The Thousand Yard Stare

I’ve been playing guitar since somewhere around 1987. At the time, my family was in New Zealand, and my mother found me a guitar teacher. Interestingly enough, he actually was an accordion player – and taught guitar on the side.

We started with some Mel Bay books, and at the time I was on a nylon stringed acoustic guitar that I played along with the radio with. Thanks to a scene in The Blues Brothers, more specifically where the boy tries to steal a guitar from Ray’s Music Exchange, I lusted after a black Fender strat with white pickguard.

One day I went into my guitar lesson, and sitting right on the bench was a Fender Strat! Black! Just like the one I wanted.

My teacher noticed my interest in it, and asked if I wanted to try it.  ”Sure!”

Now, mind you, I had only been playing a month or two, could barely fret a note, and I’m not even sure that I could form chords yet.

Sooo, he CRANKS up this double sized stack (don’t remember if it was Fender or Marshall) to the point where if I didn’t mute the strings with my hand, there would be howling feedback. It kind of sucked! He’s sitting there going, “Play something!”. I couldn’t believe he did that to me. I sheepishly handed back the guitar, and took my acoustic back up.

Since then, I’ve found a bevy of other guitars that I liked, and I’ve strayed far and wide. My current guitars are below.

Gretsch 6120 Standard (1999) :

It’s got some locking gold tuners, and I upgraded the pickups to Alnico.  I think I already installed the treble bleed mod. This guitar has been on two recordings released for general consumption. I got this guitar at the Arlington Guitar Show in 1999 (brand new) when I traded my Duane Eddy Gretsch (in Orange) for it. I wanted a Filtertron sound, and that Duane couldn’t pull the Filtertron sound – of course it had Dynasonics in it…….

Gretsch Sparkle Jet (1996):

This is the guitar that I thrash pretty consistently. I got it for a steal way back when (2003), and the original owner had stripped off the Bigsby and mounted a bridge into the body. The bridge has Graphtech saddles, and I added the Bigsby back onto it. It’s got Alnico pickups and locking tuners.

Gretsch ’57 RI Jet (1994):

Man that bastard is dirty. I should clean it. Or play it. One or the other…… This was my first Gretsch . I got it as a “second” from Parker Music out on I-45 in Houston. It’s a 1994 – which is the first year this particular reproduction model of the vintage guitar was produced. It’s got beveled polepieces (for those of you who care):

Gretsch 6120 Hot Rod (2005):

This is my first FMIC Gretsch. It’s a bad mofo.  I hadn’t planned on getting it, but it was a nice surprise. The former owner had Armstrongized it – so the binding is weird (sanded) and the pickup selector switch was moved.  It plays smooth and easy – it’s a keeper.

Ibanez Iceman (2006):

I picked this one up cheap (my running theme) because it reminded me so much of the J Yuenger White Zombie model. I peeled off most of the stars, and shipped it off to be custom painted (to look like the WZ model). It’s still at the shop, so I’ll update the pics when it gets back.

*UPDATE* I sent this guitar to Simscustomshop.com back in August of 2009. At the time, I was quoted (over the phone) a 4 to 6 week turnaround – and I paid in full up front. I’ll update this page as soon as I get the guitar back. Which obviously has not happened yet. Must be tough to maintain an “F” rating with the BBB – eh? For SEO purposes: Sims Custom Shop Stole My Guitar.

Ibanez J. Yuenger Signature Model (1996):

A 1996 J model White Zombie Iceman (ICJ100WZ). How on earth did I get my hands on this? To be fair, it came along a few days after I shipped the blue one off to be painted. There’s just something about this guitar that is spookily killer. I need to take some close up pictures of the detail – especially on the binding. I’ve already upgraded it with a Floydupgrade.com “Big Block” –  which smoothed out a lot of the tone – less screamy. Re-learning how to string a floyd is an exercise in engineering. I suppose I’ll sell the cheaper Iceman if I ever get it back.

There is a registry of these guitars if you happen to have one and I read somewhere that the production run was only 95 guitars, but I’m not sure I believe it unless the serial numbers were punched only when they left the factory AND weren’t consecutive. .

Robin Machete Custom (1992):

…with a Drop D-Tuna on a Kahler trem, coil tapped PJ Marx pickups. Neck through with ebony fretboard (solid!)

- So, if you couldn’t tell by now, I was a fan of White Zombie.

Beyond a Gibson SG, the Robin Machete was one of the first guitars that I ever really lusted after.

In ’96 or so I recall being in Rockin’ Robin Guitars (where I took MORE lessons from about 88-91) there were some Machete models hanging there – if I recall there was a white one.  At the time, the price tag was waaaay out of my range.  Fast forward many years, and this one happened on eBay and I happened to get a good deal on a color and configuration that I wanted. For such a strange looking guitar, it really plays great. It’s like a beefy SG. Shortly after I got it Robin stopped making guitars (like within months).  If I had a reversal of fortune and had to part with my guitars this is one of the ones I wouldn’t let go of. Rawk.

Gibson SG ’61 RI & Gibson SG Standard:

Two Gibson SG’s, one strung up left handed for my southpaw daughter (and hanging in her room) in the hopes that she wants to play it.

Eastwood Airline:

A vintage-looking Airline guitar. Fun, and extremely lightweight.

Gretsch Electromatic Bo Diddley:

I finally put the Bo back together…

Fender ’51 Squier

Pedals:

The Boss RE-20. As close as I’ll get to the real thing. I’d like a true tape echo, but I don’t play enough to deserve one.

The Vibro Thang works well on the Tito and Tarantula stuff – it’s supposed to be a Leslie type emulator. The Echo FX Analog Delay actually sounds pretty good compared to the RE-20, and I got the Hot Rod so that I could have some distortion options – the stock Fender distortion doesn’t always cut it. I just got some new pedals that I need to take pictures of – a Electroharmonix Big Muff Pi, a Digitech Whammy IV, an MXR Micro Amp, a Boss TU-2, a Teese RMC3,  Teese RMC2, a Brain Seltzer Nocturne, and a Nocturne Fuzz Ray. I’ve got a Korg G1 (don’t laugh) but it’s kind of like a kid’s toy compared to the technology pedals have today.  However there is a neat octave effect on it I like.

The Nocturne Fuzz Ray is pretty cool looking, although I’m still tweaking it to see if I can get tones out of it that I’m happy with.  It may just be that I’m more of a distortion guy than a fuzz guy (as I have always expected) but I’ve got a Nocturne Ubangi Stomp on order that should be a good test between the two disciplines.

Last, Lonely, and dusty -

The Morley Wah Pedal

Rarely used. Picked it up for $20, so I haven’t had the heart to sell it yet. Actually an interesting story. I bought this Morley from Southpaw guitars in Houston. In my guitar playing infancy, I had taken my new Celebrity guitar (decent guitar with Floyd Rose, EMG’s, locking nut) and something else and traded it for a 72 SG. I didn’t notice until afterwards that the SG had gotten a broken neck somewhere along the way. So, did I get screwed. By myself – yes – by Southpaw? Somewhat. So I did find this pedal there – they said, “We don’t know what’s wrong with it, I’ll give it to you for $20″.  I don’t know why I bought it since I suck at that stuff, but I did.  It’s an analog wah – it uses a light bulb and a damper to change the wah.  Once there was a new bulb in it, it worked fine.  It’s dusty (obviously) because I never use it (doesn’t sound that great).

Amps:

Fender Supersonic -

Gretsch 6150T – The amp is beneath the guitar….it’s got a built-in tremolo which sounds kind of  “surfy”. Not real deep, but it’s nice to have.

Fender 112Plus – (pictures to follow)

Practice Amp – the “Moon” amp -

I mainly got it because it’s “Moon” and it looks cool. Sounds pretty crappy really. But it looks neat.