JIMMY'S GEAR

Plaid Samick Radio Ten "Blues Saraceno" signiture

My Wife! Fitting I call her that since it was my girlfriend who bought it for me. This is by far the coolest, easiest to play and best sounding guitar I have ever owned. I love this guitar. I found this one on Ebay a few years ago and it has been my main guitar ever since. It plays like a dream. The action is low, the neck is thin and fast and the sound is thick and fat. From the first second that I wrapped my fingers around the neck of this baby, I knew it would be ‘the one’from now on! It is a pretty simple set up. Only one volume knob and that’s it. Can’t get more stripped down than that. It has stock Seymour Duncan pickups that sound amazing. I actually find myself using the neck pick up mostly. It is the most well rounded guitar I own for covering different styles. About 99% of all the new material was recorded with this guitar. What more can I say.

Samick Grapecicle TV20 "Blues Saraceno" signiture

This was my main guitar before the plaid one moved in. It was also my first Saraceno model. I saw it in a local Guitar Center not to long after they first came out with this model. Being a huge Saraceno fan, I had to try it out. The neck is Huge! Like a Louisville Slugger or something. It has a push / pull coil tap tone knob to split the humbuckers to single coils. It has a really warm sound. I added a Dimarzio Tone Zone pick up in the bridge posistion. I also used size 11 gauge strings at the time so it wasn’t a guitar for everyone with the huge neck and heavy strings. Most of the 7th Veil Rubber America CD was recorded with this. Still a great guitar.

Limecicle Samick TV Twenty "Blues Saraceno" signiture

This one is my newest guitar. I got this one on Ebay as well. Almost right in between the other two Samicks. The neck isn’t as thin as the Plaid one and not as thick as the Grape one. It sounds good but not as sweet as the Plaid one. Still a great back up guitar if I break a string. I will eventually own ever model and color of these babys!

"Summer of Love" Paisley Tele (autugraphed by Marty Stuart & Jerry Reed)

This one I bought back in ’96 from Guitar Center. Mainly because I wanted to be able to get that real country twang that can only be achieved with a Tele. I don’t use it a lot but it’s there when I want a change of pace. Used it for the rhythm track on Pimp from the new CD.

'83 Butterscotch Fender Strat; open D tuning (autographed by Chris Duarte, Dale Watson & Albert Lee)

Long story about this one. My parents actually gave me the money to buy this one back in ’91 or ’92 from a student of mine at the time that was selling it to get money to finish up a hot rod he was working on. It will always be a part of my collection for that reason. An interesting fact about this guitar is that it was a radical departure for Fender that year. The guitar is very heavy. Almost like a Les Paul. The reason for this is that there is a stock tailpiece. No tremelo system. It also only has one tone knob which is odd for a strat. The mirror pick guard as well as the paint job is custom by whoever owned it previously I guess. I would repaint it if weren’t for the autographs on it. The other interesting fact is that I found several of these at a guitar show a few years back and they were all painted like the old 70’s style bowling balls. The swirlly paint job. The wild thing is that they were selling for about $1500 a piece! I flipped. I asked the guy about it and described mine and he said it was mainly because of the paint job as to why it was such a collectable and the fact that Fender only made this guitar for one year. Since someone had re-painted this one it really was only worth several hundred bucks. Imagine that. Someone disliked the bowling ball finish so bad the chose this color to repaint it. Weird man. Whatever. Still a great sounding guitar. I replaced the pickups with three Gold Lace Sensors like the Clapton strat has. I also have it tuned to Open D for slide playing. I mainly use it for Train to Memphis.

'50's reissue Purple Fender Strat

This is a 50’s model re-issue Fender strat. I got this while I was teaching at a music store back in ’92 I think. I replaced the stock pick-ups with Dimarzios. The neck and bridge are HS-3’s, the same ones Yngwie uses and the middle one is a HS-2 like Eric Johnson uses in his guitars. Same strat sound without the annoying hum. A good guitar but tends to sound kind of thin when playing heavier stuff. Was used for some rhythm tracks on Rubber America and also the solo on 2nd Chances and No Reason from that album.

Gibson "Chet Atkins" nylon string acoustic

STONER BROS. strings. "Homegrown" in the USA