After 9 days straight of moving my Shop from one location to our new location, it made me very happy this morning to receive this clip from Joao. Now that the move is almost over, it’s extremely motivating for me to get back to work when players of such a high caliber enjoy using my pickups. Thanks Joao! You made my day.

If you haven’t seen Pat’s new music video, it’s really good. Check it out.

Anyone that has talked guitar  with me knows what a huge Charlie Christian fan I am, but the motivation to play music this month is by two horn players, Buck Clayton and Lester Young with their back-to-back solos on tune called Charlie’s Dream. Although I’ve heard this song hundreds of times, I still get chills when I hear these two solos. The three laughs Buck does at 1:15 into the song kills me. Freddie Green’s on this one as well playing rhythm.

Charlie’s Dream

I recently put one of my C.C.esque Pickups in the neck position of Tommy’s Dan Dunham guitar. He just sent me this video of some really tasteful playing full of great ideas. Enjoy!

Got a note from Pat this week along with this clip, letting me know that he’s getting great results with my pickups in the “out of phase” position. Its been a few months since we modified his Tele. Glad to hear it’s working out:

“Hi Tk,

How are you? The pictures you’ve been posting of your necks on Instagram look amazing! I thought I’d send you this little clip, I’ve been using the “out of phase” setting a lot, its been great on the RnB stuff. I’ve been over the moon with the guitar lately, its really settled in feeling and sounding great! We posted one of the new cds over to you to TK, hope you dig it. Hope your well

Pat”

“Hey Pat

Damn! Great playing. The guitar sounds great too. What amp and kind/gauge strings are you using? I’m really glad your digging it.

TK”

“Hi Tk,

Thanks for the kind words, its really feeling/sounding great! super stoked!
I just had it plugged straight into a 59 Bassman Reissue, and I’ve been using D’addario 10-50 flatwounds, but with a unwound/nickel G, same string set up as Dans using
Hope your well,

Pat

Dave Stuckey sent this my way a few days ago and I thought I’d share it. I think it’s unbelievably great! Enjoy…

Here’s another great demo where Joel fires off ”Walking the Strings” backstage at Deke’s Guitar Geek Festival using my tele equipped with…

Neck Pickup; TK Smith C.C.esque

Bridge Pickup; built by my friend (and neighbor) Curtis Novak to my specs.

Pots; 250K

Strings; Thomastik JS113 Flat Wounds

Amp; Stock ’54 Gibson GA-30

We just returned from the 10th and final Deke’s Guitar Geek Festival where as usual, there were an outstanding number of pickers on the bill.  Here’s a clip of the amazing Joel Paterson, one of my favorite players of today, in the green room on Jan. 26 2013. Joel’s using a telecaster equipped with my blade pickup at the neck position going through a stock ’54 Gibson GA-30. The strings are Thomastik-Infeld JS113 flat wounds. If you ever get the chance to see Joel play live don’t miss it. Warning: You might feel like burning your guitar after watching. I know I do.

Joe Puma is another guitar player that I have a hard time not picking up my guitar after listening to one of his recordings. A friend gave me a copy of “The Jazz Guitar of Joe Puma” about 10 years ago and it’s been one of my favorites since. This song  in particular is great motivation to practice.

Indian Summer

If you read The Strange B16 post a few weeks back you’ll know we were wondering who the picker was with the neat modified Telecaster. Thanks to Jeff Baker of Des Moines, Iowa the mystery is solved. Turns out his name was John Fields. Unfortunately, he has passed and the guitar is long gone. Jeff printed out the picture and took it to Smokey himself (also known as Iowa’s “Mr. Country Music”) who identified all the players. Smokey is still going strong at 95! Awesome.

There’s also a book by Terry Manley about the bands Smokey booked at the KRNT Theatre in De Moines over the years. I’m ordering mine now, and you can get a copy here.