Guitars
Here’s
my very first guitar – a mid 70s Harmony Stella. Not a great player but it works well with open
G tuning and a slide. My parents bought
it for me when I was seven or eight but I never played it until my late teens.
Here’s my second
guitar – a 1971 Telecaster that I bought when I was 16. It’s got a thin rosewood fingerboard and a
light ash body that a previous owner refinished with polyurethane varnish. A truly awesome sounding and playing guitar.
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Sperzel tuners
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Graphite nut and string trees
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Compensated brass barrel saddles
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A DiMarzio PAF humbucker in the neck
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A Seymour Duncan Hot Lead Stack in the bridge
wired with only one coil active
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Medium tall frets
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Volume control is push/pull that splits the neck PU
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Tone control is push/pull that bypasses the bridge
PU directly to the output jack
Here’s
my 1943 Epiphone Olympic. Bought this
when I was in college. Sounds great with
a real strong upper midrange. The
trapeze tailpiece is not original – the original broke a few years back and
couldn’t be repaired. It had some
replacement tuners when I bought it and I replaced them with Klusons.
Here’s
a 50s or 60s Airline archtop I got at a pawnshop in Omaha back in ’93. I’ve seen identical Kays and I understand
that Kay made some guitars for Montgomery Ward. So this may have been built by Kay. The “figured top” is actually sprayed
on. In any case, the neck is tilted and
the action is awful. It rattles so much
that it sounds like a Dobro. Sounds really
good with a brass slide.
This
is a 1958 Fender Duo-Sonic. When I
bought it, it was painted with a textured marble finish and had Grover
tuners. I replaced the Grovers with
original spec. Klusons and had a repair guy repaint it seafoam green. But he was a drunk and messed it up so I took
it back and refused to pay for it. So
the finish is really gnarly. Someone
routed it for a humbucker too. The knobs
are not original. Sounds really loud and
brash – great for slide.
Here’s
my 1990 PRS Custom. Dad bought this for
me for Xmas in 1992. What a gift!! Except for one of the plastic knobs that
broke, it’s totally stock with a “sweet switch”. A very loud, powerful guitar. It’s so sensitive that you can’t be sloppy
playing it – mistakes shine through.
This guitar and the Tele get played the most. Looks pink in the photo but it’s actually
crimson.
Here
are my two Japanese Ibanez 7-strings.
The guitar on the left is a 1992 540S-7 Sabre. Not many of these guitars were made. Has a DiMarzio Blaze single coils and a
DiMarzio Evolution humbucker. Also has a
Lo-Pro Edge bridge. A good shred guitar
with loads of sustain for a bolt-on. The
guitar on the right is a 2000 model 7421.
I swapped the bridge humbucker for a DiMarzio Blaze (that I pulled from
the other Ibanez). It’s also got a
Roland GK-2 synth PU that I put on. Has
a very hi-fi sound with a pretty even frequency response.
Here’s
my Japanese Fender FC-1 classical guitar from the late 70s. My father decided to learn classical lessons back
in ’79 or so and bought it new along with a music stand and a foot stool. He stopped taking lessons at the end of that
summer and the guitar lay in its case for years. A couple of years back I took some flamenco
lessons so he gave it to me. It’s a very
nice guitar. BTW, flamenco is REALLY
HARD!!
Here’s
my frankenstrat. It’s an early 80s
Japanese Squire that had been badly refinished with a blue sparkle paint
job. I stripped it and gave it a tung
oil finish. I also ruined the original
neck by scalloping it with a Dremel Moto-Tool.
So it has a big, fat Warmoth neck on it now. It has two Carvin AP-11 single coils and a
Seymour Duncan JB Jr. humbucker. The
saddles, string tree and nut are all graphite.
The bridge is locked down. It
also has a special 5-way switch that activates the outer coils in the middle
position for more of a Telecaster sound.
I may put another AP-11 in the bridge instead of the JB Jr. This is a very sweet sounding guitar.
