Thursday 29 August 2013
To All The Guitars I've Loved Before. "Phase One, In Which Doris Gets Her Oats"
I was chatting to my good bud Steve (AKA Ken, Stan, Lionel), maybe a year ago about all the guitars I've had since I started playing. The list became quite expansive, so here is a blog post about phase 1 in guitar buying. Alas they no longer room with me.
1. Spanish/classical guitar
A part time loan from my ex's cousin. He showed me how 'not' to play the intro from Stairway To Heaven shortly after we endured early 90s comedy 'Green Card' with Gérard Depardieu. I dutifully popped along to my local library, to get various guitar instruction books out, along with 'The Monkees Greatest Hits'. I expected to be a total natural at music & thought Daydream Believer would be knocked out in less than an afternoon. It sounded worse than the infamous one armed busker who stood outside McDonalds in New St Station with a single string (bottom E) on his guitar. Busker 1 Pat 0.
2. Hohner Acoustic Steel String
Got my first real 6 string, bought it from Argos Superstore, played it till my fingers bled, it was the Summer of 94'
£49.99. Played like a pig this one. You could easily limbo a Walnut Whip under the strings on the 12th fret. I tried my hand at refinishing it to a cherry sunburst. Obviously using brown, red & black boot polish to achieve this. I ended up smashing it on a wall like a drunk Keith Moon. *actually drunk.
3. Westone Thunder IIa with pre amp
My first electric guitar. A petrol blue beast forged from the white hot cauldron of rock. Japan. Purchased from Musical Exchanges, Birmingham for £110.00 A beast in metal/rock terms, a pig in actual tone terms. It weighed a ton and gave access to fret numbers where no man had ever or gone before. Flick that 'preamp' switch for instant shreddanoodle & a humbucking tonal palette equivalent to liquid metal diarrhea. But it served me reasonably well, & I managed to learn many, many terrible songs on it whilst giving my Uncle (next door neighbour) a temporary bi polar disorder. Ended up hocking it in towards my next electric. They go for upwards of $500+ on Fleabay!
First Guitar Amp
Marshall Reverb 12 Practise Amp. Quite small, but very loud, and very red. (They had sold out of black ones) I ended up playing everything through this 1 x 10 speaker, bass, harmonica, vocals, keyboards. It ended up in Cash Convertors with the arse totally thraped off it.
4. Antoria 'Rockstar' 80s 335 Copy
Acquired from my pal Glen for £35.00. It needed new tuners & a bit of electrical work. I had all the hardware/pickup covers changed to chrome, put witches hat control knobs & a black scratchplate on it. It had awesome Kent Armstrong humbuckers in it, and I remember it sounded/looked great. Still kinda regret selling this one, but it would probably sound sh*t without those rose tinted glasses on. Actually thinking about it, I played a charity gig with it as John Lennon & it was a ba*tard to keep in tune. Went on fleabay eventually & I got around £150-80.
5. Vantage electro acoustic
Purchased from M.I.R in Halesowen for £179.00. Great (first) acoustic, really nice sounding pickup. Next to a premium guitar, yes, a bit thin sounding & cheap. I had this one for a few years, eventually selling it to my mate for £90.00. Who then sold it to his bass player for a profit! (sucker) It now bizarrely hangs on the wall of my new wingman, Dave, who has just joined my current covers band on bass. (I spotted it in his house after 12+ years) It looked really sh*t. My guitar was a bit darker than this stock shot below. More caramel cack.
6. Epiphone Les Paul Standard
Amazing, amazing guitar, played just beautifully. Every now and then you play an Epiphone that sings. This was one of them. I had Seymour Duncan Vintage 59' pickups retro fitted shortly after purchase. Amazing tonal capabilities. I always loved Les Paul guitars, mainly because of my hero Peter Green. If I still had this guitar I would defo get my tech guy to try and get that 'out of phase' sound Peter had. I traded this guitar with a work colleague who wanted to learn electric guitar (a £250 trade for some work he did for me), on the understanding that if he wanted to get rid of it I would buy it back for £250.00. Long story short, the guy was unwell and had pretty bad OCD. He swapped it for a really, really sh*t, I mean dogsh*t Yamaha electro acoustic. Bear in mind the Les Paul had a hard case & with the various upgrades was worth £500+. Did I mention how sh*t the ridiculous Yamaha was that he traded it in for? I don't think about it after all these years. Honest. I don't. Really.
Marshall JTM30 1x12 Combo
Purchased at the same time as the Epi Les Paul, 1994 ish. A storming amp with 2 channels. Gain channel sucked badger arse. (There was also a 2 x 12 60 watt version) The clean sound was amazing, often envied by muso bud's who played through it. Marshall only ran them for a few years because of manufacturing faults. This one used to overheat, a common problem that needed an experienced techy dude to sort out. The amount of times it broke down in it's later years was annoying. I got it fixed and flogged it earlier this year. It was still in great shape even with drunken cuban heeled boots kicking it around the stage a few times to kickstart it back to life.
7. Fender Squier Stratocaster
Cash Convertors, £60.00. Mexican. Worst guitar ever. Played like a Quality Street tin with elastic bands stretched over it. May even have belonged to someone I know with terrible, terrible musical capabilities. Even *HE* didn't hang on to this cursed block of plywood for very long. I can't remember if I gave it way, traded it or executed it.
8. Fender Telecaster MIJ
Acquired off my bud 'Stonemason Trev' back in the mid 90s. Never really took to it as a regular guitar. It looked like a honey & was chock full of twangy goodness, but I wasn't ready for a Telecaster. Yet. Sold to my then drummer for £200.00. He sold it a few years later for about £400. There's a pattern emerging here. *Side note, Trev showed me the Bm chord when I started to learn guitar.
9. Burns Marquee Club Series
I loved this guitar. The colour, the scroll headstock, the pick ups. It sounded different/better than the Strat's I was hearing/playing at the time. Had the push/pull tone pot selector for more 60s goodness. My mate Ken hated it. I slightly regretted selling it on fleabay for around £190. It was/is essentially a £200ish guitar. Makes me want to buy an original 60s one.
10. Vintage Dobro Resonator
Being heavily into blues music for a long time, I always wanted one of these bad boys. I kept it for a long time, without really using it much. The pick up was amazing, but it sounded like a standard acoustic through a P.A. Unplugged it had it's own southern charm, a nice country blues sound. It weighed a ton and was a bitch to keep it from tarnishing. Another one to the fleabay gods. (sighs)
11. Epiphone 12 String Acoustic Early 70s
Purchased from Crap Converters for £99.00. Really nice sounding guitar that did the BBQ circuit for two boozy Summers. I always intended on getting it set up properly, have that pick up fitted so I could go on a Bowie trip with it. But it's another one of those 'getroundtoit' jobs that never, ever happens. Sold on Fleabay for £200.
12. 50th Anniversary Fender Stratocaster MIJ
Lovely looking guitar bought off my pal James. He has loads of music equipment that he has *never*, ever used. A Fender Japan guitar with aged parts. (I later swapped them to another guitar) The pick ups in this sounded great, very dark for a Strat. I don't know what is is with Fender, they never really seemed speak to me in design/sound terms. I guess I just love big ole' hollow body jazzers.
13. Hutchins Vox Tear Drop Brian Jones Ltd Edition
Being a Brian Jones fan, I always wanted a Vox Tear Drop guitar, & with this one being endorsed by The Brian Jones Fanclub & a limited run of 250 it should be great, right? Wrong. Hutchins cut corners on build quality & finish. The pick ups were thin & reedy, the fretboard felt horrible and the spray job was done with a paintball gun from 100 yards away. Brian would defo not endorse this box of basswood boll*x.
14. Fender Squier 51
The Squier 51 is the only original design by Squier. It has a split coil humbucker in the bridge, and a standard single pup on the neck. It's a hybrid of a Strat, P Bass & a Tele (headstock) I only really got it because of the Pat Butcher scratchplate and the split coil pup. (and to leave in the workshop to tinkle on) Still not sure why I sold it. (oh yeah, I'm a guitar tackle tart) Fender now do a run of these in their Custom Shop dept for £800+.
15. Teisco Hollowbody MIJ
I had a spell of watching 60s Jap guitars on Ebay when this came up. Not having much experience with them I bought it. It wasn't all bad in fairness and had some 60s goodness in the pick ups. Light as a feather and as fragile as a child's tear. I lusted after the Spectrum 5. Not a balsawood tennis racket.
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16. Hagstrom Viking Deluxe
Straight out the case this guitar was amazing. Thin, straight, fast neck, good finish & build, with great pickups. The Deluxe just had different finishes available & more binding. Classic 60s looks. This was my main stage guitar for a year. Loved it. Sold it. I recommend one of these to anyone who wants a 335 copy with a slight twist. It's good to be different. Another reason to have it was Jack from Wolf People plays a 60s single coil version.
17. Burns Marquee
Errrmmm. I told you I liked them. Sold. With the cellophane still on it.
18. Zenith Archtop 1959
Bought for £90 to hang on the chimney breast of my then new house. This guitar got played, drunkenly, a lot. For a guitar of it's age, it sounded amazing. When I got it I wasn't aware of the Paul McCartney connection with the Zenith archtop, (his first guitar) so when it got replaced by a Brian Jones painting on the wall, I kinda forgot I had it. Sold on Ebay to a Japanese collector for £590.00. Score.
Fender Twin Reverb early 70s
Acquired off my amp tech. Loved it from the start, the glassy highs and deep lush reverb. Like a marriage made in heaven. Then it turned sour, she moaned a lot, broke down, hissed, farted, refused to do things I wanted to do. I felt like she was putting weight on, it started to hurt up and down the stairs, in the car, out the car. I'd had enough. It cost me £180 to get out of this loveless marriage. She ended up with a Manc guy who had an aversion to shoegazing.
Marshall 50w Lead & Bass Plexi Head 1973
Lovely, lovely guitar tone. Power, fatness, overdriven creaminess, ice pick crunch. Why did I sell this again? Oh yeah, lugging a 4 x 12 stack to a pub gig on the outskirts of Wolverhampton to play to 6 people is just daft.
19. 1961 Fenton Weill 'Hohner' Amazon
Built by furniture makers. Played by guys with horn rimmed glasses and brylcreemed hair. Probably. Mahogany body. Atomic pup's! Loud, fat creamy goodness. Played it a lot, recorded great. Bought off Alien Pat, sold to Fenton Will who is even taller than me, so this tiny bodied guitar must look mental on him.
20. 2009 Gibson Epiphone Flying V 58 Korean Unsung Plant
Purchased on a whim after a Facebook chat with my mate on the merits of Keef looking the nuts at Hyde Park in 1969. I have played it live a few times, BUT, it's 2013, I'm not Keith Richards, I'm not 25, I'm not a cock rocker & I play in tune, most of the time. It's set up great, kinda looks cool, the balance is not as bad as you think, it sounds and feels great.....unplugged. Amped up however you are very aware what you have in your hands. A fairly daft guitar with a pretty bland, nondescript factory fitted sonic pallette. Retro fit some decent pickups & you might just have a honey of a guitar in your hands, but I couldn't see me ever playing it again.
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