Mystery Train

Always wanted one of these: An Epiphone ES-295...

Modeled after Scotty Moore's Gibson rig...

I know what you're saying.."It's an Epiphone!" But dig this: Upgrade it with some Kluson tuners, Lollar P-90s, and roller bridge...

"Train I ride...is 16 coaches long..."

Fret Time: Grove Church and Quick Before Sinking

A lot of fret time this past weekend. It started Saturday afternoon with a sound check and rehearsal for the Grove Community Church. We practiced until about 4:30 then rocked the 5:00 p.m. service.

I played my Les Paul Classic Gold Top through a ’65 reissue Fender Deluxe. The LP sounded good; easy to play, tons of sustain. I miss not having a trem bar, though.

Later that night I sat in with Quick Before Sinking in downtown Riverside.

I brought along the Fender Stratocaster, and played it through Adam's Mesa Boogie. QBS is an amazingly talented group of guys, so I have no idea why they asked me to sit in.

Quick Before Sinking is: Adam (The Epic Beat) on guitar and vocals...

Dr. Mark on bass and vocals...

Scott on drums and percussion...

Ian--who is also a great drummer--dialed in the sound for the band, and snapped a few photos...

And I did something I rarely do in public: I sang.

My brother D-Rave says I'm not a vocalist, and I have to admit he's right on this one. But no one ran screaming from the venue, so it's all good. There's a video of it floating around on the web, but I'm pretty embarrased and can't post it here...

Most of these photos I stole off of Jon Risinger's web site. Sorry, Jon. But when you look at the picture below that my daughter snapped during the show, I think you'll understand why...

Then early Sunday morning I was back at the Grove to play two more services.

But my brother Gary is always on my mind, still. That's an Infant of Prague mass card from his funeral, there on the left side of my pedal board...

Indecision 2008

The polls have closed, and America YOU have decided:

Winning 44% of the vote, the Rickenbacker 360 12-string beat out both the Gretsch G6128 and Fender Custom Shop Stratocaster in the “Which Guitar Should Brian Buy” race over at Switch 2 Plan B.

I strongly suspect that the Epic Beat stuffed the ballot box so that he’d get to hear that classic Rickenbacker chime next time I played the Grove.

And I’m guessing that Stew—a strong Fender partisan—may be crestfallen over the results.

But I’d love to know who voted for what, and why.

(And of course, if you guys think I’m going to let an informal survey like this sway my decision, you’re all nuts. I’m still undecided…)