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Howdy y'all!  This may be part two in a two part series ... but it's a radical departure from part one!  Last week we discussed a super cool and often overlooked vintage guitar, this week is different!  The center of attention this time around is a Korean made Danelectro with built-in multi-effects from the late 90's/early 2000's, and it really surprised the heck out of me.  I came upon one of these at a small guitar shop owned by a buddy, it had a kind of cool retro surf look (sparkles and...

The world occasionally produces one of those rare thinkers whose name becomes iconic. Thomas Edison lit up the world; Albert Einstein profoundly altered the study of physics; Walt Disney reimagined entertainment; and Leo Fender invented the electric guitar. Fender grew up in Fullerton, California, where his interest in electronics lead him to open his own radio repair shop in 1938. It wasn’t long before musicians and band leaders turned to him for help in repairing their equipment. And the rest, as they say, is history. Fender’s revolutionary guitar, the Fender Stratocaster...

Decoded: The HiLo-Tron and Goldfoil (Ry Cooder) Pickups Over the past few years I've re-built hundreds of pickups; many are the well known Fender style single coils and Gibson style humbuckers.  However, I also work on and build a lot of lesser known models.  I'd like to talk about two of these, the Gretsch style HiLo Tron and the most famous of all "Goldfoils", the one in Ry Cooder's "Coodercaster".  Ya ready, let's dig in! The reason I decided to group these two very different designs together...

BK Butler Mini Boogee Matrix Tube Pedal Hi gang!  So this will be, for the most part a video blog.  I recently sold my stupidly rare Mini Boogee Pedal, but I made a little demo video before shipping her out.  These things are legendary!  There is lotsa chatter about these among serious players, but most folks have never even SEEN one in real life.  BK Butler made only a few of these by hand from 1980-1981, then Randall Smith (Mesa-Boogie) asked him to use another name and in 1982-84 he made a...