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NAMM 2012- Reverend Guitars and Rick Vito

admin — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 17:40:03 +0000

Rick Vito, happy to get a box of Tastycakes

One of the best “treats” (for us and for him-Ha!) was delivering a box of Philadelphia favorite, Tastycakes to Philly native Rick Vito. We saw a Rick at the Reverend Guitar Booth where he is a sponsored artist. Rick is an extraordinary guitar player who most recently toured as guitar player and frontman in The Mick Fleetwood Blues Band, a reprisal of the original Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac. He did an outstanding job, filling some large shoes. He had helped us out with a guitar part from that show and we owed him some Philadelphia Food in payment and were happy to pay that debt.

My Reverend Charger with P90s

One more thing; aside from meeting Rick Vito it was a great pleasure to visit the Reverend booth. I must give them an unsolicited plug. I own a Reverend Charger and it is the favorite guitar in my collection, and that includes Telecasters, Stratocasters, Harmony’s and Epiphones. It’s so well made and has great great tone. Considering the price, it’s almost shocking how good they are.I rarely see people selling theirs.

Dusenberg Guitars and Lap Steel

The Dusenberg Booth had some nice guitars including a beautiful Lap Steel. The only thing that was missing was Mike Campbell

NAMM 2012 Music Merchandise Show The Fender Booth

admin — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 18:49:01 +0000

Custom Shop Telecasters in Sea Foam Green with Bigsby's

The Fender Guitar Booth was a sight to behold. They had row after row of Custom Shop Guitars on display there. You had to be careful to step over the pools of drool on the floor while looking at them.

There was a beautiful array of row after row of Telecasters with Bigsby Tremelo Bars in various shades of cool Sea Foam Green.These were all built to order for various clients by different luthiers in the Custom Shop

Jeweled Fender Stratocaster

One of the Strats had 161 diamonds and 117 other jewels. “Abby” hand wound pick ups were custom engraved. There were also 55’ of Rose Gold wire, hand hammered for good measure. I’ll bet it sounded like a million bucks too. We obviously couldn’t try that one.

There was an eye-catching Telly done in a bold hip art style.

There was a beautiful Japanese theme-ed Fender Stratocaster built by John Cruz. The body is Koa with a beautiful hand-tooled leather inset done by Dru Whitefeather.In addition, there is gorgeous inlay work done on the fretboard as well as the headstock.The pick ups are JC (John Cruz) Limited. This is one of two that will be made so if you’re shopping…..

Bold Hip Art Style Telly

Hand-tooled Leather topped Stratocaster

NAMM 2012 Music Merchandise Show Part 1

admin — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 21:39:37 +0000

NAMM 2012 Entrance

The NAMM (National Association of Music Merchants show 2012 has been everything we thought it would be and more. It is the biggest gathering of musical products anywhere in the world.There are 90,000 attendees from over 90 countries. While guitars dominate, there is nothing musical that you can’t find. It is a sought after ticket and our NAMM Membership got us in the door. It took all four days to see everything we wanted to see and that was far from everything.

One of the more enjoyable pastimes you can do there is star gazing and people watching and the first one we saw was Ozzy Osbourne shuffling past the the outdoor food concession. Once inside, we ran after David Crosby to get a photo, only to find it it was a lookalike.

Duane Eddy outside Gretsch Booth

Duane Eddy, the original “Rebel Rouser” and King of the Twangy Guitar was seen outside Gretsch booth. A likely place given Gretsch’s gift of twang to Rock & Roll. According to John Fogerty; “Duane Eddy was the front guy, the first rock & roll guitar god.” Duane Eddy’s “Have Twangy Guitar Will Travel” album charted for 82 weeks on Billboard.

Off with her head

JakeS — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 01:45:16 +0000

I have 1968 Martin D-28 whose neck has been broken twice, the first time by US Air on a trip to Binghamton my guitar ended up in Elmira. When I got it back the neck had a horse shoe crack on the back about 4″ below the headstock. The second time it fell face first off an upright stand and snapped the headstock clean off on a line from the A string tuner to the B string tuner. The third time it blew off a Hercules stand outdoors in down town Dallas and rebroke in the original place of the airline mishap. I am still playing “Marie” and got a pretty good song out her adventures, but do not recommend this method to any one!

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Like a doggy hangin’ out the window

JakeS — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 01:26:54 +0000

A few years ago I picked up a previously owned Taylor acoustic (not the top top end, but still a Taylor) from a local pawn shop. It was a beauty, blonde top with lots of beautiful woodgrain, a custom pickguard and mother of pearl tuners. The thing was a work of art really, not your run-of-the-mill picker. I fell in love with this sick acoustic and planned on keeping it til i’m dead.

Well, death came sooner than I had hoped.

One sunny day driving with a couple of my buds, we were heading to an open mic at a local pub. I had been there numerous times before, and everybody loved my Taylor as much as i did. We would be pickin’ and grinnin’ to the wee hours of the morning. It was a blast.

Today was different. Not a happy day at all. Reason is I thought it would be a good idea to goof around a bit. I leaned out the window of the van we were driving and stuck the guitar outside the window to play. Everything was going fine until we hit a large pothole. The bump pinched my hand between the guitar and the van door, and the Taylor went flying out the window.

Wouldn’t have been so bad if an 18-wheeler wasn’t in back of us. The driver of the truck didn’t even hesitate. My Taylor fell right in the path of his front tire and was made a pancake right before my eyes.

Toothpick city.

I was able to recover what was left. Open mic night sucked, that night. But people were amused when they heard the story. Though it brings back sad memories for me, hopefully you were amused by this, too.

The rack will protect my collection…even from stupidity =)

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STRAT-asphere!

JakeS — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 01:29:00 +0000

We were on our way to a party we were going to play at, and some of the equipment was in the back of the pick-up truck I was riding in. Well the party was out in the ‘boonies’, and the road’s were not that great, and we hit a bump, (more like a crater!), and my Strat went flying out of the back of the truck into the field on the side of the road. It was dusk, and you could hardly see, but we finally found it about 60-80 feet from the road, a big crack in one side of the case, (my heart went into my stomach!). We opened the tailgate of the pick-up, and put the broken case on it, and I slowly opened it with 1/2 an eye looking… well, the case took a lickin’, but the Strat kept kicking’! Everybody was amazed, there wasn’t a scratch on my Strat! And the band played on that night!! Though it took awhile for me to stop shakin’!!!

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How To Lose The Best Guitar In The World

JakeS — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 14:28:00 +0000

The original Stratocaster neck which I had removed and replaced from the lost guitar before it became roadkill.

Once upon a time, around 1965, my brother and I played a job in Palatka, Fl. Afterwards, we stopped on the westside of Jacksonville to offload our drummer, pushing the magic button that lets down the back window of our 1961 Ford station wagon…and forgetting to push the magic button to raise it back up. We stopped to pay toll on the old Fuller Warren Bridge and gave it the gas to drive off into the dark. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw something slide right out that back window and onto the dark expressway. I hoped it was our panic kit; but it turned out to be my very first guitar–a 1954 Fender Stratocaster…gone forever, when some nice person stopped and sped off with it before we could back up. How’s that for Guit-Horror?

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Windmill Wake up!

JakeS — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 14:20:58 +0000

I have a Fender Mexican made Stratocaster, and where it is not a prized guitar in the world, she’s a prize to me. She is to me as #1 was to Stevie Ray Vaughan, or Lucille to B.B. King.

So one day at practice, we were playing hard, really getting into it. In the middle of the song “Won’t Get Fooled Again,” I really cranked the amp, and went entirely Pete Townshend. Okay, not entirely, but I was “Windmilling” as Pete does. Really fast, really hard. On one of the rounds I made with my arm, I pulled the strat up without realizeing it, and on the next round smacked the bottom of the Strat, cracking the finish, and busting open my thumb.

While my bandmates were freaking out about MY injured thumb, and the blood that was everywhere… I was freaking out about the cracked and chipped paint. Since then more paint keeps cracking off, and its always pains me to see the exposed wood underneath. Also I have found the the expose wood is more susceptible to dents and dings.

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Fear of Flying

JakeS — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 01:48:52 +0000

With my Gibson Les Paul in its case, I handed it over to the airline officials to be placed under the plane. They said I couldn’t take it on the plane. I was already frightened of bringing it on the plane with me much less under the plane without me. But I handed it over. I’m sure you know where this is going.

After a six hour flight, I landed in Denver, Co. I was due to play the very next day. I gathered my things from the baggage claim, guitar and all and headed to the hotel. After arriving at the room, I cracked open my case and was horrified with what I saw. My Les Paul’s neck was snapped completely in half where the head meets the neck (i.e. nut.) My heart sank. I didn’t know what to think. So I drove back to the airport immediately and showed the officials my instrument and after many hours of yelling, I got no reimbursement, no new instrument. nothing. And on top of that, the guitar was not fixable.

Now, I refuse to fly without my guitars on board with me or in full sight.

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2011 New Orleans Jazz Fest Roadtrip, Day 3

admin — Fri, 13 May 2011 15:30:10 +0000

Mem Shannon in Blues Tent with Twin Reverb

Jazzfest Day 3 found us sucked back in to blues tent, by the sounds of Mem Shannon. Mem put out some mellow blues tones to match his vocals. Looked like he was playing a Cort (Les Paul clone) guitar, through a Twin Reverb amp. It’s amazing how different the same amp can sound with another guitar and another guitar player. Bill Kirchen was using one the day before to get all that nice Twang.

Sonny Landreath at Jazz Fest 2011

We wandered around a little and checked out The Punch Brothers neo-bluegrass and sampled some more of the food. Then we headed back to the Blues tent to hear Louisiana native and slide guitar master, Sonny Landreath, who put on a blistering show.

Robert Randolph and the Family Band closing Jazz Fest 2011

Finally, still in the Blues Tent, we had to break from all the New Orleans Musicians (could have opted for Neville Brothers) but had to top it off with a fellow New Jerseyite/Philadelphian Robert Randolph and the Family Band. Robert is a pedal steel guitar master did not disappoint. He was the only act we saw where the audience was on their feet the entire time! Still got a little New Orleans flavor when slide guitar master Sonny Landreath joined Robert on stage for a few numbers including Purple Haze. We can’t fit his pedal steel into one of our guitar storage racks but maybe we can figure something out.

Outside Jazz Fest

Jazz Fest was a great musical experience. We never heard so much music in such a short period. Even on the walk back to the car music abounded. People who lived along the way had set up little stages and you could dance your way back to the car. We stopped at one house to jam some harp along with a guy slinging some Muddy Waters blues.

BIGGEST MUSICAL SURPRISES
Trombone Shorty – Although he did a set at Jazz Fest, on the first night we were there we caught him sitting in at a Warren Haynes show at the Mahalia Jackson Theater. Shorty plays trombone with the soul of a lead guitar player. I never thought I’d hear that kind of emotion out of a trombone. He traded licks effortlessly with Warren Haynes.

The other big surprise was Guitar Slim Jr. who we talked about in our Jazzfest Day 1 blog.

Bill McNally and his Strumsticks

Most Interesting Craft Vendor:
We came across Bob McNally (from NJ) and his Strumsticks. What a great idea and perfect product for Jazz Fest. They are beautifully toned and crafted small (travel size) stringed instruments. They have 3 strings and come in various open tunings which make it very easy for anybody to pick up and play something, that sounds good, on first try. The perfect product for all those “would-be” guitar players walking around Jazz Fest and inspired by all the music they just heard.