CUSTOM MACHINES: WHAT'S YOUR fAVORITE QUITAR FANTASY?

CUSTOM MACHINES: WHAT'S YOUR fAVORITE QUITAR FANTASY?

EXTENSION CHORDS

Micheal Brooks

by

At the time of this writing, the Grateful Dead just finished a concert at San Francisco's Cow Palace, where 14,000 strong turned out to see them run through a sound check with their new sound system engineered by Alembic, Inc., a custom outfit in San Francisco. The same company which made Jack Casady's hot new $4,000 bass. The Dead's new system is but a mere $350,000 for those penny-pinchin" mamas out there. That's a price!

But the theory goes, if you're going to be a musician, a true musician, you'll want your music played and sounded to your audiences as you hear it in your head. And, what the hell, a Stradivarius violin (made by Antonio in the late 17th and early 18th century) goes for six-digit figures, not so much because of its age, but its sound. So why shouldn't a guitar player be as equally enthused about custom instruments as a violinist, especially since a concert violinist makes less than half of what a top-selling guitarist does. And let it be known that the theory is catching on.

First it happened with Gibson Flying-V guitars, which became hot because of their unique sound and uniquely styled body. Then, the more common Les Paul originals out of the Fifties became the hottest item. Soon, guitarists started searching every corner of the States looking for old National and Dobro guitars made in the early Thirties, a precious few coming from the late Twenties. At any rate, I'm sure the idea is across to you that any instrument which had something going for it when it was made still has that attraction today.

But when prices started climbing out of hand, it tjhen became practical for custom guitar builders to flourish. I mean, why pay $2,500 for an original Les Paul sunburst with original pickups when you could have a custom builder make you a guitar which stacks up favorably against a Les Paul and even takes the instrument way beyond the Les Paul's functions.

It's not just a few weird-0 type companies or people making custom instruments and amps now; it's a genuine flock. For instance, there's a young man by the name of Rex Bogue in Southern California who just completed John McLaughlin's new double-neck guitar. And then there's a small company up in Northern California called Mesa Engineering, Inc., which makes a "Boogie" (that's their name) tube amp (60-100 watt) for people like Lee Michaels, John McLaughlin, Carlos Santana, Neil Young, Steve Miller, Dave Mason, Van Morrison and others. But just to let you know that all' this isn't happening on the Cal-Coast Empire, there's a little company down in West Greenwich Village in New York which makes a XES (X for the unknown, and ES for Energy Synthesizer). This company made a guitar for Richie Havens which helped . finance the operation belonging to Lucien Barnes and Michael Ross.

And materials of these new guitars are not dictated at all by tradition. In the last few years, I've seen guitars made out of ferrocement, metal, hundreds of varieties of woods, and even granite. Yes, folks, granite! There's a man in New York City making guitar bodies which look like tombstones. His name is Joel Cawthorn and so far he's sold his idea (and guitars) to the likes of Roy Buchanan and that All American boy Rick Derringer, not to mention Jerry Garcia.

Plus there's no limit to the type of guitar. There are a few European guitar builders making instruments which arrive over here looking like the axes Howard Hughes or William Hearst would purchase, with 14-carat gold tuning machines, laminated heads, and workmanship which makes the Stradivarius1 look a bit tainted. There's a man in West Germany, Klaus Roder, and Jacques Favino of Paris, and Marco Roccia all making acoustics modeled after the famed Django Reinhardt's single cutaway axe. For those unknowing, Django was one of the hottest guitar-playing commodities ever to come out of the European • jazz scene. Although Django's gone to his final reward, you'd never know it if you looked at the sales of copies of his Maccaferri guitar.

But the point is that the music world is getting personalized. Take a look at Doc Watson's acoustic Gallagher guitar, or Ian Hunter's big "H" guitar, or Richie Havens" Guitarogan, or Pete Haycock (Climax Blues Band) aqd his custom-made Velio chromeplated aluminum guitar, or... on and on. And that's the writing on the wall, which could be washed out by a heavy rain tomorrow.

In the meantime, here's where to find some of the folks I've talked about in this column:

CUSTOM GUITAR MAKERS

Alembic, Inc., 60 Brady St., San Francisco, CA 94103

Marco Roccia, c/o Clifford Essex Music, 20 Earlham St., London WC2, England

Klaus Roder Guitars, 6209 Breithardt/TS, Schwalbacher-Str. 10a, West Germany

Boogie Amps, Mesa Engineering, Inc., P.O. Box 116, Lagunitas, CA 94938

Rex Bogue, 125 N. Del Mar, San Gabriel, CA 91776

Gallagher Guitars, J.W. Gallagher, Wartrace, Tennessee 37183

Dobros, Original Music Company, 1404 W. Gaylord, Long Beach, CA 90813

J.M. Cawthron Guitar Company, 44 Green Street, New York, NY 10013