One Big Bass - CONK

That's one big bass. If this had any more strings it'd be a piano.
I caught Jonathan Thomas doing a R&B show at the Shorewood lounge on Friday December 2nd with Ronn Easton. His bass really stands out; it's fairly unique so I snapped a pic. I had some other clubs to hit so I didn't get a chance to talk with him & ask him about his axe. You can use the comment section below to help correctly identify this hip seven string bass guitar. Jonathan plays around town with several different acts, so check his website to find out where he's laying it down.

Rock with me Friday & Saturday this weekend at St Croix Casino in Turtle Lake for our next big show on new years eve. We'll be dropping hundreds of balloons from the sky at midnight, with THOUSANDS of DOLLARS tucked inside to make this the greatest party ever. Hope to see you at the show to check what cool guitars we're using. Frosty says he'll be playing his '66 Gibson Firebird for a set, so come & party with us!

Stocking Stuffer

This guitar spatula is a great stocking stuffer for the musical chef in your family. Make a guitar player smile at breakfast time. Get it at Amazon.com. The gift that keeps giving.

Blaine Busch Whacker

Here's the latest addition to the Tom Busch collection. 2011 Gibson Les Paul. I bet you've never seen a Custom that looks like this before. Still waiting for more info on this new axe form Tom, but in the meantime we can all enjoy the pic that he's submitted. You can always click on the pictures in this website to enlarge them.

Naughty or Nice

With only one week 'til Christmas it's time to start working on getting on Santa's nice list. Who wouldn't love to wake up on Christmas morning to find this 1966 Fender Stratocaster waiting under the tree. You can always wish, but Karl Swartz of St Paul won't be giving up this vintage guitar anytime soon. He's owned it for thirty years, & you'd be lucky to see this axe on his current tour with his band "Free Fallin". Check the Free Fallin TOUR link to catch one of their upcoming shows. Want to learn to play like Karl? You can sign up for lessons at the Music Connection in Forest Lake. Happy Holidays.

In Tune in Braham

Custom Davison shark fin V with classic coffin case. Owner Jake King of Braham MN. Jake runs a music store out of his house that resembles a small Music-Go Round. Bring your trade in & do some swapping if your in the neighborhood. Here's the official In Tune Music website, & here they are on on YouTube.

...Rock with me tonight at the Dog House in Maplewood.

The Schaefer's

Need Jazz? Nothing beats Fender for the style that launched a thousand artists. This pearloid Mexi Bass owned is by freelance bassist Chris Schaefer of Brooklyn Park. }:-D-
Chris says it's got great tone, playability & comfort; & for the little bit of dough he had to shell out at Music Go Round it simply can't be beat. You can tell it makes a nice addittion to the family.

Epiphone Les Paul Ultra III

I stopped at Best Buy in Roseville on Saturday to find this futuristic LP lingering on a hook with the other guitars, but after spotting the USB port I almost expected some clerk to mistakenly stock it with the printers or routers. Note the tuner mounted atop the pick up ring. Yes, handy indeed. Other unique feature is NanoMag acoustic pick up mounted at the base of the neck. Check out this impressive demo on YouTube.

OK Corral in the UK

Wow. Let's all give kudos to Marvin Cairnes of UK for undertaking the immense task of reconstructing the famous 1970's Colt guitar from nothing more than a few parts rolling around in the remnants of his father's shop. This was no easy task, as many new parts had to be custom cast & made at a local foundry in order to properly complete this gem this year & pay homage to the original designer (his father), Jim Cairnes. Really a fine job, Marvin. Thanks for taking the time to share the picture of Colt #3. I'll post a picture of Joe Walsh's #1 when I am lucky enough to receive it. You can see a little bit of #2 in this rarely seen YouTube footage by clicking HERE. Enjoy.

BLINK 182

Daphne blue Mark Hoppus signatue Fender precision bass, featuring the unique combination of the offset Jazz style body with the traditional P style split pick ups. Note the single Volume knob (no tone control). This bass owned by the incomparable Danny Grossnickle, caught playing the low tones for the long time local entertainers, Monarch Band while doing a outdoor gig at St Tim's Summerfest in September. You can catch the next Monarch show on December 30&31 at the Champlin Legion, 8:30-12:30 pm. You may have seen Danny perform with other cool shows around town like the Rhythm Kings, Shaw-Allen-Shaw, or Beautiful Noise.

Rock with me this Saturday Dec 10th at the Main Street bar in Hopkins.

Smokin' Hot Guitar

STOLEN GUITAR ALERT
Carl Bailey lost his two tone 80's Charvel this past weekend during a break in at his home while he was away at a gig. It's has a unique burgundy & blueburst finish, with a bound neck, shark tooth inlay, & Floyd Rose tremolo, as pictured. In the mean time you can probably catch him playing his Flying V, as seen in this video on YouTube with his band Lady Luck. Spread the word about this stolen guitar & give a shout back if you have any info that will assist in the recovery.

Horse Feathers

Here's a shot taken last Friday on the new stage at Povlitzki's in Spring Lake Park. Darren Hensel from the reincarnated Iron Horse is showing off his two color sunburst Fender Stratocaster, a nice vintage reissue with pearloid pickguard. Check the Iron Horse band schedule to find where you can hear Darren jam & ask him about his stage axes.

Where's Waldo

1982 Gibson "The Paul" with traditional natural finish on walnut body, camouflaged against same guitar wallpaper. I guess this should really be called Where's Pauldo unless it gets painted with red & white stripes.}:-D- This is a great playing ebony board, neck-thru beauty with jumbo frets & Grover tuners. There's no maple cap here from which to carve the arch top. Gibson also chose not to include a pick guard to keep the cost down. Owner Dave Sanborn used this guitar for years in the twin cities rock metal band Wyzdom. These days you'll find his banjo skills are equally as impressive as his Deep Purple solos were back in the 80's. I'll post an update to the next hoedown.

Rock with me tonight (Saturday Dec 3rd) at the Blue Fox in Arden Hills.

Pull Your Pistol

Freak of the Week
This six stringer is a six shooter. Colt Peacemaker, designed by Jim Cairnes. This English made Star guitar has Cairnes pickups, & ebony fretboard. The trigger is the volume, & the hammer selects the pickups. The cartridge ejector rod is a push/pull tone control. Currently on display at the American Guitar Museum in New York.

America the Beautiful

1996 USA Fender Special Edition Buck Owens edition Fender Telecaster. This is really one of the most beautiful Teles that I've ever seen, & you can guess that it plays like a dream. Routed out for a 3rd pickup by Brad Paisley’s guy at Cook Guitars in West Virginia. Originally had gold hardware & gold pickguard, now changed to nickel & pearl. Pick ups have been upgraded to Joe Bardens along with a 5 way switch & 2-way toggle. B-Bender installed by Brad’s bender guy, Charlie McVay in Pennsylvania. Also has locking tuners and a custom tone/volumes knobs with red M.O.P.
      This axe isn't just for show. Owner Mark Heurkins of Big Lake plays it everyday & says this guitar will have to be pried out of his cold dead hands! Mark is pickin & a grinnin with this fine machine at local clubs around town with his band Blue Canyon. Catch their next show Sunday, December 4th, 4:00 pm at Neumann's Bar in North St Paul. Follow them on facebook HERE.

Rock with me tonight at Buster's in Owatonna.

Just Like Living in Paradise

Paradise guitars USA - Jason Becker - Siganture model. Owner Haanz Vakker of Spring Lake Park says that playability was a key factor when this one was on the drawing board. It's great for recording, as the ultra sustaneous pick ups are very quiet between passages. Check out the YouTube video of Haanz ripping it up on this axe. Click Here for the schedule of where to see Haanz shredding this guitar live with his band JoyRide,

Tonight: Pov's in Andover

Electric Mandobird VIII

Our show at the St Croix casino yesterday allowed me the opportunity once again to view a portion of the collection of Steve Lindstrom from Amery, WI. Here's his Epiphone Electric Mandobird VIII (8 String Mandolin in vintage sunburst finish). It's not every day that you run across these, so it's nice when someone generously shares their odd instrument. I snapped a few pics of some of his other axes, & I'll post them at a later time. Here's looking forward to featuring more specimens from Steve's collection & getting additional pics when we return to Turtle Lake for our next big show on new years eve. We'll be dropping hundreds of balloons from the sky at midnight, with THOUSANDS of DOLLARS tucked inside to make this the greatest party ever. Hope to see you at the show to check what cool guitars we're using.

Flock of T-Birds

I found a rather impressive display of Epiphone Thunderbirds hanging around a local used music shop last week & thought I'd share it. Music go Round in Roseville had these Ultra cool Nikki Sixx Blackbirds with traditional goth theme & maltese cross inlay. What's really unique about these is the absence of volume & tone pots; just one over sized toggle switch! Need more info of these? Call the store: 651 487-5600. Pick up one of these basses & It'll be your picture posted here next time.

Tonight: St Croix casino in Turtle Lake, WI.

Goldilocks

Shiny, sparkling, & downright glitzy. Original finish 1999 Epiphone Sorrento, owned, operated, & maintained by George Paulos of Little Canada. As always, a few mods were necessary to get this up to pro standards; note the new Gibson Nashville tune-0-matic bridge. George has installed an upgrade of new cts pots, & of course he puts jumbo frets on everything he plays. George was the luthier at Torp's Music for ten years, so getting the mods right the first time was quick, easy & painless. George can currently be seen using this axe frequently around town with his steady gig Rythm Engine, a five piece rock, soul, & pop combo complete with keys & sax. Click HERE for a list of their current scheduled performance dates

Hit Me With Your Best Shot.

Dan Hansen from the Whatnots offered up a great performance last weekend at the St Croix casino showroom in Turtle Lake WI. The white stratocater that he used was quipped with a PRS dragon humbucker & Floyd Rose trem, but he also featured his new reliced 59 reissue Gibson Les Paul deluxe for a few tunes. They're both fine axes & look great on stage. Erin was in fine form also, & was kind enough to sing me a little Pat Benetar. }:-D- Here's their schedule for the next time you want to go rock for a while.

My Hero

These fine high quality plastic examples are true vogue specimens of the new millennium. Minneapolis power house drummer Eric Althaus proudly displays his red SG Guitar Hero controller which he enjoys using for the many difficult passages in tunes by RUSH. The black Fender strat Rock Band model is more appropriate for noodling along with Dick Dale's Miserlou. Wen he's not busy engaging in fierce family battles with guitar hero at home Eric stays busy performing on drums with twin cities based feature show JoyRide. Be sure to catch a show at any one of various local night clubs found on their tour schedule. Want to know even more about Eric? Click here to learn about Equinox.