Yeah. Oh yeah. A new guitar is what I need. I only have two - one acoustic and one electric... both Epiphones. Disgraceful. I mean they're great guitars - both of them, but it's time to branch out. My acoustic is an AJ45 with sunburst finish - that's the one right above the text here. My electric is a Casino with Bigsby tremolo - just below. I use the acoustic around the house to plunk around on and maybe write a song or two. The Casino is my band guitar and I really love the range on sounds I can get out of it. But like I said - I could do with another one. Guitar that is.
But what to get. The Casino is versatile - with the bridge pick up it's got excellent round, fat jazzy tones if that's what you're looking for, but it's also got a nice rockabilly twang with a good basey bottom end on the neck pick up - but it some times peters out in the high end notes - not a real shredder. Not that I'm looking for a shredder. Well, let me put that another way. Not that I could do a lot of shredding - even if I had a real shredder. But it might be nice to have a real shredder anyway.So what to choose? Well for a long time I've wanted a Telecaster. It's the ultimate twang guitar - and capable of real hard rock fuzz.
On the other hand a Gibson Les Paul is the ultimate shredder. If you're not familiar with the Les Paul sound - think opening chords of Anarchy in the UK - or Slash's staccato bit at the opening of Sweet Child O mine - you get the idea. (for the record I'm not a GNR fan).
But there are other guitars I've had my eye on for a while. Two in particular. The Mosrite and the Gretsch Duojet. The Mosrite is an obscure guitar used by two of my favourite guitar players of all time - both with completely distinctive sounds: Johnny Ramone and Ricky Wilson. Polar opposites right? But the same guitar is used for both the meaty punk fuzz of the Ramones and the clean, barre chord simplicity of early B-52s.
It also happens to be the guitar the Ventures used. The problem with the Mosrite is that it's really hard to find - there is only one distributor for all of North America as far as I can tell and he happens to be located in Las Vegas - and he doesn't take phone calls. It appears you pretty much have to get to Vegas some how to check out his stock.. Also, according to his website he's the only legal seller of true Mosrites and fakes abound everywhere. So what to do?
The other (and last) great guitar that I've contemplated acquiring is the Gretsch Duo Jet, made famous by none other than George Harrison. It's the guitar sound most associated with the early "Beatles doing covers" era (think Dizzy Miss Lizzy) - I love the look of these guitars and of course the fact that a Beatle owned one is reason enough for me to want it. But I do wonder if its sound is not somewhat similar to the Casino. At any rate it is a cool looking guitar and leans more towards the rockin' than the twang.Decision, decisions.
