ADHD Reviews: Playing the Fender Frankenstein copy

Back in 2007 or 2008 (I really don't remember which) Chip Ellis who worked for Fender Corp got permission from Eddie Van Halen to build a limited run exact replicas of Ed's famous Frankenstein. According to legend they wanted to build more but could only find the exact parts for 300 of them. That last part (only finding exact parts) has been disputed by various self proclaimed experts but we do know that they released 300 of these and only 180 were released in the USA.

even the case is cool

So imagine my surprise when, right after they announced it, an old friend of mine called to tell me he had one on order. This really surprised me because the ticket price on these were a whopping $25,000!!! This guy was a HUGE Eddie Van Halen fan so I knew owning this guitar was going to be very special for him. A few months later when it arrived he called to set up a time for me to drive up to his place and spend an evening checking it out.

dig the wiring in the center cavity

While he had checked it out he had boxed up the guitar so I could have the fun of opening the box. This of course added to the excitement of the whole thing. Every scar on this thing tells a story, and it looks like it's been dragged through battle. Burn marks from Ed's cigarettes, screw holes where he tried something and then moved it, areas where the paint has rubbed down... all tell stories.

Not gonna lie, I got a little giddy at this point!

The guitar plays well, but the action is not particularly low. The neck is super comfortable, I've gotten into fat necks the last ten years and prefer them to thin necks but the Frankie neck hits a sweet spot, not too thick for fans of thin necks but I certainly wouldn't call it a thin neck. Just very very comfortable.

 The pickup is fairly hot, I would describe it as a PAF on steroids. Similar to but not exactly like the current wolfgang pickups they are dropping in the EVH line.

a close up of the 1971 quarter

The scars of battle and the reflectors 

all of the these layers of paint are very smooth 

We had a great time that night, trading Van Halen riffs, drinking beer, swapping stories and catching up the way friends do. I'm not nearly the Van Halen player he is. I know a bunch of the licks but I've never worked on getting that swing down that Ed has. This guy has put the time in, and it shows. Some people are almost offended by limited run copies of famous guitars with exorbitant price tags. And while I wouldn't buy one I don't have a problem with people who do, or those companies who make them. I love that this guitar exist, it's as close as I will ever get to playing THAT guitar! If you've dedicated time in getting those licks perfected you can do them on most guitars. I remember this my friend playing a Les Paul through a solid state Marshall (a mosfet 100) with a tube screamer and sounding damn close to the Van Halen I tone. So him owning this guitar made sense to me. He's got the chops down perfect. He has since sold the Frankenstein guitar for a nice profit and of course he has picked up one of the new EVH striped guitars (the bumblebee).

Changes in the Wind

photo credit: @WyldeAudio

What is going on? The other day I posted here about Zakk Wylde and Wylde Audio his new guitar and amp company. They are posting new pics on their twitter page everyday so I grabbed this interesting pic they are calling the Odin. There is also a new pic of a Flying V. We still don't know the whole story. Is this a whole new company? Is Father Wylde doing with Epiphone and Gibson what Mr. Van Halen is doing with Fender and the EVH brand? This remains to be seen but I'm still kind of excited about it. Especially that they are doing an amp. I love a great sounding 800 head.



Next I get an email from Carvin Guitars about some high end re-branding. Here is the Press release.

"Carvin Corporation announces the formation of a new and separate company, Kiesel Guitars / Carvin Guitars, which will take control of the guitar and bass manufacturing and sales of all instruments and related parts and accessories, effective Feb 1, 2015. Kiesel Guitars / Carvin Guitars owners Mark Kiesel and Jeff Kiesel formed this new company so they can focus exclusively on the advancement of instruments. Mark Kiesel has led the guitar and bass division of Carvin since 1970 and will continue to lead the new company as president. Jeff Kiesel brings industry leading designs and advancements in construction and quality to the Custom Shop. The instruments will continue to be produced in the USA at the same facility. 

Carvin Corporation's focus will now be exclusively on our passion for pro audio and instrument amplifiers under the brands Carvin Audio and Carvin Amplifiers. We will continue to provide our customers with industry leading products and customer support. Carvin Corporation will continue to design and manufacture its products in San Diego, California, USA with its team of top engineers and staff of musicians under the direction of the Kiesel family; Carson, Joel and Kristen."

So now it seems you'll be able to order a Carvin Guitar or a higher end Kiesel Guitar with more complexity and better woods and finishes. hmmm ok, not sure I see the point of it but really not a big deal. The founder of Carvin was Lowell Kiesel, and Mark and Jeff Kiesel have run the Carvin Custom Guitar shop for many years. Carvin pro audio and Guitar Amps will still be Carvin. Ok got it, if you want a really nice Carvin you order a Kiesel. (And Jeff Kiesel has been doing some cool looking stuff lately).

Anything else confusing out there? Well here is a pic of Dave Navarro playing a copy of the David Gilmour Black Strat!!! That's not his normal gear!

If I pickup on any more interesting stories this week from NAMM 2015 I'll be sure to talk about them here or at least retweet them at @ADHDguitarist so follow me there.

The Mesa Boogie Lonestar review

A few days ago one of the small guitar shops near me put a couple of pics up on Facebook of some new stuff they had acquired. One of these items was a Mesa Boogie Lonestar Classic Combo. I've been curious about these but never ran across one. I've talked about how much I love Andy Timmons tone and style of playing. And I've owned one of the Mesa Boogie Stiletto's that he uses but I've always wanted to try out a Lonestar so I jumped at the chance to go down and check it out. I grabbed my current favorite guitar and headed to the shop in the middle of the afternoon and spent some time checking it out.

The Mesa Lonestar is similar to the Stiletto in many ways. They are both two channel amps with a dedicated set of knobs for each channel, a master volume and a boost volume. They both have switches on both channels to choose between 100 watts and 50 watts (the newer lonestar's also have a 10 watt setting). You can also choose between a tube rectifier or solid state rectifiers, and there is a variac switch on both amps to help knock the power down and give it a spongier feel. They also are both very demanding amps in that they don't let you hide, every mistake you make is amplified and put in your face and you hear a huge difference depending on which guitar your using. And that is where the similarities end.

In contrast to the Stiletto the Lonestar has an active EQ and sounds great at lower volume.  It was much easier for me to find usable sounds. Channel 1 reminds me of a Blackface Twin while Channel 2 reminded me, surprisingly of a JTM45 type sound. Fender cleans and vintage Marshall in the same amp? yep. The Variac switch makes more of a difference on the Lonestar than the Stiletto. On the Stiletto there was a softening of attack and a slightly looser feel but on the Lonestar the gain gets into tweed type of sponginess. The lead sound was thick and solid. It has a ton of loose low end that can be to much and can get farty sounding if your not careful but pull the bass down (or use a TS type pedal) and you get a thick lower mids that sounds awesome. The gain switch and two gain knobs on the 2nd channel take you from Tweed to MK 1 type gains.

Andy Timmons Lonestar's and Stiletto's

Using the Variac on channel two with the three way switch set to thick and a decent amount of gain rolled in I was able to quickly dial in a sound that covered everything from gorgeous cleans to early Van Halen just by switching pickups and changing from using my fingers lightly to nailing the strings with my pick. This amp is a dynamics players dream. In the Thicker setting it sounds like an early MK 1 which quickly inspired some Santana type runs.

As versatile and easy to use as this amp is it isn't for everyone. I'd really like to try it on a small 4x12 cabinet and see if it tightens up the bottom end and gives it a little more focused sound. It's very low mids heavy and while it certainly has a lot of gain on tap I would never call this a high gain amp in line with a Dual Rectifier. If you want modern metal or even 80's shred keep looking this isn't for you. But if your longing for a variety of vintage voiced amps the Lonestar is certainly worth a listen.

This review is completely unsolicited and any opinion is my own.

What has the internet done to us?

When I started playing guitar, all the way back in 1990, people would talk about guitar players styles. Was it blues or neoclassical, did it remind them of zeppelin or Van Halen, maybe it was punk, alternative or main stream. Whatever equipment you were playing through was fine as long you were doing your thing well. Yeah he plays through a peavey stack but it's cool, he can shred. The focus was on how well that player did what he did. Now people on the internet are arguing over which version of the tube screamer circuit is the best sounding. And no one is talking about the guitarist themselves. You can spend a small fortune on cables. Or a pedal board. And it's so easy to get sucked in. I like gear, but I'm starting to wonder if this train of thought isn't part of a bigger problem. Although I'll admit some gear makes you want to play more than others, the music isn't IN the guitar. Many of my favorite guitarist, have simple set ups with a basic crybaby and a couple of Boss (I know) pedals running into a pretty straight forward amp. I was reading an article on the "Brooklynization" of the music scene. Bands everywhere aren't taking the time to find their own voice, Everyone is trying to sell you that they are the next big thing while sounding like everyone else. Even if they are slightly unique they aren't that different from everyone else. And bands who set out ONLY to be different are just awful. Is this part of a bigger problem? I think so, but what that problem is exactly I don't know. Everyone logs on the internet to share their opinion on everything, but what I've noticed is that most people don't have a clue as to what they are talking about. They have formed an opinion based on reading other peoples opinions. Not based on critical thinking and examination. These people are sheep. Even the ones that do know something may not know what your looking for. Many of these people share their opinions in an effort to help others, and that's a good thing. But mixed into these opinions are people who work for or closely to a manufacturer of a product or worse are trying to prove something. Music as a whole goes through cycles. It seems to get more complex and then simpler. Simpler relates to more people, complex is for the musician's and people who understand music can be more than a simple 3 chords and the truth. I love listening Tosin Abasi play the guitar. He is both melodic and technical, his music has groove and he has an awe inspiring understanding of music theory. On the same token, the Foo Fighters write great songs that grab people who would never understand just how incredible Tosin is. Is one better than the other? NO both are great at what they do. And if you were to ask advice from either one you could see how their advice applies to you. So why are we spending so much time asking people we don't know for advice on what pedal to buy? Most of your large retailers will let you send it back within a month. Order it and send it back if it doesn't work for you. If you have a store where you can try it out, do it. If you have a store where you can't try it out, don't buy from them, the're assholes. But the main thing is that we need to get back to playing, figure out how to make your equipment work for you and play, play, play.

ADHD and Practicing guitar

If your living with ADHD practicing guitar has its own set of challenges. Songs with a lot of changes can be hard to remember, endless hours of picking exercises and running scales are out of the question, and sticking to a schedule is almost impossible. That last one has been the most important for me. Learning songs in a jam session has all ways been a weakness of mine. I have to write down the changes and go over them later or I'll never remember. I try to use TV time to do picking exercises and scales not just noodle. If the kids or your partner are watching something on the TV grab your guitar and work on whatever song your trying to learn. I'm normally working on 2 or 3 different songs at a time. One difficult song, and a couple of easy ones. Most nights, after the kids go to bed, I pull up 5 or 6 songs on the computer or Ipod, plug in headphones and play them over and over again till I nail them. Then I spend about an hour working on something tough. The last couple of months that has meant going back and forth between Van Halen's Eruption, and something from Hendrix or Stevie Ray Vaughn. I know that focusing on one thing will get you there faster but I can't do that. I have several ongoing list on my computer of songs that I'm working on. And if I just "don't feel like" I'll make myself run through my 5 songs. Most of the time this motivates me to keep working but if I'm still "not feeling it" then I just put the guitar up and do it again tomorrow. I'm going to go into each of these subjects into more detail in the future. If your reading this and have any questions or ideas feel free to post in the comments below.

Currently listening to: SRV Couldn't Stand the Weather

Click the Random ADHD tag under Post on Topics to see other post on ADHD

Rambling through time and music

I've always been into music. When I was a kid I played music all the time, and listened to all kinds of music. Gospel, country, rock, broadway. It was all around me. My mom had a box of cheap instruments a triangle, sand blocks, a kazoo and a few other things. They bought me a cheap drum kit that I tore up within a few days. I think I was 5 or 6. My older sister wanted to learn piano and spent hours practicing. I would wait till she was gone and go figure out what she was playing by ear. Here and there people would show me stuff. I took piano lessons but my teacher fired me because I would just play by ear instead of reading the music and learning it her way. I was already playing stuff more complicated than what she was teaching me and I was bored. In middle school we had band and since everyone else was playing trumpet I picked the trombone. I remember my dad had an acoustic guitar but he never played it, there was an electric in our house to for a while. Neither of them were tuned but I would strum the strings and feel the vibrations. It was magic but I didn't know anyone who played. Just after I graduated high school in 1990 a couple of guys I was working with played guitar. I bought an old Gibson Sonex 180 Delux from a guy I knew. They started showing me stuff. One of them was real good. I still have that guitar, I love it. I don't play it as much these days but when I do its like coming home. Its so familiar and comforting but never quite as good as you remember. One of the problems I've always dealt with is that I can't focus on any one thing long enough to really nail it. I have to walk away from it and come back to it. I remember reading an interview with Steve Vai, he was saying that he would practice a single phrase until he nailed it. That he wouldn't eat or even go to the bathroom until he got it perfect. I can't do that. One minute I'm playing Van Halen, the next I'm playing Hendrix, (not as good as either) or trying to figure out how to play the piano parts to bohemian rhapsody on the guitar. I'm just kind of rambling here, but I figured Id put up some background.