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.

TK just finished this simple kitchen made of birch europly with black laminate faces. The client-friend saw the It House in a magazine, came to the desert from Berlin, bought a piece of land and built one for himself! When inside, the simplicity of this mostly glass structure, functioning completely off the grid, gives the feeling of really being one with the amazing desert surroundings.

Welcome to the New Year! Through the holiday’s and into the new year, T.K.’s been doing overtime in the shop working on his new guitar pickup. He wants it to sound like a cross between a Stratosphere and a Charlie Christian, his two favorite pickups, and it’s constructed like a Bigsby. He has talked about this for years! T.K. still has a ways to go until he’ll be happy with the final product, but we’re hopeing to have some production units for sale by summer. Stay tuned!

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

Someone from France put this recording of Big Sandy and The Fly Rite Trio up on YouTube awhile back. It’s one of the few recordings I’ve played on that I can listen to without thinking that I should of played something other than what I actually played. This is probably because I worked out the entire solo note for note the night before and played the same thing on each take. (can’t remember how many takes it took).

Everything the Fly-Rite Trio recorded was done live with a couple of mikes. If one person screws up, or is unhappy with their performance, you have to start over. It can be challenging to say the least, but it’s my favorite way to record. I think live recording is the only way to get an accurate representation of what a band truly sounds like. If you’re a musician and haven’t recorded live, try it. You’ll have greater respect for the way the musicians of the 40’s and 50’s recorded. Think about the recordings with multiple  ‘Hot’ improvised solos and how hard that would be to do live.

Recorded around 1989. We had 500 copies pressed to 78RPM record.  I think we sold most of them in the UK. If I could do it over, I’d like to have another crack at the solo on the flip side, I’m Gonna Leave.

Just shipped out a batch of Walnut Cutting Boards that were purchased as Christmas gifts. If you’re looking for a unique gift this month, or for Valentine’s Day, feel free to contact us for more info.

I’ve been moonlighting the past few months doing custom inlayed pickguards and name plaques. If you’re a serious musician I don’t think there’s a better way to get your name out than having it on your guitar or instrument.

It’s also a known fact that my pickguards and name plaques will help promote record sales, and to boost show attendance through brand recognition. Ha Ha!!

My inlay jobs are 100% crafted by hand. So if you’re a serious musician drop me a line and have me build you a custom guard or plaque. You can see some of my recent inlay projects here.

Last week while searching for a decent wood/metal band saw, I found another Delta 24’’ scroll saw for parts. It came with an original stand, a belt guard and a few other really nice parts.  Last night I combined the best of both to end up with this smooth running, and in my opinion, beautiful looking, 60 plus year old scroll saw that I’m sure will last another 60 or more years.

There’s quite a few people that love old American made tools but you’d have a hard time finding one that loves them more that myself. You’d also have trouble finding someone who hates the imported crap they sell as ”tools” now days more than I do. They always seem to fail just as the warrantee is up. I find it so annoying. Here’s a few shots of some of the details I like.

We’re now offering lacquered 5 hole Garolite pickguards for teles. They’re $45 plus shipping.  For those of you that care what the backside looks like, yes, they have the correct over spray ring. If you’re interested in a custom pickguard, you can see some examples here.

If I had to keep just one amp this would be the one. Produced from ’39 to ’42 it was Gibson’s top of the line.  This amp has a single tone control. The earlier ones had a separate bass and treble control.

I got it on E-bay about six years ago. It was completely covered in black spray paint. I figured I would have to recover it. Surprisingly all the black paint wiped off. One quart of lacquer thinner and 20 rags later this is what it looked like. All I had to do was re-stencil the Gibson logo.

Of all the amps I’ve owned, this one comes closest to my “dream guitar tone “ that I hear in my head. Probably because the majority my favorite guitar players most likely used and recorded with a Gibson EH-185 at some point in their early careers.