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…

Today is the 140th anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi‘s birthday.
I say it every year, but it is always sincere:
I post this with reverence and profound gratitude.

That’s right! After skipping it last year the party is back on! Saturday October 3rd! See you there!

Ha! It was Los Straitjackets back at Slim’s in San Francisco.

Kristen and I hooked up with James and Mark for food, drinks and one of our favorite bands. This time it was pure Straitjackets…. the boys weren’t touring with any guest vocalists or burlesque dancers. Yet, they still rocked the house with their instrumental rock and roll pulling from surf, blues, rockabilly, spy among their various influences.

After their set, Southern Culture on the Skids took the stage and rocked! I’d never seen them live before and was quite impressed. Also during the Southern Culture set Los Straitjackets guitarist Daddy-O Grande was walking through the bar – still wearing his Mexican wrestling mask and suit. I got to shake his hand! Check out both bands if you have the chance to see them. Hopefully Los Straitjackets will be back again soon.