Steve Clarke has reviewed many rare and famous guitars for Guitar and Bass Magazine. The idea of “Famous Frets” is to look at these iconic Guitars in detail and learn why they sounded the way they did. Did they play well ? Did they have custom parts ? Was the sound due to lucky component matching or were the stars of the stage blessed with cutting edge bespoke parts which were not fitted to mainstream guitars ?
All will be revealed !!!
Can’t believe I finally managed to get to grips with this iconic guitar and there is so much written and presumed about this guitar and the truth is revealed at last!! This is the guitar that Paul used for the famous Isle of Wight festival in 1970 and the one used for the classic hit All…
A rare look at Jan Akkerman’s Gibson Les Paul Personal, his 3 pickup Les Paul Custom and his Signature model by Brandin Guitars. Many thanks to everyone at Brandin Guitars, you guys were amazing!!! http://www.qguitars.nl/EN/ This guitar and many more will be featured in Steve’s new book Famous Frets out Sept 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxiSg0yHKlw
This guitar and many more is featured in Steve’s new book Famous Frets out Sept 2019.
I am traveling to the North East of England for what is perhaps the last chance to get a close look at a guitar that belonged to the late Paul Kossoff of Free. The owner, Arthur Ramm has very kindly allowed me to have a look in detail at the guitar. Gibson did a tribute…
‘DADS’ guitar (as Dave would call it) is featured in Steve’s forthcoming book in great detail. The book is out Sept 2019 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gufUfvpg5XA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYoogY-UGio I am up early this morning as I head down to the home of Suzi Quatro. I had been listening to Suzi on the radio talking about guitars and the ladies that worked at the Kalamazoo factory and whilst I was working late on a guitar repair myself, I was distracted by this wonderful…
Les Paul TV previously owned by Eric Stewart of 10CC and Mick Ralphs of Bad Company. The Les Paul Junior was introduced in 1954 with a dark brown-over yellow lacquer giving intense shading on this entry/student model guitar. Les Paul and Mary Ford were extremely popular stars of the day and had their own TV…
I was asked by Eric to service this bass and take a look at the electrics because the volume pot was working intermittently. The trus rod needed slight adjustment but other than that it is lovely to see this guitar in such great condition. See this old clip to appreciate how well it has stood…
All of these guitars came to me for servicing during a break in their tour itinerary via George Borowski who was their guitar tech at the time. I got them all on the Tuesday and had to get them done for Thursday so working through the night was mandatory. Note green telecaster which needed a…
In case you didn’t know, Chip Taylor wrote Wild Thing (The Troggs) and Angel in the Morning and MANY other well known hits. He is also the brother of actor Jon Voight and thus is the Uncle of Angelina Jolie. Sadly, Angelina was not with him when I met Chip at his hotel in Manchester! …
