Friday, April 17, 2015

Did some recording in GarageBand today with these two guys: A mutt Strat with parts from unknown sources and a G&L ASAT prototype with pine body and neck.

Thursday, April 16, 2015

Fender Lead I "Red Cloud" with two Kent Armstrong single coil pickups. Custom cut red single ply pickguard.

Fender Lead I in a 1956 Chevrolet color, Pinecrest Green. The bridge saddles replace the original with stamped steel. The pickup is a Dean Leslie West humbucker. The neck was refretted with Dunlop 6105 frets and the board refinished. Bone nut installed.

Tuesday, April 14, 2015

Special commission from John Grammatico: Grammatico LaGrange amplifier based on the Fender 5e3 circuit.
G&L S500 plugged into a Fender EC VibroChamp amplifier.

AVRI 1957 Stratocaster (reissue) with Russian capacitors and wired for tone control of the bridge in addition to the stock tone wiring.

Saturday, April 11, 2015

Fender Lead Series guitar. This is one of many incarnations of the same guitar. This one has two Stratocaster pickups. ca 2008

I've owned two Gretsch Synchromatic guitars. Both are economy guitars. They cost me about $150 each and were fun to play. Lightweight. 

Sometime in 2008 I bought an American Vintage 57 Stratocaster, black. I nice guitar with sticky nitro finish all over. This arrangement has a little effects Fender amp, a Pro Junior and Vox Pathfinder.
The first guitar I bought on Ebay was this Fiesta Red Classic Series 50s reissue, Mexican, around 2008. The Vox Pathfinder had been with me for a few years prior. There's a Blues Junior under the Vox.

Sunday, April 5, 2015





Late in 2007 I decided to build a parts caster, a Stratocaster type of guitar built from parts available from many different sources. I built the above guitar but was not yet involved with installing and wiring pickups. This guitar had a number of problems, most importantly the neck did not set correctly on the body. That was fixed by using a shim. Still, the guitar was far from perfection. The body came to me in blue. I used two or three different reds and applied french curve scallops with an oil pen. Curiously enough the body was eventually sold to a fellow in Paris.

Fender Lead I guitar bought at Don Wehr's Music City in 1974. I had this guitar as an only player until I bought a Stratocaster in 2007. It was sold in parts in 2013.

Saturday, April 4, 2015


Fender Lead I guitar with Seymour Duncan HB pickup. Modified with multi-color body and scallops using French Curves. The guitar is from the late 70s/early 80s and has a neck identical to a vintage 50s Stratocaster neck except for the individual headstock.
Fender Japan-made Jerry Donahue Telecaster. Stratocaster pickup on the neck and a special wound Seymour Duncan pickup on the bridge.
G&L Legacy special edition with a 'nearly naked' finish that is not much more than a stain. The body feels like natural wood.
Fender Lead I guitar from the late 70s/early 80s modified with a multi-color body, Curtis Novak pickups. P90 at the neck, HB on the bridge. The neck is Fender vintage profile with vintage frets and 7.25 inch radius fingerboard.
Fullerton Red G&L ASAT Special Deluxe resting on a Grammatico 5e3 LaGrange amplifier.

Booji and the Strat