Farm Livin' is the Life for Me

Amy from "Amy & Adams" with her full size dreadnought Alverez, as seen at the Farmer's Union booth at the MN State Fair.

Ventura Highway

Late 1970's Ventura  Les Paul "lawsuit era" Gison copy. Highly sought after rendition is owned by Chris Barth of Monroe WI. Block inlay, fully bound neck & inlayed head stock are just a few reasons these come off as desirable reproductions. Upgrade the pick ups & tuners & you would really have something here. 

Jack Mansk pictured here with his killer custom 2011 white Les Paul. You can catch Jack doing his 80's thing on this cool axe by going out & catching a Brat Pack Radio show. Here's their website for show dates.

Skippy's '63

Saturday March 9th marked Crocodile productions 27th bi-annual Musicians trade fair, & this spring it was held at the Eagan civic center for the first time. The civic center turned out to be a perfect venue for an event of this type, & I look forward to returning to Eagan again for these events in the future. The show yielded some great finds, & one of the vintage gems that seemed to be a cut above the rest was Skippy's 1963 Gibson SG with factory trem. This classic guitar still remains in remarkable original condition after 50 years on the globe. Just getting my hands on it osmosed vibes of greatness though my body to my spirit. Truly one of the finest axes at the show this year. Thanks for the picture, Skippy.

Cool Breeze

Very sad here to be reporting the passing of Dave Brown, (Senders) one of my all time favorite twin city fronts. His energy & style were a powerhouse of inspiration to entertainers everywhere. This hep cat was like Dean Martin & Chuck Berry all wrapped up in one. I'll forever cherish the memories of our many gigs together years ago at the famous Whiskey Junction in S Minneapolis. His Cherry Gibson 335 with large fret marker inlays is a fine blues axe & served him well for many performances. Dave loved the electric hollow body Gibson guitars. His memorial service is being held today at Lakewood Cemetery Chapel in Minneapolis. Click HERE to view a memorial pictorial of Cool Breeze on YouTube. Dave will be missed by many, & remembered by the millions of smiles he left behind in his long  musical career.

Tribute City

Happy St Pat's Day From Minneapolis Guitars. Viking Rocker's classic rock tribute show was a great success Friday night at Pickle Park. The featured acts Poisened (Poisen), Crown Jewels (Queen), & Top Jimmy (Van Halen) were all very entertaining, & as you can see by the photo's the guitars were all fairly authentic too. One of these axes has been previously featured on this website, but is so cool I thought it worthy of a repost. All these guitarists are top players & consistently perform stylistically authentic to give you a taste of the original artists.

LTD - Satin

Ted Pillera from Lakeville, showing off his new D5 LTD five string bass in a natural satin finish. Active electronics & low action make for an ultra-responsive & easy playing guitar. This pic was snapped Friday night while Ted's new band Drama Queen was performing their Prior Lake debut showcase at the Arizona's Lounge on 169 & Canterbury rd.

Shred a Tear

Here's a fairly new concept by VOX with a twist, recently released at the summer 2012 NAAM show. Even if you weren't a fan of the vintage Phantom or Teardrop, you'r sure to find the new Apache 1 has plenty to offer any player. This one's available at Mr Mark's Music in Anoka for only $299. The features include built in internal amplifier, drum machine, & ipod input. It's the perfect couch potato guitar. Check out the demo video on YouTube.

Moody Blue

Veteran luthier Erin Randolph of Minneapolis pictured here showing off his newly acquired 12 string Silvertone acoustic. This solid old catalog guitar dates to circa 1961, & was manufactured by Harmony for mail order sales & distribution through the Sears company. It's a tasty vintage piece, & the custom blue & white finish is far from the original two color sunburst. It's body is constructed entirely of birch, but Erin has big plans for a rebuild of this cool axe, including a new spruce top. We'll get more photos posted after the project is completed.

Head Stock

Custom inlay is always cool. Happy Birthday to me.
  }:-D-

Ménage à Trois

This weeks submission by a local player who really has a keen eye for grade A flamed maple tops.
When these three beauties make an appearance no man can resist the temptation of their allure.
These RG7-CT / RG7-CST Ibanez guitars are no less than amazing. These were supposedly a first run of the J-custom 7 string to gauge interest. This is why (so I am told) they do not say "J-custom" on the headstock but rather are just tagged with the "Prestige" badge.  Supposedly 24 (or so) produced. Rosewood fb CT has Dimarzio Crunch Lab/ Liquifire pickups. Maple fb CT has Bare Knuckle Rebel Yell/ Cold sweat pickups. Ebony fb, lo-pro double edge bridge with piezo, stock custom 7 Ibanez pickups. Mahogany body with a flamed maple top in vintage violin finish. 1 of 18 world wide.
Discriminating collector & Ibanez aficionado Tim Matteson courteously submitted this & many other great pics of his extensive collection last week; & for this kindness we extend him our gratitude as we'll continue to feature more of his cool guitars here on the site in the future.

Vertigo

This one of a kind guitar submitted today by Tim Krueger. He's currently teaching guitar at Buffalo Guitar Studio in Buffalo, MN. His custom fretless Fernandes Vertigo is quite the fine axe that you won't see anywhere else. The mirrored glass fingerboard was installed by Ned Evett's shop in Idaho.
For more info on this guitar or Tim's studio follow the link below.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Buffalo-Guitar-Studio/200046503458755

Flamin'

Greetings from Greg Pasillas & his custom "Laguna" guitar. His brother Pete Pasillas did the awesome flame paint & pin stripe details. Greg plays this cool axe on a regular basis here the Twin Cities. The guitar gets many comments on the finish as you'd expect, & the back even has a custom MN Vikings logo in the paint. Pete did the paint in southern California where he does all types of custom finishes, stripes, lettering & more on motorcycles, cars, dragsters, and now even guitars.

If anyone is interested in having some custom paint treatments done, I will be providing a link soon.

DaVinci Custom Paint

A couple fine examples pictured here from the Terry North, head painter at DaVinci Custom Guitars. I've had the pleasure to hold many of the finished customs that have been completed through Terry's shop, & they're truly top notch. This is the stuff that makes rock stars. Terry has the skills to bring your fantasy concept into the realm of rock & roll reality. He's a master craftsman & an all around nice guy who promises to work hard to earn your repeat business. Have Terry start your order today.

Washburn WR150

Here's another rocking axe from the collection of Stevek Williavich right here in town.


  Washburn Rocker Series WR150. It has been refitted with a Seymore Duncan JB humbucker at the bridge, a Seymore Duncan JB single-coil in the center, and a GFS Li'l Killer at the neck, then custom wired with a coil tap switch for the Li'l Killer and a series/parallel switch for the JB. The 5-way switch is still wired conventional but the pickups and switching make this humble little axe into a very versatile tone machine. It also sports GraphTech saddles on the Fender-type trem and a GraphTech nut.

This guitar is for sale now and comes in it's original hard case. Send your offers to: stringed4you@gmail.com.

Gary's Gibson Fire Chicken

     This week's post by local guitar veteran: Gary Vogel of Minneapolis. 

"I have always loved the look of the original "reverse" version Firebird.  Such a 
lovely shape!  An much more practical than the Explorer, because it does not 
have the big pointy tail that I always find myself bumping into things.

But every vintage one I have tried suffered from two problems:  The neck was 
uncomfortable, too fat like a baseball bat, and those damn banjo tuners were 
either worn out and broken, or damaged in some way.

Well the recently discontinued Gibson Firebird V 2010 model solved both those 
issues!"

http://www2.gibson.com/Products/Electric-Guitars/Firebird/Gibson-USA/Firebird-V-2010.aspx

"The neck is extremely smooth and fast..  The tuners have been replaced by modern 
Steinberger models, allowing the beautiful headstock to be unsullied, and 
eliminating those damn banjo tuners.

The new ceramic pickups are really sweet.  Not too hot, but a bit stouter than 
the original ones.   Less noise, too.  A bit brighter than a P90, but also a bit 
smoother in the mid-range, I guess they could be defined as a less "snotty" 
pickup somewhere between a P90 and a humbucker.  I find them to be incredible 
useful when playing complex chords, but I would bet that blues players would 
really dig them too (think Johnny Winter, of course!).

I don't know why Gibson decided to discontinue this particular reissue, poor 
sales probably.  But I am damn glad I was able to find one-- and it took me some 
serious searching before I found a white one-- the rarest of all, and most 
gorgeous IMO.  This baby had originally been shipped from the factory overseas 
to Germany, and ended up at a NY guitar trader who I purchased it from 

Another one checked off my bucket list!

You can see me play this baby at my next show with my band MFG (we are on 
Facebook) at Mayslacks Friday November 30.  We play after the Mighty Others and 
my friends, Capital Sons, who featured my lead guitar on their first CD.  We go 
on at 11pm."

Lombardi Trophy

 

Just swell & nearly seventy years old, This old girl has held herself together very well over the years. She's had a little work done but all the original parts are present. Stevek Williavich sent me this pictures of his 1943 (Harmony made) Lombardi, after spotting my 1945 H700 on Minneapolis Craigslist this week. These Lombardi's arch tops are ultra rare, & feature impressive birdseye maple tops; as well as Brazilian rosewood tails, bridges & fingerboards. This one's a solid player, & it's place in guitar history will surely be proudly preserved.

Rock with me & the Rock-ittes Friday night at the new High-Five night club in Burnsville, &
Saturday night & Main Street Bar in Hopkins

Mystery Machine

Today's feature submitted by Jon Tranberry here in the Twin Cities. He's looking for a little assistance in identifying this gem of an acoustic for a friend of his. Knowing how much our readers love to assist other local players I agreed to publish this photo to see who could be the first to offer up the correct identity & origin of this unusual 6 string guitar. You can use the comment section below to give it your best shot. Jon sends his thanks in advance.       }:-D-

Frankenstein

Freak of the week - F R A N K E N S T E I N -
Just a little tease to remind our readers to start working on their Halloween costumes. Know the origin of this fine axe? Use the comment section below to show off your knowledge.

This ORR That

Thanks to ROCKFIST's Kenner Siegrist for this week's feature photo.  A very unique sounding one of a kind hand made bass by Charles Orr. Kenner.is a very fortunate fellow to have this bass in his collection. You can track down the owner of this fine bass at a local TC performance near you, & ask Kenner about this axe.