Monday, April 02, 2007
Guitar Master
Nearly two years ago, I bought an amazing guitar, made by a little guitar shop in California. I was in the market for a really nice instrument, and well, I wanted to buy an American made piece, and I thought it would be cool to seek out a guitar maker who didn't work via a big assembly line. I settled on Suhr Guitars founded by John Suhr. Probably his most famous client is Mark Knopfler from Dire Straits. Anyway, I found a retail shop in Riverside, California that carried a couple of hand-made Suhrs and via the internet, I zeroed in on the one pictured here - it's basically a custom made Stratocaster, based on Fender's classic design. When I found myself on the West Coast, (I do not recommend buying a guitar without first having it in your hands), I ended up making the trek to Wild West Guitars (which is kind of like a Disney Land for musicians), I plugged the guitar in, and well, I guess you could say I fell in love. I'm still learning how to play it, it's an amazingly versatile guitar, I've lately been trying to learn how to incorporate a whammy bar into my sound, and well, it's got three pickups and multiple settings and gee, it's a real dream to run your fingers up and down the fret-board. So anyway, yesterday was April Fools Day and I was playing & recording music, and I came up with kind of a psychedelic jam, which I entitled "Fools Day." I uploaded it here. It's another instrumental that I am making available as a free download. I'm very happy with my guitar sound (three different tracks), plus, that bass-line grounds the song quite nicely. I do love that classic Strat sound, I'm pleased to get a glimmer of it for myself...thank you John Suhr you are truly a guitar master!
UPDATE: Wow, I just checked the current stock of Suhr Guitars at Wild West, and well, I must tell you, I purchased my Suhr for substantially less than the listed prices...not sure if that means I got a lucky deal, or listed prices are misleading, or the value of these guitars are rising because of demand, or what else? I know some people buy guitars for the investment possibilities, or as collectibles, but hell, if you can't take the thing out and bang away on it like Buckethead, or Townsend, or Hendrix, or whoever, I mean, what's the use?!