Just What Is A Maker?

Being a Maker.

I found an amazing video shared on a friends blog page the other day. It was on my friend Phil from http://precisionguitarkits.com/ . An amazing site selling beautiful guitar bodies and necks. The short video was on the subject of being a “Maker” . It took me a few seconds for the videos subject matter and title to sink in.

A “Maker” the term seems simple enough but what was it and what did it tug at in me. The gentleman on the video was talking about what it is to be a maker, a builder, a craftsman a maker of things, be they mechanical or artistic or purely functional.

Once I had clicked into the groove I was so drawn in.

For I am a maker.. I in no way make any claims to be a craftsman, I never took woodwork at school, I never served under any master builder or cabinet maker or trained in any apprenticeship or trade school. But I grew up with a father who was the best “Maker” I or any of our friends an family knew so he was always “making” various items for people and of course for our family.. The largest has to be mentioned, an ocean going canoe! This 20 odd foot long canvas and wooden frame was built from a popular mechanics plan I think over months in damp dark basement.. The lighting issue was fixed when my dad -who was working for the local council at the time – was given the biggest bulb in existence in Auckland city.. A lamp Bulb from Eden Park. Our local rugby field.. this thing was around 600 watts and so severe to wrk under my dad developed sunburn on one side of his face and neck from working under the intense light and heat.haha.

But he was a grand Maker.. he built toboggans, tables, chairs, dolls houses, a wonderful scale model of The Paddle Steamship The Waverley that sails from Glasgow still, and the obligatory Radio control planes, models, kit-sets, and finally after he was retired early due to a terminal illness he taught himself to picture frame and then become of of the only Guild members of framers in New zealand. His framing work was an art in itself.. And finally in his last stages of being able to walk and move around easily he started learning how to do lead free pewter castings of local creatures and scottish celtic knot-work..

My dad was as untrained as myself , he had a brother who owned a large cabinet making business back in scotland but my dad was just someone that could take a pile of wood and screws and nails and make whatever was asked of him. And I somehow got that side of him passed into me.

I have built a number of things for my own business through more necessity than desire. Being a guitar and instrument technician I always need specialist tool boxes and and stands and the huge cost of importing meant I was better to try make them myself, most of the time it worked.. Luckily I had spent as much time as was possible in my dads workshop. An amazing place full of so many tools and screws and dusty old shortbread and biscuit tins full of old hinges and nuts and bolts. It was a pandoras box of Maker-ness... the smell of tung oil and bees wax hung heavy in the air around an area specially set up for the coating of woods and thru the haze of sawdust a battlefield of saws and sanders and planers stood at attention ready to attack the next 4x2 piece of wood or tear their teeth into some section of lumber...

There were pull out drawers all neatly organized with the tiniest of screws and nails, almost seemingly impossible to hold in there smallness and yet somehow my old man could take these minute shiny objects and built a world in miniature.

Sadly my father passed away just over two years ago. It was a terribly sad time for me. Though I had had an abrasive teenage time with my dad as we both grew older we grew much closer together and I could see the amount of knowledge I had missed out on through my own pig headed vanity and a mouth that never knew when to close and just listen. I guess we were both stubborn people. Tho I know I cam off the loser I the end.

When he passed I was left all his tools, my older brother is safe with a hammer most of the time but anything with a saw blade and 7500rpm I'd be worried about. The tools have found a perfect new home in my new workshop in the barn of my wife and I's home, and tho my working space is 1/3 of the size of the old workshop my passion for creating and building and “Making” has come on ten fold.

The most exciting stage of my life to date has been the starting up of a guitar custom amplifier business with one of my best friends Ryan Thomas. We have toured together for so many years when I was his guitar tech, then for a while we were room mates and of late have found a new exciting venture in our lives. And its a new venture my wife doesn't mind.. Our not so hair brained scheme to build a line of guitar amplifiers catering to the local market first and then who knows. Ryan is a technical wizard. He can read a schematic like I read a Batman Comic . And his brain and base of knowledge is quite extraordinary. Plus we both have similar ears for tone so we share that together. He has been designing the layout inside the amp and we have been designing the controls and I have been designing and building the amplifier cabinets.

Now I must say the first Wolverton amp cab I built was my first ever. I'd never built a guitar cabinet or a speaker cabinet until we started building them. My learning curve was a phenomenal line up. And it was tough to be learning what to do and inventing my own way of doing it as I was building our first amp for a customer.

I see a few faults in that first build and luckily as I'm the tech for the band I have had a chance to grab the amp back and redo some flawed pieces , but its been a challenge on each build to fine tune what I have taught myself. Sure the odd Youtube video has been searched for help but largely I have designed and built these amps from what I want now what I know.. So after reading and looking at other builders work I have seen I have already over engineered our builds which is great as our amps are mostly going out on the road touring, and thats a tough place for any amp to live.

I have built with what I want as a roadie and a guitar tech and I haven't ever been told to save money or cut corners or cut quality to speed up work.. Ryan has always been right by my side and never pushed me further than I can go but he's always pushed me to get the best out of me and its made my work all the better for it, and I thank him for that.

But we work from a point where we know were still doing R&D on our own productions and these first players are as much of our R&D team as us as there giving us great feedback , even when they say nothing at all.. - If there not complaining we must be doing something right.haha

But I face a constant challenge being so uneducated in what I'm tackling that when I hit slumps I get stuck. I dont know all the ways to mitre a cut or join two pieces of wood correctly as its taught. I can get worked into a corner and almost tear my hair out trying to work myself back out of it. But I just have too, Ryan is a genius in the electrical workshop but knows even less about woodwork than me so I'm left trying and retrying until something works.. I know if someone watched me build one of our amps they'd probably pull the weirdest faces watching me go at it from my own build point. But at the end of the day My work is really quite something . My builds have been roadworthy and have come into there own as I had added flourishes and unique points of interest I haven't seen other amp builders use..

My tolex covering is getting better but I have only done about 5 amps and its something that really stumped me early on. Even to the point of trying to find a night-school course on upholstery to try get some much needed basics.. (its still on the cards)

But after watching that video about “makers” I realized what I do has a bigger picture.. I get so close to my work seeing the smallest detail in the build and the finish that I had forgotten just what we are doing.. Building someone an amp that should for all intensive purposes last them a lifetime then there children behind them. And thats just mind blowing. We are building in some way a part of a musicians history, whether they make it big or not. We help get the tone they hear in there head and in there dreams ( and yes I met a guitarist or two that dreams bout tones) and onto the stage.. Thats a mighty empowering thing to be part of. I often think its the closest thing to childbirth each time I finish a build and we put the amp together and its ready for the customer.

We have an amp thats now residing in the studio of Billy Gibbons world renowned Blues rock player in Houston. We are now part of his musical history and that in itself is something that almost blows my mind to think about.. The scale of that is so far off what we ever intended – I often joke if we to only build 3 more amps we'd have done better than so many other builders with production runs in the thousands.

And now I have started designing and building speaker cabs to match the heads and when I started this I worked solely from the Jim Marshall Line of thinking..

'He was once asked the science behind the now iconic 4x12 quad box that has been seen on so many stages and music videos.. The magazine wanted to know how he came upon the dimensions for the cab and his answer was simple..

“I just built a box big enough to hold 4 speakers..!”

Now I am working on my own designs that of course look like a speaker box , its hard not to look similar but I'm able to build them from my own construction methodology. There robust solid cabs built from Marine Ply thick and sturdy and I think with a beautiful resonance. I built a 1x12 to try out with an amp a while back the night before its first show and rushed it through so fast I was afraid the Vinyl would peel off under the hot lights as the glue hadn't even cured yet.. hahaha

We needed a 2x 12 for Wolverton and I needed a 2x12 myself so I used that impetus to design and build a cab to my liking first. I didn't steal another companies design or measurements. I didn't sift thru websites and pictures to get a plan. I just simply put down two of my personal antique 1957 G12 Celestions and worked out just what size box I needed and I wanted and Voila.. what I think is the perfect cab.

A day like that makes up for ten days when something goes wrong, I cut the wrong size on the final cut and ruin a job and have to scrap it and restart. I have days I look at my hands and hate them for not doing that I expect of them when I pick up a tool. And I blame myself for not listening more when I had the chance.. Each time I pickup of his tools I can feel him there. The “maker” that never let a job beat him and always found a way round a problem.

I know with time I'll be more at ease and have learnt more and know what I'm needing to better but the journey is so much fun along the way. My biggest problem is I go look at the custom amps out there and I try compare my 2 or 3^rd amp to there 500^th made by true craftsmen and women. I find flaws in my own work seeing the perfection of these perfect models. But then I let myself off the hook a bit when I realise we're in our teething stage still. Each new amp layout and build is just that. A new build I am making for the first time. If I've made the same amp twice the third time gets easier but each new variation is another steep almost cliff face of a learning curve. Each new shape means another start from scratch but with each new build I have added another set of skills or lessons to the job.

I also have another trick up my sleeve when I really hit a slump.. I put down the amp and go build a table or a set of cubby hole shelves for my wife or go build something I can do now easily and it restores my faith in myself and in my hands and it shows me I will learn what I need too in good time...

I am a Maker and I hope my son will maybe one day make something himself that brings the same pleasure I get from it.

Gavin

. A Huge thanks to Phil@Precision, for being an inspiration and a new friend made along this rich journey called life.

Also check out his other amazing company.

http://liquidmetalguitars.com/

Time......where does tho go..

There is something that negates time ,working and making a living from being on the road. I have just left a cafe and said goodbye to the guy making the cofee and as I left I thre in “ I'll see you next year” and its strange but true line. This is my third visit to this cafe and its always been on this annual tour. You walk back in each time like it was only a week ago you were last there but its been a year, 365 days- give or take a few. But its the same, the same staff, the same menu, its stayed locked in its place in time as I myself have felt locked in time. The only difference is maybe now when I catch my reflection in a window on entering I have a few greyer hairs in my beard or my face wears a few new lines . But it all feels like I've only been away a few days,. Now looking back its been 3 years and that time while I am at home may have gone past fast but being back it feels like it never happened..

Maybe its the nature of the work and the way we live and travel in this microcosm of the world. This crew that has mainly stayed the same year after year. But its scary to think the time that has run under all our own personal bridges since I first joined this tour e years ago.

A lot of the last ten years of my life has been like that. Some days time is irrelevant. Other than the set out times for lobby calls, load ins and soundchecks, and of course performance times, but the rest is so invisible. We rarely keep track of days or dates. Weekends are completely meaningless and public holidays are for the rest of the world. 9-5 job days are a thing of the past if they were ever your past and now we operate in this bubble where we define our own times, breakfasts at whenever we fit them in, dinner maybe at 5 then again at 1am. And days off turned into weekends at your own whim.

In so many ways I put this lifestlyle down to the reason I still feel 18 at times.. I don't feel the 40 year old I am approaching in a couple of years. I hope I never do.

A Day In MY JOb

A Day On The Job...

A lot of people have seen guitar techs at the bigger shows they go to and may have some idea in there head what the roadies do. I guess even I was in that position until I started working in this role a lot more and getting to learn the depth and breath of the position within a “road crew” and the industry in general. So I'm gonna try lay out more clearly just what it is we do and what it is we have to go thru and look after and more importantly keep going day after day after day.

I used to try explain to people ,my job along the lines of a Pit crew in a Formula 1 team or any race team, (depending on my closeness to daytona it might have been described as a nascar team)

looking after the prized highly tuned piece of machinery that is the guitarist and his guitar. But thats really just the tip of the icebeg. The job really starts way before the house lights go down and the intro music starts.

Before any tour or one off show no matter where it is I have to work with the artist and there managemant to clarify there show requirements, wheter its an acoustic show or a full blown rock and roll band affair. From there I have to work out what backline or amps the artist – or band as I'll call it is using and whether its there own gear or rental gear from a local compnay or whatever compnay can supply us the gear in the town or countrey we are booked ot play. This is itself can sometimes be a challenge as finding particular amps or keys can be a tough job and finding a compromise is sometimes the only case, If we have to settle for a compromise then the band may requirements may have to be altered. Eg, we have to re-look at pedal boards and add things we can't get in the backline we need. Luckly within my own country I know every backline company and every piece of gear they own and constantly keep updated on it so I am one step ahead of the game, espeically when overseas bands book tours thru here and need backline. Some bands won't budge on requirements and you have to start calling on a lot of favours of friends to source guitars or amps or pedals that the bands must have.

As well as booking and confirming or “advancing” any gear we hire I then have to make sure all our gear is ready to drive , bus, fly or sail to the gig. If we need new pedal boards made up I may be up till the early hours making pedal boards and velcroing pedals and making looms of cables or just heading down to the local store and buying what the band needs ,this is as well as all the strings and picks and batteries and spare cables and such stuff we need before a tour. Its not uncommon for me to do a shop with one of my major artists here in nz and spend into the $500-$800 mark just on picks and strings and tape and batteries and feedback busters and capos and all the things that musicians manage to lose a week after there last tour finishes! I have bought capos for one singer for every tour and I'm sure if they cleaned there practise rooms they'd find a bunch..haha

Once all the extra bits and pieces have been bought its usually down to me to pack and check all the cases for the gear and make up any tour cases with all the bits and pieces we may need on that tour. For a tour with one band its easy , On a big Winery tour thru NZ here each summer I have 3 bands to tech for and that means 16+ guitars and 3 lots of strings and bits and extra cables and stuff so I have two super large Road cases or coffins as there called just for my 'Guitar-World' its a lot of stuff to look after day in and day out so I have to keep it as organised as I can or things go missing and when your loading in at 8am and loaing out at 12-1am the next morning and your brains fuzzy and tired you have to be doubly on your game to make sure all the stuff goes back in the right cases , but also fits back in the cases in such a way as it does fit in.. usually this involves a day or two before the tour packing and re-packing the cases until you have every inch of space used for something.. and it does take time to get it just right.. you can;t afford one square foot of space sitting there empty with more stuff to fit in so you re pack and shuffle until it works.. then I take a few photos on my iPhone of the pack so I can get it inot my head for the next coupe of shows then its second nature by then..

As well as prepping tall th bands gear I also have my own gear to prep. I have various combinations of tool boxes and sizes that all get decided on varying on the show and its length and its proximity to large citys.. if I'm thru bigger citys and venues in town, I can afford to travel a bit lighter as I can dash off to a music store to restock. But for the out of town wionery shows then I am miles from any town or music store so I take everyting I possibley coulf need, and spares, from 3 capos, to feedback busters, guitar stands, Pickup surrounds, machine heads, nuts, bridges, acoustic bridge pins, wire, solder, soldering irons, about 10-12 cables including short speaker and long speaker cables, small jack to jacks and extra long arena cables, and IEC jug cords, and fuses and spare screws, nuts bolts washers, practially a complete workshop. The last thing I can be is stuck needing something 10 minutes before doors and be an hours drive away from a town.

Whilst touring the Warped tour I had TourSupply.com at my fingertips and that was a god send.. just email my order and it was on a courier and delivered to me within a day or two a runner would deliver it to my set up tent at the back of the main stage.. that site has pretty much everyhting you'd ever need on the road and is by far the biggest thing I miss about touring the states.. here in lil ol kiwi land the best I can hope for is have something sent to one of the chain stores down the line and pick it up as I come thru town or or try take a shop into fed-exing it to my hotel for the next city.

So a lot of time and effort and checking and rechecking goes into the prep time of the tour . From there depeding on the scale of the tour its getting all my stuff that I have to deal with in my “guitar world” to the truck or the van its travelling in. Some times I'm driving the van as well so thats another responsibilty I have to look after, not always a favourite but I got to see a lot of the United States and Canada driving my band and there van and trailer round those countrys.

On tour I am just a cog in a large wheel, we may have an Front of House Engineer or (FOH or sound guy), monitor guy, Systems tech for the PA if we're touring one, Riggers for flying the PA, lighting guys, loaders, more riggers, production managers, tour managers, site managemant, security, merchandise, and even ushers on the big winery tours . And if we have to all share truck space then you have to do your part sometimes and make sure your stuff gets to that truck in the time it needs to be there as they load it, as just like my coffins the trucks can't waste an inch of space when theres so much gear and also for safetly sake and have the load spread out evenly , a baddly packed truck can tip on a corner or loose gear can break free and cause a hell of a mess. So you have to do your part and get packed down and ready as fast as they need you, which isn't always great when you have stuff thats broken or needs looking at right away. But you do what you can and your stuff there.. especially the first day! You piss people off there you won't hear the end of it all tour..haha

I hate to say this but there is a certain amount of repitiviness involed with being a guitar tech. There has to be, its what keeps the tour and show rolling. You are there to put the same show together night after night as long as the run lasts, or even if its a one off show, the band wants there stuff done a certain way. We have Stage plots for where there gear goes onstage in relation to each other and what needs to go where, these often have meaurements so the front of the drum risers is adesignated distance from the monitor line or guitar amps are an exact distance apart and on the stage symetrically apart. Or risers for keyboards and bass players are a certain distance from the back screen. And you have to make sure you or the local hands and loaders have that info and get that right.. I have to make sure that the stage no matter where or what city we are in is the EXACT same each show. Musicians get better the more they get used to doing something, its common sense, so to shake things up and suddenly have things all different throws a whole show and I have seen and experienced bands have terrible shows because things were just not right.. to the punter in crowd they wouldn't realise or think there prima donna but there not, when its different it can put bands out ther comfort zone and suddenly they are worrying more about why the stage feels different and sounds different ,than just playting the music and suddenly you have a very pissed off guitarist/singer or someone.. so we check and recheck, luckily on some of the big festivals where we tour a massive truck stage we have the floor all marked or “spiked” with each piece of equipment and even lines for people to stand to correalate with the lighting if needed. Everything goes down exactly as the night before, evenm towels and water, the last thing you wabt is a muso reaching for there beer or water to find its been out on the riser behibnd , I've had people between songs absolutley stress and go off at me for putting it in the wrong place when in fact someones moved it while working and left me to get it in the neck.. not fun.

Also for some shows I will have made up a set of cables or “loom” a certain length so it all fits into place when we have all the gear down and suddenly to be short by 5 feet is an issue. Its mostly important when you have a large band to fit onto stage with a lot of risers, one singer - Dave Dobbyn plays with a 7 piece band and 3 risers on our last tour so we had to make sure it was all laid out right, plus the audio/sound guys usually make up looms of mic cables to fit to the stage plot before th tour so it makes there life easier so if you muck them around again, you won't hear the end of it.

A normal tour day.

Waking up far too early 7-8am mostly. And heading to the venue, for me a day may start helping unpack the truck and getting all my gear out of cases and starting to assemble each persons set of stuff. This is normally all the backline and amps as soon as I am allowed acess to the stage. If there is rigging going on in the ceiling it pays to stay clear benath, but usually lighting is in before I have to be there so there all done and the stage is clear. So I position my risers, measure any distances or set to pre ordained marks on th stage, put amps in ther place and leave the sound guys to mic stuff up, we will usually both be working the stage at the same time as I set they set. If there is a lot of movement and people on the stage I won't lay put my pedals or run my cables until its quieter, the last thing you want is someone or something to drive over your pedal board with the irreplacebale one of akind fuzz pedal or the hot wired vintage coloursound.. guitarists hate broken gear! End of Story!.

Once I feel the stage is secure and safe enough I'll lay out all my pedal boards and check positions of mic stands for each musician, they have to be at the right height even for soundcheck. I'll tighten every bit I can on the mic stand so we don't have the impotent drooping mic stand at any time. Then I'll tape up or fit the pick holders if thats what the guy/girl wants. Each band is different so each has there own unique needs and demands of how stuff should be set. I won't tape down my cables as I'll usually be soundchecking in reverse order, so Headline first then second band then first band or Support band last. So I'll have to shift all this gear at the end of the soundcheck and reset for the next band or there own tech will.

The Soundcheck

But once its all in place and mic'd up I'll start be oin contact with the Front of house engineer and go thru and line check each instrument and mic for the performer I am taking care of, on shows where its just me, thats drums and keys included. So its a simple process of starting at the kick drum and hitting it again and again while the sound guy gets his levels and makes sure all the mics are showing up on his desk in the right order, at this point the monitor guy is also getting his levels and making sure I am getting what I know the artist needs in that monitor wedge or in there in ears if there on those. I have my own set of In -Ear buds I travel with so I always have them for each band that uses in ears so I can have a pack on and know the bands got the mix they want or thibgs are going as they should and liase with the monitor guy for any extra needs or requiremnts . From the kick its to the snare and so on thru the kit. Even tho most FOH- desks are becming more digital and have instant recall it still has to be check and rechecked until there happy. To do this job right It pays to know exactly the level and the way the band plays, hit and sings and screams . That way the FOH guy can set all the levels and not have them peak out when the band starts. So you pick up the techniques of the bands you work with a little, and can emulate the way they may strum there acoutsic or how loud there liable to scream in a certain song. All the time spent getting this right now makes the Linecheck faster and simplier for the band, and also saves any loud unwanted feedback when they start playing something at a differnet volume than you'd been checking.

For the guitar amps, I have them all marked where they need to be set, so each night I can dial them exactly as the show before and also have photos so if I'm to fly to another town with a rental amp I can dial in and get as close to the sound as I need. Tho as valve amps are variable things the exact markings can be differnet each day. So I've resorted to decible meteres and all kinds of ways to measure each amp night after night to check its output. So night after night I can get as close to the same set up as the guitarist needs and as it fits with the songs there playing. There are a few times I will have to turn them down as the guitarists turn themselves up night after night.. guitarists are always wanting more.. and it never makes for a great show. The louder you play the less the FOH guy has to work with and in the end the rest of the band is battleing to be heard over the tower of blaring guitars on the side of the stage..

Next up is the soundcheck with the band if there going to be there, or it may be left to the road crew to check it all out. In the bigger festival situations there are no soundchecks unless your the main headline act sometimes, you get 30 minutes between bands for them to clear the previous bands gear and then get your stuff on stage, into place and all run up. Then I have to try get the right tones out of amps and start getting a good monitor mix or an in ear mix . This is usually in 15-20 minutes. This is where the job gets pressured, any cock ups now or things forgotten or left behind or broken really throws a spanner in the works. To make all the time worthwhile I will normally have my pedal boards all laid out side of stage in order and sitting on top of each amp to roll on and I've taped arrows to the back of each map to show the loaders the stage positon so they can be left to roll the stuff right onot position and check it off against the pre sent stage plot.

Normally these changeovers run short on time so its a pressure situation where you have to keep your head and your cool and keep everyting under control and be aware of everything even outside your job and control in case you have to adjust and re assess your plan..

Once the soundchecs are done you may have time with the artist changing pedal settings or experimenting with new gear or switching stuff round.. or you may get left with a bunch of new pickups or things to fit to guitars for the show. If the bands thoughtful they don't dump a bunch of expectations on you an hour before the show but it happens..

If the soundchecks gone sweet and everyones happy I might have to mark the palcement of gear out on stage if it has to move. We call that Spiking. It just means taking some coloredtape and marking out the corners of amps and mic stands and drum kits , keyboards.. you usually have to move at least your pedal boards from front of stage, I might be lucky and not have to move the complete band gear but some shows you have to strip the whole stage for the support bands. This means a lot of spiking..haha . Once the stage is clear its a case of starting re-strings on guitars or more repairs or cleaning of gear like pedal boards before the show. You usually have time to get this done if youe just looking after one band, but on shows where you have a few bands to take care of you normally have to prioritise the jobs and then set up for the next soundcheck. Then try fit in re strings and repairs and general TLC for gear. Some days you may have so much time on your hands you can clean the gear till it sparkles. Take a toothbrush and polish the amps and cabs inch by inch with cleaner or strip the guitars and polish every part. Or you maye just take the time to hit the hotel and get a nap or food or a swim. Its not slacking off some days you need to leave the work area to go over a hectic show in your head and run and rerun the show in your mind and in a zone your clear headed without people or support bands making noise or lighting guys focusing lights and testing strobes and explosions.

After show show starts and the support bands or other bands play I will be tuning and making sure all guitars and effects are ready for the “change-over” cleaning, stretching strings one last time. And just preparing myself and double checking. I'll have water and setlists to set and towels and any other particular trinkets and toys or backdrops that may need to be set.. each band is different and can need there own special things in place for the show.. Finally I'll get the call to set my bands gear and set the stage ready for the show. There will be a quick line check of all the gear again so the FOH guy is happy that everything is coming up on the right channels and I'm happy all the gear works, all the effects pedals go and everything they play or touch is working as planned. If anything doesn't work right then you have to try fix it or get it as it should be. If all else fails then you have to come up with the back up gear or guitars to get the show on the road.. pedals can somehow go down between soundcheck and show time. They can be temperamental , especially if the gears not been looked after prior to the tour.

If everythings going and the rest of the crew are happy then its time to set the bands water, beers, wine, whatever they want and put up the set lists and towells. I usually use an easy to see big white “X” made of gaffer tape on the floor to mark where tha bands refreshments are so if they are in the dark they can see them . Nothing worse than a band searching for waters that are hidden in the dark or set in a different place than normal. It can interfere with there being in the zone again.

So once there all set its pretty much GO time.. I may have to walk to the band and hand them guitars or a mic, or clip on there wireless units and hand them picks or whatever they need then just wait and give them the call to walk onot the stage, when there intros on or the lights are down.. from there on in the shows started and the job moves into the next mode.

I'll hit that up on the next Blog..

Getting Out ON The Road..

I was fortunate enough to get a chance yesterday , to chat with the great guys on the Six String Bliss Podcast http://www.sixstringbliss.com/

and they asked me about what guitars or amps travel the best? the answer is the ones packed and in the the best cases! Simple as that.. any sturdy and well built guitar and bass is gonna take a hell of a beating in a gig bag or a case thats way, way ,way past its best before date. Even tho I still constantly start tours with guitarists cases with missing latches, missing or loose bottoms barely held together by gaffer tape, or missing handles, people just don't think about it until its too late saddly.

If you try travel with a guitar case with no handle.. make sure you don't see how they throw them on the plane..haha

So I'm gonna try help you out with a few tips to get everything ready to travel with that great piece of musical gear you love and cherish. And heres my disclaimer. I'm a guitar tech, a roadie, so i travel a lot with guitars and see them go on and off planes and in and out trucks and up and down off stages I've covered Hundreds of thousands of miles with guitars , this is ''MY" personal experience and what I've been taught and learnt and found out the hard way. so if you disagree then comment I'm more than glad to hear your view. but its mostly common sense stuff.

1. Check over your gear.

Look over your case. First look at the handle, is it fitting tight at the mounting plates? is it dangling off one clip and about to fail. Remember a drop from waist height is enough mark up a guitar if it hits something hard in a loosely fitting case. or even worse if the guitars being swung up into a van or plane hold and the handle gives way then that guitars going flying... on its own, I have found Show repair stores often do suitcase and general case repairs so these guys can fix simple problems,.

Are the latches working.. a Guitar case held closed with tape is just simply unacceptable! it should have working latches that hold the case closed and rain out and your guitar safe inside. you may scoff but I constantly see missing latches and cases with tape from top to bottom show up first day of tour, a your that will send this guitar half way round the world and back again.. Again check your local shoe repair store for latches and repairs..

Check the framing of the case. is it intact? do the corners all attach to the sides? a guitar in a loosely fitting case will move around inside and after constant pushing against the bottom -body end of a lose case the guitar can break the case suddenly you can have your guitar fall out the case. I have seen it happen and its not something you wanna ever see, haha if the case has loose sides or a loose bottom then its time to invest in a new case if you plan to travel with your guitar, Again you all maybe be laughing at these comments thinking who would even think about traveling with a guitar case that doesn't close, doesn't hold together and is missing a handle.. well I have seen as many cases like this as i have seen decent flight cases.

If you have a rectangle case with the neck support inside then check that is it still held in place securely- meaning it will hold your neck in place? these things are generally held by small pin studs and will come loose over time, you can just re screw these in yourself , but make sure your guitars not in the case when you do this.

If all these things are intact and working then its time to look inside more closely.

lay your guitar case on a nice flat surface and open it and put your guitar inside, with your hand gently try move the guitar inside, if there is a lot of movement inside then thats a fast track to a broken guitar. Remember if your about to travel a thousand miles yourself then that guitars going to travel the same distance and is not built as sturdy as you or I.

If your guitar does have movement in the case even minor, theres is an easy fix. beg, borrow, steal or scrounge some sheet foam.just your average foam and you can take an marker pen and draw the shape you need to fit in the spaces that your guitar is not filling, and then an exact knife or craft knife and cut this out. a little bit of extra foam in a case will prevent the guitar from sliding around inside and hold it safe and snug. I've cut out a complete Les paul style guitar shape from a large section of foam for a case once 7 years ago and that guitar is still traveling the world intact in that snug soft surrounding. It may just be around the headstiock if its on the old tweed style rectangular fender cases or just some more support under your acoustic neck if you have a general acoustic case that wasn't made as an exact fit for your guitar. Also there may be space round the body in the shaped cases and i like to draw the the shape of the case then the guitar body and cut that shape out and fit that inside the large body end and that holds the guitar snug.. If theres only an inch of space around a guitar after constant shaking inside the guitar can take a bunch of knocks it doesn't deserve or worse brake the jack plug plastic if it keeps knocking. and when you place it down the body drops putting more pressure on the neck in the cradle position.

The guitar should be so tightly held within the case that it has no movement.. A few simple pieces of foam can save your guitar years of abuse you never see done to it.!

All that being said, if your serious about traveling with your prized instrument then theres nothing better than a properly made flight case. with alloy corners and proper Penn fabrication Latches. End of story!

But I realize these are out of the average musicians league, money wise as there not cheap, when you think about it as a safety insurance for your prized instrument they do make sense, even if your just traveling to a local jam night. But a good solid case thats as close to the shape of the guitar/bass and has as little room inside for the guitar to get up to mischief inside.

NOW THE GUITAR

Take a minute to look the guar over, closely.... real closely... i mean hold that guitar up to your nose and look at it.. any little ding or crack that could get worse over its travels is best found out now, and fixed or remedied. also you need to check things from the top of the head stock to the bottom. check the machine heads, are they secure and all held in place tight by the right amount of screws? check the actual turning knobs, are they tight and screwed in well. if you lose one of those end knobs on the road, your gonna have to replace the whole machine head with something you'll be lucky to find similar.

Check the string guides , are they intact and screwed in tight. Check the nut, is it glued on still? also is it intact? take a close look. is it chipped or missing that last little bit of nut to hold the high "E" in place.. these things do chip and can be more stress down the track..

Now check the fretboard. is it gunned up and covered in that appetizing black and dark green finger grease and sweat that does clog up the board after long sessions playing..? a little lemon oil oil on an old tooth brush brushed inline with the grain back and forth will shift that crap and re condition your board.. but make sure you mark that tooth brush as a work brush.. I made that mistake once and brushed lemon oil and lord knows what onto my teeth one morning and it ruined my whole day..haha

Dunlop makes a good lemon oil as do most guitar polish companies these days. even if your guitar isn't gunked up it can dry out and the normally dark rose wood or ebony top will take on that light brown grey colour. this is the sign its on its way to drying too much out and starting to show tiny cracks along the grain.. NOT A GOOD THING.. it only takes a few seconds but its worth the care and attention. while you are checking and cleaning the neck check the frets and fret ends, if you run your finger nail along the end of the fretline you can feel any sharp or raised frets. for minor fret issues like the ends lifting. I have a tiny pin hammer that is great to just tap back down the offending fret GENTLY - BUT BE CAREFUL! for anything serious fretwork I suggest you contact your local luthier. like I always say "Don't fret about the frets look to your local Luthier" actually I never say that but it sounds like something i'd like to more often..haha In new zealand I suggest the best gun out there Mr Glyn

http://www.mrglyn.co.nz/

for your local luthier check at your guitar store.

If you play a guitar with a bolt on neck check the screws there are all in place and tight, if its a fixed neck, get down close and make sure there isn't any little cracks starting from the neck joint. you do get finish cracks on the surface but always get a second opinion before you suddenly open your guitar case after a long trip and find its gone "gremlin" on you and turned into two pieces, if you know what i mean. Again if you see any cracks, go see a luthier, I'm not knocking any guys at your local guitar store, but i wouldn't trust the 17 year old metal kid with the ten facial piercings and the Cradle of Filth T shirt to tell me the neck on my 73 les paul is either "totally sweet bro" or "its nothing dude, just a scratch"

Ask the professionals.

Now check the scratchplate screws and pickup surround rings and screws, all this care to detail will pay off in the long run. check the screws holding the height of the pick ups, over time they can just shake loose then suddenly your pickup is dangling inside the cavity and your guitars sounding alike balls. A little trick to keep things in place is to take a little bit of that good old foam again and you can place it under the pickup and it gives some padding in that cavity to stop things shaking around. not to much its pushing back out the pickup but just a little to fill the gap.

Check the bridge and saddles, with the strings out again take your finger nail and and run it down the string groove you will quickly see and tell if there are any Bur's then a little wet and dry sand paper can smooth off any sharp edges that guaranteed will break a string mid song . For some reason, maybe economy the more modern gibson style bridges have been made from worse metal than ever before and I see more modern Les Pauls and such with madly burred saddles than any old 50's-60's style guitars with those bridges.

I have always been a strong believer and personal user of the Graph tech saddles. http://www.graphtech.com/

for constant playing these things will save you pain and grief later on. They make them for every kind of bridge, I even have them on my JAZZMASTER and they rock. It also pays to check the mounting plugs that hold the bridge and tail piece in the body, if they look like there starting to pull out, again call your luthier.

The best thing you can do is build up a good relationship with your local guitar luthier, he can save you money in the long run and at the extreme end completey rebuild your favorite guitar the one night you decide to go a bit "townsend" and smash it thru your guitar cab mid solo.. believe me these guys can work magic! time and time again.

If all these things are in place then lets look at my bugbear when it comes to touring guitars.. The strap buttons.

Ok heres how it goes..

Guitarist buys Gibson les Paul $5000 takes it on tour. Says he doesn't need strap locks as it never falls over. ....

.... One night it does, broken headstock and broken neck.. all for the cost of $20 dollars worth of strap locks..

Not only do guitars fall off straps they can pull the small strap buttons out the guitar. So if your smart, you'll shell out a few bucks for a good set of strap locks, and make sure the strap they are going on is not a worn out piece of old webbing. I was teching for a band last week that had strap locks but they were on a strap that had such a large split in the end hole that it pulled clean off the strap lock still attached to the guitar. So make sure its in great shape as well.

and even if you have strap locks fitted already just take time to check the screws holding them in. if there loose then tighten them, if they've been over tightened and are spinning inside the hole, you can unscrew them and take a matchstick or two and gentley dab a tiny bif of glue on them then tap them back in. i use the little Pin Hammer for this job and it gently gets them down the screw hole . You can then re screw the straplock/button back in. and you'll be set.

the last thing i like to check is the jack. check its securely in place the nuts tight. also if its on a gibson style guitar with a plastic surround check its still all in one piece and not broken. I have found a problem with the plastic surrounds on those guitars, if your a guitar that likes to jump around and swing your axe around, a shrpk knock on the jack end can completely shatter the surround and oust the jack into the guitar. I like to normally replace these with the gibson metal surrounds. its where the tires hit the road- so to speak so its important that its held in place well..

It also pays to check the inside of the jack socket, you can clean the points where it hits the cable male end and a little rub with some fine wet and dry sand paper or a light file can clean off any gunk and grime that does build up on those points over time, you can also look to see its tightly holding the jack enough. they can spring out of shape and over time they won't grip the jack and be loose and start making that crackle noise as it intermittently makes contact as you move around.. so plug it into your amp and gently jiggle the cable and see if its secure and not making any "odd " noises.

Depending on the kind of volume knobs and dials check them out. They may have the allen key or tiny screw told toehold them in place, so take a look and screw them in tight, also check to make sure the actual nut holding the pot under the knob is held in place.. if its loose and the whole thing is spinning not just the knob, then you'll have to gently remove the knob and tighten the nut. DONT TIGHTEN THE NUT WITHOUT HOLDING THE POT FROM BEHIND. or you'll over tighten the nut and actually spin the pot underneath and sheer off all the small delicate wires held to it. so make sure you have one hand round the back, this is easily done if the guitar is on its side edge so you can grab both sides of the pot, or its easier if its all in a complete scratch plate like a strat.

With all these in place and tight check the pots in motion, if the pots are scratchy thru the amp then a little spray with some contact cleaner from your local electronics store will clean them up, if there past saving then once again, go see your luthier. ok, we're almost done.. check all the wires are attached and soldered into place. you;d be surprised at what you find inside a second hand guitar, especially if you know there have been new pick ups fitted. so check them out. you may have never taken a close look and find one pickup wire is just finger wound around a pot.. I've seen that too in my travels.

Now screw the scratch plate back together and tight, or the rear service plate, give your guitar a good clean, and polish and restring it with some nice new strings and a final clean and your ready to take it to the world, or the man... or just your local jam bar.

Your guitar will last you and your next in line a lifetime if its taken care of and looked after, think about the distance it travels with you and remember you get your car serviced every so often so plesase do the same for your guitar/bass its like a physical for your instrument. It will last longer and play better and hold its value better..

and remember if you swap out pickups and strap buttons and machine heads, keep all the original pieces , wrap them really really well and store them in a safe secure box with some bags of Silica gel so if you decide to sell the guitar or retire it off the road you can convert iota back to original spec and get its value back or just return it to its original beauty.. you'll be happy you held onto all the stuff in the long run.

well I think I'll wrap it up on that.. stay tuned for more tips and tricks and I'll write up something from my festival show in Korea this saturday

Gavin

Taking Guitars On Airlines!!! string loosening is dangerous!!

OK, well I've made it my personal Mission to find out all I can for the reasoning behind the supposed benifits of loosening your guitar/ bass strings before boarding a plane.. I never have because I believe reverse tension in the unstrung neck will do just as much damage in the neck.. and I have finally found an expert, a real expert.. the man behind Taylor Guitars, possibley one of the best if not best acoustic manufacturers in the market today..

straight from there website

Many players and repairpersons believe it's best to de-tune a guitar for long-distance flights, due to changes in air pressure and temperature in the baggage compartment. We don't recommend doing so, because if you de-tune a guitar for any length of time, you also have to loosen the truss rod. Otherwise, the neck may develop a back bow, and it could prove difficult to completely correct that. In other words, you actually could do long-term damage to the instrument by loosening the strings and not loosening the truss rod at the same time. On a Taylor or any guitar, it's best to simply leave it as is, even on relatively long flights. " case closed..

I have argued this point for years with musicians that now enough information to be dangerous. and they've gone on and on, and I've let them win, but now I have proof positive,

Its basic Physics.. a guitar neck is a balanced thing.. the string tension works in direct resistance to the wood and Truss rod on the neck they lye upon.

so if you take the tension off the strings the neck is suddenly pulling tension in the other direction which is BAD BAD BAD!!! and will give you a reverse bow. so the best thing you can do is leave your guitar strung as it is and not touch it!

case closed!

Taylor FAQ

MY ZT AMP GRILL MOD>

for all those people wanting to know how to make the new grill mod. heres the link to a doc and pics..

ZT GRILL MOD

Remember, don't open the back of the amp! if your thinking of looking inside.. Don't! if your thinking of taking out the speaker for a quick glimpse .. Don't . its seriously not worth voiding your warranty or possibly the risk of electric shock or death from messing around inside any thing that plugs into a wall. I have been badly shocked by a vox ac30 24 hours after it was unplugged from the wall!

an amp is not a toy! this is just to help you add more grill, not entice you to start touching what you Clearly shouldn't. THIS AMP IS NOT DESIGNED TO BE MODDED LIKE THE VALVE JUNIOR OR SUCH.

The Soul within the wood steel and strings,,

.. So in this rant/blog I'm gonna try explain my love and almost obsession with the guitar as an instrument , a thing of sonic beauty and a hunk of wood at the same time.I'm not even sure I will be able to get what i wanna say about the guitar, out my head onto this page as its a jumbled tangled mess of feelings , emotions and memories, but i'm gonna try. So bear with me.

For a start the guitar defies fashion and style, whilst at the same time keeping its own style that is so timeless - yet it has outlasted so many other mundane things connected with the music its played the soundtrack too.( boy that was a mouthful!)

I once had an argument with my dad when building a table or chest or desk or something out of wood. I wanted to screw some piece of plastic to the side (hey -i was young) and he argued that you couldn't take amazing quality wood and just slam a piece of cheap plastic on top. It just wasn't allowed then or had it ever been allowed.. We argued till out of breath . I couldn't say how or why but i knew I'd seen it done before. We never met in the middle and I can't remember what happened to the table in the end, but later in life I realized whilst staring at a les Paul in some store somewhere in world..The Guitar defies all the rules and doesn't care!

It takes flame tops and solid Mahoganies, Sitka Spruces and rose woods, Maples and Ash and tiger striped Bubingas and Koa's and lays it beside tortoise shell plastics and silver shell, white 3 ply and metallic reds, ivories and black scratch guards and pickguards gracefully surrounding abalone ringed sound holes.

It has mixed the two since its inception and today still does. amazing rare priceless woods and plastic and IT WORKS!! its beautiful. Take a Les Paul and remove the scratch plate and pickup surrounds and it doesn't look like a Les Paul . The Fender Stratocaster with the beautiful sunburst that plays off against the tortoise shell pick guard.. The telecaster blond wood finish, its grain running the length of its body with a big chunk of white 3 ply plastic holding that pickup firmly in place, and no one says a thing.

Its like it snubs its nose at convention and it takes all it needs to make a guitar and make it work, and then it adds the final touch of chrome either in machine heads or humbucker covers.And thats what i love about guitars. there might be a lot of the same looking guitars out there now, a thousand strat or les paul copies, a million super strat pointy shred machines or artisan semiacoustic jazz bodys, but the players that buy adapt to there needs or play them until they are a one of a kind item.

The guitar is the instrument that travels with you. and doesn't leave your side. It grows with you and you learn its idiosyncrasies, the way it might buzz out on the 13fret or the volume pot only works halfway round. or the tuning pegs are so stiff and won't stay in tune. But they're the originals and 40 years old so theres no way your gonna ever replace them,

I don't know if other musicians get so attached to there instruments aside from bass-players. I mean a drummers kit has to work pretty dam perfectly to work at all,or sound good, a piano players piano always has to sound at its peak ultimate best, and most piano players have to leave there piano at home and tour with there electric set up of synths, and controllers and computers. And if that is a little troublesome then it has to be changed out.

But the guitar gets away with being broken and almost torture to play. Cut open fingers on rusty jagged bridges are common, fingers cut on frets lifting from chipped necks and the general lifelong shoulder pain of carrying a guitar on your strap thats in reality too heavy for any length of time. But we do it. We cherish every scar every pain seems well earnt, and we don't love our instruments less when they finish a tour and may have gotten a new battle scar from somewhere on the stage. Some people even pay extra these days for marks and scratches already worn into there guitars.

No matter what brand or model you start with on guitar ,most people I have spoken to have that one guitar or a few guitars in their head they dream of.. its the one they see when they hear that favorite band on the radio or they see the live show and see the instrument slung low , high or in-between on the band that just makes that guitar live up to every reason it was created....... I had mine..

I grew listening to a few bands almost incessantly, The Cure and The Clash. Dinosaur Jr and a singer called Billy Bragg. These are the bands that had guitar tones that just sounded like no other. I mean they probably did, they must have done. But I found there tones. I clutched these bands tightly as my own. And took delight sharing there recordings with my best friend in regular late night pool and beer sessions.

The way you could put onThe Cures " Faith " or " The Head On The Door" and sit there with the lights almost out and just hear that guitar of Robert Smiths chime out thru the speakers. That sublime mix of jazzmaster and Roland Jazz chorus , the use mix of delay and flanger, but mostly that tone.Chiming and glistening in its sonic sheen. It was haunting and just made their music what it was. It was sterile and maybe piercing at times but so were the songs, I can't imagine those old songs played with a different guitar players tone. It just wouldn't work.It just wouldn't !

And J Mascis who was my first real Guitar "solo" player i didn't think was overkill or pretensious. His band Dinosaur Jr helped were layered withfuzz and distortion at excessive volumes (such a high). Watching him standing in front of towering Marshall stacks on full volume and getting the best feedback still to this day,just sublime .

All out the same guitar that had helped Robert Smith cut his heart and let those songs cry out. it was amazing to have both bands in my head when I look at that guitar, the way it is so perfect for that haunting saddening songs at the same time made it a fuzz legend when you just dared to push the dial up not just a little but all the way on your amp. In some kind of irony Dinoasuar Jr even came to cover "Just Like Heaven" a Cure great! and you could never say they sound the same..haha

The clash, a rock and roll reggae mix up gone right.. grating stabbing guitars, Mick Jones and Joe Strummer beating there guitars into submission .The sound of the Les Paul Junior and most of all its P90 pickup cutting thru the white noise and drum rumble. Tho mick jones went on to play es 175's and les pauls standards he always had and still has a les paul junior somewhere near by- with its p90 ready to break free from its chain and bite some young child. ..and it bite me.. I wanted to get that tone.

I tried so many guitars I thought in my head could surely emulate it, and pedal after pedal.. I approached Micks tone like it was distortion based, clipping red hot over drive pedals mashing tones .. I mean every where i read that the Les paul Juniors were the cheap walmart of the Gibson family.

They were the cheaply made and barely outfitted guitar for the starter market, the student.. but on a magical day back in my teenage years i happened to have a 1959 red les paul Junior in my hands. (I wish to this day i had found the cash to buy it, sadly i didn't) I took the guitar and set up the same pedal i was using at home and plugged into a fender twin and before i turned the pedal on or dialed in the amp, I hit a chord and dam it if i didn't almost tremble with a feeling that is impossible to describe here. It was orgasmic maybe. It was like heaven opened and i heard its harps. this guitar snarled. You hit this thing and it snarled back. It was mid rangy and a little ragged.. it was red-hot and pushed the amp into that dirty stage and had such attack.. it was mick jones and billy bragg rolled into one. It was revolution and anarchy ,and the instrument you knew you could wave whatever flag you marched under from, pinned to its head stock..

The neck was heavy and thick, like a slab of hard wood so you really had to grab this thing. It wasn't dainty and it certainly wasn't one of this paper thin shred necks. You had to grab this guitar and grab it hard. You had to almost re learn to fret notes with your left hand . This guitar was like a freshly broken wild horse you had to show respect to.If you got lazy then this guitar would buck you and make you look a fool, but if you held on tight you could make this thing your own and then ride it to god knows where.

If you've ever played a real old Les Paul Junior you'll know what I mean. Its such a simple guitar, its basically the bare essentials, one pickup, a simple one ply pickguard, the amazing neck that finishes where it joins the body and 3 aside on a tree Klusons with old faded ivory tuning heads. but thats all you needed, not a amp with 3 gain stages or an array of pedals. just this rock and roll machine and a cable.

Billy Bragg played his thru an old roland cube and it still snarled and wailed, I watched him play to a mesmerized packed town hall with just his guitar and amp. And he made it really push your heart back in your chest and gasp for breath. Mick jones played his thru old mesa mark 1s and fenders but its that guitar that was the sound.

Then as I grew and I heard these indy bands that had all taken to the big gretsch hollow bodies and guitarists like Billy Duffy with his White falcon the guitar that was the most expensive in its day ( tho i heard it was the white penguin that was most expensive to be honest) and The strays cats, leading to find Bo Diddley and the rockabilly guys. Gretschs were there with that other tone on the frequency chart and a guitar that looked more like something more from the Cadillac line than a guitar shop. Big and shiny in all the right places, Filtertron pickups with there unique shape and look and DeArmond single coils with there distinctive logo ablaze over the front.. Grover Imperial tuning keys sparkling off that massive headstock that held a name that was synonymous with class.

If the snotty nosed street urchin played the Les Paul Junior then the aristocrat owned the Grestch. Tho over time I've seen some pretty angry bands play some pretty cool Gretschs.. Jesus and the Mary Chain being one,. Gretsch had an air of quality and were the kind of guitars that people always talked of saying.. "One day I'd love to own a Gretsch"

Whether it was the Tenneseen, or the Chet Atkins, the gretsch white falcon or Anniversary they all had that grestch twang.. heavily used amongst the country and rockabilly scene they still are the mainstay of Punk rock overlord Tim Armstrong, from Transplants and of course Rancid, he plays a right handed Country club, flipped over and played left handed, once natural wood colour now painted matt black its a beast of a guitar and it fires on all cylinders in his hands.

All this rant and emotion is all because of simple pieces of inanimate wood with a spool of wire round some metal and magnets, that without a cable and amp make no noise worth writing about.. but in the hands of their players ,those players express, sing and scream and shout down those wires and magnets. There internal voice screams down that cable and comes wailing out those speakers and hits you.... well it hits me.

I have never considered myself a great player.. certainly after the length of time i have been playing the damned instrument. maybe because in the times I was playing in bands more. I never owned the instruments my heart had really connected with. I had gone thru,Hamers, Westones, Corts, Emperadors, Diplomats and Diamonds, Ibanezs and Segovias, probably the odd Vester and Samick, all great guitars ...well not all great , in fact mostly average.. in fact some were just horrible. But i strapped each one on and plugged into whatever amp i had and just really went nowhere with my tone.

I didn't make the same tones that i had heard in my head, flowing out the headphones of my walkman or ebbing and pouring like mercury thru the night air from my boombox on my bedside table.These guitars were just guitars, and because of this fact i went thru them like boxer shorts.

It was only thru the magic of time that I finally got to live out my dreams or at least try attain a foot hold and own the instruments that I still listened to.

I had searched guitar stores across the staes for an olympic and tortoise shell Jazzmaster but had no luck , then most strangely I flew home and upon my first visit back to Bungalow Bills ( the shop i first worked in) there it was hanging on his wall.

I finally bought a Grestch. (A sadder tale) but upon my fathers death , with the money he left to me I sat for a while trying to figure out what to buy with it. I wanted something to remember him by and to keep him with me and it certainly wasn't mag wheels or a big screen tv, then i realized i could finally get that Gretsch i was always after, and I was lucky enough to find a respected dealer online in new York and took a punt on a guitar I'd never seen in the flesh let alone play.. and Its nothing short of an outstanding amazing guitar, even friends that have Grestch guitars comment on the natural sustain and tone and feel of the neck. All of this on top of the special place it has in my heart and my life as a living memory to my dad.

And i finally had to get the closest thing i could afford and find to that 1958 Les Paul Junior from my youth and my memory. These days a real 58 Les Paul Junior can fetch up to $10,000 dollars US. Its way way out my league. But I found Phil at Precision Guitar Kits online and bought the neck and body to assemble my own 58-59 Les Paul Junior. Cherry red with the closest pickup I can find to that old guitar, a seymour duncan Antiquity P90 and a fat fat baseball bat neck... This guitar has that snarl that you can't do much else with, but rock out.. Its Mick Jones and Billy Bragg in my hands. Its the like sound that you always remember if you've ever been in a car accident .... Its scary and almost violent... its a bulldog on a weak chain, you hope you can just hold onto it long enough before the chain breaks and your amp overloads into feedback at the show.. ITS HEAVEN!!! :)

And now i can get those tones out of my head into my cable and thru my speakers.. even tho i might not be playing with anyone else I can head to my workshop and plug in my jazzmaster and chuck on some Cure Album or even just start some drum loop or home recorded track and let the guitar do the talking as they say.. its subtle soliloquy filling the silence...layers of lush delayed strings falling upon one another and slipping echoing into the darkness ,like voices from a passing couple disappearing down the dark street behind you.

Or I plug in my Les Paul Junior and push myself to keep my rhythm hand in its gallop strum, palm muted and locked down. Pulling down so hard on the strings I fear my fingertips to split wide open around the strings. The grit and grunt from the slab of now chipped and scratched wood and the overdrive that just doesn't let up, every gap in strumming lets in the unescapable 60 cycle hum you just gotta put up with with P90's and when you finally out the guitar to bed you feel like you've just ran a marathon and had a full workout and your arms feel sore , and your hands feel like a guitarists should.

Or I plug in my Grestch and the beautiful mellow well rounded notes sparkle into life. big open ringing chords all breezy and breathy. that mid rangy top rolled off single notes, or the jazz box bottom end when you switch all the tops off and lay down some fat groove... nothing else sounds like it.

Again all these tones, memories, songs and moments created by a piece of wood with a piece of plastic stuck to it. Its so simple in construction really, they got it right so much the first time, the electric guitar hasn't really changed since. Sure they might be making carbon fibre or graphite guitars these days. They might have new space age magnets or robotic tuning heads.. but that unchangeable scale length neck be it 24.75 or 25.5 its steel strings and a pickup.. (and no the variax doesn't count, cos that just computer chips trying to sound like a pickup. ) sometimes a volume knob, sometimes just bare holes where the knob once sat. Its those things coming together in unison at the hands of musical genius or a kid straight off the streets with the notes written on the fret board or guitar neck. The sum of those parts have helped mould our lives with there music, they certainly moulded mine.

Some of use were so moved, to try make history of our own with these parts. I tried.. and left the odd track from the various bands i played in. But nothing that will inspire the next generation sadly.. well not yet. But I am still moved when i see these guitars, and I don't think everyone could know that feeling aside from other guitarists, why we love such pieces of trash and treasure.They don't have engines, or come from artisan builders all the time, there not always finely tuned but when we own them they become so much a part of us. And in some ways we are joined even if by the 7th degree to the Robert Smiths and J Mascis and Mick Jones and Billy Braggs.. we are a little closer than the other guy on the bus. We are connected by the way that there was a first day they bought those guitars ,or they came into their hands. And they first played them and they realized that day they had found the "one" that very special "one".

Gavin