FAVOURITE GUITARS
I started playing the electric guitar many moons ago. I
originally started with my friend's Raven E355 copy plugged into a very old
reel-to-reel tape player that had an actual tube to indicate sound levels, then
moved up to a Sears Stratocaster copy through a pignose. I played
the Stratocaster on Granville Street in Vancouver through a
Peavy Custom 50 while attending SFU. I also used a GBX Bug amplifier. The guitar was brown in colour with some beige striping. My
friend and I would unload the gear from his Firebird off a side street, roll the
equipment to Granville on a shopping cart and plug them into the perennially lit
Christmas lights. The beat left us alone. This all worked great on an almost
regular weekend basis. We met many people there from all sorts of life,
including some famous rockers who sang with us. We'd join the
gang for tea. We eventually stopped street playing after we started the SFU Music Club.
Ahhhh...those were the long-haired days of yesteryear!
Below are my favourite guitars that I'd like you to
see:
FENDER
The Fender
Stratocaster '57 Reissue in aged Olympic white and the pink Greg
Howe Heavy Metal.
My guitar is Olympic white, but I also like the sea
foam green and shell pink '62's.
The '57 is a really smooth sounding guitar made of
basswood in Japan. This guitar is very versatile. I usually use
the front pickup for warm leads.
I'm looking forward to playing a 1967 to 1969 model with the
large "F" headstock.
My Greg Howe 1988 hot pink American HM Strat
was a lucky find after looking for one for years. This guitar is the premier
rock guitar of the 80s with the pink and black spandex look. My HM has a very
flat thin and dark rosewood neck with jumbo frets and is unique in that it has only one
Super Distortion Dimarzio II humbucker
with
the TBX roll-off tone control. The Kahler Spyder trem is classic and works very
well with no string cutting to setup.
DEAN
The 1983 Dean Bel
Aire (not Hollywood or EVO):
Dean Bel-Aire ad (1983)
The original Bel Aire was only made between 1983 and
1984. These guitars are not easy to find. I picked up my Bel Aire at a Mother's
Music guitar shop in Edmonton on Whyte Avenue from salesman John when I was in
PhD school. That was many years ago, but I still remember the day I
bought the Bel Aire. The lines are beautiful and the sound with the PAF pickups
is great. It took a while to get used to the larger radius neck again, but, in
retrospect, I really appreciate the craftsmanship the designer put into this
guitar. I really like the honey coloured thickly lacquered neck now. I'm just upgrading the tremolo on it to the Kahler Spyder. This is a
classic mid-to-late 80s guitar. I later bought the perfect Hiwatt Custom 50 head
from John too.
I worked some nights as a light man for a
Class-A-Circuit hard rock band which had a guitarist/friend I hadn't seen for
over 10 years since childhood. His mom and dad always liked Elvis and the movie star
glam biz. Coincidentally, I met Doug staging a band in East end Edmonton at the
Beverly Crest. From there the relm of the late night rodie. It was fun working
their gigs at the Beverly Crest and the Continental and other places around the
city.
Hagstrom Viking Deluxe
This is a really nice, perfect original tobacco sunburst guitar
from 1967. It plays really well with a whole set of switching options. The
guitar's hollow body makes a nice sweet sound. I'm really fortunate to find this
guitar.
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Other Guitars
I once had a brand new black
El Degas Strat which was nice but the setup wasn't the best. With what I
know now, I probably could have made it play and sound quite a bit better,
especially after I read the reviews on Harmony Central.
I also once had a brand new
Gretsch BST-1000 Beast which was one of the sweetest sounding guitars I've
ever heard. It had a solid mahagony body with dual humbuckers and Grover tuners
on a rosewood neck. The neck was very thin and somewhat flat for me, but it was
really a sweet simple guitar.
A guitar that I used to really like was a 1982 Hamer
aluminum thru-neck Explorer in red and black. This guitar could really sing, but
I haven't heard or seen much of them since. It was pre-Scarab.
Currently Building
In the works are these simple guitars:
1) :a Daphne blue Fender Strat with original trem,
single layer pickup guard and cream coloured single/single/single pickups and
knobs. This guitar has the jumbo 6100 fret ebony 2930 Mighty Mite neck
with Gotoh locking tuners and a standard six screw trem.
The guitar plays "like butter" and has a really sweet
tone--the Mighty Mite neck is a perfect economical fit!
2) a simple Fender Strat guitar made of a
single/single/single sunburst three-tone yellow/brown ash body with three single
Lace
Sensor humbucker Hot Gold pickups including the supercharged bridge option. The
guitar has a medium jumbo fret rosewood 57' V-shaped Mighty Mite neck with Gotoh locking tuners
and a hard-tail;
3) a translucent midnight wine Strat with original trem
and pearloid single/single/single pickups and knobs. This guitar will have the
jumbo 6100 fret maple Mighty Mite neck with Gotoh locking tuners and a
standard six screw trem;
4) another simple Fender Strat guitar with a Japanese
single/single/humbucker electric blue basswood body with three
Lace Sensor
Alumitones, a jumbo 6100 fret ebony Mighty Mite neck with
either a Floyd Rose locking setup, Gotoh locking tuners
or a locking Kahler Spyder tremolo, and
5) a repaint and rebuild of my original 57' Reissue Olympic White
Japanese basswood body Fender Strat (not a Squier) with maple neck and original
Fender Series I locking tremolo. This is required due to my once pristine--not a scratch--Strat
was stolen but recovered. It was a great and beautiful guitar.
