From left to right, we have a Fender Banjo, Vox semi-acoustic bass, Washburn Augusta, and a Hofner President. The banjo has already been used by Howesy in the studio and to good effect. I swapped my Hondo Les Paul copy for the Vox bass and it has been used on a Scorseses song (I forgot which song exactly, I was too busy trying to prevent Brad from "pumping lead" into the guitarist at the tense recording session). The Washburn electro acoustic plays like a dream, was made in China and is a good all round studio acoustic which can be heard all over "Russian Brides" (still available on Depcast No 2, folks!). As for the Hofner President, ahh, the Ister heirloom. My dad bought this in 1957 / 58 - I still have the receipt somewhere (written out in pounds, shillings and pence). This one plays like a dog, the neck needs to be re-set and there's no truss rod to adjust any bowing. Apart from his saxaphone, the Hofner is the only thing left of my dad's that I own and therefore it has priceless sentimental value to me. It smells old. Shall we move on? Let's bring things up to date, shall we?
The Ibanez Triplets
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Basically three identical Ibanez SZ720s with different pickup configurations. The one on the left is loaded with Steve Stevens (good choice of name...) Bare Knuckle pickups, the centre one has an Ibanez Flying Finger pickup by the neck (which I "found" somewhere - it turned up in the end, Stac...shall we call it payment for services rendered?) and it has a Bare Knuckle Warpig pickup by the bridge. Loud bastard. The guitar on the right has stock Duncan Designed pickups which were factory fitted. These are good, sturdy guitars with bridges to die for, really comfortable to rest your sweaty palms on. Please excuse the fuzzy photo above, I don't know what happened there...*hic*! Now, where was I? Oh yes, put up the barricades, it's time for...
The Metal Militia!
Let's Rawk, Mofos! Legs akimbo, power chords, Marshall stacks, skinny necks, Saxon at The Shepherds Bush Empire tonight...(see Howesy for the review). These axes are just what the rock'n'roll doctor prescribed. On the left is a (15 year old?) Jackson King V Dave Mustaine signature "jobby" - all though it's far from shit. Loaded with Seymour Duncan Jeff Becks and a really nice ebony finger board. The Kahler fine tune bridge tends to suck a lot of the tone out but check out those LSR tuners on the headstock - nifty! Fiddly when changing strings, mind. Next to it is a Jackson Soloist with the same pickups as the V but with a Floyd Rose licensed vibrato, essential for those screeching dive bombs and pinch harmonic pull-ups. It has a gorgeous natural figured maple top which can make you descend into a dream-like state if you look too deep into it. Moving on to the Peavey V-Type which is a strat-a-like guitar with a fancy reverse headstock. I guess I bought this to replace my Palm Bay which I sold to Stu who, in turn recently sold it to someone else on eBay. Nice guitar, plays well, sustains long enough so that you can go for a bite. Finally, a limited edition BC Rich Draco gothic flying V. Only 100 of these exist, and it looks as goofy as hell. This was a bit of an impulse buy and when it comes to rock guitars, there is none more metal (or Goth?). All these guitars have neck-through-body construction and are loud fuckers. Right then, shall we haul ourselves from the Belly of the Beast? Moving on to the...
Odds'n'Sods section
The Rickenbacker bass guitar. A vision of pure lovliness with its hourglass curves and trebly overtones. It's comfy to wear and that neck will turn you into an habitual Boston strangler - it's that addictive to play. Bought brand new at a reasonable price from Peter Cook's Guitar World ("what a fahkin' cunt!" - where's Dud?) in Hanwell, west London. Lemmy uses these, 'nuff said. Next up is an Aria Supertwin (6 & 12 string neck through) which I bought from Stu for two hundred nuggets including case. Heavy as forced buggery to wear, but the twelve string comes in handy as does the various switching options. Used for a Byrds type tone on the intro to "Blow It Outcha Ass". Next to that is a re-issue Washburn A20 (all the way from Indonesia) and christened "Barnesy". We all know about Barnesy, don't we? And now for the finale...
The Contemporary Classics section
Colourful bunch, aren't they? Welcome to known model cheapo heaven! On the left is an Epiphone Zakk Wylde Les Paul Custom with passive EMG pickups and a very silky maple neck / fingerboard (a particular favourite type of neck for Stray Photon). Set up just right for pinch harmonic ecstacy, you can't miss doing them when you're thrashing out those Machine Head riffs. Next to this is the Eagle Telecaster of unknown origin which was posted about here, so we can move on to the next one. A Japanese made Fender Paisley Stratocaster and manufactured in the late eighties. It's got a typically thin sound and it's hardly played, but I love it. I think it used to belong to Squire Maguire and it was passed on to me after they found him frozen to death in the meat truck. Finally we have a Gibson SG Voodoo which I bought from Sam Ash in Manhatten when I was helping The Scorseses out with keyboards. It's the best sounding electric guitar out of all my collection but it's cursed. A loose string poked Stu in the eyeball when I swapped it for his Arsenal season ticket for a day and the case bashed me in the nose when I was trying to get it out of storage. Having said that, it is signed by Mountain (theme tune to "Weekend World" anyone?) guitarist Leslie West, and I'll probably sell it when he pops his clogs (he's worth more dead than alive, sorry Les).
There ya have it, I'm all Kleenexed out and ready to sell the bloody lot. But which five shall I keep (not including the Washburn Augusta and the Ricky bass)? More pictures here.
Here for your viewing pleasure, is the famous guitar scene with Nigel Tufnell from the film "Spinal Tap".
