DBX Sound Custom "Dark Back" Tele

Here's a truly unique one-off piece, a custom Telecaster-style guitar made by DBX Sound, which is basically a guy named Dave Carness working out of San Francisco.  He calls this the "Dark Back," and it's made out of an exotic tropical wood that I couldn't even attempt to pronounce - Pumajillo, with a Maple veneer on top.  The amp I've chosen for a backdrop is a super-sweet Fender Supersonic.  It has a preamp toggle that lets you choose between a Vibrolux or a Bassman circuit, and a second switch that lets you run either setting in a "vintage" or super high gain "burn" mode, covering just about all the tonal options you could want out of a Fender combo.

Yes, the top is pretty, but the most amazing thing about this guitar is it's weight, or lack thereof.  It tips the scales at just barely over six pounds - very easy on the old shoulders!  Even the neck feels light as a feather.  The pickups are Alnico Tone Riders, which have a nice vintage Tele sound - no one need know that you're not lugging around a seven-and-a-half-pound-plus monster to get that tone.  There's also something just a little bit...friendlier about that lower horn, as well.

The headstock shape just barely deviates from the standard Tele, and the aged tuners are a nice touch.  Overall this is one of the coolest guitars we have in the shop - and until Mr. Carness makes a few more, you certainly won't find another one anywhere else!

G&L ASAT Classic

Here's a very nice G&L thinline tele, with a humbucker in the neck position and a gorgeous red finish.  There's just a tiny bit of metal flake in the finish; just enough to give it a nice vibrant "sheen" underneath all those fancy stagelights.  There's plenty of flash sonically, too, with both the humbucker and the semi-hollow construction warming up the inherently spiky twang of a tele.  I'll admit to having no great fondness for most thinline teles, but this one plays great!  I have to say that I've liked the larger frets that have been on the G&Ls that I've played so much that it definitely influenced my decision to have my Fender Telecaster re-fretted with similar fretwire.

The little Vox amp next to it is a Brian May Special, a little solid state monster that snarls and spits out lots of sharp, nasty, and distinctly musical distortion.  It's based on a homebrew amp that Queen's bass player, John Deacon, cooked up for guitarist Brian May.  May used it to add some hair and gristle to his tracks upon tracks of pristine Vox AC30 tones. Most people wouldn't think that those regal-sounding harmonized guitar lines in Killer Queen and Bohemian Rhapsody were recorded with assistance from such a ornery and rude-sounding amp, but it really does the trick.  It also works as a powerful boost pedal when plugged in front of another amp.  Not bad for what's basically an oddball studio/practice amp!

Merry Christmas from Wood & Wire

l to r: Mid 60s Gibson Explorer, MIM Nashville Tele, MIM Strat, Silvertone 1482

Well, Christmas Time is here again - its been a fun three months that we've been open here, and we're looking foward to a full year of cool gear and even cooler music. We're still stocking up - vintage tube combos, pedals, and guitars, from freaks and oddballs to true classics. We're also working on carrying a few newer lines that fit in alongside our old favorites - check back soon for some big announcements. Everybody have a happy holiday season!

Los Tres Twangueros

Here's a good shot of a couple of different pieces we have. That's a 90s-era Danelectro U2 re-issue up front, and yes, that's a P-90 in the bridge position. This is another guitar we have on consignment from my friend Mike McMillan, and it's also one of my favorites. The P-90 sounds about as greasy as you'd expect sitting on top of that glorious, glorious Masonite, and the fact that it's wired out-of-phase with the lipstick pickup just adds to the freak factor. Like most Danos, this guitar is a nasty, nasty choice for blues, but the mods really push it to a new level. If a battered old Cadillac hearse ever pulls up in front of your house with Tom Waits at the wheel, THIS is the guitar you want to grab when he rolls down the window and yells, "let's jam!"

Everyone will envy you as you both drive off into the sunset, laughing manically.

Behind that, we've got two Telecasters - the Tele with the dark wine finish is a totally solid "mexi-caster," and the one with the burst is an American standard with EMG active pickups. It's a cool guitar, but my boss says we need to swap that mirrored pick guard for tortoiseshell...

This is the Gibson amp that you can see off to the left in the first photo. It's a "Falcon" combo from 1964, and even though we acquired it with the reverb tank missing in action, it still sounds fantastic. These old Gibson tube-amps have vibe to spare, but they can still be had for a song when compared to the Fender amps of the same era.

Hopefully we can take some videos sometime so everybody can actually hear this stuff. Maybe next time...