Guitar Omnivore

My pickguard attacked Grampa's Gibson L5!!!

2011-12-30T08:06:00.000-07:00

On the bench today is a Gibson L5 with a classic example of something called "outgassing". The celluloid used
to make some pickguards can emit a chemical that will corrode metal. Metal like your pickups and frets for instance! This is condition gets much worse if the guitar is left in it's case for a long time...a good reason to actually PLAY those vintage guitars. Today's L5 is about a 5 on a scale of 1-10 in terms of damage. It sat in it's case for too long before Grampa handed it down.

You can see the bits of rust and corrosion everywhere. When it's gotten to this stage,there will be some loss of the gold plating but thankfully,all the electronics are fully functional.

Here's another "before" shot for you. The pickup selector nut is actually green!

Our bridge pickup,"before". I'll clean it gently with de-ionized water. That will help pull the oxidation and dirt away from the pickup. I'll also polish it with some swirl remover.

...and "after". This was the worst part in terms of plating loss but it would have been a shame to replace the pickup just so it would look "pretty".

As you can see,our frets weren't immune to the oxidation

.Here's a single fret polished,in between two others for contrast.

The nifty file brush Stewart MacDonald sells made quick work of that nasty pickup selector nut.

A new pickguard and we're (almost) good as new!

Have your own Gibson L5 ( or whatever) from Grampa? Take it out and PLAY IT!

Merry Christmas from Gunzawless...and Guitar Omnivore!

2011-12-25T08:39:00.000-07:00

Happy Holidays everybody! This is a sweet video the band Gunzawless did for their version of Jingle Bells.You can download the music for free at http://www.gunzawless.com/home.cfm. You can also check out their Facebook page here. Enjoy!

A rare Floyd Rose on a 80's MIJ Squier

2011-12-21T07:49:00.000-07:00

Here's a fun one for fans of the Floyd Rose. The guitar is a great example of why some guys collect Made in Japan Squier's from the 1980's. It was in the shop for a simple restring and played and sounded great.

Here's our Floyd Rose tremolo,a rarely seen version,made to look more traditional but retain some of the advantages of a Floyd. Because someone had modified the guitar with some Schaller locking tuners,that means this guitar is perhaps the only double-locking guitar in the world that has neither a locking nut or fine tuners!

Collapsing bridge on an Alvarez Kazuo Yairi CY127CE

2011-12-17T07:46:00.000-07:00

We've covered similar things before here on Guitar Omnivore but I do like the Kazuo Yairi guitars and this one has some different things going on that made it fun. Over time,the saddle had acted like a wedge and
broken the front of the bridge right off. This will need a new bridge.

While pretty hot stuff when this guitar was new in 1983,this pickup is now hopelessly out of date. Luckily,the owner doesn't ever use it so neither of us will miss it when it's gone.

The nut isn't in great shape either. It's slots were worn down once,then moved over. Yikes!

Using some palate knives and heat gun will warm up the glue under the bridge for easy removal.

A pair of aluminum foil sheets shaped into an "L" and a Spot Check surface thermometer lets me control the heat.

Patient and persistent use of the palate knives has lifted the bridge with minimal wood loss from the top. Exactly what we were hoping for.

Thanks to the top being in such good shape and our bridge being new (part # GB 0854-0RF from Allparts) we can use hot hide glue for our glue. As you can see,erasers make great pads for our clamping cauls.

Here's our new bridge with a new bone saddle to match.

The nut has a traditional slanted bottom like you see on some Martin guitars.

With the original nut for comparison,it's pretty easy to rough in the new nut.

Our new bone nut. In a bit of self critique, I hope I smoothed out the back angle on the low E string. See how all the other strings head towards the tuner nice and smoothly? That's how they should all look.

...and here's our boy,looking and sounding a lot better.

Son of The Return of...Big John Robert's awesome swag collection - PART FOUR - The ticket stubs!

2011-12-15T08:48:00.000-07:00

You certainly can't be a music fanatic without a collection of ticket stubs from shows you've attended! Already taken a peak at parts one, two and three? Well then,have at it! Kids,these are what tickets used to
look like. Check out those prices!

Epiphone Les Paul Bigsby Jr. - Patrick Schwab's latest mod

2011-12-13T08:02:00.000-07:00

A stock Epiphone Les Paul Junior

If you're a long time reader of the Guitar Omnivore blog,you may remember Patrick Schwab from the How do you make a great parts "Tele" even greater? article back in May. If you stop by the shop on occasion,you might know Patrick as the guitar department manager. He has also been having a blast at home,tricking out inexpensive guitars into custom one of a kind axes. Just the kind of thing we love! As Patrick's guitar modding skills have gotten better,he's needed my help less and less. This one was all Patrick...I just took the pictures.

...and after!

Let's see,we've got a Bigsby tremolo,a new bridge,new knobs and a Seymour Duncan Phat Cat pickup. Patrick also stained the fingerboard black!

Tusq nut and a custom truss rod cover.

Patrick,quite understandably,dubbed this guitar the "Les Paul Bigsby Junior". Hey Epiphone,perhaps a new model for next year? I don't do any engraving so the custom truss rod cover was made by the fine folks at Philadelphia Luthier Tools. http://www.philadelphialuthiertools.com/servlet/StoreFront I've also just found out Philadelphia Luthier Tools has a blog! Be sure to get over to http://blog.philadelphialuthiertools.com/ and check it out.

Here's another cool Epiphone modified by Patrick:

Tusq nut,Gibson P-90's and a new pickguard.

I actually had something to do with this one! I wired the electronics:

CTS pots,orange drop caps,Switchcraft 3-way and jack.

I hope this inspires you to do your own "cheapo" guitar mods!

Rice Custom Guitar #141

2011-12-10T08:09:00.000-07:00

Check out this sweet Rice Custom guitar. The guitars owner was out in the store checking out amps when
I walked by and heard a great sounding guitar. When the guitar turned out to be a real looker,the owner was kind enough to let me snap a few photos.

We've got an Osage orange neck and a body made of Osage orange,Walnut,Pecan and Mesquite. The pickups are a Velvet Hammer VHTBX in the bridge and a Lace Alumitone in the neck with a custom wired 5-way switch. It's got a fossil ivory nut, a D-tuner and is wired with Fret Fx lights.

The B-Bender is a Bill Bores long throw. The fine workmanship on the cover and the lack of a B string ferrule leave little doubt the B-Bender was there from the beginning and not an add on.The blue tape is to obscure the custom neck plates photo of the owner's lady friend's...uh lady parts.

12/11/11 Update: Reader Jeremy Brieske let me know you can currently win a set of pickups from Rice guitars on their Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/RiceCustomGuitars?sk=app_165675160160302 Thanks,Jeremy!

So,naturally,I checked out the Rice Custom guitar website here and found out there was a video of this very guitar:

The Return of...Big John Robert's awesome swag collection - PART THREE - The picks!

2011-12-08T08:33:00.000-07:00

So,what collection would be worthy without a few guitar picks? Don't miss part one and part two where we look at John's back stage passes and part four where we check out some vintage ticket stubs.

Keeping a 1968 Epiphone Rivera all stock!

2011-12-06T07:30:00.000-07:00

Our patient on the bench today is a 1968 Epiphone Rivera. It came into the shop in desperate need of a setup and had some electronic issues. The volume and tone pots were terribly noisy and I was pretty sure
they would need to be replaced. Other than some general maintenance needs,this guitar was in great shape and I was determined to keep it 100% stock if I could.

The first step was to take of the knobs and loosen the nuts and washers,letting the pots fall into the guitar. That's my homemade jack fishing tool going into the guitar.

Look at all that corrosion on the switch. Already,things aren't looking good.

Oh yea...that's not good.

Here's what they look like after some gentle cleaning with a tooth brush.With the outside of the pots looking better,it's on to the dust and dirt INSIDE the pots.

I'll use a can of compressed air followed by some DeOxit D5 contact cleaner. The paper towels catch any run out from the cleaner.Keep any cleaner,especially those that contain silicone,far away from the finish of a guitar. Silicone can make any future finish repair extra troublesome. After a few blasts of cleaner,I was delighted to find the pots all working wonderfully. You can see a few more details on my homemade jack fishing device and how I got the pots back into the guitar here.

Will I ever get tired of checking out little details like the patent numbers and tooling marks on vintage guitar parts? I doubt it.

All done and 100% stock.

Making a truss rod cover for an Ampeg Stud!?

2011-12-03T07:22:00.000-07:00

You are forgiven if you've never heard of the Ampeg Stud. An interesting mongrel of a guitar,these were made in Japan during the 1970's. The "Stud" family also included the Super Stud and the Big Stud. (No,seriously. It was the seventies.) Despite having some less than desirable features (hope you like plywood) they a pretty cool guitars.This one came in for a routine setup (along with a sweet 1976 Fender Telecaster Deluxe) with one additional request...

The owner mentioned that the truss rod cover was long gone and wondered if I could find a replacement. Challenge accepted! With a semi-rare guitar like this,there is little chance I have an Ampeg Stud truss rod cover in my spare parts bin. I could just make one of my own design but a glance at the screw pattern on the headstock tells us it was really long. It was off to the Internet to see if I could find a photo and determine what the original looked like.

After taking a moment to giggle that I was using the store computer to look up pictures of studs on the Internet (tee-hee) I managed to find the photo I wanted and blew it up to life size.After seeing the pictures unique fish shape,I was glad I didn't try to make my own design. The original is pretty cool.

I didn't have an exact match for the material but this cream pearloid from Allparts would do nicely,especially seen from way up on the headstock.

I made a copy of the photo,cut out the truss rod cover,double stick taped it to the pickguard material and cut it to shape on the band saw. After some minor filing I used a scraper to add a bevel to the side.

Looking um...studly! Very studly.

Here's our stud,all set up and ready to rock out a few more decades! As a bonus,here's a photo of the owners other guitar,also in for a setup:

This 1976 Telecaster Deluxe still has its "ashtray" bridge cover! Awesome.

c.1900 Washburn Cremonatone mandolin

2011-12-01T07:59:00.000-07:00

I thought some of my fellow mandolin fans might get a kick out of seeing this antique mandolin that recently passed through the shop for a re-string. Its older style is what is referred to as a bowl back or potato bug mandolin. Due to the large number produced they're
not especially valuable but they are pretty cool.

Anyone still wondering why they're called bowl backs?

According to the book Washburn Prewar Instrument Styles by Hubert Pleijsier,the 'Cremonatone" label means it was made sometime between 1896 and 1905.

Check out the stylish headstock!

Cool opening tailpiece. These guys aren't made for modern heavy strings,so if you have one,string it with a lighter set.

Great herringbone pattern on the side and some inlay work on the tortoise shell pickgaurd.

Jonathan Kreisberg's Trioing gets a well deserved reissue.

2011-11-28T17:26:00.000-07:00

Jazz fans,this has been a great year for new albums but it's pretty slim pickings this week. I wanted to make sure this reissue didn't slip through the cracks while you weren't paying attention. Guitarist Jonathan Kreisberg,who deservedly has a reputation for his own compositions,on Trioing takes on some standards in the classic trio style. Some,like I Fall in Love To Easily or Old Devil Moon are timeworn tunes given fresh life. Others,like Sorcerer or Ugly Beauty are less often played,perhaps because they are not easy to play convincingly. In either case,these now decade old recordings still sound both modern and timeless.Originally released in 2002,it showcases three musicians who have have gone on to be leaders at their respective instruments. Bassist Johaness Weidenmueller sounds relaxed and tuneful on even the most complex stuff. Drummer Ari Hoenig has released several of his own albums and you can find Kreisberg on a few. You can check out my review of his Live at Smalls album here where I also manage to misspell his name as Arni. Sorry.

Here's a different version of the trio (with Matt Brewer and Mark Ferber) doing Ugly Beauty:

...and here's some more recent (2008) stuff in a quintet setting:

Big John Robert's awesome swag collection - PART TWO

2011-11-26T08:14:00.000-07:00

Did you enjoy Part One? So,we'll just pick right up were Part One left off... and don't miss Part Three and Part Four!

Big John Robert's awesome swag collection - PART ONE

2011-11-23T07:51:00.000-07:00

Here's John with guitar department manager Patrick Schwab

This is my friend John Roberts. If you happen to work at the same shop I do,you might know him as a guitar player and fellow music fanatic. If you happen to be a rock star,you might know "Big John" as part of your road crew. He was kind enough to bring a part (just a part!) of his extensive collection of memorabilia from his impressive career.

There's even more back stage passes in Part Two, a sweet collection of guitar picks in Part Three and an impressive collection of ticket stubs in Part Four!

Do NOT miss the new Bill McHenry with BEN MONDER!

2011-11-21T08:35:00.000-07:00

Guitar fans,help get the awful taste of this weeks new Nickelback album with something far better! Saxophonist Bill McHenry's new album Ghosts of the Sun features first class support from guitarist Ben Monder,bassist Reid Anderson and drummer Paul Motian. McHenry,while decidedly modern in his compositions and playing,has a big fat tone more like a Ben Webster/Coleman Hawkins swing era player. Monder is one of my favorite younger guitarists. While he definitely has his own sound,he leans a bit more towards the Frisell/Metheny side of things than some of his peers do. Ghosts of the Sun comes out tomorrow 11/22/2011. Don't miss this one.

A Gibson J-200 gets an overhaul - Part Two

2011-11-18T07:41:00.000-07:00

No wonder this guitar wasn't playing in tune and was buzzing like an angry hornet! Usually,you can perform at least one "level and recrown" ,a less expensive job. When it's this bad...it's refret time! We can also do something about the wear on the fingerboard.

In most cases,after you've removed the worn frets,you would do some "re-truing" of the fingerboard,returning it to the desired radius. With fingerboard wear,leaving it alone is a perfectly valid and sometimes desirable option, however,if you want the fingerboard to feel like new we've got to fill in those potholes!

Instead of just filling in the holes,I'll use a trick I learned from Frank Ford. (Like my blog? Thanks,but if you want to see a true master at work,check out http://www.frets.com/.) I'll use a violin makers knife to score some lines into the wood. This will allow me to lift some of the wood fibers up and better integrate our filler material.

Here's our filler material,some rosewood dust and superglue. Don't worry,it's OK that it looks like a disaster.

The finished product,after leveling the fingerboard. Not invisible,but better and stronger than a big spot of filler. With some new frets and some Linseed oil on the fingerboard it will look quite good.

Cleaning out the fret slots by using a Dremel tool as a router.

Putting a bit of radius into the fret wire,using a fret bender.

After plenty of prep work,including cutting the tang so the fret can hang over the binding,we're ready to put some frets in.

All our frets are in but the ends haven't been cut yet. Some Magic Marker on the frets will show where the fret leveler has and hasn't touched. That's my aluminum radius block with self adhesive sandpaper in the bottom of the picture.

Here's our previously worn fret area. Not too bad.

After a new bone nut and saddle,this J-200 is ready to go back on the battlefield! If you haven't already,be sure to check out the rest of the repair in Part One!

A Gibson J-200 gets an overhaul - Part One

2011-11-16T07:50:00.000-07:00

Here's a 1990's Gibson J-200 that has seen constant use as a gigging guitar. It had enough fret wear to require a re-fret and the bridge was starting to come off the top.In Part One,we'll address the bridge. It's time to give this guitar a little love!

A peek under the saddle found a couple of shims and a Fishman Acoustic Matrix Natural pickup. The shims will be banished when we make a new saddle. The Matrix Natural was one of the best pickups around when this guitar was brand new. Even though Fishman makes what I think are superior pickups now,the customer likes the sound he gets with this one so it will go right back in when we're done.

I don't yet own any of those spiffy heat blankets that Luthiers Mercantile sells so here's my homemade version. A pair of "L" shaped aluminum foil pieces keep my heat gun focused where I want it and the Spot Check surface thermometer (from Stewart MacDonald) keeps things from getting too toasty. Primitive but effective.

With some gentle assistance from a pair of palate knifes the bridge popped right off with minimal wood loss. That's just what what we were hoping for.

There are a few valid choices for what glue to use but none of them like to stick to old glue! A scraper or a sharp chisel along with patience will remedy the situation.With the bridge and the top of the guitar in great shape,this is the perfect opportunity to use fresh,hot hide glue. Hide glue will help resist the Arizona heat,the likely cause of the bridge loosening up in the first place.

You need to be quick when using hide glue,it "sets" quickly. I used my heat gun again to warm the top and bridge,giving me a few extra moments to get everything in order but I also had everything laid out and ready to go.

Here's everything clamped up. Erasers make great protective pads for the top and the bridges flat top makes

it easy to find some scrap wood for protective clamping cauls. I'll let this set overnight and unclamp it the next day. Any glue spill out is easy to clean up with hide glue. In Part Two,we'll address those worn frets!

New Oz Noy this Tuesday!

2011-11-13T20:21:00.001-07:00

The title alone should tell you,Oz Noy ventures into new territory with Twisted Blues Volume One. Noy has plenty of heavy hitter musician pals and calls them all in for this one. The impressive roster includes Vinnie Colaiuta,John Medeski,Will Lee,Anton Fig,Chris Layton,Allan Tousaint and Eric Johnson!

Check out Noy with Will Lee,Anton Fig John Medeski and Ralph MacDonald send The Meters Cissy Strut into outer space before tearing into the groove:

Black Sabbath Reunites...Again!

2011-11-11T20:14:00.001-07:00

In what must be the least surprising "surprise" announcement ever,Black Sabbath has announced that the original lineup of Iommi,Butler,Ward and Osbourne will reunite in 2012! There will be a new studio album with all new material,produced by Rick Rubin. They will appear at the Download Festival on June 10th,2012 with a tour to follow. I have mixed feelings about this,as this is one of my all time favorite bands. I think Tony,Geezer and Bill are as good as ever,with Ozzy the possible weak link. This has potential for greatness and I've got my fingers crossed!

Randy Brecker at the Glendale Jazz and Blues Festival

2011-11-05T07:53:00.000-07:00

Here's my last instalment of the photos I took at the Glendale Jazz and Blues Festival WAY back in April. Last,because Randy Brecker was the closing day headliner but also last because there was NO GUITAR! Hey,Randy,what gives? Brecker holds a unique place in my musical history. Seeing him this April makes him my personal record holder of longest times in between concert viewings. I had the pleasure of seeing Brecker in July of 1990 at the Art Theatre in Binghamton New York. The band included Mark Egan on bass and the under appreciated Barry Finnerty on guitar. I remember Finnerty had quite a good night and they even played Juan For The Road,his jazz take on an Afro-Cuban vibe. Fast forward 21 years later and no Barry Finnerty. Boo! Unfortunately,Brecker did retain a band member I wish he hadn't. Rodney Holmes is a talented drummer and he sound good in a rock or fusion context (just ask Santana or Miles Davis) but he is aggressive and heavy handed no matter what else is going on around him. The guy sure does like his double kick drum pedal. So,Randy,I'll see you anytime you come to town but next time,bring a guitar player!

The 3 P-90 Stratocaster - My favorite cheapo hotrod yet!

2011-10-28T08:43:00.000-07:00

Here are some photos from a project I did for Dan,one of my favorite customers. He and I both enjoy hotrodding cheap guitars,turning them into one of a kind,gig-ready workhorses. You may remember Dan's EpiTurser Partsocaster from last year. Our latest "masterpiece" is our Squier Stratocaster with three P-90 style pickups. We used a pair of Seymour Duncan SP90-1's in the neck and middle and had the custom shop wind the middle pickup reverse wound/reverse polarity for hum cancelling in the two and four position! In the bridge,we used a SP90-2,a pickup with more winds and ceramic magnets in place of the Alnico V magnets for more output.

Here's where we started,a Squier Strat,three pickups and a pickguard outline from Allparts. This style of pickgaurd (part # PG 0992) is a favorite of mine because it gets me out of having to cut the outline of the pickgaurd and gives me free reign to add whatever I want to the inside.

Here's our "guts". The large,almost "bathtub" route means no additional routing necessary. Less cost to the customer,less time spent by me. Yeah!

I've got the spacing figured out and marked with white china marker. The pickgaurd is mounted on some scrap wood to give the router room to work.

Pickup holes done! Next,I did the slot for the five way switch. Dan prefers his volume control out of the way so we put it about where the first tone control would be. Instead of a tone pot,we add a switch connecting the neck and bridge pickup,allowing for all seven possible pickup combinations.

P90's aren't connected to the pickgaurd like traditional Strat pickups,they're screwed right into the body of the guitar. I did,however,use the pickgaurd as a kind of jig to hold the pickups in place while I did the soldering.

Next,being careful to get the spacing right,I screwed the pickups down. (...and yes,I did move that neck pickup wire. Oops!)

All done! It definitely turned some heads while it was on the bench. It sounds really great too. By the way,like many of the features they offer,the custom RW/RP winding Seymour Duncan did for the middle pickup was no extra charge.

The new Unholy Cadaver is the old Hammers of Misfortune...or something.

2011-10-23T13:54:00.000-07:00

I suppose I should mention,before the new Hammers of Misfortune album comes out this Tuesday,the other HoM related album that was officially released this year. Recorded on eight tracks in 1997 with all the instruments played by John Cobbett and Chewy Marzolo,it shows their concept for Hammers of Misfortune was sound from the beginning. Long,ambitious songs with layered and complimentary guitar parts and thoughtful,intelligent lyrics are already here. Cobbett and Marzolo handle the vocals as well,with a few guest spots from Lorraine Rath (who also did the stellar cover art), Erica Stolz (Lost Goat) and Mike Scalzi (Slough Feg). When Unholy Cadaver decided to become a performing band,it was Stolz and Scalzi who completed the lineup. Aside from the high quality level of the songs,I'm struck by a couple of things. First,John Cobbett is quite a good bass player.These are genuine bass lines,not just a copy of the guitar part an octave down. Second,hats off to engineer Rich Morin,who got some nice sounds on what must have been a small (non-existent?) budget!
A handful of these songs were released as demos and distributed to a few metal zines but this is their first real release. It's loving treatment from Shadow Kingdom Records comes in double vinyl that includes a Cd in a gatefold cover and a page of liner notes. Separate mastering was done for the Cd and vinyl. I wish more bands showed this level of care in the presentation of their music. Thank you Hammers of Misfortune and Shadow Kingdom Records! I got my copy from http://www.aquariusrecords.org/. It arrived quickly and was well packaged. You can also get it directly from http://shadowkingdomrecords.com/. I have ordered stuff from them and found them professional as well. They list Unholy Cadaver as in stock as of October 23,2011. They may also have it in colored vinyl for a small up charge.

The gatefold cover has a clever place to store the Cd.

Back cover.

Insert with lyrics.

The beautiful vinyl was flat and flawless.

Insert with photos and history.

Best Guitar Cds of the Week - Week of 10/18/2011

2011-10-18T06:50:00.000-07:00

Jeff Beck - Live at B.B. King's Blues Club: Collectors Edition

   Not only a reissue,but the always dubious "Collectors Edition"...Hmm,thankfully this is great stuff. Already released online back in 2003,this is the first "real" release of a great live performance of the Guitar Shop trio. That album,featuring drummer Terry Bozzio and keyboardist Tony Hymas is a favorite of mine,despite the dated reverb sounds,especially on the drums. Hearing this version of the Jeff Beck Band play together again,minus the '80's production, is a treat. They cover a handful of the Guitar Shop songs (Where Were You, Big Block, Savoy) but the real treasure is hearing Bozzio and Hymas take on fusion era Beck classics like Scatterbrain or the Charles Mingus
standard Goodbye Pork Pie Hat. Beck and the boys seem to feed off the energy of
the crowd in this more intimate setting. Even something as harmonically simple as Freeway Jam takes on new life when played live. Beck is his usual magician of a guitarist,pulling seemingly impossible bends and legato phrasing from his bare hands and a whammy bar. With new Jeff Beck albums a rare and precious thing,this not so new Beck is a joyous occasion for guitar fanatics everywhere.

Lawson Rollins - Elevation
   Fantastic nylon string guitar with musicians from around the globe joining in on a mix of Indian,Middle Eastern and European flavors. Fans of Buckethead in Colma mode will want to pick this up,he guests on two tunes.

Screaming Trees - Last Words: The Final Recordings
In case you were to young or to old to be paying attention in the 90's,let me let you in on a secret.  In the list of bands tagged with the suspicious "grunge" title, sales and fame didn't have much to do with quality. Want some proof? Check out Screaming Trees. Although this music has been available in "unofficial" form,it's good to see this on Cd. This last gasp finds them with plenty left to say.

Andrew Cyrille and Haitian Fascination - Route De Freres
   Although he is one of my favorite drummers,there's not much in his discography for the guitar fan. His Haitian Fascination band,however,features guitarist Alix Pascal. Wonderful stuff from wonderful musicians.

Evile - Five Serpent's Teeth
   If you read last weeks reviews,you know I enjoyed the new Skeletonwitch,partially because the took old school thrash metal and made it their own. Evile plays it far closer to the 1984 rule book for sure but I enjoy them just the same. What they lack in originality,they make up for in energy and precision.

Chick Willis - Let The Blues Speak For Itself
    With his innuendo filled lyrics and raw blues,you won't be hearing Chick Willis on too many radio stations. If you like your blues without the radio friendly gloss,give him a listen.

Be Bop Deluxe - Futurist Manifesto: Harvest Years 1974-1978
   This Five Cd set manages to pack in all five of the albums Be Bop Deluxe did for the Harvest label and add on an entire disc of rarities,all at a bargain price. If you're a Bill Nelson fan,this is quite a goldmine.

Iced Earth - Dystopia
   Iced Earth fans will understandably grumble at yet another lead singer change,but the music is some of the best and most ambitious they've done in a long time.

Horacee Arnold - Tales of the Exonerated Flea
Horacee Arnold - Tribe
   Two fusion gems that deserve to far more famous. Among the all star musicians,Ralph Towner appears on Tribe and John Abercrombie joins Towner on Tales of the Exonerated Flea.

Mick Fleetwood - Visitor
   This reissue of Fleetwood's 1981 solo album is welcome,not just because of his always stellar drumming,but also thanks to the guitar work from the likes of George Harrison and Peter Green.

Best Guitar Cds of the Week - Week of 10/11/11

2011-10-11T06:51:00.000-07:00

Skeletonwitch - Forever Abomination

I'm enjoying the new batch of bands that has been tagged with the "thrash revival" moniker. Like any genre of music,some of these bands are more creative than others. Skeletonwitch is one of the bands who aren't satisfied with a watered down copy of classic thrash. Influences from black,death,Viking and NWOBHM are woven into their music. Many fans aren't quite sure what genre to put Skeletonwitch in and to me,that's part of their appeal. Ignoring the progressive tendencies of some classic thrash, they craft short,tightly arranged songs that feel more raw and punk inspired than some metal fans might be used to.They manage to pack in lots of ideas,keeping songs interesting and attention grabbing throughout. The vocals are especially modern

sounding and might draw in a few fans that don't listen to older metal. The production and engineering,by Matt Hyde (Monster Magnet,Slayer) fits the music nicely,not adding too much modern gloss to the feel while keeping things realistic and live sounding. If you're already a fan,you'll find plenty to enjoy here. They seem like a band that will give you enough of what you expect,while changing things up enough to keep you interested. If you haven't checked them out yet,I can recommend them to both the older metal fan that wants to hear some music "like they used to" and to the younger fan that likes some diversity of style. I can also tell you,they just came through town in September and their live show is not to be missed!

Pat Martino - Undeniable
   Finally,some new Pat Martino! It's been too long a wait since Remember: A Tribute to Wes Montgomery in 2006. This is a live recording,with saxophonist Eric Alexander,organist Tony Monaco and drummer Jeff "Tain" Watts.Longtime Martino fans will already know,Pat's early career had plenty of organ and sax interaction in the bands of both Willis Jackson and Jack McDuff. Organ and guitar are always a magic combo and Martino always shines in that context. I'm also a big fan of Tony Monaco and recommend searching out his albums also.
Bonus mini-rant: Hey,George Benson! If you name your album "Guitar Man",THIS is what it should sound like,NOT a couple of good guitar bits interspersed with smooth jazz pablum. You and Martino share the same organ jazz background,even holding the same chair in Jack McDuff's band. I think you are capable of an album like this.Please,stop coasting and prove me right.

Buddy Whittington - Six String Svengali
   You called your album Six String Svengali? Who do you think you are,John Mayall's guitar player or something? Wait...what? Oh... Yes,Buddy Whittington is good enough to live up to his ballsy album title.

John McLaughlin - Marbles
   I highly recommend this Cd...kind of. It is actually a repackaging of his 1970 album Devotion, featuring John in full on Hendrix inspired fusion mode. Skip it if you already have the album but with the domestic Cd out of print,don't miss this essential music, despite the needless title change.

Rocket From The Tombs - Barfly
   At this late date,you either know who these guys are or you don't, so I'll keep it brief. Although not a reunion in the traditional sense,it features the one/two punch of guitarists Cheetah Chrome (Dead Boys) and Richard Lloyd (Television). Brilliant,vital stuff from difficult to categorize,creative musicians.

Bill Laswell, Raoul Bjorkenheim, Morgan Argen - Blixt
   Brilliant power trio with more rock tones than one usually finds in a noise/jazz/fusion context. Always listenable even at it's noisiest,this blends Miles/Mahavishnu fusion with Cream/Hendrix rock to exciting effect.Guitarist Bjorkenheim is now on my list of guitar players I need to pay more attention to!

Joe Cohn - Fuego
   Classic jazz that blends up a nice mix of swing,bebop and post-bop. Although they do take on Love For Sale, they tend to focus less on worn out standards and more on tunes by guys like Thad Jones,Johnny Griffin,Jackie McLean and Al Cohn (who just happens to be his father).I definitely want to here more from Joe Cohn!

There are some sweet imports from Impulse records 2-on-1 series this week and two of them are of particular interest to guitar fans:

Chico Hamilton - El Chico/The Further Adventures of El Chico
The discography of Chico Hamilton features lots of good guitar and the treat for guitar fans on this twofer set of 1966 albums is Gabor Szabo! Tasty stuff.

Howard Roberts - Antelope Trail/Equinox Express Elevator
Studio guitar legend,Guitar Institute of Technology founder and Phoenix,Arizona native Howard Roberts is in his usual fine form on these 1970's albums. I think this might be the first time these are on Cd! With clean copies difficult to find on vinyl,this reissue is welcome indeed.

Pat Martino - New album,new book,new signature guitar!

2011-10-09T12:02:00.000-07:00

Guitar fans,the long wait for new Pat Martino music will be over soon! Martino will release Undeniable this Tuesday,October 11th. It is in the classic organ quartet line up of guitar/sax/organ/drums and will be reviewed in this weeks Best Guitar Albums of the Week (naturally). Be sure to check back.

October will also see the release of Martino's autobiography Here and Now! on 10/25/11. It is available for pre-order from Amazon:

Also new for Pat is his signature model guitar. It is available only direct from Benedetto. Check out this elegant guitar at the Benedetto site:

http://benedettoguitars.com/guitars/professional-series/pat-martino-signature-model%e2%84%a2/

This great video from The Pace Report has a great interview with Pat and some live footage with his Benedetto guitar:

The Pace Report: "Here and Now: The Tales of a Great Jazz Guitarist" The Pat Martino Interview from Brian Pace on Vimeo.

Guitar Omnivore

My pickguard attacked Grampa's Gibson L5!!!

Merry Christmas from Gunzawless...and Guitar Omnivore!

A rare Floyd Rose on a 80's MIJ Squier

Collapsing bridge on an Alvarez Kazuo Yairi CY127CE

Son of The Return of...Big John Robert's awesome swag collection - PART FOUR - The ticket stubs!

Related articles

Epiphone Les Paul Bigsby Jr. - Patrick Schwab's latest mod

Rice Custom Guitar #141

The Return of...Big John Robert's awesome swag collection - PART THREE - The picks!

Keeping a 1968 Epiphone Rivera all stock!

Making a truss rod cover for an Ampeg Stud!?

c.1900 Washburn Cremonatone mandolin

Jonathan Kreisberg's Trioing gets a well deserved reissue.

Big John Robert's awesome swag collection - PART TWO

Big John Robert's awesome swag collection - PART ONE

Do NOT miss the new Bill McHenry with BEN MONDER!

A Gibson J-200 gets an overhaul - Part Two

A Gibson J-200 gets an overhaul - Part One

New Oz Noy this Tuesday!

Black Sabbath Reunites...Again!

Randy Brecker at the Glendale Jazz and Blues Festival

The 3 P-90 Stratocaster - My favorite cheapo hotrod yet!

The new Unholy Cadaver is the old Hammers of Misfortune...or something.

Related articles

Best Guitar Cds of the Week - Week of 10/18/2011

Related articles

Best Guitar Cds of the Week - Week of 10/11/11

Related articles

Pat Martino - New album,new book,new signature guitar!