Last weekend we headed down to Anaheim, CA to attend Deke Dickerson’s 9th annual Guitar Geek Festival. As usual, he did not disappoint. Besides a top notch group of pickers over two evenings, Deke’s insane collection of rare, valuable and wacky guitars grows more interesting every year. My favorite this year was definitely his Bigsby from 1956 pictured below.

Deke also showed a beautiful collection of relatively unknown “Harvey” guitars made by an incredible craftsman, Jim Harvey.  The Harvey  mandolin pictured below, made in 1952 for Scotty Broyles, features a five pole piece Bigsby pickup. Scotty himself, along with Jim Harvey’s son Howard, were there to play in the “All Harvey Band” where seven guys each played a Harvey made instrument.

Having just made a pick guard for Deke’s tele, we set up a small display to show the guitar geeks in attendance a sampling of what we can do for them as well.

Below are a few various shots of the event and the guitar museum, including an amazing steel guitar collection.

Have fun and take care! We’ll see you back here in the New Year!

This was a project that I did a few years back, nine to be exact, that took more time than money. I saw a picture of Walt Rose’s ’27 T roadster in the book “The American Hot Rod” when it came out. I knew that I wanted something similar for my roadster pickup. The foundry patterns were made using 1’’ thick poplar, polyester body filler, and 3/8’’ aluminum plate.

I made the posts longer than needed and cut them down a ½’’ to ¼’’ at a time until I was happy with how it looked. Here’s some photos of the process.

I came across this article in the L.A. Times a few weeks ago.  This scene was taking place in the area of Southern, CA where I grew up. Unfortunately I was born just as all of this musical greatness had come to a screeching halt. The musicians and guitar pickers that were playing at this time are still influencing  my playing today. I also like Rose Lee Maphis’s quote ”I’m glad we were part of the business at that time, because back then, the business belonged to the entertainers” Enjoy…

This band is heading to England to play the 15th annual Rockabilly Rave. I was fortunate enough to play guitar with Big Sandy and The Fly Rite Trio for five years from the late 80′s to early 90′s. The band consisted of Robert Williams, aka “Big Sandy”, Wally Hersom on bass, Bobby Trimble on drums and myself. In a short period, we played full time in clubs up and down the West Coast and throughout Europe. We recorded two albums, “Fly Rite with …Big Sandy and the Fly-Rite Trio” which includes this song, and a second album, “on the GO“.  In looking for photos of the band for the current Rave promotional Flyer, I came across these pictures taken over twenty years ago.

Since I rarely play live anymore, I have to ease up with the work in my shop to give my hands a rest in order to get in shape for the Rave. I have always played on a daily basis, still love to record and teach whenever I can.

Robert successfully carried on after this band with Big Sandy and his fly-rite boys, Wally has an amazing recording studio in Pasadena and plays in various bands around L.A., and Bobby, one of my favorite drummers, lives in Austin. Seems like every time I hear a recording come out of Austin that I like, Bobby’s usually playing drums on it.

For the last few years I’ve been waiting for the right model B engine for my roadster pickup to come along. The few I’ve gotten close to have either been beyond my budget or I’ve been way to late. So last week this one came my way and I bought it! It was taken out of a ’29 model ‘A’ pickup that was being put back to stock specifications back in 1981 and has been in storage ever since.  The Model ‘B’ engine was an improved version of the model ‘A’.  It’s stronger and more powerful, so it was sought after by racers and hot rodders.  It first came out in 1932 and they’re getting harder to find.  It came with a ’32 gearbox that will be an improvement over my model ‘A’ gearbox.

Also last month, I finally had a chance to make a 3-piece hood for my roadster. It’s made of 18 gauge steel.  I formed the top over a piece of 4’’ pipe that was fastened to a sawhorse. I modified a pair of vice grips to form the bead along the back of the hood. A friend in Riverside punched the louvers for me.

I should also say RIP to the great George Shearing whom we lost last month. I listen to his early trio and quintet on an almost daily basis.

The photo is of TK’s great-grandfather at the “Holiday Inn” on his way to California in 1953. He made the trip West with his son Denny in his new 1953 Buick which we found many years later for sale at the Long Beach car swap meet. It’s a strange miracle that we now have that car! We have a busy few weeks coming up but wanted to wish everyone Happy Holiday’s and Strange Miracles to all! Check back soon for photos of current projects.

I normally don’t like car shows, but when we heard that the folks at The Jalopy Journal were putting on a show at the historic Austin Seaholm Powerplant with no more than 100 pre-1948 cars, we had to go. To enter the show, the cars had to be originally built back in the day, or built traditionally like they were in the 1940′s 50′s or 60′s.

The Hot Rod Revolution was held on Nov. 20th and was well worth the long haul with my roadster pickup from California to Austin. Most of the shows I’ve been to only have a small percentage of cars that interest me, but at the Revolution every car was a perfect example of the early days of car customizing and hot rod building. It turned out to be a great group of people, cars, music and food. The city of Austin was a great backdrop to my favorite car show yet and seeing friends while there made the weekend even better. Below are pictures of a few of the cars. To see even more photos of the show and other pics of the weekend you can click here.

TK is sooo close to finishing the roadster pickup that he has been building in his free time for more than ten years.We picked the car up from the upholsterer this morning. Mike Peterson of Peterson Upholstery executed a beautiful chocolate brown 2″ tuck n roll on the interior sides, back and seat cushions. We were so inspired on the way home that we stopped in at the Frank Lloyd Wright and Lloyd Wright designed Joshua Tree Retreat center to snap some photos.

TK made these steps for his Roadster Pickup that he has been building for many years. These are one of the final few details. He made the brackets from 1/2″ steel and foundry pattern of MDF with lettering cut out of acrylic. Last weekend, TK was able to start up the roaster for the first time! It’s been a long time coming but this project is almost complete. See a history of the build .