Bruce Juice

Apparently Bruce Springsteen used to sweat so much playing his 'Blackguard' tele that they had to seal the pickups to make them waterproof. This is nothing against Bruce... I like him. Those lights get pretty hot, and creativity takes a lot out of you. (I don't know, I haven't been onstage at the Wiltern recently...if ever... but I do feel I create sometimes). This was many incarnations ago for his guitar... as even he will admit. Pickups are replaced and repotted, pots changed, things added, new necks attached... if you check out photos of Bruce over the years, you will see his Tele change. So why does Bruce's guitar look BETTER after all the sweat? Same for Rory Gallagher, and SRV, and Jeff Beck... the list goes on. However, I saw another guitar for sale on EBay the other day that hadn't fared so well. No... it didn't look attractive... it looked like it had been dipped in acid. Meanwhile, I face a whole other type of problem...the 'New Sneaker' syndrome we all know. We are petrified of that first scuff. I have daydreams of throwing my Tele to someone who rudely puts it in a corner. I am sitting at a bar in Pensacola, Florida (yes... McGuires Irsh Pub and Brewery), and while reaching for my end-of-the-last-set drink, my headstock knocks over my mike stand. My roadie Phil picks up my guitar by the neck, after eating a burrito... he had wiped his hands down, but there is still some burrito mojo left for my guitar neck. Then my luthier cleans things up, with a nice light scrub with lemon oil, and a little 3-in-1 for the tuners, which overflows and drips down the back of the neck, and adds even more mojo. While I am at the VIP party, signing autographs, some person has persuaded my roadie (still Phil), to let them open the case and examine the famous axe... yes, more mojo. Nothing makes a guitar look better over time than mojo... so let's all try and relax, stop worrying about losing money in damages, and start throwing that puppy to the guy in the wings.