Thursday 19 February 2009

The Beast Comes Home 1970 to 2009

When I used to walk on stage with this guitar they use to call it "The Beast" Maybe because of its weight, or more than likely because of its incredible sound. I'm of course referring to my double necked guitar. This 12 and 6 string electric guitar has had a complete make over and restored to its original glory by Guitar expert Charles Sundquist from Stoke St Gregory.
The Beast
I have not used this guitar for at least five years, and really thought it was the end of it.

However Charles has done an amazing job on it, completely re-doing the wiring, pick ups and the machine heads. One of its main problems was that it was unplayable due to the frets being pitted, again the workmanship that's gone into the neck is incredible as I have just been playing it now, and it sounds better than I have ever known.

I bought the Guitar in 1991, and according to Charles it was made in Japan around the early 1970s, its a Gibson copy made by CSL, and looks like 2 Gibson SG's bolted, and not glued together. Charles has also re wired the guitar to probably as he says "the way it should have been" so that you can have both necks switched on at the same time. I think when I bought it, someone had probably already changed things from its original spec, and Charles has painstakingly taken it back in time to what it should have done. I have just played it again now and can't wait to get this guitar back on stage. So many songs were written with this guitar, and now I must say once again it plays so much better than ever.
Charles plays his musicman Guitar/Me on the double neck

Reunited with an old friend

According to Charles it may well be a collectors item, but to me its something that should be played on recordings and also live as well, in other words used!

Hey Kenton! The Drummer of Raptor currently somewhere in Brazil, if you are reading this, then time to come home we have some serious rocking to do...

Charles thanks for all your help with this guitar, it really sounds like new! And full of inspiration..

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