Guitar Info

This guitar being sold by a French seller on eBay does look rather... shall we say... rustic. It's obviously a homemade effort, and despite being acoustic the maker has tried to make it look modern with an offset double-cutaway shape, a la the Fender Strat and others.

I really am undecided whether to point and laugh at this guitar or whether to admire the guitar building spirit on display here. Yes, it's crude but it appears to me that someone has done their utmost to create this guitar with the limited resources available to them.

The body shape is adventurous - I'm amazed it was attempted (if it were me I think I'd have choosen the rectangular "cigar box" option as an easier shape to manage) whilst the neck is a very rough affair which appears to have been whittled with a knife, and reminds me of the fretless bass neck that my friend Dog made out of a plank of wood for his Precision copy one night after having had a few beers (see here).

As we can see, there is no separate fingerboard; the eleven frets (yes, eleven) are set straight into the top of the neck which appears to be flush with the top of the guitar body. Another touch I like is the use of a steel rule complete with metric measurements as the bridge saddle. Hey, that's one way of making sure you have the correct string spacing.

Just think of the story this guitar could tell. Who made it? Who played it? What did it sound like? We can only guess.

It seems that recently I've been featuring a few guitars with holes going right through the bodies (e.g. here and here) and what do you know?... Here's another one! (I don't actively search for these, you know, I just seem to stumble upon them without even trying.)

This one is an approximately 20 year old USA-built Schecter Genesis. I've previously seen pictures of these with some decidedly over the top striped graphic finishes, but I reckon this Candy Apple Red example is quite tasteful, if indeed tasteful is the word I'm looking for considering the crazy design we're looking at here.

This example is currently on eBay with quite an attractive and affordable Buy It Now price on it.

PLEASE will someone buy it before I do, because at that price I'm finding it very hard to resist. If this was listed at the same Buy It Now price but in the UK, I would already have snapped it up. Importing a guitar from the USA involves extra shipping fees and customs charges, but despite these inevitable extras hiking up the price I'm still very very tempted (and shouldn't really...).

I mean, c'mon, how often do you see one of these?

Yes, yes, I know that Steve Winwood is notoriously a Hammond organ player, but he does also play the guitar (he's pictured with a Fender Tele acoustic with f-hole on the album artwork). The album also features the not inconsiderable guitar talents of Jose Pires De Almeida Neto.

The album begins modestly with "I'm Not Drowning", a simple but very effective song featuring Winwood on his lonesome. Just voice (and what a voice!), nice bluesy acoustic guitar, and basic percussion.

Following this, "Fly" recorded with the full band is pleasant enough, although a little MOR for my tastes. For me, the song's saving grace is Winwood's voice; that and the key changes in the middle eight which are very welcome. Don't get me wrong, it's not a bad song at all, but there's much better to come on this album.

"Raging Sea" has a fantastic guitar riff - which starts off sounding pure and acoustic but gets dirtier and edgier as the song progresses, making for a great combination with Winwood's soaring vocals and - for the most part - understated Hammond playing.

"Dirty City" is an anthemic track with some classic Hammond playing from Winwood who also straps on a guitar for this song, as does Eric Clapton who provides the climactic guitar solo. I'm not always the biggest fan of Mr Clapton but I really enjoy his playing on this song. I'm even considering using the word "exciting" here as an abjective. (Whoah! Steady on...)

Things get a bit more funky on this "We're All Looking" which features latin percussion and yet more of Winwood's trademark Hammond sound. The song also has a gorgeous acoustic guitar solo from Mr Winwood himself. He's not just a Hammond player, y'know.

"Hungry Man" has some very African-sounding guitar and percussion underpinned by the ever-present Hammond and stabs of sax. This for me, is one of the standout tracks, and reminds me of Paul Weller. (Actually, I have to keep mentally chastising myself for thinking Steve Winwood sounds like Paul Weller when it should be the other way around!)

"Secrets" has a Latin shuffle feel and quite a hypnotic riff. Instrumentally it's more of the same forumla as on earlier tracks but it's a good formula! For variation there's a slinky-sounding flute solo.

"At Times We Do Forget" is classic Steve Winwood! The song boasts a gorgeous guitar figure from Neto and loadsa lovely Hammond from You Know Who.

The album closes on the ballad "Other Shore". At the time of writing (because these things can change!) this is not one of my favourites from this album. Whilst I wouldn't necessarily skip it if it came up on shuffle on my iPod, I'm not likely to single it out if I were playing a bunch of my current favourites to a friend (whereas "Dirty City" or "Hungry Man" would probably get played).

All in all, "Nine Lives" is a very enjoyable album. There's a nice separation of instruments throughout - guitars, Hammond, drums, percussion, and occasional sax and flute. Interestingly there is no bass guitar present anywhere on the album, and listening carefully it's hard to see where you could shoehorn it into the arrangements had a bass player turned up at the sessions demanding to be included.

Definitely recommended. Buy it here. Listen to "Dirty City" here or watch the video here.

Life imitates art imitates life imitates... etc.

Blimey! Would you look at this? This guitar looks for all the world as if the designer had based it on a cartoon drawing by someone who, in turn, was basing their drawing on a Les Paul.

Actually, that's more or less exactly what has happened here. Apparently there is some computer game called Um Jammer Lammy (doesn't it just sound wretched?), and the above guitar - the Fernandes UJL-2000 to give it its correct designation - is based on the guitar played by a character within the game.

Now, you'll have to excuse my vagueness when it comes to such matters, because - I ain't ashamed to say it - I HATE ALL COMPUTER GAMES WITH A PASSION! Whilst we're on this sorry subject please bear it in mind to mention not the abomination that is Guitar Hero. I'm so sick and tired of finding crap about that load of nonsense every time I perform a search for GENUINE guitar-related news for this blog. It's part of the reason I turned to eBay for new material.

Now, let's never speak of it again.

Born to musician parents Pandit Debashish Bhattacharya, a child prodigy, was initiated into Indian classical singing, but was drawn to the guitar because of the ability to emulate the human voice by using the slide.

He is the inventor of the Trinity of Slide Guitars:

The Chaturangui takes the guitar and gives it the tonal resonance of traditional Indian instruments, Rudra-veena, Violin, Sarode and Sitar. It has six primary sliding strings, twelve or more sympathetic strings, and two chikaris - a pair of strings located beyond the treble main strings, and tuned an octave apart from one another.

The Gandharvi is a 12-string slide guitar with an additional pair of drone strings, and which melds the tones of the Saraswathi-veena, Santoor and Sarangi with the guitar.

The Anandi is a simple 4-string instrument, and is more akin to ukulele played with a slide.

These are absolutely fascinating instruments, and I'm very curious to hear what they sound like.

Over the years I have many times seen the clip of The Equals playing "Baby Come Back" on Top of the Pops in 1968. And many times I have wondered to myself, "What is that weird guitar Eddy Grant is playing?"


Last night on Later with Jools Holland, Eddy Grant was briefly interviewed and once again the Top of the Pops clip of "Baby Come Back" was trotted out. This time I realised what the guitar was, as I recognised the headstock design from another post about weird guitars that I'd made on this very blog. A quick check on Fetish Guitars (where else?) and here it is, the Wandre Rock 6! Another bonkers 1960s-era design from those wacky Italians.

Sorry, I've no stories of any particular interest today. Nor do I have any horrendous or ultra-cool eBay finds to share with you right now.

However, I do have this, a photo of Yours Truly that I just re-discovered. (Just in case you thought the black cat sitting on a Vox Brian May amp was me).

I reckon that this photo must have been taken way back in 1989 or thereabouts.

I was playing guitar in a band called Damn It Janet who went precisely nowhere. I played a matching pair of paisley pink Fenders - a Stratocaster and a Telecaster - through a VOX AC30 piggyback amp. Sadly, all have been sold now, although I think I might still have the spotty shirt.

I've said before how I regretted selling the paisley Fenders but I needed money at the time (bills to pay) and since I wasn't playing them, they had to go. (I was favouring a Fernandes Revolver Pro at the time... very strange, I know. It even had a dreaded EMG pickup in it, for crying out loud!)

If you are interested in seeing a slightly more recent picture of me, then I refer you to this post.