Just had my geetars evaluated by Mike Gladstone...

Boggs

...of the area's #1 band, Uncle Plum. He invited me to his home studio (AWESOME setup) and I started him out with the prototype. Felt "really comfy" and played great. Liked the agressive tone and really liked the pickup selection setup. Nice and light. He played all guitars without a strap sitting down. One problem with my guitars was that he bent strings so aggressively that he would pop the low "E" string out of the bridge groove. I need to deepen them. Really liked its look and feel and playability...

Next was the padauk guitar. Really seemed to like that one a LOT. All the same comments on the comfort and even wider range of tone due to greater string articulation. Commented that intonation was outstanding. switching to clean tones was a real revelation... AWESOME clean tones. He definitely wants to play a gig with these. He kept saying over and over how comfortable they were to play and how easy to get such a huge range of tones...

Next was the FrankenWashburn. Liked the features I have incorporated. Bridge pickup was definitely hotter than the Carvin C22Bs in my homebuilds. Spent the least time with this one.

Next was my Carvin Cobalt C980 Jumbo acoustic. He really liked the tone and playability of this guitar. He has a Rainsong and a SantaCruz that he let me play as we had a mini-jam. Was very cool. I think he was genuinely impressed by the Carvin. I was quite impressed by the Rainsong. Very nice sounding and playing guitar. I liked it a lot. The SantaCruz was very warm, but was clearly in need of new strings. Very nice guitar very well built.

Finally, I handed him my Yamaha FG230 12-string Tim and I rebuilt. This one seemed to really knock his socks off! He immediately said how much warmer and richer it sounded compared to his. He didn't even bring his off the wall... just played mine and put it into my hands and listened to me play it and grinned! Made us both smile a lot!

Bottom line, his 2 favorites were the padauk and the 12 stringer. The Cobalt was close behind.

I must say that it was extremely cool of him to open his home to me having never really met me before. He has a beautiful wife and 3 year old daughter and all word on "the street" is that he really is a nice guy and he certainly lived up to his reputation! He's a true monster player, too! I did tell him about us here and hope to convince him to give us a try. Brett, I will be in touch with you about him...

All in all, this was a great outing and I cannot wait to get the low "E" groove in the bridge deepend for more aggressive bending and hear him rip them up tomorrow night at Fat Moe's! He'll be playing the padauk guitar at the gig in front of their live audience! When the area's #1 band's lead guitarist of local fame for some 20 years plays your guitar, well, you can't buy publicity like that!! Very Happy

Boggs

SAguitar · Posted: Sat Oct 16, 2004 10:59 am Post subject:

Attaboy Boggs! It seems you have arrived. Job well done, buddy. Cool