The Midas Touch

Mancini's lounge in St Paul is host of the hip house band "Midas Touch". TC's Bob Scoggin is the talented axe wielder of this popular combo, & he's happy to pose for the camera. I captured this shot with my iphone under the velvety red ambient rope light stage. The vintage Fender guitar is a rare 1975 hollow telecaster with factory humbuckers, & clear bell tone output. Bob is a smooth player, & a worthy owner of such a cool axe. Everything about this guitar & this gig portrays an authentic retro flashback vibe. You can find better pics of this rare guitar on Bob's Facebook page.

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.

Gretsch Silver Ann

This Gretsch hollow body guitar is from 1986, & it's a silver anniversary of the historic 1961 model. Darcel Jones of Coon Rapids is the current owner & player of this fine vintage axe. It's been in his family since new, & has been handed down from his grandfather. The condition is fine but this one's not for sale, so you can stop drooling now.

White Elephant

This beautiful hollow-body Teleblaster is proudly shown off by regional entertainer Chad Higgins. The beautiful ivory white finish is contrasted by a glitzty gold hardware package, including gold Floyd Rose trem system & matching locking nut. You can get a good look at this rare hollow body electric guitar when you catch a show featuring the popular Minneapolis group POP ROCKS. The guitar is a class act by itself, & so is their show. Here's a link featuring their upcoming show dates.

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.

Yamaha G55 Classical

Front & rear of Yamaha classical guitar, owned by Craig Asche in Fridley MN. Craig contacted me this week looking for offers on this guitar & carrying case. Drop me a line if you're looking for an inexpensive nylon string guitar & I'll forward it to Craig.

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.

Guilded

 Peter Berger from White Bear Lake pictured with his 1983 Guild X-702. Wonderful playing bass with high output & great tone. Unique styling with a great headstock & top notch candy apple finish make this one for the archives. These cool 80's basses are hard to find, & this one is a rocker for sure.

Happy Anniversary

1979 Silver Anniversary Stratocaster from Cuffy Parks. Gotta love these large peg head stocks & heavy lacquer bat necks. Looks great in any collection.

7-Up Green

Candy Apple Green, AKA 7-Up Green - You've got to love those Fender colors.
Alder body, Maple neck with a special "V" shape, 22 Nickel Silver fret Maple fingerboard, vintage machine heads, 3 Gold Fender-Lace Sensors, 25dB active mid-boost circuit and blocked synchronized tremolo. Note the Pearloid pick guard up-grade on this 1989 Eric Clapton signature Strat, owned & played by Jesse Ray Ernster of Buffalo MN. I snapped the inset photo while Jesse was doing a stint with Iron Horse, but now you can catch Jesse with the all new show Killer Hayseeds "Amped Up". We'll get more of Jesse's guitars featured here as soon as I can make it out to another Hayseeds tour date.

Retro 54 LP Classic

Here's a closet classic sent in today by a personal friend asking about this guitar that his brother in-law's mom's boyfriend has owned for years. All indicators point to some variation of a 1954 gold top, & condition is remarkable. Still looking into actual production year, but it's so pretty I thought we should post it & gather some comments & see to find out what it's worth, etc. Thanks for reading.

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."

Monster Tone

Since it's Halloween, I thought I'd post a guitar with unusual monstrous tone. Chris Kinoshito sent me a hi-res photo of this fine Fender Bass VI Baritone guitar. It's kind of a guitar & bass together; with baritone sounding tone. It has thicker gauge strings, & it's roots go back into the 1960's surf era. Twitch, twitch.                   H A P P Y     H A L L O W E E N

Rock with me & the Ladies of the 80's Friday Night (11/02) at G.B. Leighton's Pickle Park in Fridley. 

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