I wanted to introduce you to the newest member of my arsenal:  My Res-O-Glas Valco Airline “JB Hutto” reproduction.  It’s angular futuristic appearance led to some players calling it the Jetsons guitar! (continue reading…)

My Guitars (from left to right):

1. Agile Valkyrie (Gibson SG copy)
2. Agile AL-3000 “Rootbeer” (Gibson Les Paul copy)
3. Res-O-Glas Valco reproduction (custom built)
4. 2000 Gretsch 6120- Brian Setzer Signature model (1st edition)
5. 1994 Fender ’62 Reissue Stratocaster
6. 2007 SX-SJM 62

James Hetfield and the wall of green flames! *photo from Metallica's Facebook.

Last night Kristen came along with me to San Jose’s HP Pavillion, also known as the Shark Tank to see Metallica’s final show of the year. (continue reading…)

It was a cold Wednesday night in San Francisco… but that’s ok because The Donnas came back to warm us up with some hard and loud rock and roll!
Everytime they return to SF, I’m usually there in the audience to cheer them on. Drummer, Torry Castellano didn’t play that night. Instead she was replaced with the kick-ass Amy Cesari. I found out later on wikipedia that Torry had injured her shoulder. I hope she recovers soon!

Thanks to Alan, Keith, Michael, Mark and Larry for coming out to the show with me!

Behold! This is the humble beginning of my next guitar. (Guitar number 6 for those keeping score.) I’m taking to “Doc” Keith Holland at the Guitar Hospital tomorrow.

Some details:
Body: Res-O-Glas fiberglass in the Valco Supro Airline style by Guitar Kits USA
Neck: Eastwood Guitars Airline reproduction
Pickups: 2 GFS Humbuckers from Guitar Fetish dot com

This axe is going to be a serious Rock ‘n Roll machine! I’m going for a modern minimalist look with only 2 knobs (volume) and a 3-way pickup selector.
Though I’m doing a modern take on this vintage design in general, I’m opting for a retro Bigsby-style tremolo system. On the electronics side of things, I’m skipping tone knobs entirely. More importantly I’m getting these humbucker pickups coil-tapped. I’ll have a wider spectrum of sounds available as I can switch from single-coil to double-coil pickup sounds on a whim.

Here’s a preview of I want this guitar to be:

Stay tuned for progress on this project…