fender artist series: sonic youth fender jazzmaster quitars



these sonic youth fender jazzmasters are fully stripped down and hot rodded right through the roof. they are the signatures of sonic youth guitarist thurston moore and lee ranaldo who tuned and tweaked their guitars to sound as bad as they did. oddly enough sonic youth has always favored the fender jazzmasters over say telecasters or stratocasters, more commonly used by rock blocks. which makes sense given their distinct sound. now fender was never a favorite of mine, but if at all, these may well be the best ones to get. pitty the black head stock. would have been cooler if it was left in natural. avilable for approx $1,500. by dd

1967 monterey festival: the original blue print for the woodstock festival

the 1967 monterey festival, a three-day concert in california, was the first widely promoted and heavily attended rock festival, attracting an estimated 200,000 total attendees. two years later, it became the blue print for the more generally known woodstock festival on the east coast which obviously had better PR and marketing behind it. eric burdon of the animals wrote this song as a tribute to those three days. i was never a fan of this song, listening to it made me chuckle at the time. it seemed pretentious to me, i don’t know why… a young brit impressed by the SF hippie scene and bragging about it while using much “groovy” words. that said the video is rather cool and i can forgive eric. maybe i was being too-cool-for-school myself! by dd

M. Ward: photographed with two of his favorite things

m. ward photographed with zooey dechanel


I’ll be damned if that is not a gretsch above and look… another one below.
so jealous!

well, after the m. ward post the other day i began to listen to ‘right in the head’ over and over again, and i just had to check, and indeed, the melody/solo on that track is a on a gretsch. in the pix above you can spot that cadillac V and the iconic gretsch bigsby tremolo bar. finally here’s a (horrible looking, but never the less) video as one more proof. P.S. does anyone know if ward plays exclusively on gretsch? by dd

Marian version: sisters of mercy

over clocked and over dubbed “nosferatu vs. sisters of mercy”

so the gretsch leads us to the animals and the animals to this… before nouvelle vague, there was “doktor avalanche” (the drum machine that followed eldrich from set-up to set-up). sisters of mercy’s singer and songwriter andrew eldritch is yet another of those english midgets who managed to pull off a hell-of-a-sound out of that tiny frame. i was an avid fan of these boys at the time… i know that paul will be proud. by dd

rickenbacker: let’s not forget this baby (legend)

the uber cool and under-rated george harrison with his rickenbacker guitar… lennon was great but after him, it’s george… then ringo… and maybe then the other one.


while on the topic lets not forget the Rickenbacker, ugly yes, but amazing too. if it was not for the love of vintage gretsch, the rickenbacker would surely be a second for me. by dd

Gretsch vs. gibson les paul

velvet underground: a ‘stretched’ lou reed with his gretsch guitar made proudly in brooklyn

john frusciante of red hot chili peppers with his gretsch white falcon guitar

now as much as i love les paul himself, to set the record straight, are you a U2 fan really? or are you a velvet underground fan?

others who played gretsch (most of them focusing on the legendary white falcon) – a few picked it up just for the image but others for the distinctive sound: chet atkins, eddie cochran, george harrison (the beatles), hilton valentine (the animals), brian jones (the rolling stnones), lou reed, sterling morrison (the velvet underground), brian setzer (the stray cats), billy duffy (the cult), mick jones (the clash), john squire (stone roses), stephen stills, neil young, even martin gore (depeche mode-did they play guitar?), pete townshend (the who), chris cheney, malcolm young (AC/DC), john frusciante (red hot chili peppers), dave grohl (foo fighters), jack white to name a few. by dd

Rip les paul


“as a child, I was introduced to the sound of Les Paul through my parent’s record collection. it was a spellbinding moment when I first heard how high the moon featuring mary ford. his innovation and recording techniques contributed greatly to the creation of rock music.” mick jones – the clash, guitarist

just some of the avid fans of the gibson les paul are: jimmy page, eric clapton, keith richards, peter green, jeff beck, mick taylor, slash, the edge, joan jett, mick jones, pat metheny, ace frehley, and so on… by pp’