Local Flavor: Store Candids


Last Saturday my friend Reese came in and we assembled this partscaster Strat for him while doing minor work for other folks all day long. I think it was fun for him to see the birthing process. We had a few minor bumps along the way but the job was mostly smooth and boy does it sound good. It can't be helped with three Lollar pickups under the hood, though, you know.

Also: there's so much gear around here nowadays! I'm pretty-much bathing in consignment guitars of all stripes. I'd sold a whole ton of them last month but then another deluge dropped-in by way of lots of gear needing just a little bit to get them going and ready for sale.


Need a 12-string? There's six nice ones around -- two old '60s Harmony birch 000s, a '66 Fender Villager, '78 Giannini Craviola, that '66 Rickenbacker 12, and a newer Taylor T5-12. All are gems in their own ways.


Or -- possibly -- you need a boutique F-style electric? There's a Waterslide Jazzmaster-style up there, a Suhr Tele, Anderson Tele, and a fancy Fender Tele with a Bigsby as well. It's a good time to stop-in to compare and contrast the plusses and minuses of new builds -- it's not often I have this type of kit around all at the same time.


Here's a candid of Mike Brown, Rick Redington, and I a few weeks back. Rick keeps teasing me that he's going to be my door greeter one day. Maybe!


Here, Rick & Mike come to some terms of understanding about who will achieve financial victory over my buddy Michael's Gibson Style O -- currently getting clamped-up in the back at the moment.

Finally, here's a solid state Gretsch Rogue amp from '66 that Rick got from me before I could even take photos and post it. It's a pretty killer amp now that I've gone-through it (3-prong, fully-grounded-chassis, cleaning, etc.) with an interestingly-compressed, aggressive, but clean sound.

It has onboard trem and long spring reverb. What!? Yes, good stuff. It's one of the few solid state amps from that era that I truly like the sound of. It's very useful and musical instead of just flat-sounding.

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