I was going to write the next series about a non-guitar related art piece but I changed my mind. About a year ago I was commissioned to build a guitar for a client. When I first accepted the order I wasn’t going to be starting it for awhile so we left the details hanging. As the start date got closer, the client asked about making it an art piece. For me this is the best of all worlds, mix my two great passions, guitars and visual art!
It seems like I’m always starting these columns off by apologizing for it being so long since my last installment, so I figure why change now! Sorry, it’s been so freakin’ long! Okay, now I feel better. I actually finished Number One back in January of this year. Since then I’ve been working my old-man-tail off building the rest of the first batch of P-1s, which I just finished shipping in July. Then I went full bore filling guitar stand orders and a couple of other art commissions that have been outstanding for the past year-ish. WHEW! It’s been a hell of a couple of years!
My apologies for so much time passing since my last installment, but I felt I really needed to concentrate on getting these first guitars done. I am way past my initial time estimates for all of my clients and I’m feeling extremely guilty about it. I’d really like to start out by thanking all of them for their kind support and patience this first year of my new guitar venture. Thanks guys!
To guitar lovers, a new book by Tom Wheeler is an important event and his latest, The Soul of Tone – Celebrating 60 Years of Fender Amps (Hal Leonard), is no exception. But, while the beautifully written and presented 512-page hardbound book is a must-have for every amplifier fan, Fender or otherwise, to many guitarists the inner sanctum of the amp is a bizarre, uninviting landscape that could have sprung from the mind of Tim Burton. Guitar International spoke to Tom Wheeler on December 16, 2007, about what makes the Soul of Tone a celebration the not-so-technically inclined electric guitar enthusiast might want to attend. Which is not to say that Soul of Tone‘s invitation to celebrate wasn’t clear from a reading. The book’s introduction is one of the best examples of guitar-related writing to be found. Wheeler understands his potential audience: people who love the electric guitar, are interested about how fingers, guitars and amplifiers conspire to produce sound and tone, but who find the technical jargon of amplifier mechanics daunting to say the least. Wheeler’s introduction puts the reader’s mind at ease. He is one of us. The difference between the author and the uninitiated is that Wheeler has made the pilgrimage to the strange heartland of amplification and returned to tell the tales of the interesting characters encountered and mysteries revealed. Interview »
You would be hard pressed to find someone more qualified to tell the Gibson electric guitar story than Walter Carter. The author of several well known and respected books about guitars, Carter has been a keen Gibson observer for over 20 years from a unique perspective – as both a company insider and an outside chronicler of the Gibson story. The Gibson Electric Guitar Book (Backbeat Books) succinctly recounts the Gibson saga from the company’s beginning through today. While Carter’s previous 308-page book on Gibson, Gibson Guitars: 100 Years of an American Icon, is a must-have reference and enjoyable read, the new 160-page book condenses the Gibson story down to 60 pages of text without sacrificing important detail or behind-the-scenes color. Interview »
“Bowling Green” John Cephas, who takes his stage name from Bowling Green, Virginia, where he was raised, embodies the soul and spirit of a little-known style of music called the Piedmont blues. Guitar International spoke with Cephas at the 69th National Folk Festival in Richmond, Virginia, on September 14, 2007, before he went on stage with master harmonica player Phil Wiggins, about his style of blues, his guitars and his life-long study and commitment to keeping the Piedmont blues alive. Read »
Mike Varney has a vinyl fetish. The founder and head of the Shrapnel Label Group started collecting records at the age of five or six and now owns over 40,000 vinyls and CDs, a collection that he’s put to good use. You’d be hard pressed to find someone more knowledgeable about the history of metal, hard rock, progressive guitar instrumental, blues-rock, jazz-fusion, and the various sub-genres those styles have produced, especially with respect to the role the electric guitar has played in such music. Since the founding of Shrapnel Records in 1980, Varney has expanded the business into three imprints under the Shrapnel Label Group: Shrapnel Records, Blues Bureau Records and Tone Center Records, with each label having a focus on a different genre – metal, hard rock, guitar instrumental (primarily progressive) and rock tributes on Shrapnel, blues-rock and blues tributes on Blues Bureau and progressive-jazz-fusion and jazz tributes on Tone Center. More »
Acid Test (Marmaduke), the latest release from Los Angeles-based progressive instrumental rock group Cosmosquad featuring guitarist Jeff Kollman (Glenn Hughes, Sign of 4, Mogg/Way) and drummer Shane Gaalaas (B’z, Diesel Machine), is a broad spectrum, often eerie, nine-track funhouse maze that ranges from hard and dark to soft and bittersweet. It’s the third studio release from the group and their first album since the departure of co-founding member and bassist Barry Sparks, who is now with the metal group, Dokken. Though not intended as a concept album, it works well as a listen-through experience that invokes a diverse yet related menu of literary and cinematic imagery – the obscure menace of H.P. Lovecraft, sweet and sour shades of Stephen King, and, overall, the “what’s around the corner?” feel of Ray Bradbury’s Something Wicked This Way Comes. Read »
A lot has happened since the last time I wrote. The biggest bummer was while I was carving the back shape into the neck for 001 an 1¼” long by 3/16” wide black/green stain on the visible side of 001’s neck appeared… ain’t that a bitch! After all the time, energy and dollars committed to the beautiful neck of 001 this stain shows up… neck lost!
by Michael Shea.
Charles (Chuck) “The Duke of Pearl” Erikson was born in Los Angeles in 1942. He’s been an integral personality and industry mover and shaker in the world of luthiery and inlay for over 40 years, becoming celebrated among instrument builders, furniture makers and jewelers for the nacreous shell inlay material he supplies. His company processes nearly 300 tons of shell each year from 18 different species and holds three U.S. patents on shell material. Chuck’s background is not limited to meeting inlay supply and demand or building his own stringed instruments. Chuck’s life has been an exploration of eclectic experiences and endeavors that defy any idea of a run of the mill existence. His livelihoods and interests have included snake hunting, gold mining, dealing in scrap metal, manufacturing mining claim signs, and serious antiquing. And these only skim the surface of his fertile mind and seemingly endless series of…
