About, bloody, time.

In my alter-ego persona as a mild-mannered, guitar-repair guy, about half of the times I get a call about a Jaguar, it’s someone with a stock model asking about modding it to make it all Cobainy.

Well now, they don’t need to. Fender have gone and done it already.

The Kurt Cobain signature Jaguar is a replica of the ’65 Jag that Cobain played with Nirvana. It’s been reliced too, to capture some of the original’s vibe.

As you’d expect, it’s got a pair of DiMarzio humbuckers shoved in there, with a three-way, Gibson-style toggle to select them. The Gibson vibe of Cobain’s Fender is continued with the tun-o-matic style bridge. Three chrome-dome knobs take care of volume and tone (individual volume for each pickup). Incidentally, the Rhythm Circuit works as normal if you’re a fan of such things.

The rosewood fingerboard is bound and, at the end of the neck, a Strat headstock with a spaghetti logo is loaded with Gotoh tuners.

This appears to be a pretty tasty guitar and the ageing/wear has been nicely handled (something that isn’t the case across the Fender range in my opinion).

It’s pitched at a MSRP of $1,850 (US) but you’ll likely find it for a better price than that.

As I read the release information, part of me was hoping that Fender, in an attack of vicious irony would only offer it in right-handed but it’s available for lefties too. I’m a little disappointed.

More at Fender.

Oh, and if you’ve got a stock model Jag, I can probably mod it for less than $1850. A bit less, anyway.

What the…? What’s going on here? It’s a guitar. Sort of. It’s all futuristic and stuff. It’s got backwards bits. I mean… What?

Say hello to the Jasperbridge Percussion Guitar. It’s the brainchild of Tom Shaper (guitarist and inventor). The strings are on BOTH sides.

What?

Yeah. So the strings head down the neck as usual and then make their way through a tunnel of sorts before appearing at the (offset) rear of the guitar.

Why?

Good question. Shaper says that it’s to allow you to play guitar with a drumstick or similar. You fret chords in (approximately) the same way as you normally would but you’ve got the strings facing you at the bridge end so you can bang them with stuff. This design means it’s necessary to mount the Jasperbridge on a stand before you can play.

Shaper reminds us that a number of famous guitarists have played guitars with drumsticks—he names Buddy Guy and John Mayer—and he reckons that his guitar can open a new world of percussive guitar music.

I’ve seen Buddy Guy play his regular Strat with a drumstick on a few occasions (live) and it was pretty cool. Thing is, he did a fine job of it on that regular Strat. So fine, that I’m not immediately sure of the point of the Jasperbridge.

I can see how you’d get a different ‘feel’ by striking the strings back there and it might feel more natural to a drummer. From a guitarist’s point of view though, the left-hand position appears unnaturally ‘curled’ back and looks awkward. Perhaps in reality, it’s all fine and natural but I tried experimenting by tilting my own guitar into that position and it felt uncomfortable.

Maybe that’s just me, though, and if this floats your boat, you can buy a Jasperbridge from their site. They’re currently listed at US$525.

What do you reckon? Innovative genius or answer to question only one guy asked?

New track from Radiohead’s upcoming appearance on From The Basement.

I went off Radiohead for a while. What to you think of this one though—good ‘Head or bad ‘Head?

Here’s one to split opinions and have guitarists arguing over their beer for a while. The Big G has reintroduced the RD Standard, a guitar originally offered back in the late ’70s.

First beer-argument point: the looks. Personally, I love how this thing looks but I can definitely see how there are some that might not. Does that make me right and them wrong? Probably, but if it’s your round, I’m prepared to enter into debate.

Second beer-argument point: the specs. Gibson have released the RD Standard in typical Gibson dress. It’s made from mahogany (body and neck) and it’s got the usual, 24 ¾ inch scale length. So far, so Gibson. There’s nothing wrong with any of these things but when you consider that the original RD was offered with a maple body and neck and with a (Fender-style) 25 ½ inch scale length, the decision to pass these up on the reissue seems a bit unimaginative.  If memory serves, the ’70s RD also had a chamfered top—it was bevelled back towards the edge a little—and these appear to be slab-bodies.

A maple guitar with a longer scale-length is very non-Gibson and gives a very different sound, focus and playing feel. I’d love to have seen Gibson shake things up a bit with the RD Standard and go back to its original specs. The Dusk Tiger and Firebird X prove that the boys and girls at Gibson aren’t afraid to step outside tradition. Of course, from a tooling and logistical perspective, it makes financial sense to stick to typical Gibson specs for the RD but, personally, I think they missed a trick with this one.

It does still look cool though. And it’s your round.

Joe Bonamassa is a man close to my heart. Not only is he an incredibly talented guitarist; not only is he working tirelessly to deliver some great blues and rock; not only is he a total guitar-geek but he was also the guy I presented with the first of my Haze BC-1 model guitars (yes, I do have to work it in to every conversation).  Top it all off with the fact that he’s a genuinely nice guy and you’ve got the total package.

And, speaking of total packages, Joe has quite a package of signature Les Pauls across the Gibson range. The one that started things off is the Rolls Royce, Gibson Custom Joe Bonamassa Les Paul model. This is a beauty, but one that requires deeper pockets than many of us have.

This was followed by a signature Les Paul from Epiphone that brought things into the price realm of mortals (and included a pair of Burstbucker pickups—nice).

More recently, we’ve seen the, very snazzy, Joe Bonamassa Les Paul Studio which gets you Gibson on the headstock without having to save up quite so much money as the Custom. I’ll be honest, I’m lusting after this model quite a bit. Not sure why I’d have such a thing for this one rather than the Custom but there it is. Perhaps the fact that it’s something I could realistically afford is what’s doing it.

So then, with such a selection of signature models to choose from, what’s a Joe fan to do? How do they sound in comparison to each other? Can’t somebody, somewhere help?

As it turns out, Joe himself can help. Sweet.

Found this on Guitarist Magazine’s YouTube Channel

Yes, yes, it’s me. I’m blowing the dust off the old blog and getting things moving again. I have a new broom and I intend to get this cobwebby place ship-shape once more. I will not stop mixing metaphors until it’s done.

So, I know things have been a bit—ahem—slack around here for a while. I could make excuses about dogs eating my homework or my spiralling despair at not being an internet millionaire quickly enough but you don’t want to hear that.

Nope, what you want is guitar geekery.

And that’s what you’ll get.

I’m back on the horse with a slightly more relaxed attitude to stuff. I’m not going to beat myself up trying to get X number of posts a week. Instead, I’ll post on stuff that genuinely interests me and that I hope will interest you. I’ll give you my opinion on stuff (won’t that be riveting) and will pass on information and photos on some of the jobs that have come through the workshop.

Hopefully, there are still a few people with the Guitarless feed lurking in their RSS-readers. If so, sorry for the absence and I hope you’ll stick around/tell your friends/send money to make me an internet millionaire.

Thanks guys.

You will, I’m sure have seen the Joe Bonamassa Les Paul from gibson. Quite nice, isn’t it? It’s also quite expensive.

But now, you can get the Joe Bonamassa experience from Epiphone. And it looks like it’s a well considered experience.

Based on the ’59 Les Paul, this Epi is constructed in the same manner. Solid mahogany and maple body with a long-tenon, glue in neck. Nice. It’s got the 50′s profile neck for Joe-friendly chunkiness.

Importantly, and very nicely, this Epiphone comes loaded with two Burstbucker pickups – a BB-2 at the neck and a BB-3 at the bridge. That’s a pretty snazzy touch at this price-range.

Like its Gibson stablemate, the Epi sports a goldtop with black pickguard and pickup mounts. Some don’t care for the black with the gold, but I quite like it. The rear of the body and neck is also black and it has the mismatched control knobs of Bonamassa’s own. Everything else is pretty much as you’d expect.

No mention of pricing on Epiphone’s or Bonamassa’s sites but I’ve spotted this online for US$699. It comes with a Lifton-style hard case and a COA signed by Joe. It’s also limited to 1000 units so, if you like the look of it, you should get a move on.

More at Epiphone.

I don’t know why I think this is really cool. Perhaps it’s the geek in me getting impressed at what the guys in Fender’s R&D department have engineered here.

What they’ve done is to take a solid block of Lucite and hack it into the shape of an Esquire. That’s nothing too unusual. However, they also hollowed out the body to enable it be filled with water.

You see, this guitar is a being auctioned to benefit NASH₂O, a charity helping out after the Nashville floods earlier this year. You’ve probably seen images of some of the guitar-related damage caused by the floods and that’s the least of people’s problems.

Fender built this crazy Esquire to aid the cause. And, to remind of the reasons behind its existence, this guitar is filled with flood-water. Yep, the water was taken from the Cumberland river and from a long-dry, farm pond that was filled by the flood. Bottles of it were shipped to Fender California and it was used to fill the hollow space in this guitar.

And I can’t help thinking it’s cool. Possibly, there are those who will scratch their heads but I like it. I even like the way there’s a ‘gap’ to allow the water slosh around. Nice.

I can’t afford it, unfortunately but perhaps one of you reading this will. Bidding starts at US$5,000 over at the NASH2O site.

There’s no doubt that this is something unique and I’d imagine it’s going to be quite a collector’s item. Just make sure you’ve a good case – it’s bound to stink if it breaks.

You know what’s cool? A job where you repair and make guitars for a living. That’s pretty cool.

You know what’s even cooler? Getting to see and hear Joe Bonamassa play a guitar you’ve made. To be honest, it doesn’t come much cooler than that.

Or much more scary.

Last week, I met Joe Bonamassa before his show and presented him with his very own Haze Guitars instrument, hand-made by my good self. It was nerve-wracking to say the least but it all went rather well and I think Joe was happy with the latest addition to his guitar harem.

Given that I had a free-reign with this guitar, I decided to try think differently. My thinking is that Joe isn’t exactly short of guitars and so this instrument needed to be something a little bit more unconventional. To that end, I eschewed the lavish and sumptuous type of thing and made Joe quite a workmanlike guitar and – I think – one that many might not associate with him.  Effectively I decided to try stand out by virtue of leaving out any fanciness.  If I’m completely honest, the fact that I had a limited amount of time to complete this guitar played a part in this decision but, like I say, Joe’s already got plenty of solid gold axes with platinum hardware and strings woven from the hair of beautiful virgins. This is a no-muss-no-fuss guitar.  A slab body and a single pickup – back to basics.

The body is ash (and a good solid example of it). The body-shape inspiration is relatively easy to spot but the actual size of the body is smaller than a Telecaster and the lines are altered – the waist is narrower and the horn and upper bout lines are different. A black-white-black pickguard holds the volume and tone controls – chicken head knobs for each, in keeping with the no-frills approach.

The guitar is fitted with a wraparound Tun-O-Matic style bridge which gives great coupling and sound transfer. This does require that the neck, which is a bolt-on in the usual fashion, be installed at a bit of an angle – coming back towards the player in a comfortable, Gibson style.

This guitar’s neck is maple and the fingerboard rosewood, installed with 21 wide/high frets and a bone nut. The neck itself is chunky – Joe likes a handful – although it’s carved slightly asymmetrically with more of a curve along the treble side. This makes it feel like it has a little less bulk than it actually has. Action is left slightly on the high side, again to suit Joe – he told me he likes a guitar to fight him – and it’s strung with 11-52 gauge strings.

The noise comes courtesy of a single Duesenberg Domino pickup. This is where things move in a slightly divergent direction. The Domino is Duesenberg’s attempt to shoehorn a P-90 pickup into a humbucker-sized housing. It looks fantastic; all chrome and black and it sounds really fantastic. It’s not quite a P-90 (it gets a lot of the way there) but it has an amazing tone all of its own. It’s raw and powerful without being shrill or getting too messy. I love the wonderful noise it makes and Joe (thankfully) seemed to be quite taken with it too.

There’s quite a bit more sustain in this guitar than you’d normally expect from a T-type instrument and, even acoustically, this guitar rings quite nicely and cleanly. Powered up, the Domino keeps things from getting too glassy, filling out the sound but still keeping an edge in the highs. The tone is quite full but there’s plenty of definition and always a slight hint of raggedness. Personally, I love it and may well have to build one for myself too.

Joe’s got a great ear by the way and is very knowledgeable about guitars. He spotted little things right off the bat and we were able to chat about the impact they had on the ultimate sound of the guitar. Joe played for quite a while before his manager reminded him he needed to get some dinner before the show. I’d have happily sat and listened to him for hours.

All in all, I’m pretty damned happy with how presenting Joe with an instrument made by Haze Guitars went. Joe genuinely seemed to like the guitar (and I really hope he did) and said a lot of nice things. He was also really generous about letting me snap gushing, fanboy, photos as he played. Custom guitars aside, it was great to just hang out with Joe and have a chat about music, guitars, touring, fish and chips, etc.

Yeah, we really did talk about fish and chips. Random, eh?

It’s amazing to know that this guitar, made by me, has joined Joe Bonamassa’s stable.  I realise that’s a big stable but even thinking that he might pick it up every now and then, just for a noodle about, is a great feeling.  Anything more than that would be a crazy bonus but just thinking that’s enough.  More than enough.

Thanks, Joe.

This article was brought to you by Gerry Hayes from the workshop of Haze Guitars. Haze Guitars provides custom instruments as well as instrument repair, restoration and upgrade services in Dublin, Ireland.

Wonder how long I can get away with those cheeky titles.

Anyway, a little while back, we let you know about Taylor Guitars offering a 0% interest financing offer on selected instruments. Taylor have announced that they will extend this offer until the end of the year. So, if you’re considering treating someone special to a special Christmas gift or, if you’re considering treating yourself (who’s more special, after all?) to a spanking new Taylor, you might be able to organise a 12-month purchase plan at zero percent interest. Not too bad.

The offer covers snazzy new instruments from the ranges below.

• 500 Series/Acoustic 5 Series and up
• T5 Standard and Custom
• T3 models
• All SolidBody models

Terms and conditions apply, blah, blah, blah, can’t be a total deadbeat, blah, blah. Talk to your friendly neighbourhood Authorised Taylor Dealer for details. More at Taylor.