MY GUITARS

I began playing guitar back in my teenage years, while dating a woman she picked up a guitar and played me a song. She played very well I might add and asked if she would teach me. She did and I picked it up quickly and decided to buy my own guitar. We dated for about a year, friends thought we were nuts, both of us never went anywhere without our guitars. Shortly after we broke up I meet another woman who also was passionate about music and found me an excellent teacher who I studied under for several years learning music theory.

 

Gibson Les Paul Standard

One day back in 1978 I decided that it was time to get rid of my rusty old 300-dollar guitar and get something really nice. So off to the music story I went, not exactly sure what I wanted. After trying many guitars out I found one stuck back in the corner, the gold Les Paul Gibson shown on the left. I must have played with it for at least two hours before I get the nerve up to spend 800-dollars on it. Proud of my new baby I went straight to my music teacher to show him. He played it and said it play fantastic but did you notice the dings on it? No I replied what should I do? He said take it back and get another one. So I took it back and they gave me no arguments, was expecting a minor war but it never happened. Also I didn't really try it out that much and was off back to my teachers place. He tried it out and said, no no no, go take it back, it does not play nearly as well as the first one. Now the music store is not close by but I went back anyways. This time they were not pleased about the return but offered my a replacement. Anyone except the first one which sounded strange to me. They said it was sold, could not and would not believe them, this time it was personal, war! So I sat down on the floor in front of the main door for over an hour. Finally they came up with the first Les Paul and said there was a mistake, it was not sold. I won and took my trophy home.

This guitar has been my main guitar for live concerts playing in at least three bands and joined other bands as a guest performer. It has served me well through out the years until two years ago when the higher frets began buzzing because of all the wear. In all the years of owning it I only allowed one person to work on it, he was back in Pennsylvania so I needed to find someone new. Sort of like leaving your child with a new baby sitter. Finally found one in of all places Keizer, his name is Milo for the records. Milo looked at it with awe and said what needed to be done which would take about two days work. I called back in two days, they said it was not finished yet, called back two days later, still not done. Getting worried here so the next day went into the store and while entering the store the manager said to me, Milo has fallen in love with your Les Paul and is trying to find a way to get it from you (he laughed but soon found out he was not kidding) Milo came out from the back with it wrapped in his arms, treating it just like a newborn. We chatted for a while, he asked, seriously, will you will this guitar to me? Say what! He then explained the facts to me. It was an excellent guitar unlike any Les Paul he had ever played and secondly the configuration of the guitar was very rare. Joking back to him I said I have to think about this "willing" it to you. More on this when I talk about the ES335 below, affectionately called Menolly.

Lastly my original inspiration for this guitar was from my exposure to Jim Page of Led Zeppelin. Which brings me to another small point, there is one guitar not pictured here, my custom Telecaster which is at work, so there will be yet another photo for it shortly along with it's history.

Gibson ES335

This guitar a Kalamazoo Michigan guitar was purchased two years after the gold top Les Paul. I wanted a particular sound for some recordings that I was doing and the Les Paul didn't have the sound I was looking for, so back to the music store for a guitar with the right sound. At first the guitar didn't appeal to me but after trying out all others this guitar was indeed the one. I did the recording and it delivered what I expected. Once done it was tucked away for about a year until I got into playing in a band which did some originals and cover tunes. One set was made up of the Band called Rush and once again the ES335 came out because of the sound it produced, this time the sound of Rush. During this time span my now ex-wife was reading a book from Anne Mc Caffrey entitled DragonSlayer which had a character called Menolly which as fate would have it Rush wrote about her in 2112 album. Menolly lived on the planet Pern where woman were forbidden to play musical instruments, Menolly would hide and play to herself until the elders caught her and were not pleased. A sad story to say the least, so one night after hearing about Menolly and was rarer in wonderful spirits from having foreign things in my body which elevated me to someplace other then this earth I dubbed the Gibson ES335 Menolly. This as with the Les Paul is a rare beauty in that it plays well, great sounding and is not made as it was back then.

Last year a switch broke on her and off to Milo she went. It remained in the shop for almost six months since Milo refused to replace the switch with a newer one and search all over for an original switch. In the end Milo refused to charge me for the repairs in fear I would not will him the Les Paul.

Charvel custom


This guitar was purchased first for use with my guitar synthesizer but ended up not being a good fit. Since I don't sell guitars that I purchased I decided to keep it around. It became a good fit for some digital records I was doing at the time along with the whammy bar. I gutted out all the internal electronic stuff except for the volume control and changed the treble pickup to a Duncan super hum-bucking model. Oh well no good stories about this guitar like the two above, simply not in the same league.

Small Studio Marshall Amp


Although I favor tube amplifiers for their warm sound I needed to work in some new sounds for my recordings so beings I like Marshall amplifiers this one was a natural pick. Many times I used it on stage as a monitor when my 100 watt amp was to far away to hear properly. Also the 100 watt amp is hard to play at a low volume were the 50 watt amp is not at low volume.

Half Stack 100watt Marshall Amp


This is my baby when it comes to consistent sounds for my style of playing. It is a tube amplifier with special tubes not just the right sound.

Special effects gear


This is what is called as an effects rack, it houses various gadgets for enhancing the sound of my guitars. Also sports an eight channel mixer for when recording and a tone module which was originally used for my guitar synth., ended up using it for doing home recordings. Believe it or not that is about ten thousand dollars sitting in the small box. Took a long time to pay for it.