guitars) says, when asked the question "Can you talk about Brazilian fretboards? Some say they sound better. What's your take?"....: Paul responds: "I don't particularly think it sounds that much better... it sounds different...(like the) stuff used in the 30's, 40's, the '50's. It's the stuff of old violins". (Thanks, by the way, to some Guitar Center™ advertising for that info). So it's not BETTER, but it lends a SPECIFIC sound. Do you listen to Muddy Waters a lot? Do you like Howlin' Wolf....? Well, all that music probably didn't have any Indian Rosewood in it. Ravi Shankar DOES probably play indian wood (genius).. WHO DO YOU WANT TO SOUND LIKE? (Maybe yourself). Next item... When you buy a MIM (made in Mexico) Fender... where does the wood come from? Well, to quote p. 80 of The Fender Book (ok, all I am doing is quoting... but go with me here... we are learning... I hope)... MIM guitars are made in Ensenada..."... Ensenada is some 80 miles south of Los Angeles, and is situated just across the California/ Mexico border... technically speaking, Fender's Mexican plant doesn't manufacture guitars. It ASSEMBLES guitars... MIM guitars are produced at the US factory in Corona and then sent down to the Mexican plant. There they sand them, paint them, buff them" (that was a quote). So what does all this mean? What it means to me is WHAT WOOD ARE YOU PLAYING? A MIM guitar has American wood. Korina is an AFRICAN wood, but it made the sound that the original Flying V guitars made (yes, the originals). When it comes to wood.... find another artist you like... find out what wood he uses... and maybe go get it... now if you want a NEW sound, or a modern sound, do something crazy... go get a guitar made out of Kevlar...but I'm happy with good old '56 Strat in Ash (after '57 Leo used Alder), and a maple neck, from a good old American Maple tree... that's my favourit sound.

Wood...

Many after-market guitar makers are using FIMC approved parts... but where are they made? What trees go into making these woods? Does a tree from another country play and sound the same as one from the Good Ol' US of A? Does Fender use the same wood in all their guitars... from their MIM (Made in Mexico) guitars... to their Top of the Line Masterbuilt Guitars for Eric Clapton? The scoop... coming up....

String Gage-to-Nuts

There is actually a "string gage to nut ratio". To quote an on-line factoid: "String Gages- 1st- .011, 2nd- .013, 3rd- .018 wound, 4th- .024 w, 5th- .011 .... Suggested nut spacing is 9/32” between strings with overall width of 1 1/8” ...". It may not make sense for a guy with a tele... but I have heard before about this... apparently, it DOES depend on what nut width you have, for a given/ expected string gage. This is all in the realm of the little elves that build these things, and maintain them... I am a pilot, and the mechanics joke about "When the little dohiccus in the back goes 'boing, boing', you always come and get us to fix it"... otherwise, we tend to go unnoticed and unrecognized and un-respected. Luckily, musicians are more feeling and caring about other people on our little orb, especially those who tend to our sick intruments/ friends. We take out guitars to the luthier like some would drive their wife to a doctor. What I mean to say is... the pilot has no idea how the condenser works, apart from in theory... likewise, we as guitarists play these things... but WHO really knew there was any connection at all between the nut width and expected string gage? (More reading required...)

Pickup Problem...

I just found out that the TV Jones™ pickup I was going to put into my next T-Style Guitar was made for a semi-hollow body guitar. Without being a total pickup nut, if you go to the TV Jones website and look through the pickups, and order one, most people could make this mistake... so DON'T. Meanwhile, I am going to try one or two Lace™ alumitone humbuckers, which seem to have great reviews on Musician's Friend. They are made of aluminum, and are therefore lighter than regular humbuckers. In addition, it says that the pickup uses 90 percent less windings, and is current driven, instead of voltage driven. I will keep all posted on how this turns out. Also, coming up... what happens when someone takes standard 10-46 string sets, and decides to have a little 'tweak'... by making them 10-50 (.10,.14,.20w,.28w,.40w and .50w).UPDATE: Tom at TV Jones got back to me immediately. He advised that the pickup and set up I got would be right for a Tele: "You ordered a TV Classic neck with no ears and short pole screws. Most people that use the TV Classic for a Tele neck position use the no ears short screws version."

Keith

I was just reading in the 2005 "Six Decades of the Fender Telecaster" book that Fender™ makes Keith exact 'Relic' copies of all his favorite 50's Teles. This includes the neck coloring, which will eventually wear off. Dennis Galuzska from the custom shop informed me that the uses Lemon Oil to acheive this effect (vs. 50 years of hand sweat, grease, food and blood). So whereas the look is exactly the same as a 50's Tele fretboard, it doesn't wear the same after MANY hours (think Keith on stage, touring from country to country). What does Keith do... probably sends it to Fender for an oil change. I also recognized something new about my John Cruz '56 Tele copy (that I have spoken about previously)... the frets are either new frets that are lower than usual, or they have been artificially worn down. This makes sense, since the edges of the fretboard are rolled. Call me dumb, but I never noticed this before. My luthier informed me that you can generally get three or four 'dressing' jobs on the frets... over the lifetime of your original fret job...this pretty much erases those unsightly, ugly 'holes' left in the frets, from lots of play, in specific areas on the neck. To a novice, this might fool them that the frets are new... but they are not. As I say, frets can be 'leveled' a few times, before you get into the first re-fret on your beloved instrument (that you want to be buried with). So where is all this going? 'Relic' guitars are just that... I have realized that they look very close to the real things (darn close, with John Cruz and Dennis at the custom shop), but since they are artificially done, they will not continue to age the same as an original as they are played (and sweated on) by you. Is this a problem... well, not if you accept them for what they are... Keith uses them, and they sound amazing, and look amazing.. and stand in for a $40K guitar that might be not only a worry on stage to leave lying around, but slightly unreliable to play (I was at a Jeff Beck concert some time ago... and his guitar was severely acting up.. leading to a really nice guy getting down on his knees at the Hollywood Bowl and raising his fist to the sky....

Duuuuude

"Duuuude...that guitar is like...worth sooo much...."
"Man you could get $15K easy for it."
"That guitar is worth the same as my Dad's house."
Appraisal from well known store: $8.5K
Offer from same well known store when they are asked to
purchase the guitar: "$4K, but we are not buying right now,
we have too much stock, and the holidays are over."
Ebay sale price: $2800.00
Price (NET) after PAYPAL fees, listing fees, and the
extra shipping YOU added: $2527.39


Price on guitar at yard sale: $75.00
Price you get it for at 4:15pm at yard
sale: $45.00
Price your friend thinks it's worth: $45.00
Price local store offers you: $45.00
Price well known store appraises it at: $55.00
Price well known store offers you as you leave: $45
Amount sold for on EBay: $45



(All these are guitar stories we know about)...
Remember though, Eddie Van Halen as a kid
must have also played, owned and
sold guitars that are still floating around
out there right now...that nobody
knows he played and ever owned...until YOU find
his doodling in the pickup cavity...

My Lineage....

Ok... (how I start off all these posts)... here is my pedigreed guitar lineage...got a '51 Les Paul Gold Top (from Vintage Center, in Hollywood)... traded that for a '58 Stratocaster, traded that for a '59 Esquire in like-new shape, traded that for a '58 Blonde Stratocaster, traded that for a metal-top Zemaitis (now owned by non other than Mark Knopfler... now I want it back!). Traded the Mark Knopfler owned-guitar for another Zemaitis, and so the trading stops.... for now. (To mention here that this all took place over a very long period of time, let's you know I am not a bored moron... also, like most musicians, I saved and saved to do all this, at a time when vintage guitars were a fraction of their prices today). What have I learned? Any regrets...well, YES...I want the '58 Strat Back... (the guy at Guitar Center Vintage room said Eric Clapton's tech said it sounded better than the one Eric has). What 4 guitars do I want in heaven? I am a player... so this is not going to be based on price at all...I want the Linhof Special, my Masterbuilt Esquire, my Monroe 'T' Style, and the John Cruz '56 Copy. Almost ALL these guitars come in under 3K apiece... and the average price of them all added up and divided by four is $4750 (the Esquire brings the average up)... what does this mean? To me it means that $4250 will get you whatever you want, if you put time into a little looking... it will get you a great sounding, professional instrument that you can take to your grave. The '58 Strat would be unreliable to play on stage, with all the electrical interference and old wiring. The Zemaitis is wonderful to look at, and with 3 humbuckers, it kicks a*s. It also is hand made, and Ronnie Wood and Rich Robinson have one..so can't be anything but an amazing player... but until I raise the super-low action, and string it with .12's, I have no idea whether it would be moved into the little group I chose. As we all know, without a set up, the way you want it, it can be hard to judge how a guitar plays (admit it). I feel one guitar, costing UNDER $4750, should get most people a great player ($189.95 was the cost of a Tele in 1951, plus $39.95 for a case.. total..$229.90... that's $1725 in today's money, just for reference here)... How about all those players in 1960's England, who went on to fame and fortune (Hank Marvin of the Shadows bought what is thought to be the first Stratocaster in England around that time, I am sure it cost him a 'mint'). I am pretty sure that the price those guys paid... in today's dollars... was about the same as what it takes today... things don't change. You need quality to sound great... but you don't need to buy something that's in the Robb Report either.

EPIDEMIC!

OK.... it's official... the distressed/ reliced/ destroyed guitar market for 'T' Style and 'S' Style guitars has now gone epidemic. What do I mean... I mean I have been on line, and have come to the conclusion that the number of people who have gone to their garages, and decided they can do it as well or better than Jonathan Wilson did (of GVCG fame... who made guitars in his apartment in Greenwich Village some time ago) has been increasing exponentially. But why not? If I am artistically inclined, and live in a small town in America... I have already been down to my local Walmart to look for a job... the good news... YES, they are hiring... but at minimum wage... and NO, you cannot have creative input. Smart money; I buy 'Fender licensed products'...like necks, bodies and jacks... and call up Mr Lollar... and get a big bucket full of dirty water and put it in my back yard. I dump all the metal parts I buy in the bucket, and leave nature to do it's work for a month or two. Meanwhile, I take some nitro-spray-painting lessons with Jack at my local autobody spray paint shop... and I call up my friend who does web design to do me a site. I go into business making guitars... I wake up happy, sand and spray necks and bodies, get another friend from my local Sam Ash to help assemble the parts, and BINGO... I don't need to sell my soul to Walmart. Some of these people are truly going to pan out to be sheer genius (usual story)... and most will be lost in the pages of history... how do you tell the wheat from the chaf? Keep your eye's and ears open, and play many different makers guitars... also keep an open mind... diamonds are lying all around you... pretending to be plain old rocks.... lesson for the day, in the the twilight zone...

Jonathan at GVCG... Pickups...

Not that I am getting lazy... I was going to rave about Jonathan's custom wound Lollar pickups, but he gets super detailed and technical, so I wanted to pass on this info to everyone else...."A first in electric guitar pickups, the GVCG / Jason Lollar AlNiCo 3 Staggered Poles. Give your '60's guitar the famed early 50's Flatpole tone, or give your Flatpole guitar the '60's staggered bite.....

These I dreamed up after being blown away time after time installing Lollar AlNiCo 3 Flatpoles in my guitars, and I asked Jason if a Staggered AlNiCo 3 was a possibility. He sourced the magnet slugs, and after a long wait, here they are...

These are simply the best of both worlds, in my opinion, for several reasons: AlNiCo 3 magnets associated with early Flatpole guitars are famous for their warm, robust, and "brown" sound, and the Lollar 3's have the most tonal character I have ever heard in a new pickup, period. The midrange in these pickups is very dense, and snarly, and the top end is rolled off, with not even a hint of "icepick", or any other "modern" tonal attribute. These are especially wicked in this staggered configuration, where you get the snap and urgency of a Staggered Pole AlNiCo 5 pickup, with the meat and potatoes of an old Flatpole...
Ohm Readings on these sets are perfect at 7.5k, allowing a very balanced tonal range, a biting but not harsh top end, and a rich bottom end that will punish your amp while you bask in the glory of these puppies... They are hardly potted at all in pure Beeswax, Jason and I have worked out the perfect potting time for an "Alive" sounding pickup with minimal "Squeal". The neck pickups in these sets are amazing, they defy what has always been a plague with this style pickup, the dreaded "dullness factor". This neck pickup design uses the AlNiCo 3 slugs slightly underwound, and a Nickel/Silver cover to let the full range of frequency pass. The result is the finest, most balanced and useful neck pickup you've ever heard. The sets ship with conical metal springs, which I use exclusively here at GVCG, please do not use tone robbing surgical tubing with these pickups. They are wrapped in cotton string, and are meticulously hand aged by GVCG.
These will be available from time to time on a limited basis, and the sets will be numbered.
They are $250 per set shipped." If you want some, contact Jonathan at: fivestarstudios@earthlink.net

These pickups are Lollar pickups on speed, with Jonathan's GVCG ageing also... what more could you ask for. I can tell everyone that they are the pickups you need, and should get. Other than these, try and get yourselves some Abby Ybarra pickups for your Tele... trouble is, they are currently NOT available individually, unless you are buying the whole guitar.

The Rainforest Foundation

This is straight from the site...."The Rainforest Foundation was founded in 1989 by the musician Sting and his wife Trudie Styler, in response to the continued violation of the rights of indigenous peoples’, and the wanton destruction of the rainforests in which they live.

The Foundation’s first major initiative was to campaign globally for the protection of the lands of the Kayapo Indians in Brazilian Amazonia. This resulted in 1993 in the legal recognition and demarcation of an area of more than 17,000 square miles as the Menkragnoti Indigenous Area.

This was followed by projects to help the Kayapo to monitor and protect the reserve’s boundaries, and to develop health, education and income-generating activities within the area and the adjacent Xingu Indigenous Park.

Following this important success, the Foundation expanded and diversified its programme of project support. From 1993 onwards, support was given to projects in other parts of Brazil and Latin America, as well as in Africa and Southeast Asia". Don't buy exotic woods, unless you know where they came from...and no... that big tree with lots of leaves and monkeys in it was NOT dead.

Recipe

Just read about how Jonathan Wilson used original cloth wiring in all his guitars...we don't know how many he built, working out of his apartment in Greenwich Village. He seems to have been a real stickler for authenticity, in a way nobody else has ever been, in the Boutique Guitar manufacturing scene. Is this a factor? I just bought a Monroe Guitar, as I mentioned, and he makes concessions to modern times... graphite nut, mini-schaller tuners (that actually keep the strings nicely in tune, and are micro-adjustable). Also a Gotoh bridge... so, which is better? Cloth wiring, and original 50's electronics... or concessions to modern times? What is all boils down to is 'What gives older guitar's their mojo?'. What's the recipe? Here's my guess (since we all have one): Take 2 parts wood, 1 part nitro paint, 1 part pickups, and 1 part expectation... and finally, the main ingredient...2 parts gifted luthier. Total 'parts'...7 parts.... so wood accounts for about 1/3.... you can do the rest of the math. Did I include old electronics....? No... Why? Because other than the pickups, I don't feel the current electronics are much different...(unlike tube amps vs. solid state). It's NICE to think that inside that guitar is original looking electronics... just in case the 'Doc' pulls up in the DeLorean and takes you back to 1959....but other than that, it's still less of a factor than the expectation....

Elvis...

OK... I promised Elvis... his guitars...I don't know if he is really still around at this point.. In the movie Spinout, Elvis sports an Electric XII (1966). This guitar had a 12-saddle bridge design. In the movie Speedway, we see him with a semi-hollowbody Fender, with traditional Fender headstock on it. In Girl Happy, he is seen with a canary yellow Telecaster, with a Bigsby. At the end of Speedway, he is playing two drumsticks...then he picks up the Semi-Hollowbody... then he trades that for Nancy Sinatra... truth be told, could Elvis play guitar? Apparently, he was last in line to get a mike for his instruments, and there didn't used to be too many mikes to go around sometimes when it came to his live performances, so he had to play louder... and he tended to break strings. He also developed the habit of throwing his guitars to Charlie Hodge at the end of a performance. Most of his movies are loaded with Fender guitars, and if Elvis is not playing one, his group is... when got big (literally), we can only imagine what those belt buckles must have done to the guitar finishes! By the way... ever wonder where that Canary yellow Fender Tele went? Lots of movie props are languishing in the hands of people who have them, and have absolutely no idea who might have once played them. Some might say Elvis used guitars much better for props than to play. He found this out, and used it to his benefit. Most people have only seen Elvis with acoustic guitars, playing them in the 'cowboy chord' areas (the first four frets). There are 8 cowboy chords... if you know these chords, you can call yourself a guitar player... so I guess Elvis was certainly a player... Elvis still gets five stars.

Inspiration...

Do you sit in front of the computer monitor during your free time, with a guitar in your lap, unplugged? Do you strum a few chords, then go to the Barrow Sea Ice Webcam? Just to see if any cars have moved since yesterday in Barrow Alaska? Unfortunately, to spur creativity in the musical department, anything and everything is necessary... you don't want to deny yourself at all here. I read the Graphic novels by Templesmith (30 Days of Night). Why? Because while driving around in Hollywood, one can't miss the billboards...looks like a great movie. Truth seems to be that it lacks punch on screen... meanwhile the graphic novels are hard to beat. Also, quite possibly the graphic novels have simple plots, that don't translate well into movies. Next... Elvis and Tele's...12-Strings...Jazzmasters... and buckle rash...

Checkered Flag Out.. Wreckage on the Track...

Got my Monroe™ 'T' Guitar today. I designed/ drew up the checker pattern, with Rick Nielsen in mind. They duplicated my drawing EXACTLY. I sent them some GVCG pickups, bought from Jonathan at GVCG. Turn-around time was less than one month... let's call it three weeks. They come with a warranty too. I asked them to make it look like it has 40 years of fooling-around on it... and they did... in fact, I think it survived an explosion intact. It looks AMAZING. Plugged it in... already have a favourite position... neck pickup, with the tone totally CCW. Every position sounds great. I love the fact that concessions to modern times (as if an old guitar had been lovingly updated over 40 years) have been made... mini-schaller-type tuners, graphite nut (well... it's black anyway...looks like graphite... ). Neck is amazing thin, low-action, .11's, and vintage-type frets (why do I say 'type'... because there are MANY different width and height frets... more on that later). Also has a GOTOH bridge (a-la Keith Richards' Tele). It also comes with a pin-up girl on the back. This guitar matches GVCG guitars, or the best NASH puts out for tone. Twangy, vintage sound...that sound so hard to capture... so here it is... Looks: A+, Feel: A+, Fit: A+. Oh... and they 'brand' their name in their headstocks... this guitar also weighs enough that intruders should be wary at night.... 8.6 pounds....overall, one amazing situation.

Five Minutes...no Lying...

So I will probably get flak for this, but I will talk freely and honestly about Nitro for five minutes. Just read a blog entry on another site, where a guy mentions nobody, not even Fender, has ever got a mid-to-late fifties Tele blonde right. There is actually a color people refer to as 'Relic Blonde'.. which is close, but not dead-on, for an original (say 57 Tele). Now I have owned a respray on an original 51 Tele. I commissioned it from an ex-Masterbuilder. It was yellow, translucent in areas, and had spider-web cracks all over it that were filled with some transparent brown stain. (Bet we have all seen this look... and it wouldn't fool your grandmother). It was FUN though... but also felt too new. Now on to Mr Nash, who builds amazing guitars by all rights... I will not buy his Maple neck guitars, because they are sticky, and way too brown looking (like melted gummy bear). My research on this from Nitro spraying guy's sites is that he has the nitro mix wrong for the necks, and the paint then also takes years to dry. Apparently the necks will be dry, but not until years from now. I have owned 1 Nash Maple neck, and it was slightly sticky to play. Mr Nash might aptly state that he has no intention of making exact copies, just guitars that play amazingly well (and we are talking sheer genius here with sound). This would be true. But I do have to mention he gets his Custom Color bodies 98 percent there for me. Now to Fender...I have owned many Relic guitars, and the colors have all been (possibly intentionally?) just a little off, as far as SHADE, AGEING or TRANSLUCENCE/ LACK OF IT. I owned a John Cruz hand-made tele (#0525)...and he was 85% there for my mind... but get this... I own one roughly 150 guitars later... and...BINGO...JOHN CRUZ HAS COME 99% OR MORE to recreating the original 56-57 Blonde color... in feel, translucence, color and cracking. The cracking seems to be the hardest part to get right... since time is the only one who seems to really get it right so far... but I think he has just about done it. For any builders who would be slightly upset with my comments... I only strive to give honest, fair and compassionate feedback to them, so we can all get amazing guitars that LOOK AND PLAY like the real 50's thing, without paying 50K.

Who's Flying this thing?

... and I'm not talking about the Flying 'V'...Does anyone remember wanting a guitar...and not caring if it was a Fender or a Gibson? (I think I was 13). By 16 I wanted a Fender Stratocaster (didn't everyone?). My friend wanted a Les Paul. First guitar he managed new was an Epiphone. I got a second hand Strat from a friend, that he had 'modified'. We all move on from this to developing a desire for specific pickups, switches and even tuners and bridges. If we are smart... we avoid the other 'cosmetic' modifications (Eddie VanHalen excepted). After this, we plug in to an amp, and load up on the pedals. We play with the pedals until we get tons of reverb and overdrive, and maybe some chorus too, and then we seem to be happy. Many do not evolve beyond this point, and then we go to our graves that way, with our cold, dead hands clasping our guitars. Many... including well-known performers (and not so well known ones).. like Bruce Springsteen, Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck, also decide to get to know the inside of their amps... how they work (the TUBE ones)... and what thingumbob can be changed for another doohiccus, and then come up with a signature sound...that paired with their favourite axes leads to a 'signature sound'...for a truly customized combination.... (not unlike the guy with the 1975 Blue Sparkle Trans Am with the wing... ok, let's not go there....)... so read up, learn about tubes and electronics... and find a whole new world down the rabbit hole...

Guitar Hospital...

Thanks to the wonderful people at Performance Guitar in Hollywood, the GVCG is now (amazingly) set up with low action and .11's. Jonathan (at GVCG) was wonderful at making every little detail EXACTLY like an original old Tele... apparently he even used old fashioned wiring and 'grommets' on the pickups. As I say, every little detail was attended to, including the RUST. I knew what I was getting into though... I have always wanted to own a GVCG, and would certainly go after another one for Christmas... if possible... but they are very hard to find. Most musicians who find them never let them go. After Performance Guitars working magic on it, it now plays the way I want it... only thing left to do is to plug it in. It now has a shim under the neck, between the body, that is barely detectable (looking on from the side of the guitar). I have done much reading on the topic...and less contact between and bolt-on neck and the body supposedly will decrease the 'woody' tones (think Les Paul sounds), and increase the twangy 'punchy' sounds some old Tele's have, so my fingers are crossed. Apparently, shims are normal, if a luthier runs out of other options to get your neck adjusted correctly (think action height down the neck here). As I say... I love it now... but have to give credit to the guys at Fender for no rust in their guitars too.

Rust

I got my GVCG the other day...very high action... a little too high, but the guitar looks amazing, and plays very nicely. In the case was a replaced 3-way selector switch... obviously the original one from when it was made. The 'original' one is rusted. Looks like a piece of electrical switching from a 1958 Buick. What I mean to say is...the good friend that told me to buy the GVCG also told me that Jonathan Wilson... who he met and who used to make them, used to put them on his back portch on display... and to get more mojo. My friend said he wandered around outside and thought they were all real vintage tele's, lying around the house like artwork... which they were. After a while outside, they looked even more real...trouble is, I think it might have hurt some of the electrical stuff inside. My luthier (where I took it)informed me that a wire to a pickup had come loose, and there was also more parts with rust problems. When ageing a guitar artificially outside, I guess you have to bear this in mind ... I mean, there is also a chance this happened after it left Jonathan's house... (but the story I heard from my musician friend at the time seems to back up the rust from the porch idea... but just a guess, I may hear from Jonathan to the contrary). The neck also needed a shim in the neck pocket, so we could lower the action where necessary. Will this affect the tone? Find out next... also learn more about 'shims'...in my next entry! Having overspray between the neck and the body, or even a shim in the neck pocket, can actually improve the sound of a tele believe it or not.... I will be finding out for myself...and will report back. Meanwhile... I still have to point out that GVCG's are legendary... one day someone will do a book of them all, with big glossy pics and photos of the insides... just like the Blackguard Tele book! There is no doubt anywhere that these guitars are amazing.

"Thinning the Herd"

How many times have I read this line on EBay in relation to selling guitars? Apparently, our herds keep growing, and therefore we must continue to keep 'thinning them'. If you believe EBay sellers, it is always the best steers that are being offered up... but sometimes they turn out to be cows. What can you believe? Well... for a start.. most herds of guitars get too 'fat' because we all hear about some new pickup combination/maker/finish/fretboard...God-only-know-what... that we need RIGHT NOW...meanwhile, yesterdays' darling has become todays tramp, and she is off to be sold. There is always the old saying about 'one man's pleasure is another man's poison', and I have certainly found this to be true. I have bought some guitars on EBay that play so fantastically that I feel the seller must have either been crazy to let it go, or had the bank at his door (or her door). There have also been times though when the 'Greatest playing tele I have ever laid hands on' has certainly been over-used, and ends up being totally untrue. I have even seen stores sell guitars, noting that the current guitar is the 'Best sounding tele this store has ever sold'... come to think of it... that is a perfect set-up, since I guess each month (technically) the CURRENT guitar COULD be the best one they have ever sold. Anyway... happy hunting, and bring your lucky rabbits foot...

Bunny's...

Went to the 'Mansion' last night...courtesy of my good friend Justin, and Hef... Hef's Halloween Party.... the only thing wrong? No guitars....otherwise...perfect. So I have yet to plug in my GVCG (Greenwich Village Custom Guitar)... I have a good excuse. Tonally the GVCG sounds like a true early 60's Tele... sort of like old wood... more on that later. Want to talk briefly about John Suhr, of Suhr guitars... don't own any yet, but my friend Mick told me someone else he knows highly reccommends them... since I like what I like (see all previous posts) would be up my alley. Maybe will get one soon. John Suhr (on his site) says he (as of the 2007 Anaheim NAMM show) is offering an 'Antique Classic' T Guitar... they sport a thin laquer finish by J. Black (just like the Linhof I have). The finish is very, very, very thin indeed... much thinner than it looks... in fact, it is so thin on the neck of mine that it has already worn off down to the wood on the back of the neck... amazing! But the guitar sounds and plays great... Seems, as they say, that 'Old is New'. It's not just the look, but the feel is different... anyway... more later, meanwhile, go to suhrguitars.com to catch more on John Suhr. Bunny's rule...

Paranoia...

When you go to the mall... do you know what your guitars are up to at home? Is your cat scenting them with musk? Is your dog peeing on them...ok, sorry... these are worries I have. I had a friend once, who looked just like Jimmy Hendrix... his angry wife used to wax the floor in his bedroom (they were living in different rooms) while he was out, and 'accidentally' splash floor wax all over his guitars. Maybe your brother's two-year-old-budding-Kurt-Cobain is re-stringing it as you sit in some restaurant having dinner. Most people however, worry about thieves. Truth is... thieves prefer other stuff... like 1.Cash, 2. Electronics, 3. Jewelry or 4. Guns. People who come to your house looking for your 51 Nocaster to begin with (they overheard you talking about it in the restaurant) might pickup the cash and other stuff when they come to get your Nocaster... same way everyone picks up extra stuff in a checkout line. But guitars (I was happy to discover) are not the #1 thing they want to steal. Many people don't even know the difference between a 51 Nocaster and a Nash Guitar. So while you are out for dinner, keep your voice down... and try and convince your 2 year old nephew that being a guitarist is lame... other than that, feel free to have dessert.

"Lenny""... Just for Kicks

Well... the next tribute guitar from the Custom Shop is coming down the pike... the SRV "Lenny" Tribute Stratocaster...and it is commissioned by Guitar Center. It will cost roughly 17K, and be in limited numbers, along the lines of "Blackie", the EVH "Frankenstrat", and the Jeff Beck Esquire. A lot of people on-line are commenting on the prices these are going for. The list for the Jeff Beck Esquire was 15K, and came on the heels of the SRV #1, that sold for even less, but ended up being worth much more. As nice as the Jeff Beck Esquires are, (and most play amazingly well, especially with the Ybarra pickup in the bridge)... the current going "street price" for them is around $8K. Clapton's Blackies were rasied to around 20K, but the excuse for this was that a large chunk of this change was going to his Crossroads™ Center in Antiqua. I think the reason why Eddie's Frankenstrats™ were also around 22K can only be guessed at. Now, the "Lenny" guitars are a little lower in price, but still way above most people's budgets. These are for my mind certainly the guitars that will be playing well in 2055... not so much because of the price, but because the best of everything we have available is going into them... best wood, best luthiers... best pickups...and most electric guitars do improve with age... after about 50 years (beyond this, we are definitely on new ground, since the first electric guitars were around 1949... I know, we can argue that... but let's say first "production electric guitar 6-strings"). So why am I telling everyone about this? Well... if you love guitars, and were going to buy a houseboat with 17K...maybe consider this instead... just for kicks. If you have less money... get the Jeff Beck second-hand-new. If you have even less at-hand, get a Linhof, or a Nash... or find a Greenwich Village Custom Guitar (if you can)... now go play....

Where Will My Guitars Be in 50 years?

We've all seen the movie 'Soylent Green' (at least if you haven't, maybe go see it). Temperatures have soared, food is scarce, and a permanent haze hangs over Charlton Heston's city. Most people seem to live in the stairwells of buildings, and some have taken refuge in a Church. The time in the movie is around 2022... by then Mick Jagger will be getting ready for his 80th birthday. The latest issue of Rolling Stone says by the middle of this century, Las Vegas will be uninhabitable, and so will most of Arizona. Sea levels will have been going up for a while, with Malibu inhabited by fishes. Ok... not to depress anyone, so Rolling Stone also said most of us will still be alive, playing our Axe's... but just maybe without power for parts of the day. People freak about all this coming down the pike, but also they forget that California in 1740 had no power, indians (hostile and not), freak insect attacks, disease, wild bears, cold, heat, rain, and also eathquakes. Humanity has endured hostile conditions for most of it's existance. What's really changed? So... where will my guitars be in 50 years, after Mick Jagger has departed, and I am maybe getting ready to leave? They'll probably still be here, being played by some guy singing the Blues in a stairwell... then again, this is also going on while we speak, somewhere in Manhattan.

... Don't Forget the Lipstick...

I have spent years living in Humbuckerland. My first PRS guitars all had Humbuckers... even though some were singlecoils he made look like humbuckers. Maybe that is where we all start... a guitar with a humbucker. It's the one we feel kicks a*s. Next thing, maybe we have a friend who needs money, so he sells us a Tele. So we are introduced to a single coil. Wow... these things are pretty good too...! But how many of us are familiar with Danelectro's? Basically, when we were all kings of cool in high-school, you never got a skateboard with everything included for $59.95; you also never told your friends your dream guitar was a Harmony or a Danelectro. And how about those great Lap Steel guitars? Nope.... we focused on either a Les Paul, or most likely a Strat. But look at Danelectros, and notice they have something called a Lipstick-tube pickup. Originally, they were actually made using surplus lipstick tubes! Danelectro guitars were found in the Sears stores, under the name 'Silvertone'. They are made by wrapping a coil around an alnico bar magnet, then wrapping that in tape, then the whole thing is inserted into a tube casing. Currently, Seymour Duncan makes them so they can also fit into Strats. And how do they sound... well, 'warm' is a word used to describe them, and I have one in my new '51 Nocaster... by John Cruz. The guitar has a 3-way selector, and two pickups... the lipstick and a new version of a nocaster pickup (in the bridge). The sound... pure Stevie Ray, EXACTLY... when put through a Louis Electric KR12 amp. So don't forget the lipstick... er... the one in the guitar....

Celebrity-Owned Guitar!

I just saw a listing on Ebay...sort of ran like this..."Celebrity-Owned Guitar. Hank 'Carter' McCormick, played this guitar on many sessions. If you have heard ELO's "Roll Over Beethoven", then you have heard this guitar!" Now this is all made-up, but I have seen these guitars listed on EBay over and over. I have also purchased a guitar that was supposedly all-original, and instead the guitar had been put together inside by a refridgerator repairman. Truth be told, I lucked out with many other guitars, that actually were from artists, and more famous than Hank. What helps with the celebrity provinance are things like paperwork. Also PRS signs the name of the artist in the pickup cavity usually. Real artist guitars are rarely signed by the maker on the outside...to the arist. Early Santana guitars had little notes from Paul Smith on the reverse of the headstock, but unless it is Jerry Garcia's guitar, made by his friend, it is usually not done. Some models have special features that were only made for the artists... like Richie Sambora's 'star' dot-markers on the fretboard. I recently saw a Buck Owens Tele for sale on EBay... with the three-color scheme Buck used to have on his guitar, when he was with his Buckaroos... but honestly, that could have been done in a garage in Fresno in 1974.... Caveat Emptor... (I remember the term from an episode of the Brady Bunch... Mr Brady says it... it means 'Buyer Beware1').

Unattractive Heads....

I have been reading on-line about 'T' Series and 'S' Series guitars... the Strat and Tele body style guitars built by people other than Fender. Some leave the headstock the same as Fender. In the world of building guitars, that is not really allowed...as we all know, headstocks are like emblems on old cars... they are used to let people know who the luthier/ manufacturer/ builder of the instrument is. Some leave the headstock the same, but leave the Fender decal off... allowing the purchaser to decide what they would or wouldn't like to put on it. Others put their own logo, or some opt to completely change the shape of the headstock. One little problem..the headstock designed by Leo and his crew not only looks great, but is familiar (after all these years). Only one manufacturer that I have seen reshape a Fender headstock has actually done it as well as Leo (for my mind). Linhof re-designed the headstock on his guitars, and it looks great. One person on-line commenting in a blog sums it up... even if the guitar sounds great... if it has one h*ll of an ugly headstock he said he isn't buying one. I feel the same way... sorry... I mean, imagine a Tele that is 10/10 for tone... let's say it plays like a '51 Esquire, shreds and screams... bringing audiences to their feet... but it also has a big Eagle Head Bird-of-Prey on it. Tough... right? This reminds me of a card game someone got me for Christmas; on one card it asks what you would do if you got to blind-date a really hot girl, but had to wear a really dumb shirt on the date?

Fever....

Keith Richards has over 1000 Guitars...Mick Jagger is seen in his most recent Video, available with his album (of collected works) walking down a corridor lined with some of his guitars in a big rack... another on-line purchaser who bought from me on EBay admitted he had 88. Yet another person I know told me that once he hit a certain threshold, he decided to 'go into the business', hence allowing for an escape-clause as far as his wife finding yet another recognizable guitar-shaped box by the front door. It's actually so widespread like crack cocaine, that men's addiction to guitars is mentioned everywhere now... an advertiser I just saw in Vintage Guitar Magazine offered the idea that his store is better than his competitors, because he will help you get the next guitar past your wife... he will not discuss anything using the word 'Guitar', if she picks up your phone, and he will coordinate shipping to get it to you on the day she is out of town. We are embarassed (just a little) at the number of guitar cases leaning on our walls... or, hidden in the closet, or under the bed...we promise ourselves no more... then go back to our dealers again. I don't really see this happening with motorcycles, cars (unless you are Jay Leno), skateboards, or other things... except watches. I don't go there... don't understand it... maybe Keith has 1000 watches... but I doubt it....but I guess it's all the same!

Presto Change-Oh

How does a great guitar get made these days? I have done some on-line research, and read what some ex-Masterbuilders say. Lets start at the top... the 10K Strat that Eric (Clapton) orders from the custom shop. His Masterbuilder goes into a room full of wood, that probably has already been set up with one 'special' area, for high-end guitars, sort of like PRS's "Private Stash"... the Builder then sorts through the wood, and 'taps' on the pieces, until he finds one that in his expert opinion will resonate the way Eric would like it to. He then might select another piece of wood the same way, for the neck... except Eric might want some 'Flame' here. The Masterbuilder then selects Eric's pickups and electronics etc and commences building the guitar himself (using some modern machinery). Now for the next level down... the 5K Masterbuilt Guitar... actually most likely built the same way, either to your own Specs, or theirs. How about the 'Team Built Guitars'...well, they most likely have a perfectly good selection of wood to go through (enough for anyone to make a wonderful guitar), but some areas are off-limits (obviously, or there would be none for Eric and Andy...Summers). The 'Team' member though has less experience in making magic, and is basically an aprentice to a Master. Now, how about all those $2000 'Relic' Guitars? Well... I am guessing there is someone (maybe named Burt), who sits all day, and plays each one, as it goes to final polishing and to be packaged for shipping... he is looking for that odd-unusual piece of 'happenstance magic'...that spontaneously occured... because it can. When he finds one, it is removed and put aside... it may go for dealer promotions... or to an artist like Fred Durst, etc. What chance does someone like us have of going to the floor of Guitar Center and playing 34 guitars and finding a "great one"... about zero... the guy working there at 8am, who puts them out on the showroom floor wants one too..or has promised to call his friend with a band when he finds a 'good one'..and he got there 2 hours before you....to tell the truth though, it's like going through your change for that 1965 dime with the silver edge, worth 20K.... if everyone else was out-to-lunch that day, you might luck out...keep your finger's crossed...and check your change...

Partscaster

I have to give credit to someone on another blog for the term 'Partscaster'. Definition seems to be: private individual who purchases either original Fender™ parts, or aftermarket parts (like Warmoth), then assembles and paints either a Telecaster or Stratocaster-like guitar for sale. Makers that fit this description include Nash Guitars, GVCG Guitars (no longer in business making actual guitars, as of this writing)... and I am sure at least 10 others or more. Linhof guitars are assembled by J.W. Black, ex-Masterbuilder at the custom shop, and do not bear any Fender Logo on the headstock... they also have original headstocks, and back and front cut-aways (like Jeff Beck's Tele), also another cut-out where the neck bolts on... so they are I feel a different situation. Vince Cunetto (http://www.vinetto.com/) on 'The Gear Page' mentions; "There are a lot of great chefs out there. Not many of them grow all the ingredients they use. Sometimes it's just about how you put together what you have and how well you dress the plate" when speaking about people (like Mr Nash). It really doesn't matter too much where the parts come from, as long as they are well made. There is no magic to a carrot, but there is magic to Carrot Soup by a fine chef. I mention this because I have discussed this before, in previous entries... some of these new 'Makers' are truly gifted, and loved by the music community, while others only fool those who are easily impressed by a good sales pitch. More later...

Best Guitar in the Whole World!

ok... I lied. Did everyone hear about the science experiment, where college students were given 'alcohol' and studied to see how long it took for them to become fall-down-drunk... and then they were told that what they were drinking had NO ALCOHOL in it whatsoever...after they were all acting loopy? Well, I was reading an interesting piece in Vintage Guitar Magazine... about a man who played an original Les Paul 'Burst'... he said it was pure magic...fit perfectly into his hands etc... but when compared to his new Les Paul, he had to also admit that his NEW guitar sounded amazing too. A lot of the 'good feel' about old guitars surprisingly must come from the expectations attached to something worth so much money, and coveted by so many musicians (sort of like a Stadivarius). Another musician just called and asked me which sounded better... my Linhof Guitar, or my 'Twisted Tele' (built by Yuriy Shishkov at the Custom Shop). It was a tough comparison.. both are a musician's dream.. the Twisted Tele is punchy, and kicks *ss. It also has a Bisby (that, by the way, for my mind works BETTER than the trem on a Strat... but that is only my personal opinion). The Linhof is also an *ss-kicker... but in a DIFFERENT way...sort of like comparing Eddie Van Halen to Joe Satriani... so what are you going to do? (the Linhof is also about half the price...)

Whats Up?

Currently 'tracking down' on the trail of the elusive 'GVCG' Guitar (Greenwich Village Custom Guitars). Jonathan Wilson was making his guitars about 3 years ago, at least, he was still HOPING to be making them. I had a deposit down on one, and then cancelled it, when it didn't look like he was going to be able to do it soon... and instead I bought some of his custom wound pickups, done for him by Lollar. Jonathan was fantastic, and sent my money right back (speedy)... trouble is, he is indeed toted as being one of the best Fender Replica makers that ever lived...but he NO LONGER makes guitars. My friend's guitar player told me three years ago that I had to get one of these guitars... Jonathan (GVCG) is some legend... some well known musicians even have them in their collections, but refuse to part with them. They cost more that they ever did new, and when I get the one I am hopefully going to get, I will keep everyone posted on how she sounds. In addition, a new 'Mystery' maker is making me a wonderful guitar, with black and white 'racing' checkers on it... similar to what I remember with the band Cheap Trick. He is actually putting the GVCG pickups I bought from Jonathan into this guitar, AND making a DVD of the guitar's construction (WOW!). He is the first one I know of to do this (build someone a guitar and send the new owner a DVD of the guitar being built). He also has made guitars for the likes of Brian Austin (go and google for more on Brian). So, not to keep everyone on the edge of their seats in suspense... wait for more! ...because there is a lot coming up you might want to hear.....

Old Friends...Part 2

When Leo (Fender) made the Telecaster (Broadcaster & Esquire... and, er... Nocaster) back in the 50's, he made it with the idea that when a neck wore out, the guitarist could easily replace just the neck. All the electronics came out of your average radio and it's wiring for the day and age (1950's). How many 1950's televisions still work? The tube might light up, but I'll bet the vertical hold and horizontal hold are a problem... as well as a scratchy volume pot, that crackles, and goes from 2 to 11 in a short twist of the dial. I am also sure the channel selector needs to be balanced a little off some of those channels in order to get them properly... assuming you live in a country where it would all still get any reception. Point is... 'collectors' want these guitars to be totally original, fully functioning pieces from a 1950's timewarp... a-la "Back to the Future"... as if the 'Doc' went to 88 mph in the DeLorean in the shopping center parking lot and came back a second later with a brand new Leo creation in the passenger seat. THIS IS UNREALISTIC. What is realistic? New equipment... including Custom Shop stuff currently made (Masterbuilt... remember), and also builders like Linhof and Nash (and more makers I am trying out as we speak)....and stuff that works....more later....Ciao...

Fresh New Guitars....

I know a friend who is in Country Music... his advice....ONLY BUY NEW GUITARS.... Why? Gibson Guitars from the 50's have strange, 'rotting' tuners. That's the obvious yikes.... but how about feedback, interference, and all those old electronics? How about cracked wood, damaged necks, non-functioning trussrods? How about pickups that work fine when you bought them (like some 1963 Strat Pickups I bought a few years back), but then suddenly one is dead? How about rubber grommets under the pickguard that are turning to dust? ....pickguards that are about to turn into noxious gas, and destroy the paint and the chrome on your fine old guitars? To top it all off... how about the thief that can't wait to get his (or her) hands on it, and sell one for the downpayment on a mortgage? Enough said... buying an old instrument is like buying a boat...or collecting old ViewMaster's (google it).... if you want to make sense, get a nice new guitar that rocks, and it will probably still be playing for someone else when you are long gone.

3 Percent Rule

Ok, you have a shopping list 6 years ago.... you bought a 'Burst' with what your Uncle left you when he died, and you paid $46,000. You also bought a Jackson Randy Rhoads in purple, for 'X' amount. Today, the 'Burst' is worth minimum $165,000, and the Randy Rhoads is worth...er....'X-$$$'. So you get rough on yourself, and decide you can never get rid of the Randy Rhoads. It will sit either in the case in the closet, next to the old humidifier that is broken, or on your guitar stand, as a trophy to Humanity and Our Idiocy. What part of our conditioning growing up makes us rejoice in the profit from the 'Burst' when we sell it, but then stubbornly hold on to the Rhoads until it goes back up to what we paid for it originally? If you look at life, everything has it's ups-and-downs, and hopefully it all averages out. As an example, I used to buy and sell movie memoribilia... I bought, sold, bought, shipped, auctioned, framed, sold, bought.... lots of time... lots of sadness when one thing went for much less than I paid for it, and joy when another thing went for MANY TIMES what I paid for it a few years ago. I actually added up everything, including my auction listing fees, and postage...I MADE 3 PERCENT PER YEAR on my money. Going interest rate at the bank ten years ago was also about the same. SO IT ALL AVERAGED OUT. SELL THE RHOADS if you no longer play it or want it... as long as we all put in a minimum effort in our buys-and-sells, we are all looking at 3 percent or better. The only way this rule will not work out is if you make BAD IMPULSE BUYS....or BUY deals that look too good to be true... but on to that next time....

Loafers and Guitars....

Do you remember as a kid having a pair of loafers... it took ages to get them 'broken in' just right... then they had mojo...they also needed servicing. So you or your parents took them in to the shoe man... who promptly got rid of all the mojo for you. It appears that guy now works as your local luthier. My friend took his neck in for new frets, and asked the guy to leave the mojo on it. The guy couldn't resist sanding it down 'like new'. Now his guitar sits in a corner somewhere (like the pair of loafers I had). I also just took my 'relic' guitar in for new strings. I asked that the fretboard be left alone... since the relicing might be affected. Guess what... got it back the other day... ok, it doesn't look brand new... but half the mojo is gone. So watch out everyone... maybe it's best to hold on to the loafers as they are!

Pickups... Pickups and ...More Pickups....

We seem to have more pickup options than Brad Pitt in a Ukranian Singles Club...Jason Lollar, Rio Grande, Bad Billy, Bare Knuckle, Rocket, Dirty Dog, Lindy Fralin, TV Jones, Voodoo... and I'm not even into the big names yet....apart from Fralin... and Brad Pitt.....Lollar are big though. But as I said... I have bought (and then returned) a guitar (by a maker who I will allow to avoid mention)... that did indeed have Lollar Pickups in it.. but may as well have had pickups made of Spam...like fine wine, I found out that there are many things that go into a pickup... the magnet size, number of winds, the gage of wire used, and the amount of lacquer used between the windings (and when it is used)... also whether they are 'potted' or not (see previous post). But when you go to the pickup guys' sites, and click on those mp3 samples they provide... admit it... don't some of those samples sound pretty similar? In fact... if the guy changes whether he picks the strings with his fingers or a pick, and how hard he picks them, and also how much 'mojo' he puts into it... can't this actually make MORE difference. I think most of these brands are good pickups... especially since there are now very few trade secrets out there anymore. What really counts is: 1.) What's your favourite brand name? 2.) Are you given them for free? 3.) Which one struck your fancy... and 4.) Cost. But they all really cost about the same too... around $100 to $200 apeice... tops. What really seems to count is who puts them into your guitar... and also, what guitar are they going into. Then there is also what amp you have... follow (or Savvy?, as Jack Sparrow might say). We all may find out too that pickups need ageing... just like the wine...to finally be the stuff of legend.

Earthquake-Proof Your Guitar.

Not everyone lives in LA, but last night I saw a 'movie earthquake' in the movie "Knocked Up". As the set was rocking and all the stuff was falling out of the closets it made me think... are my favourite guitars safe? If you live somewhere that has never seen an earthquake, this is not a factor for you, so you can stop reading and go to youtube. If not... read on.... a couple hundred bucks for an Anvil™ flight case (not one of those cheapie ones) will protect your valuable friend from most things... earthquakes, hungry rats and mice, termites etc. It will protect your guitar from moisture better than a regular G&G case, and also protect it really well from changes in temperature and humidity. This is good... unless you have a metal guitar or one of those new ones not made of wood. So prepare ahead....

Heaping-Helping Serving of Crow?

Well...let's hope I am not eating Crow. Kelly Guitars are played by Lou Reed. But... aha... the ones that are supposedly good, do cost $1300 (for their 'Esquire-Style' guitars)... so my comment about under-$1000-Cabo-Guitars might be ok. I am also investigating TV-Jones pickups... when I can get a chance to 'snag' a Kelly Guitar I will... and maybe I will drop a TV-Jones pickup into it. Kelly did a nice job with their headstock logo for my mind... so maybe that means they will also sound great. On a note here... Harmony Reviews and on-line searches lead most people to comment that Kelly Guitars beat-out the average 'Relic' guitar by Fender... this may be true. I went to Guitar Center the other day, and played some of their $1900 Fender Relic Guitars. They are nice if you have never had better, but I don't think most of them would cut it on stage. Kurt Linhof mentioned to me that some older 50's guitars needed time to age well... and many improved over time..., but some also stayed just as dead... well... some of those 'Relic' guitars are dead wood for my mind... let's hope they come to life one day....Guitars I favor that I know are alive: Fender Masterbuilt Guitars from Fender, Kurt Linhof Specials, and Nash 60's 'T' Series guitars... if you have any amount of money between $1500 and $9000, there is something out there for you. (And if not, trade a few of the Harmony Guitars you don't feel you need right now?)

Beach Guitars ...

Pepi (my friend) wrote to me today... he asked what I thought about Kelly Street Guitars... ie. in this age of so many private guitar-makers, have I evaluated them? It would of course be cost prohibitive to buy and evaluate every one on my end. I know that Fender and their custom shop are putting out excellent guitars, period. I also know that Kurt Linhof is also putting out excellent guitars, and people like Keith Richards and Joe Walsh own them. (If you can currently find one, certainly consider buying one..they are hard to get right now though, until he makes his next 'batch'). I also know, that if you have $1600, Nash is making great guitars (for my mind, get his '60's 'T' series with the Rosewood Necks... ). How about an unknown maker though... how does one make the decision to risk a buy.... here are my own criterion:
1. Have respected players taken them into their 'guitar collections' as regular players?
2. What information do you have on the maker, from on-line blogs/ Harmony central reviews?
3. I have found out the hard way, if a guitar costs under $1000, it probably is the same as going to Cabo and buying a guitar.
Kelly Street says his guitars are made of 100 year old wood. I don't know if that means anything. If artists play his guitars, and feel it does, then it does.... However, should these guitars meet all expectations, I will certainly keep everyone posted if someone has one and wants to give their opinion... and if it truly rocks, I want to purchase one for my own 'stable'. Hope this has helped Pepi! Remember, I am a jet-pilot/ humble musician, not Keith Richards.. but I feel I do know something about guitars... at least let's hope so.

Wax your Pickups... Not Your Surfboard!

I just got a Yuriy Shishkov 'Twisted Tele'... ok... I got it on EBay... but I have become an EBay expert (not something to banter around). I was playing this Tele, with the Bigsby™ on it, and happened to notice some strange wax on the bridge pickup. It was smooth all the way around, and then had a lump of wax on the top, that looked like a candle that you might have dropped. The was was yellow-white, so it was definitely nothing I had seen before. My question was... had the guy I bought it from on EBay changed anything on it? Well... here is the answer; since this Guitar has a Bigsby™ bridge, there is a lot of metal around the pickup. This metal vibrates, and can cause microphonic feedback. Because of this, Fender coats these pickups in wax (yes... wax... candle wax, or paraffin with 20% beeswax...). Fender pickups, the vintage ones, used to be potted this way. It also protects the pickups from the elements. The wax is brushed on usually. Tape is sometimes also used to 'pot' a pickup, and prevent feedback problems. Another way pickups are potted is with epoxy, or thin laquer. This is not the way you want them potted... pickups done this way are 'shiny'...and you cannot unwind the winds after this has been done. The wax, however, is non-toxic, easy to deal with, and can be undone again for repair work or rewind. Fralin does their pickups this way. To recap... what is microphonic feedback? Well... get your un-potted bridge pickup and tap on it for an example.

Addendum

Apparently Jann Wenner of Rolling Stone is keeping the Monkees out of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Errol Flynn also never got an Oscar....

Part 2

Anyway, so my initial reaction that it might have been a real Monkee driving me downtown was definitely offset by the fear that I had someone else. Michael mentioned a movie that came out a few years ago about a manufactured band, and I mentioned how obviously, the mainstream idea is that the Monkees were 'manufactured' by Hollywood. So was Clark Gable, Errol Flynn, and other notables for my mind, who couldn't sing or compose. What do you do... did you do it well? That is all that matters. Errol Flynn came up... because he used to live across the street from me, long before I moved here. He always wanted to be a writer...and was slightly ashamed that he was only a 'matinee idol', who never really (as he apparrently said) 'Won a war single-handedly'. If we all live to be 100, we should realize that what we are and what positive effect we have on the world is all that really counts. I told Michael I was a jet pilot, and he told me a story of how once he was taught in a matter of hours to solo a Sopwith Camel Biplane...and they are 'mushy' on the controls at slow speeds. We spoke of Robby Krieger... and how impressed I was that the other 'Doors' had wanted to 'sell out' to Cadillac with one of their songs, but Krieger wouldn't do it. Not even for millions. (The Doors signed a pact at one point that any one of them could 'veto' the sale of their songs). Krieger eventually must have given in though, because I heard a Doors song on TV the other day... either in a commecial, or in a series... I told Michael I found this was disappointing. He said the Monkee's had a song in Shrek, and it had really helped them. He brought up Video production, and how California was the biggest producer of Videos, in the Valley. I mentioned that I would have to explain to my wife that a 'Monkey had helped me put my bag into the limo'...(cliche, I know)...then felt badly...mentioning as an excuse that when I fly jets I also have to carry bags for the clients, (besides fly 5 million dollar planes safely)... I asked him if Charlie Manson actually tried out for the Monkees, and was corrected that in fact Manson had tried out for the Beach Boys. I also mentioned a house I had seen recently, belonging to either Jan or Dean (of Jan & Dean), and Mike said it had to be Dean, because Jan died...then when we arrived, and it came time to get the bags out, he got my bag out for me (I couldn't find the latch). He also had told me he still lifts amps with his Roadies when on tour. He's a 'cool' guy to meet....