Well, it has been quite awhile since I posted anything. Been busy getting my company going. We did a title on the B3 organ drawbars. Hooked up with 2 amazing players. Tim Carmon and his friend PJ. Tim is currently Eric Clapton's organ player. The cool thing was that later in the evening after we did the video with them, I was relaxing at home watching the boob tube of Clapton's Crossroads festival from this summer, and there was Tim! Here is a photo of Joe, Tim, Me and PJ.

Part Two of My Guitars



Next up is my 1966 Fender Electric XII. Fender made these solid body 12 string electrics from 1966 through 1968 trying to capitalize on the popularity of the Rickenbacker 12 strings that the Beatles and Byrds made so popular. This is the fourth one of these that I've owned over the years, 2 other Sunburst models, and one in Lake Placid Blue with a matching headstock (man, do I kick myself in the head for letting that one go!). This one is by far the nicest one both in playability and condition that I've had. With the original case. I put Pyramid flatwound strings on it, and it sounds great.



About 4 years ago, I suddenly realized that I was "tele-less"(no Telecaster). I had owned a couple of Telecasters and Esquires over the years (A early 60's Esquire Custom in Sunburst with white binding - why did I ever let some of these guitars go!!) and had really enjoyed the unique sound that you can only get from a Tele. I started to look around for what kind of Tele to get, and for whatever reason, I decided that I was secure enough in my masculinity that I would get a pink paisley Tele. Now the original ones which Fender only made in 1968 (for the "Summer of Love" - they also that same year made a blue floral Telecaster with flowers all over it) were at the time going for around $ 5000.00, and that was a little out of my budgetary range. However, in 1981 Fender Japan (before Bill Schultz bought the company from CBS) was experimenting with re-issuing some of Fender's classic guitars. This is one of those. It proudly is stamped "Made in Japan" on the back of the neck heel, and it plays like a dream. It has one of the loudest bridge pickups I've ever heard (without being microphonic) and just plays and sounds like a Tele should.



Rounding up the Fender end of my guitars is a kinda unusual one. This is a copy of George Harrison's 1962 Stratocaster that he hand painted during the Sgt. Peppers/Magical Mystery Tour period. A couple of years ago I decided to give my oldest daughter an assignment over her summer vacation. I purchased off of ebay a Saga Stratocaster-style guitar kit for $ 80.00. It comes with all the electronics pre wired, all the hardware and a unfinished neck and body. I painted the body to match George's original which was Sonic Blue, then I downloaded as many high resolution photos of "Rocky" as I could find on the internet and gave it to Marisa. The result is what you see here. It primarily is decoration hanging on the wall in my office, but I actually did assemble it all the way and plug it in at least once. Pretty cool. More guitars yet to come.

Part One of My Guitars


This is my "personal Custom Shop" 1957 Fender Stratocaster in Foam Green. Back in 1979 ( long before the Fender Custom Shop was a dream in Bill Schultz's mind) I decided to build, with help, a dream Stratocaster. I had owned other strats, some new and some vintage before, but this model and color was my dream guitar. I must mention that at the time I also owned a 1955 Thunderbird that was the same color.


Anyway, I bought the neck and body then all the hardware. It was just the standard chrome plated Fender hardware and I wanted gold, so my dad offered to call in a couple of favors and had it all (even the screws!) gold plated by some friends of his who had a shop that plated trophies. Once I had all the parts, I took it to Steve Soest who was my guitar repair tech (and still is) and had him assemble all of the electronics and paint the body and neck. At the time there wasn't any market for reproduced water slide decals, so Steve found me a NOS Stratocaster from the late 50's. The result is what you see here. It has been my main guitar through thick and thin for the last 26 years. Now it has naturally attained the "Closet Classic" look and has been through more than a few electronics changes over the years, but it is still my favorite.



This is my other Strat. I kindly refer to it as my "FrankenStrat". It is a completly E-Bay built guitar. I bought a slightly damaged Fender issue Candy Apple Red body, then a real Fender Strat neck from Mexico that I stripped the finish off of, refinished the fretboard with a light coat of lacquer and painted the headstock as close as I could get to matching the body with a vintage re-issue decal. I then bought a pre-wired gold anodized pickguard and purchased all the gold hardware from separate auctions on ebay. Once I had all the parts, I got my solidering iron out and put the whole thing together. I was truly amazed that it actually played and sounded great when I was finished! A few electronics changes later, it is currently my favorite guitar for playing slide.

Here are a couple of photos of our new VO booth and workstation. We finally got it all working today - yea!! We will be recording with our first author next week, and we'll be off and running.


Here is the interior of our booth through the window.


This is the workstation controlling the booth recordings. A beautiful sparkley Mac Pro Tower with OSX and Windows XP running on the same machine. Will wonders never cease.