Indyjoe wrote:Rip, those are great!! Hubby and I particularly like the Jackson(wood color).
And the stories on the Asia equipment! Wow!
Thanks for sharing!
Thank you! Yes, that particular Jackson I'm especially fond of. It's not a custom-shop or anything -- probably cost around $1000 when it first came out, and I think I paid $350 for it on eBay. I've owned a ton of guitars over time, and sometime I should make a list of them. Maybe I'll try now... Some really fond (and not so fond) memories. I might miss a few, and may get them out of order a bit, but this is what I recall.
1) Unknown acoustic guitar... My parents had this for years and years before I started playing. When I became interested, I tried to play it but learned that the action was too high. We took it to a shop to have it adjusted, and they said the neck had actually warped a bit over time and it was beyond hope. Oh, well...
Best friend and I decided to get serious and start playing guitar after we heard Rush "2112" and went nuts. I bought:
2) ARIA Les Paul Copy - had a buzz on the high E string that I could not get rid of. For this reason, I hated it as soon as I bought it. It got me by, but my friend got an Ibanez Strat design (before the wild Steve Vai looking series). His was a better guitar, and I think mine had only cost something like $225.00. They were much more expensive back then, so you know this was a cheap piece of crap.
3) Electra -- Strat style body, silver metalflake finish w/black pickguard, fixed bridge and twin double-humbuckers. Cost me about $350, and I LOVED it! Had it for years and years, until I decided to build a custom axe. I was going to purchase an ESP neck (wanted to be like George Lynch), and took the body in to the guitar shop to have it stripped and repainted. Those lazy bastards never got around to it, and I think they even eventually lost the body. If I had the parts today, I'd reassemble it and keep it. I really loved that guitar. My 2nd electric guitar, and it rocked! Soon after, Electra started building the Westtone Electras that had build-in effects modules. You could drop a chorus or a phase shifter right into a compartment on the back, and rock out! Those were pretty cool...
4) My friend's Ibanez! I believe at some point he decided to quit playing, and sold it to me. I can't even remember how long I kept it, but I don't have that many memories of playing it.
5) An Alvarez acoustic... I believe I bought it in a pawn shop, and I seem to remember smashing it at some point. I'm sure it was in a drunken rage. I've smashed a few guitars in drunken rages, and it always seemed to be the rock and roll thing to do at the time.
6) A white Kramer -- Strat style, but with double-humbuckers, Kahler tremelo. I also have a picture of this around somewhere. At this point I had started to "collect" guitars.
7) A black Kramer Ferrington acoustic/electric. First saw Eddie Van Halen posing in a magazine ad with one, standing by a cave near a seashore, and thought they were the coolest things I'd seen -- really thin, and with electric guitar-style necks instead of acoustic necks. I actually recorded a solo for a song with this one when I was 19. Couldn't believe they only cost $299 and I snapped one up right away.
8 ) ARIA Pro II semi-hollow-body -- burgundy w/off-white Les Paul-style pickguard -- you know, the Jazz style with the violin-looking F-holes. This ARIA was heads and tails nicer than my first guitar, and I can't remember what became of it -- I think I pawned it.

I wanted an ARIA Pro II because I'd seen a certain Mr. Neal Schon advertising them in guitar magazines. Also saw him advertise a guitar called the FretLight, which was incredibly cool -- the fretboard would light up all the notes in a certain scale, so you could learn scales. Maybe a prehistoric ancestor to the Robot Guitar!
9) A miniature Les Paul copy -- probably 1/2 size. Very cute, and fun to travel with! I don't know what the hell I did with that guitar.
10) Fender Jazz bass, pearl off-white. Had a black painted neck and black hardware. My first bass -- really loved it, and also used it to record with. By now, I was really collecting, and not getting rid of anything. My room had a row of guitars against the wall... My next few were...
I ALMOST bought a... Yngwie Malmsteen signature Strat w/scalloped neck. I had actually placed the order for it, and when there was a delay, I decided against it to buy...
11) Fender '57 Reissue Strat, black w/white pickguard -- mentioned before. Kick myself all the time for getting rid of it. I think at $950, it was the most I'd spent on a guitar, and I was incredibly proud of it. I swapped the factory bridge pickup out for a Dimarzio HS3 stack -- I remember they told me it was called the "Yngwie Malmsteen pickup", and that he had a hand in designing it or something. It ROCKED!!! I just now did some research and found that apparently the YJM pickup and the Dimarzio HS3 were two different pickups, but both appeared in the YJM signature Strat (hence their confusion). I know I bought it because Malmsteen used it...
12) Washburn electric -- white, double-humbucker, fixed bridge -- looked just like the one Carlos Cavazo used in the early Q.R. videos. Bought it in a pawn shop and believe I pawned it later, then never returned to get it. I somewhere have a very cool pic of me playing it, and I had a B.C. Rich t-shirt on that I'd cut the sleeves out of wife-beater style.
13) B.C. Rich Warlock.... black, New Jersey Series. The metal chicks dug it...
14) Charvel Model 1 -- white with a Kahler whammy. Jacksons and Charvels had just started to become en vogue, and I wanted one so bad. I believe I traded the B.C. Rich Warlock to a friend for this Charvel. I think the Model 1 had a single double-humbucker and 1 knob. Very simple, and I enjoyed it, but it wasn't my favorite. I did like playing shows with it for the looks, at least. I believe I do remember smashing this guitar in a drunken rage... haha!
By this time I had several guitars, and when I got married at 22 (first marriage), I had the idea to give up music... sold
every one of them. Two years later, I had neither the guitars, nor my wife... So I thought, at least I could buy another guitar! So I bought the Strat you see in the picture, just to plink around on the couch with.
15) Fender Strat, black w/white pickguard, Mexican. I described it before -- I still love this guitar, 14 or 15 years later. Not my '57 Reissue, but very close to me. Got it for a steal, too. The first one I bought was a Korean Strat, but I got back to the hotel room there in Chicago, and found it had a string buzz. Went back just a short time before I had to leave for the airport, and they offered to upgrade me to a Mexican Strat for just a few dollars more -- I think I ended up paying something ridiculous like $130 for it, and at least back then, all the parts were made in the U.S. -- it was only painted and assembled in Mexico. I love this guitar.
16) Jackson Dinky -- midnight blue/purple, twin double humbuckers, and a fixed bridge. I saw this in a guitar shop and it was gorgeous -- I'd wanted a Jackson for so long, and hadn't touched one in quite a while. When I saw the price tag on it was only $799, I snapped it right up.
17) Les Paul Studio -- burgundy. My FIRST real Les Paul! I loved it! Bought it from the same guitar shop, and think I paid $600 for it. The previous owner had spilled PGA on it (drunk bastard!) and it damaged the finish, but it played just fine! I ended up trading it to a guy in exchange for tiling both my bathroom floors in my last house. Not a bad trade, so I ended up breaking even on it.
After this, got a hair up my butt to start playing again, and had just come across a small bundle of cash. I was dumber back then, and spent most of it on guitars.

I'd just learned of eBay, and was amazed to see all these wonderful Jacksons and Charvels for SO much cheaper! The next several were purchased in a very short amount of time, like over a few months, and may not be in perfect order:
18 ) Charvel Telecaster -- sunburst. Great guitar, and my first (and only) Tele design. Had the newer Jackson cursive-style Charvel logo, instead of the older guitar-shaped Charvel logo. I have a picture of it somewhere. I don't think I kept it for over a year before I sold it.
19) Charvel Strat-style -- blue metalflake, , Floyd Rose. This was a very cool guitar, and also had the cursive-style logo. I ended up giving it as a gift to Bruce Fitzhugh of the band Living Sacrifice.
20 ) Jackson Dinky Reverse -- blue, maple neck, Floyd Rose. Bought it in a pawn shop -- KILLER guitar, and wished I hadn't sold it, but I just needed to downsize.
21) Jackson Dinky Reverse -- wood w/pearl sharkfin inlays, Floyd Rose. I'll NEVER sell this guitar. I'll be jamming on it in the nursing home someday.
22) Charvel acoustic -- nice acoustic guitar, but I smashed it one fine evening in a drunken rage.
23) Hohner Steinberger copy guitar -- black, double-humbucker, Kahler trem -- just the stick-looking model Hohner was never a higher-end brand, but this one was great and the design and hardware was licensed by Steinberger, so it was pretty sweet.
Very cool guitar -- had always wanted one, and it sounded great! Too bad I smashed the f*** out of it in a drunken rage!
24) Yamaha APX-4A acoustic/electric -- black -- I still have this, but hadn't even pulled it out of the case for over 3 years until I thought of it tonight. I just took it out, strummed it, and put it in the empty slot on the tree.
25) Jackson bass -- metallic blue. Very light, and with lighter gauge strings. I just sold this one a couple of months ago, and he loves it! I have a picture of it around somewhere.
26) Charvel neck thru bass -- frost metalic pink, active EMG's. Still have it, as described before! I've also tried several times over the years to get Juan Croucier to sell me the blue Jackson bass (similar in style to mine) that he used in the "Lovin' You Is A Dirty Job" video, but he has steadfastly refused... haha! I might try again, even though I'm supposed to be downsizing my collection.
27) Vester Custom Shop 5-string bass -- Warwick copy, active EMG's -- shines up very nice with a little Pledge!

As mentioned, this was John Payne's bass from ASIA, and I'll never part with it. Both John and Geoff send signed certificates of authenticity with them, and I need to finally frame them and hang them up in there. I've been meaning to put together some sort of matted ASIA display containing them, but have never gotten around to it.
28 ) Fender Precision Bass (Mexican) -- I actually bought this for use by the son of a woman I was dating. I was getting to know him, and he wanted to learn how to play. So I bought it for me, but let him borrow it for a few months. She wouldn't let me buy him a bass straight out, so this was my way of getting around that and still being cool. Worked out better for me, because we quit dating a few months later, and I got to keep the bass! I ended up selling it to a guy as a gift for
his son. I ran into him just a few months ago, and I think he told me he still has it. I believe by this time I was up to 13 or 14 guitars, and it was just ridiculous -- I started slowly downscaling.
29) Olympia 2/3 scale acoustic. I bought this for fun, and for travel in lieu of a Martin Backpacker. I still have it, and it's sitting on a stand by the fireplace in my den.
30) B.C. Rich Warlock, New Jersey Series -- black, Widowmaker headstock, Floyd Rose trem. I just had a really wild hair that day... really wanted another Warlock, for God knows why. So I bought it, and barely played it. As mentioned, just gave it to a friend a few months ago.
And last but not least...
31) Gibson Les Paul Robot Guitar -- my first new Les Paul, and I never took the thing out of the box... sold it within 2 days!
To my knowledge, that's all of them... I'll probably remember something else later, but man, was that a COOL trip down memory lane. Oh, and luckily, I quit drinking a few years ago, so not much danger of me smashing any more guitars...
