Over the years I’ve obtained a decent sized collection of guitars. Everything from old junky Harmonies to brand new Fenders. On this page I’ll tell you about a few of them.
2015 Fender Stratocaster Custom
I ordered this one special from the wizards at Fender’s Corona, California Custom Shop. It has a two single-coil, one humbucker pickup configuration. The single coils are special built Noiseless models, similar to those that Clapton uses, and the hum bucker is a hot wired Fender Modern model. This way I get a nice combination of classic and current sounds out of one guitar. And I don’t know if I love anything quite so much as a Fender maple fretboard. Add in the custom paint, a garnet and black burst, and we have one of the finest instruments I’ve ever played.
1984 Kramer Baretta
The gold standard of my collection, as far as I’m concerned. I bought this guitar from a guy who used to work at Kramer’s shop in New Jersey in the 80s. He claims it was played by certain finger tapping genius but who knows? This Kramer is my lone guitar with a rosewood fretboard. Not big fan of rosewood but this was is smooth as butter. The humbucker is made by Scahller, and the tuners are Gotoh. It’s also loaded with an original German built Floyd Rose double locking tremolo. And how about that classic hockey stick headstock? A real beauty. This was the only guitar I used to record our original demos.
Peavey Wolfgang
This is, in my humble opinion, the best of the Eddie Van Halen branded guitars. They all play similarly but I just like how the Peavey feels in comparison to the Ernie Ball Musicman or the Fender EVH models. I bought this one in a now-gone Nashville, Tennessee music store a few years ago. It’s spotless. A gorgeous gloss black arch top body with white binding and a wonderful oil finished bird’s eye maple neck and fretboard. How gorgeous is that mini-headstock design? It’s one of my favorites. And it wouldn’t be a Wolfgang without twin zebra humbuckers designed to Eddie Van Halen’s specs, an original Floyd Rose tremolo, and a D-Tuna for when I need to drop into D for some good chugging.