MY FIRST GUITAR: 1982 G&L SC-2

It was the summer of 1983 and after months of fingering through my local Recycler looking for a great deal on a used stratocaster ($400 was the going rate) I finally saved enough money to buy one.  However, I bought this brand new G&L SC-2 instead.  I got talked into it by a music store salesman who knew a sucker when he saw one.  He convinced me that Leo Fender's new company was much better than his old one and this guitar was a thousand times better than a stratocaster.)  That 1982 SC-2 (# G010570) was a beautiful guitar and it sure sounded great when I plucked the opening notes to Stairway to Heaven on it.  When the salesman tossed in 8 free weeks of lessons I was sold.  But the minute I got it home I had regrets since I really wanted a stratocaster.   This G&L is a rare bird now. It was one of the first models made by G&L.  (Note that it has the original G&L style headstock.)  This guitar was only one of about 600 SC-2s made and very few of them made it outside of Southern California, where I lived back then.  The earliest SC-2s were cut to look like Fender Mustangs (like mine) and the later ones were cut to look like a Strat.)  G&L was also experimenting with new pickups and these early SC-2s were equipped with MFD "soap bar" style pickups. The tremolo set up is also totally original and never used again on later G&L models.  As far as I know they never used the MFD pickups again either.  This G&L has a lot of sentimental value to me since it was the first guitar I ever bought.  I learned most of my early chops on it.  The 8 weeks of free lessons at the music store [where I bought it] served me well, as my instructor taught me every song on The Venture's Golden Hits LP.

1982 GIBSON LES PAUL GOLD TOP

Right before I joined the navy in 1984 I moved to Norwood, MA and took more guitar lessons.  By then all I wanted to do was play Blues.  My teacher was the now famous Peter Nathanson and he played a red '71 telecaster.  I couldn't believe how great his telecaster sounded.  I was almost ashamed of how wimpy my SC-2 sounded next to it.  I swore then that I would get my hands on a telecaster as soon as I could.   It wasn't until I was stationed in Orlando (going to Naval Nuclear Power School) in 1985 that I finally had enough money saved to buy a telecaster.   I searched the local music shops for the perfect ax and finally found one.  Just as I was about to pull out my wallet I noticed this baby—the most beautiful Les Paul I ever saw!  It was a Gibson 30th Anniversary Les Paul Gold Top (#A0040).  I knew I had to have it no matter what so I made a down payment and put it on layaway.  I borrowed the balance from the Orlando Navy Federal Credit Union. (Imagine me trying to convince the loan officer that I really needed this guitar.) I love this Les Paul and it is one of my favorite axes.  I've logged quite a few hours on it over the last 19 years.  These days I have the action raised slightly and leave it in open E tuning for slide work since it has such a warm tone.  It is definitely one of the best sounding Les Pauls I've ever heard.  Today's "lighter" Les Pauls don't sound anything like these older ones.

1977 FENDER TELECASTER

As much as I loved my Les Paul it still wasn't a telecaster.  So when I finally paid off my Les Paul and saved another few hundred bucks I set out to buy one.  By then I was stationed in NY. I drove to Albany to look over a place called Drome Music and found dozens of decent used telecasters and stratocasters for sale.  They were all nice but I was immediately drawn to a vintage stratocastor hanging from the ceiling.  When I asked how much it was the salesman laughed and told me that if I had to ask then I couldn't afford it.  That day wasn't a total loss, though, since I found and bought a '77 telecaster (#S728760).  It was pretty banged up but it played better than all the other telecasters in its price range.  I modified this guitar right away by adding a custom three-color sunburst body (the original is butterscotch and I still have it if I want to restore it).  A few years later I added Seymour Duncan "vintage telecaster" pickups.  This telecaster is my favorite guitar of them all and I've logged more hours on it than any other.  This was the guitar I took with me on the USS Enterprise.  During my Howlin' Ram days I played this guitar almost exclusively on stage. When I die this guitar must be buried with me.

  1952 FENDER TELECASTER

I soon became obsessed with getting my hands on a genuine vintage stratocaster like the one I saw at Drome Music that day.  During my first cruise (1986 Westpac) I sent away for everything I could on vintage Fender instruments.  I became an expert.  When the cruise was over I had saved a large sum of money and decided to buy a vintage stratocaster.  But there were none to be found!  I searched high and low all over the Bay Area and all leads resulted in dead ends.  Then one day a guy in the SF Guitar Center told me to check out a guitar shop around the corner.  I found a place called Real Guitars (it was more like a guy's garage than a music store) and went inside.  I had already been to dozens of other "so-called vintage" shops and assumed that this place would be like all the rest.  But I was wrong.  This place was awesome and on the wall hung two Pre-CBS rosewood neck stratocasters!  They were both '61s with the original three color sunburst finishes.  They weren't exactly what I had in mind but they were "pre-CBS" (meaning made before 1965, when CBS bought Fender Instruments) and I had enough money to buy one.  When the owner asked me if I was interested I told him they were nice but that I really wanted a maple neck Pre-CBS strat (made before '59).  He laughed and said that he had yet to find one himself.  When he realized that I was a legitimate buyer he went into the back room and returned with a genuine '52 telecaster (#5297) that he had just gotten.  It was all original.  When I played it I knew I had to have it.  I forget what the asking price was but it exceeded my savings substantially.  He also told me that he had several people interested in it and was waiting to hear back from them so it was probably already sold.  I left the store, went to the nearest bank, withdrew my entire westpac savings and returned.  I then tossed my cash on the counter and said I wanted to buy that '52 telecaster.  I was able to talk him down a bit on the price and agreed to return with the balance in a month. In a month I returned with two more paychecks and some money borrowed from my steamin' mates Guido and Dicko.  I walked out of there a poor man but with a genuine vintage telecaster! Everything on this guitar is original.  It even has the "capacitor" still factory wired in series with the fwd pickup switch (which was done on very early telecasters and often later modified).  I hardly play this guitar anymore.  I'm too afraid to.  But I have played it on stage when I felt the need to blow someone away.  It has the perfect twang to make any blues or country song sound incredible.  I'm not lying when I say this telecaster sounds better than any other telecaster in the world.

      1957 FENDER STRATOCASTER

When I bought that telecaster at Real Guitars  I was placed on their "A" list and thereafter notified anytime something good came in.  I told the owner to let me know the minute he got his hands on a vintage maple neck stratocaster and I'd buy it.  That was a lie, of course, since I was dirt poor.  But there was a cruise coming up and I knew when it was over I'd be worth at least a few thousand dollars. As luck would have it the first time I walked into Real Guitars following the '88 cruise they had two genuine '57 stratocasters hanging on the wall!  One was a refinished custom color (Clam Pink) and the other was a traditional 2-color sunburst, beat to hell, but was all original except the front two pickups had been re-wound.  The Clam Pink one played much nicer but didn't sound anywhere near as good as the one that was beat to hell.  I didn't even have to think about it.  I bought the beat to hell one on the spot.   This '57 stratocaster (#15051) is very unique.  It's a "hard tail" (non tremolo) with a very deep "V" neck.  It's also a "featherweight" and has mostly '56 hardware (e.g., round string tree instead of loops).  Since it was already beat up I didn't mind playing it on stage or letting others play it.  These days I hardly play this guitar since it is so old.  Plus, the deep "V" neck really tires my left hand out.

1963 DANELECTRO PRO-1

Sometime between the '88  and '90-cruises I bought this 1963 Danelectro Pro-1.  I bought it for hardly anything.  In those days old Danos were the poor man's vintage guitar (since they were so cheap) but soon came into demand (the price almost doubled on some models) because people started pulling the "lipstick" pick ups out of them and using them in other guitars.  I love the sound of this guitar.  It is very bright and twangy.  I do admit, however, that this guitar is hard to play because the neck is so small.   Believe it or not, since I've had this website up, this is the guitar that I get the most correspondence about.  And no, it's not for sale!

MY FIRST ACOUSTIC

I bought this guitar between the '88 and '90 cruises.  This Ibanez Concord 671 is a great sounding guitar with a nice rich tone.  When I bought it I was doing a lot of 4-track recording and wanted to do songs like those on The Rolling Stone's Let it Bleed or Beggar's Banquet albums (you know, acoustic rhythm guitar stuff with nasty distorted  leads on top). This guitar now sits at the foot of my living room couch so every night when I'm watching TV I usually have it in my hands.

1991 FENDER JAZZ BASS

My wife bought me this bass when I was in college.  It's a wonderful sounding 1991 Fender Jazz Bass (#N000095). I was still doing a lot of 4-track recording in those days and was basically using a guitar played through an octoplus to lay down my bass lines.  Sadly, once I had this bass I stopped doing 4-track recording.   During my last few years in college I was in a band called The Low Rent Blues Band and the bass player often used this bass since he liked it so much.  This guy's name was Lawrence something.  We were originally called The Lawrence [whatever his last name was]'s Blues Band (since he was also the lead singer and owned all the PA equipment).  When we got fliers printed up for our first big gig the printer misunderstood the guy and printed out "The Low Rent Blues Band." The name stuck.  Our drummer in that band was really good.  I forget his name but he had a drinking problem.  I remember we'd all wince when we saw him arrive, set up his set and then unpack the case of beer near his stool.  It never failed that halfway through our second set we'd hear his beat fall off and then disappear altogether amidst the sound of crashing cymbals.  Then he was passed out cold!  The other guitar player would have to run back, grab the drum sticks off the floor and finish the song.  That was the end of the show.

AN INCREDIBLE GUITAR  

There are few things I cherish as much as this guitar.  It was bought in 1936 from Sears and given to Mr. William Freisleben by his mother when he was a boy.  This guitar followed Mr. Freisleben to the South Pacific when he served onboard the USS Savo Island during WWII.  Together, they saw plenty of action.   I first met Mr. Freisleben in the summer of 1985, when I came home with his son Dave after we completed Nuclear Power School.  Since I had my Les Paul with me, Mr. Freisleben and I often jammed during my brief stay with the family.  He played jazz and I played blues.  We sounded pretty good together.   My friend Dave was killed in a car accident while we were at prototype and I was asked by his parents to be his military escort home.  I remained close with the family ever since and I visited them often.  Whenever I was over Mr. Freisleben always brought this guitar out for me to play because he knew how much I loved it.  I never played another arch top that sounded or felt better.  Before he passed away last year Mr. Freisleben asked his family to make sure that if anything ever happened to him that I got this guitar.  This guitar now sits at the foot of my bed and I play it every night before I go to sleep.

MY MAIN AMP

I have a few amps laying around but none compare to this mid 60s "black face" Fender Super Reverb (1967).  This was probably one of the last "blackfaced" Super Reverbs made (#A25441) as the latter 1967s had the chrome faces with green lettering.  This is the real-deal: all tube, 4 ten-inch speakers, massive reverb, deluxe vibrato and speed control.  Whenever I played live, this was the amp I played through.  Yeah, it sucked to have to lug this heavy thing around all the time but it sounded so good.  Since it was built before the age of modern electronics it is quite noisy (background wise) and hums pretty good when it's plugged in near fluorescent lights.  And, since it isn't grounded, I have nearly electrocuted myself with it a few times.  But I still wouldn't trade it for nothing.  I bought this amp right before the 1990 World Cruise.  The guy who sold it to me told me it once belonged to Robert Cray.  (I have no idea if that was true or not.)  If it was I can't imagine how Robert Cray could part with such a great amp!