Gear

Guitars

Fender Stratocaster

Fender Stratocaster 1974

Brown, black pickguard, maple fingerboard. This Strat has the big '70s headstock and three-screw neck. I know, they're usually called 'three-bolt' necks, but they are screws, not bolts. I've been playing the other guitars so much lately that it was both a shock and a rush to play this slim-necked, curvy-bodied epitome of mid-century American style.

Epiphone AJ-15-VS

Chinese Epi Advanced Jumbo copy, laminated spruce and mahogany, marked "Used" on back of headstock, indicating factory second. This pawnshop purchase is sturdy and loud. The squashed sound is all mid-range. Good for ragtime and, believe it or not, Hot Club style music.

Epiphone Casino

Turqoise like the one in the Wikipedia article, made in Korea, from eBay. This Korean-built Casino is an eBay purchase, and a wonderful deal it was. It's turqoise, with flawless like-new finish that Andy admired went I brought it to him to buy a case. The previous owner was somehow able to find a matching turquoise leather strap. It was recently restrung with medium jazz strings with a wound third, the full hollowbody makes it a great jazz guitar. Grant Green played the Gibson version of this, the ES-330 (here's some great YouTube footage of Grant Green, Barney Kessell, and Kenny Burrell - here Green's no longer playing the 330, though).

Epiphone SG

Black, two EMG humbuckers. Sometimes this guitar has medium flatwound jazz strings on it. Humbucking pickups and flatwound strings make a guitar sound totally dead, so why use an archtop?

Epiphone Texan FT-145SB

Early 70's Japanese sunburst acoustic. This still has the pre-Norlin Kalamazoo Michigan blue label, with 'Made in Japan' stamped at lower right corner.

Epiphone Texan-12 FT-160

Early 70's 12-string, Japanese sunburst with the same type of adjustable bridge used on the American Epiphones and Gibson acoustics. This one has the yellowish Norlin label. Pasted on top of the bottom of the label where it says 'Made in Japan' is a sticker from Jack's Music, Searstown Mall, Titusville, Fl. Must have been an accident...Note that in the photo it's only strung with six strings, as it was then in 'Nashville' tuning.

Fender American Ash Telecaster

This 2004 American Tele which debuted at the Summer 2003 NAMM show is the classic blonde body/maple fingerboard that my old 1971 Tele had. Unlike the '71, which had a 'tophat' pickup switch tip and white pickguard, the new one has old-school round pickup switch tip and black pickguard. The old Tele was modded with a trick learned from an early '70s Joe Walsh interview in Guitar Player magazine, which was to take the tone control out of the circuit by clipping off a capacitor. This boosted the output and the treble a bit. The new Tele has an interesting feature in that the tone control can work normally or you can place it in an indent position that takes the tone control out of circuit, producing the same effect as the Joe Walsh mod. Jeff Beck and Mike Bloomfield played Teles and did some of their best work with them. (And let's not forget Duane Allman playing a Tele with a Vox fuzz box taped to the top!)

Gibson Dove

That's mine in the article, born November 2005. The Dove is one of two acoustic guitars that have knocked me out; loud, with perfect intonation all the way up the neck and a wide spectrum of balanced even tone, a Bösendorfer among guitars. I couldn't afford the first one I played, but after a few years of searching I came across this one on Ebay; mint, not a single scratch on it, and features special quarter-sawn curly maple sides and back. While it sounds great when played with a pick, I find myself usually playing jazz and classical music without a pick; I'm fortunate in having right-hand fingernails that are strong enough to stand up to steel strings.

Gibson ES-125

1952, all-original parts, one warm P-90. Marks in the Brazilian rosewood fingerboard indicate that for a long time this guitar was played by someone who didn't bother to cut their left hand fingernails. I keep it strung with medium roundwounds. Flatwounds kill it's appealing acoustic sound, and when it comes time to plug in and play electric, Charlie Christian used roundwounds and so do I.

Squier Jagmaster

Sunburst, short scale. Two humbuckers with a bit more of the tonal quality of P90's than humbuckers. Bridge pickup great for aggressive, snarling dog sound.

Squier Strat

White, mid-80's, made in India (!), with a bridge pickup that's a humbucker but that still has some nice Fender treble. It's shielded, so it's quieter than the 74 Strat.

Takamine EG128SC

Chinese made cutaway classical with piezo pickup, tuner, three band EQ, laminated top and sides. This would be good for sidewalk panhandling next time I'm in Key West.