Dave On Rock

Dave Freidman who has built mods and racks, pedal boards, whole touring rigs for years, has his own amp now the Marsha, which incorporates a lot of his most popular mods:

The excellent Scumback M75-65 speakers are featured prominently:

Love the DLR era Stevie Vai licks as well:

Thanks Jim Seavell for the good advice and good luck to Dave and Jim in their new venture with Tone Merchants:

Dave

If you own or have owned and have photographs of any of the Washburn Steve Stevens Signature model guitars produced in 1993, this includes the Korean produced SS 40 models, the USA Chicago Custom Shop models, the SS 80 and the SS 100 Frankenstein. especially the serial numbers, in the case of the SS 40’s, the serial numbers are locate on the neck plate.

In the case of the USA Custom Shop models, the serial numbers are imprinted on the middle of the back of the headstock.

At www.vintagewashburn.com we are attempting to track how many guitars were produced, this includes any modified guitars, of which there are quite a few, that I have photographic evidence of.

SS 40 neckplate with serial number                                             

SS 80, SS 100 serial number location

Again please visit http://www.vintage washburn.com              this site is officially supported by US Music/Washburn

Love and peace

Dave                      

If you own one of Steve’s old Charvels or Jacksons or particularly the white elephant the legendary Hamer SS 3

please contact either Darren webmaster at Vintage Washburn or myself……….

Hamer SS-3

Hamer SS-3

Hamer SS-3

NOS 1993 Washburn SS80

THANKS FOR YOUR SUPPORT AND PLEASE SEND ME SOME REPLIES, IT IS INTERESTING TO READ SPAM BOTS, BUT I KNOW  YOU WASHBURN/HAMER HEADS ARE OUT THERE SO SEND ME A REPLY………..CHEERS  DAVE

I am very excited to announce my participation in a very unique and professional website, designed to  portray the classic guitars from Washburn, who have been in the industry over 100 years.

To many it is well known my great love of the Washburn Steve Stevens Signature Series, produced only in 1993, in very, very limited quantities.

Darren who approached me about  my contribution, the SS series, has started to assemble an incredible site and US Music/Washburn themselves have given it their official blessing.

I had all but abandoned by hopes of publishing my article detailing the history of these amazing guitars, for various reasons, but now I have been afforded a unique opportunity to document these guitars and show the world how incredible they are.

All models of Washburns will be included so please send any info or contributions you may have to:

http://www.vintagewashburn.com/

Contact: Darren@vintagewashburn.com

These are very exciting times so stay tuned and thanks to Bainzy of Shredaholic for the links and shout out!

Dave

Back in the late eighties Steve Stevens had an amazing Jackson dinky bodied guitar, with an incredible graphic based on a pencil drawing, which is interpretations of a famous woodcutting for the famous book described below
The graphic comes from a woodcutting from a famous book in history called The Nuremberg Chronicles
The woodcutting is called “Dance of Death” and the book was published in 1493.
From Wilkepedia:
Nuremberg Chronicle

The Nuremberg Chronicle is an illustrated world history. Its structure follows the story of human history as related in the Bible; it includes the histories of a number of important Western cities. Written in Latin by Hartmann Schedel, with a version in German translation by Georg Alt, it appeared in 1493. It is one of the best-documented early printed books – an incunabulum (printed, not hand-written) – and one of the first to successfully integrate illustrations and text.

Latin scholars refer to it as Liber Chronicarum (Book of Chronicles) as this phrase appears in the index introduction of the Latin edition. English speakers have long referred to it as the Nuremberg Chronicle after the city in which it was published. German speakers refer to it as Die Schedelsche Weltchronik (Schedel’s World History) in honour of its author.
Page depicting Constantinople with added hand-colouring

The illustrations in many copies were hand-coloured after printing.
I have learned from one of my Steve Stevens contacts that the guitar was stolen from Steve and recovered, he sold it soon after wards. It was bought by a German collector who has over 300 Jackson guitars, including the Steve Lynch ‘Autograph” guitars.
It has the cool skeletons head tuning keys and many wild features. Though the original graphic may have been a pencil drawing at Jackson, the original is from a woodcut as stated.

There was a website called the Jackson Museum, which has been taken down in past years, the headstock detail photo I have is the newest one I have seen, I would appreciate any other photos anyone else may have, thanks

http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g219/davida54/Skeletons20Ball20Michael20Wolgem-1.jpg

http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g219/davida54/dance_de-1.jpg

http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g219/davida54/Buonamico_Buffalmacco_001.jpg

http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g219/davida54/2704556574_b52b62b9a5_o.jpg

http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g219/davida54/imageserverres1viewwidth1520viewhei.jpg

Dave

Having completed my interview recently with Neil Carter, the emphasis of the material covered Wild Frontier and After The War…the Wild Frontier lineup was one of Gary’s most cohesive bands and made powerful material that was dynamite live.
The power of those songs, especially live, sans Linn drums and Fairlight, ect., hasn’t been matched since imo. Then After The War, Dunluce and the emotional Blood of Emeralds are the highlights for me.
Gary’s music has always had a message and a personal statement, since the first albums of the early eighties.
I personally love Celtic music, my grandmother was born in Belfast and I have distant relationship to the Moores in Northern Ireland from that area, irregardless, the power and beauty and yes, spirituality of Irish music is a powerful, yet extremely pure, surprisingly complex in composition pure ancient form of music.
The songs from Wild Frontier and Blood of Emeralds have great personal meaning to me, yet Still Got The Blues, is my wifes favorite era of Gary’s music, she loves the blues ballads and Gary’s emotive singing.
It’s not over for Gary with that chapter of Gary’s life, I knew it wasn’t. The majority of After The War, was I feel dictated as Gary has told, by the record company and his management at the time.
I am not a huge Graham Lilley fan, it must be said, now I’ve said it..   , for various reasons, but Gary has been attacked here in the States, not to go off topic again in this thread, but I have come under great personal attacks as a swell headed fanboy..  
The ‘controversy over the Stripe guitar, seemingly precluding Gary from ever darkening the US shores again.
Whatever people may say, and I am ashamed of many of my fellow Americans for the particularly nasty threads in for example The Les Paul Forum, ect.
Gary will rise above this and he still only ever shows some of his arsenal, Gary keeps so much in reserve for someone who allegedly ‘overplays’ on a regular basis. I have established it is pure jealousy on these individuals behalf.
Gary has mastered many, many forms of guitar music. For me the Celtic rock period was the zenith of Gary’s rock based, high amplification, Floyd Rose Tremelo based guitar playing. After going the LP/Blues route, the Monstrosities of Rock DVD, still makes me cringe, Gary has the wrong, hostile audience and we know how that makes him react..     and when he plays the WF songs on a fixed bridge guitar, I mean “Out In The Fields”, it was hard for him even, as he admitted in the extra commentary, to nail the solos as he had done in 1987.
We are talking about a guitar proficiency that for me hasn’t been matched, still to this day, yet Gary was so quick to dismiss his ‘rock’ era, ect. True he played with every blues established master and there were plans afoot through Albert King for Gary to play with the great SRV, but we all know what happened there.
I went through a period of being somewhat anti-Gary, being frustrated with how his career was progressing, knowing his capabilities, yes Gary has always shot himself in the foot throughout his career, but thank God has never been politically correct. What he is is a naturally gifted musician/guitarist/singer and writer and that will never fade away.
His various tributes to Phil Lynott are amongst the most heartfelt pieces of music I have ever heard…

Dave

Thanks to all who are loyal readers, sincerely I appreciate your visiting my modest web blog.

PLEASE LEAVE ME A COMMENT/SUGGESTION IF YOU WOULD!!!

I get a lot of foreign spam type mail comments, or spambots, stuff like Viagra, or various pharmaceuticals, occasionally I get a related comment..!!

I have been busy on various projects that I can’t just publish here, but will have links, ect., in the future, I have been busy with my conventional job, ect.

Although I have be forced financially to work a ridiculous amount of hours, such as 6 12 hour shifts in a row ending the day past Christmas, this has been the best Christmas I can remember as my wife has been happy and enjoying the holiday, not having the seasonal affective disorder she normally suffers from at this time of year and the birth celebration of my Lord Jesus Christ has always been my favorite ‘holiday’, since a young boy and even before I knew the Lord. I am a born again Christian since 2001 and this has been the main impetus in the continuation and success, if you will, of my life

Whatever your religious beliefs or if you don’t have any, that’s all good, but I want to share my joy of life with all who read my blog.

I am not a My Space-Facebook type of person really, I do have a My Space page, but hardly use it.

So quickly remember to cherish your loved ones and remember that there is a purpose to life, not just to obtain possessions and to live a careless lifestyle, there is no ultimate satisfaction in that.

To the various internet ‘haters’ that I seem to occasionally attract on the Internet forums, usually related to Gary Moore, ect. , I say to you I pray that you will find a better use for your energy than negativity.

And to all a good night!

Love

Dave

It has been 33 years ago today that Tommy Bolin left this earth on a Miami hotel room..in some ways it feels like so long ago and in another sense it doesn’t seem that long ago at all.
There is a good chance the newer generations aren’t familiar with Tommy’s work.
Born is Sioux City, Iowa, August 1, 1951, Tommy was influenced by Elvis, the Beach Boys and the Beatles, the many jazz artists such as Django Reinhart, Wes Montgomery and blues artists like Albert King, whom his band Energy backed on many occasions.
Tommy moved to Colorado to find success in the music business, quickly making a name for himself, with his flair for the ability to play so many different styles and crossover seamlessly between them.
The band Zephyr with lead singer Candy Givens, was Tommy’s first successful band, though he yearned to express himself as a musician in a greater role.
Upon the advice of his band mate in Energy, flautist Jeremy Steig, Tommy moved to New York City to seek further development of an already bright career. He met keyboardist Jan Hammer and drummer Billy Cobham and soon was asked to contribute to Billy’s groundbreaking first solo album “Spectrum”.
Though unable to read music, he was encouraged to be the guitarist, replacing a guitarist of the quality of John McLaughlin, whom Cobham and Hammer had just played with and was a huge influence on Tommy.
With the chords written out, Tommy in two days made one of the most astounding contributions to the new genre of jazz-rock fusion, virtually setting the bar so high, it has practically never been surpassed.
Particularly the track “Quadrant Four”, Tommy took what was based on a 12 bar blues, but played up-tempo, at 212, and just ran with it.
His brilliant juxtaposition of Echoplex EP-3 and sustained notes, supplying an excitement and energy of a rock performance, to the playing of these jazz legends, mixing in pentatonic licks, Chuck Berry style double stops, and all the time intertwining with the fluid keyboard dynamics of Jan Hammer.
In fact later on, many couldn’t tell when the guitar or keyboard started or stopped! Tommy ends with some incredible wah pedal techniques.
This particular track got the attention of people like Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page and Joe Walsh and practically every guitarist at the time.
Jeff’s “Blow By Blow” and “Wired”, were directly influenced by Becks own admission, by the spark delivered by this young player from Iowa.
Upon the recommendation of Joe Walsh, Tommy was picked to fill his shoes in The James Gang. in 1973.
Tommy supplied the majority of the material for their first album Bang, in fact Tommy’s head was superimposed on the body of the previous guitarist in the cover photo, which had already been shot!
Tommy stayed with the Gang through 1974, completing one more album for them, the ominously titled Miami complete with its all black cover.
Tommy had started contributing lead vocals by this time and his voice was warm and emotive, adding yet another strong dimension, to the force to be reckoned with, the triple threat, songwriter, vocalist and killer guitarist.
The songs “Alexis” and “Spanish Lover”, were two showcases for Tommy’s new found vocal confidence.
In December 1974 he played on sessions for the drummer of Weather Report drummer Alphonse Mouzon, for the LP “Mind Transplant”, “Golden Rainbows” and “Nitroglycerin” being the two outstanding tracks, with Tommy using his trademark Echoplex fills, with the addition of Tommy’s brilliant slide guitar playing.
During negotiations for Tommy’s first solo project, which would end up being the incomparable “Teaser”, in April 1975, Ritchie Blackmore had left Deep Purple MK III. At the insistence of vocalist David Coverdale, Tommy who lived close by Coverdale, was brought in for an amazing audition, where the seasoned players of Deep Purple, Ian Paice and John Lord, were stunned by Tommy’s energy and endless ideas for songs, right during the rehearsals.
Then it was off to Musicland Studios in Germany for the August recording of the debut album and only album of the MK IV lineup “Come Taste The Band”.
Then Tommy was at Trident studios in London mixing “Teaser”.
The Deep Purple experience started out brilliantly, the first few gigs containing versions of the album tunes, that were in many cases, superior to the recorded versions. As the various legs of the tour developed, the cries for Blackmore and the outright hostility of the DP fans, particularly in the UK, caused Coverdale to resign after the Liverpool show, effectively bringing the sluggish behemoth that Purple had become, down to the ground, with a kill shot.
After the disbanding in the summer of 1976, Tommy started his favorite band according to the liner notes for the different sounding second solo album “Private Eyes”.
Tommy came to Miami three days before his first gig of an exciting tour as support to the Jeff Beck Group, featuring Jan Hammer and Fernando Saunders.
There continues to be much speculation about what happened after the show at the Jai Alai Auditorium on December 3rd, but Tommy had a great show and was on stage with Jeff Beck, probably one of the highlights of Tommy’s life.
Sadly there weren’t many hours left for Tommy to live, I have heard all the versions of those who were there and still the only true fact is that everyone in his band/crew abandoned his body at the motel, leaving the police to find his body in suspicious circumstances.Tommy was only 25 years old.
That Tommy had severe issues with alcohol and laterally drugs, was common knowledge to all those in his circle, yet even with a ‘bodyguard’ appointed by his management, the inevitable happened.
I have recently been re-researching Tommy’s music and career and have been even more acutely aware of the tragedy that need not have happened.
Such a trailblazer, one who played on the musical edge, like his hero Jimi Hendrix, Tommy clearly worked without a net and created music that will live on indefinitely. He had such a great sense of rhythm and melody and a unique style of guitar playing that has not been equaled in my opinion.
God Bless you Tommy, play on brother…

Dave   12/4/09

It’s been awhile since I have posted here, but I have had some exciting recent developments in my ongoing quest since 1993 basically involving the Washburn Steve Stevens Signature models.

These are among the most brilliant rock/metal guitars ever in my humble opinion.

Recently I was afforded a unique opportunity to purchase a very rare SS80 model that is basically a NOS 1993 guitar, built by the Washburn Chicago Custom Shop for Steve Stevens himself, but as we all know Steve chose to part ways with Washburn, as with Hamer guitars.

The research I have been involved in since I first learned of these guitars in 1993 through a magazine article at the time. I have read everything in print in regards to Steve since 1984 and the Rebel Yell-Billy Idol LP. which had a profound influence on me.

I briefly owned a Hamer SS-2 guitar, which I bought at a guitar show and found it to have a defective humbucker in the bridge position. I replaced it with a new SD JB Trembucker and was happy to receive from Hamer a wiring diagram and was able to return the quite complex pickup switching wiring to stock. I ’sold’ it to a friend for little to no money, it was a nice guitar, but this type if configuration guitar, though very sonically cool, wasn’t as much my cup of tea, as the later Hamer bolt on necked SS-3’s. These SS-3’s never were offered for sale as Steve left Hamer and the Centura model was the eventual production version offered, though for my taste it wasn’t anywhere close to the SS-3. Basically at the time 1985-6, Steve was involved in recording Billy’s album Whiplash Smile a tour de force of SS guitar playing and song writing.

The Jackson/Charvel  “Glow” model guitar that Steve had and is still to this day his go to guitar for recording tracks, is the basis of the development of the Hamer SS-3 and later the Washburn SS80 and SS100 guitars.

There is no shame in this as the bolt on neck, dinky Strat body and Original Floyd Rose Tremolo, with top mounting, is a dynamite tone monster guitar.

Steve’s use of reverse angled pickups, both single coil and humbucking, is in part a nod to Hendrix, with his upside down Stratocasters.

In my opinion and I have told Steve this, I feel he developed some of the most influential and brilliantly engineered guitars from the mid-eighties, until the early nineties.

That Steve would end up being frustrated with the various manufacturers, seemed to be in retrospect, almost inevitable, given the commercial marketplace restrictions and production costs and countries of manufacture.

Steve has insisted always that the guitars bearing his name and signature be manufactured in the USA and if he wasn’t allowed control of the product he co-designed, he would choose not to be involved.

Moving to the incredibly brief Washburn era, just under one year in fact, the majority of 1993, Steve was involved closely in the design of some of the most interesting, fantastic sounding and playing guitars, built in this genre.

For many years since I special ordered my black SS80 back in 1993, and I got my order in very early, the guitar I received was different than any other SS80 I have ever seen , and I have seen many, other than the specific guitars produced for Steve himself and used briefly live and in recording the Vince Neil Band album Exposed , which if you have never heard it, buy it and hear Steve really be allowed to stretch out his soloing and production values.

Steve worked diligently at Cornerstone studios with an engineer to work out demos and really nail his guitar tones, prior to the recording of the album.

He even slept on a couch in the studio as he diligently worked towards one of the best examples of loud distortion guitar recording that you will ever hear.

Steve used a George Massenberg EQ unit as part of his signal chain and recorded his guitars dry, as he mostly always does, adding effects later.

The only way I can describe the guitars, which Steve played all of himself, including bass, as MASSIVE and I still to this day use this recording as an example of analog recorded guitars, which were SMPTE coded to the final digital mix of the album, retaining all the killer analog tones.

Steve using at least six vintage Marshall heads on this recording.

He also prefers the SM57 mics to be just of center of the cone directly facing the cone in a vintage Marshall 4X12″, with the grill cloth removed.

Steve has been recording this way since the earlier Billy Idol days.

Back to the Washburn guitars, please do not associate Grover Jackson, who indeed did join Washburn’s Custom Shop towards the end of the SS era, with any design criteria of the Steve Stevens signature guitars, as they were developed before Grover set foot in there.

The guitar designs Grover was involved in were primarily the Mercury series, which Washburn forum member Ascension is proud of owning some rare examples.

My main interest is with the SS80 and SS100 series guitars.

Back to my first SS80, I have written on various internet forums ad nauseum about how my example from very early production, has the pinwheel truss rod, the unfinished headstock and the Famous Monsters silhouette Washburn logo and the positioning of it, with the SS signature being only on the artists spec guitars built for Steve himself.

I have researched as much as I can, including with Washburn themselves, including Terry Atkins, the incredible builder who was involved in the production of these fine machines of tone.

I always thought mine was some early pre-pro type guitar, but I have come to understand that it was a guitar built for Steve, but never delivered and luckily shipped to me, a mega SS fan.

Steve has told me my black SS80 wasn’t his guitar, which I knew, as I ordered it from the factory and my order was in so quick, it was before the finalized production specs were  in effect, but it was completely the same as the ones sent to him by Washburn, in so many regards that I know it was meant for him and the flawless quality of the build and paint, led me to that assumption.

Since unlike companies like Charvel/Jackson, no records of the guitars serial numbers or production figures exist, one can only speculate how many of each type were built, I feel the largest quantity was the Korean produced SS40’s, which if you look do not carry Steve’s signature on the headstocks. In fact one of the biggest reasons for in my estimation, the devaluation of these guitars in some respects, is the custom of internet sellers trying to pass off SS40’s as USA produced SS80’s.

The necks may look similar, but in no way are the same, also the quality of the Washburn labeled overseas produced pickups, distinguished by a small W on the top of the coils, in no way approach the Seymour Duncan produced JB’s. And not all SS80’s or SS100’s necessarily have the gold plated pole pieces either.

The SS100’s all have black anodized hardware, where the majority of SS80’s and SS40’s have gold plated hardware. The quality of the Original Floyd Rose bridges also varies tremendously. I personally experienced what I learned to be  a quite common problem with my Black SS80’s Schaller Floyd Rose licensed tremelo. It would refuse to stay on tune, which was a serious drawback with a locking tremolo guitar for me! It turned out the cast bridge pieces, were ’soft’ and causing the bridge to mechanically move around, altering the tuning, without even using the bar ! So I ordered a replacement real Original Floyd Rose from Fender, who had bought and was distributing Floyd Rose products at the time, approx.,1993-4. I love the sound of this bridge and it works perfectly and it’s a real Floyd!

During the period of production, the specialty guitars recieved Gotoh Floyds and my purple quilt topped SS80 has the Gotoh, which is a superb design and is highly touted to this day by specialty builders such as Suhr guitars, who currently supply Steve’s Modern series Floyd guitars. John has said it is the best Floyd out there and I believe him, so I have several types of Floyds on my guitars.

If you speak with Washburn and particularly Terry Atkins who now runs Washburns USA Custom Shop in Chicago, the specifications of the Steve Stevens guitars was changing until a final spec was decided on, by that time Steve had left Washburn and it was a moot point.

The final specification I have established for the USA Custom Shop models, is body colored headstock, Washburn “Famous Monsters” logo, the graphic “Steve Stevens Signature model” in print below the Washburn logo and the Steve Stevens signature to the right of these.

The pinwheel adjustment truss rod end was only on the earliest models, Steve’s own personal Artist spec guitars, ect. The finaal production truss rod adjustment is the hex-socket, countersunk into the body end of the neck.

Schaller liscenced  Floyd Rose tremolo in gold, the earliest promo material lists Schaller tuners, but both my SS80’s have gold mini Grovers.

You will see various permutations of specs on guitars out there, bu the only unfinished bodied SS80 was built for Steve only, also headstocks bearing the script Washburn logo are not 99.9% of the time a true USA SS80, no matte what the owner will tell you and obvisly the neck plate is in gold with USA Made in Chicago written on it. Early models do not have rear tremolo covers and have no holes drilled for them, both of my SS80’s are this way, but production SS80 have a black rear tremolo cover, as apparently some of the ‘production’ SS 100’s do as well.

I will add an additional article with pics of the various specs and a rough chronology of the guitars. Remember, I have been ‘obsessed’ with these guitars since I first read about and ordered mine in 1993, so with the advent of the internet, it still was a slow process obtaining info and only this year did I have an epiphany in regards to data I have been seeking for years, I did have the intention of  writing an ‘official’ article for a guitar magazine with all of this, but since I will not do so without the approval of the man himself, it will not happen.

I am compelled to add here that Steve Stevens himself has been more than helpful to me concerning events surrounding these guitars and my word is my bond and I will never directly reveal what Steve has told me.

When I first posted pictures of the completed Barbarella guitar on the Gear Page forum, it was brought to Steve’s attention that the guitar actually existed, for as far as he knew until he saw the pictures, the guitar had never been produced. The design by Steve and all the specs were completed by him and he mentioned it in a guitar magazine article back in 1993, that Washburn was building him such a guitar.

I myself only this year when the purple quilt topped SS80 came up for sale, learned of the existence of this legendary guitar. Jim O’Connor the brilliant graphic artist, responsible for the killer graphics, who I am interviewing soon for this website, had no idea that Steve never even received the guitar.

The whole sequence of events surrounding for me, one of rock/metals greatest guitars is tinged by sadness and to be blunt downright deceit on certain levels. Woild I love to own this magnificent Barbarella ray gun guitar…of course, if only for a prime example of the artistry of Jim O’Connor and  Steve’s great ray gun, sequencing LED electronics.

But I discovered something about the integrity of a great musical artist like Steve Stevens, whom has remained silent for many, many years about events that transpired back then and I feel somewhat responsible for possibly inflicting some painful memories for him through my research, but I must add that he is true gentleman and an artist who is true to his fans. I received the greatest satisfaction from being able to communicate via private message with Steve and to have the opportunity to tell him how much his music and guitar playing meant to me as a true fan, from the very earliest days. He thanked me for being a loyal and true fan, and in music for me in my remarkable life so far, this one one of the highlights. That I may have caused him indirectly some grief inadvertently as well, is also true. But things are cool with Steve and he has told me so.

That Grover Jackson approached Steve in 1984 towards the end of the Rebel Yell album production about producing a guitar for him is true. This guitar developed into the Glow guitar which Steve absolutely loves till to this day and was used on Whiplash Smile, Dirty Diana, Top Gun Anthem, Atomic Playboys and even a track on his recent solo release Memory Crash, the most recent addition being a Bare Knuckles VHII pickup.

This guitar is just plain wore out and Steve has said he A/B’d it with his Suhr Modern and the Suhr won out. Steve currently uses an Ernie Ball Axis guitar, Steve has at least 3 Ernie Ball Music Man EVH model guitars, given to him by his great friend Edward Van Halen on the Exposed tour. The Vince Neil Band toured with Van Halen back in 1993 and Steve also had 3 Peavey 5150 II stacks given to him by Edward as well, so I feel that since his friend Ed is currently endorsing the Wolfgang guitar, Steve uses a similar guitar, but not the VH model out of respect for Ed. Most people wouldn’t notice small details like that about Steve, but it is testament to his character I believe!

The SS100 Frankenstein series began as an extremely limited production and ran into licensing issues with Universal Pictures. The first examples in glow in the dark paint, were completely airbrushed by hand, later stencils were used.

Steve Driscoll was contracted to paint a number of bodies by Washburn and recently one of these guitars #14, was amazingly for sale by Steve Gill of Washburn and he purchased it from Germany, as I saw it on a web guitar display from there.

The guitar was listed on Ebay with no sale as far as I am aware, it went to a ridiculous figure, I would have purchased it, but having sold a lot of my own equipment to purchase my guitar that was confirmed by Washburn, as having been built for SS, and ended up in the private stock collection of Rudy the owner of Washburn/US Music/Randall, ect. It was displayed in the Washburn Museum for many years until Jon at Funky Munky Music in Shawnee, Kansas was able to pry it from Rudy’s hands and I found it on Ebay by chance after it was mentioned on the Washburn forum.

The Washburn forum is primarily interested in other more popular models and my requests for info on SS guitars from them since 2006, has been largely fruitless and they have told me I know more than they do about these guitars.

I can say it has been fascinating researching these guitars and finding out the stories associated with the various models produced.

Steve Stevens was responsible for the incredible Barbarella guitar that incorporates his ray gun effects built into the guitar, along with flashing LED’s in synch with the effects!

Steve first developed this at Hamer in his famous black metalflake SS2 guitar that had his signature written in pink largely across the upper position of the body, where your arm would rest. It also had multiple pink buttons for the effects. This guitar is featured on video at Live Aid when Steve got up to play on Revolution with the Thompson Twins whom he originally added guitar to their album track of the song.

Also in the Dirty Diana video with the recently deceased Micheal Jackson Steve has a Hamer SS-3 with light effects built into the guitar as well as the ray gun sounds!

The Barbarella guitar is a tour de force and the absolutely incredible graphics from the movie poster painted by the extremely gifted artist Jim O’Connor who also painted another SS80 for Steve and this one was licensed by the late great Forrest Ackerman, depicting Famous Monsters magazine covers on the body.

This guitar was generously donated by Steve to the monster movie SFX wizard Rick Baker for his museum, so many fans of the genre would be able to view this beautiful work of art.

That the association was short lived between Steve and Washburn, is sad but that is what happened.

Consequently the era back then, the music that was popular, ect. didn’t lead to this style of guitar being more popular.

Plus there weren’t very many made, there are probably many more Korean produced SS40’s, in fact I know there were.

Even to this day the reputation of the far superior USA made SS models is devalued by the Ebay ads for what are purported to be SS80’s, when in fact they are clearly the SS40’s.

Plus the price points for these mass produced versions is extremely low.

They aren’t terrible guitars and the necks are in fact superior for this price point.

This leads into one of the most superb features for me and many others who appreciate the USA built guitars, the neck.

Think Charvel San Dimas, Pre-Pro, ect., but with a little more girth and a very satisfying feel to it and the superb raw unfinished feel of the oil finish.

The dimensions are at the nut 1 5/8″ and at the 22nd fret, 2 1/4″, with an R2 nut, Dunlop 6110 fretwire, pearl dot inlays, and the neck being of one piece quarter sawn rock maple, with a walnut skunk strip.

The shame is the records do not exist of production serial numbers, quantities made, where shipped ect. Various dealers of course would have their records, but many are not in business anymore.

The poplar bodies, the direct mounted slanted Seymour Duncan JB Trembucker pickups, the dual action reverse thread truss rod, with the early pinwheel adjustment, also used to this day by EVH on his EBMM and now Wolfgang guitars, there were the conventional adjusters in later models.

As these guitar were produced a specification was eventually decided on.

Schaller Floyd Rose licensed top mount tremolos were fitted , later specialty SS80’s and some SS100’s used the far superior Gotoh Floyds.

In fact the only issue I had with my black SS80 was the tremolo, the bridge pieces having soft metal, thus keeping it from remaining in tune, which I did not care for. At the time Fender had acquired Floyd Rose and was distributing them.

So I ordered a Original gold unit and have had trouble free playing ever since.

High quality components were used in the electronics if these guitars, with the control cavity being shielded with insulating paint, a CTS 500K solid shaft audio taper pot for volume control, a three way pickup selector, which may either have a gold or chrome bezel and a Switchcraft 1/4″ football shaped output jack. Schaller or mini Gotoh tuners.

Various logos were used and the guitars with painted headstocks have a clear coat sealer over the back of the headstock up until the countersunk holes for the nut mounting screws

There are script Washburn logos, more commonly on the SS80 are the solid Washburn Famous Monsters logo, borrowed from Forest Ackerman’s monster/sci-fi movie magazine.

The Frankenstein graphic SS100’s have a two-tone body color with the front of the body a luminescent off white color, that would glow in the dark.

The Frankenstein monster as portrayed by Boris Karloff was used, similar to a movie poster for that original film.

Steve being a big sci-fi movie buff, in fact naming his post Billy Idol group “The Atomic Playboys” after a quote from an early sci-fi film.

The original #1 SS100 still resides in the Washurn museum and is the one now for sale at $12K or something like that.

I would like to mention the prize of my collection, the exquisite SS80 with a quilted maple cap over the poplar body, it features a museum grade birdseye maple cap neck, this being unique to only this guitar and the color purple of the top has many shades depending on the light it is viewed in. The back of the body is black, as in the Frankenstein SS100’s. There is no rear tremolo cover as with my black SS80, though I have seen two SS100’s with fitted tremolo covers, yet another variation.

Not widely known, post Steve Stevens departure, SS80’s and even shock , horror SS100’s were painted over, the headstocks stripped of paint and the Steve Stevens graphics and I believe had only a script Washburn logo.

This was to move the remaining stock of guitars and they were unoficially labeled X80’s. I have seen examples of these, and yes they are SS80’s in spirit, but…in fact if the paint is stripped off the bodies on some, a Frankenstein graphic might appear!

The tale is a sad one, there was no happy ending for these extremely rare guitars and frankly most people, even in the guitar world, still under appreciate these unique guitars for the dynamic instruments they are.

Any one with pictures and stories of their SS80’s or SS100’s please feel free to send them to me, as the story continues.

Update Rudy has sold Washburn/US Music To Jam Industries who were major shareholders, this explains the recent purging of the Washburn Private Stock/Museum, with the #1 SS100 Frankenstein painted by Steve Driscoll currently for sale and the  Barbarella SS80 also on the block for $15K. Although recntly not relisted, so who knows if it sold or not as Funky Munky Music aren’t returning my calls recently…

This number 1 SS100 is of course not the first SS100 produced, Steve himself still has the first one, it has a white headstock with the Washburn script logo and no Steve Stevens signature, or SS model designation.

I am not even sure if it is a glow paint job either to tell the truth, but Steve hasn’t played a Washburn guitar since 1993, that much I can say is true.

There were the first airbrushed production SS100’s painted by Steve Driscoll and the one for sale is marked #1. For many years these SS100’s were the white elephant and any time I would ask for info on the internet people would wax lyrical about the Frankenstein SS100’s, “I wish I could get my hands on one of those..ect.” And recently a relative flood of them (for their production quantities  came available on the market and the sellers couldn’t practically give them away..so go figure. Would I like an SS100 Franky, sure I would, but by the time I will be able to afford any guitar again, after my mega-buck purchase of the purple quilt SS80, they will not be in as prime condition.

What is of the greatest annoyance is that all the CNC specifications for these guitars, is still safely locked away at Washburn, this fact was confirmed to me by Terry Atkins, just wish I could have few more original necks…sigh!

The progression from the Jackson/Charvel Glow guitar, through the Hamer SS-3, through the Washburn SS models, is clear, many of the guys who worked for Hamer in Illinois, ended up working at Washburn, Terry Atkins included.

Here is what Steve himself had to say about the recent for sale Barbarella on the HRI  forum, when it was brought up my a forum member who didn’t know the history of the guitar:

That guitar was one i had designed but never played or owned. I think anyone that would spend anywhere near the asking price for that guitar, should have their head examined. I have a suggestion for anyone interested in it. Spend about 3K on a Suhr Modern…and rent the Barbarella film…they’ll end up much happier, lol.
Steve Stevens

Here is my reply on the forum:

I think Steve is being kind in his comments on the Barbarella guitar.
After Steve had designed and spec’d this guitar, it was built after Steve left Washburn and he had no idea it even existed until a few months ago when I posted pics of it I obtained through Washburn on Gear Page.
The great thing about all of it though for me was to be able to have dialog with Steve, always one of my greatest guitar heroes and inspirations,influences and that has meant the world to me.
I have done extensive research on the Washburn era of Steve’s career and I clearly understand Steve’s feelings on his experiences with them.
Since I own two SS80’s, one I ordered in 1993 and one I purchased recently that is an incredible one off.
I have done extensive research on all these guitars and was even offered this Barbarella privately for less money earlier, before it went on Ebay.
There is much sadness connected with this era for Steve personally and if I may be allowed to say, after being directly responsible for one of the finest rock guitars built, for the things to happen that did, is a great tragedy to me personally.
Jim O’Connor is the man who is responsible for the incredible graphic on this guitar, he having painted quite a few guitars for Steve, both Hamers and Washburns.
Jim had no idea that Steve never received the guitar, until I told him..
Out of my ultimate respect for Steve himself as a great person and artist, I must keep the things I have learned private, but Steve has some great guitars now as he has mentioned, working with John Suhr, whom he has known forever and worked on Steve’s guitars back in the early eighties and his Godin’s and Les Pauls, which he sounds amazing on.
Steve is one of very few artists who have maintained a dignity and respect for others, not allowing negative things that would have seriously affected others who are less strong, to affect his attitudes and career progress.
Steve continues to amaze with his solo albums and remains a current, viable artist in today’s music scene, who is a gear head and so often gives credit to engineers and others involved, where I feel he is directly responsible for some of the best playing and killer guitar tones out there..period.
The former owner of US Music, who has sold out I believe, has kept all these rare SS Washburns in his museum/private collection for all these years, I was fortunate enough to get my purple quilt SS80 for a fairly reasonable price, although the most I have ever paid for a guitar, it was worth it to me, as I love these guitars, as I do the Hamer SS-3’s as well.
The music business is a strange world, where oft times, integrity and respect are low priorities, Steve should be commended for his personal integrity over all these past issues and I personally find it repugnant to see guitars that should belong to Steve, being just thrown out on the market. I love that Steve posts here, but you guys innocently enough listed this guitar, but out of respect for Steve, I wouldn’t give these sales any more publicity, imo.
Hey Steve, you know how I feel!
With respect Dave.

I have told this story before, but have lost it somewhere in my myriad multi-forum posts. One of the most incredible moments of my music/guitar related life, was the opportunity to hear the great man, inventor and former president of Gibson guitars, during the golden era and laterally president of Bigsby, until he retrired, Theodore “Ted” Mc Carty, tell his story and relate some key moments in the history of the Gibson company. The late Les Paul was also at this rather unique event held at the National Museum of American History, held at the Lemelson Center and associated with the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C.

I attended on Saturday November 16, 1996 as I happened to be visiting my sister in Maryland at the time and I was able to take the Metro train to the museum. It was an experience that will live with me always. I met Duke Kramer of Gretsch guitar fame, got his autograph, and attended the presentation by Ted Mc Carty who was fairly advanced in years by that time and what a kind and informative individual he was. He related the story of the designing of the Explorer, Flying V and of course the Les Paul guitars. He and Les were not there at the same time, Les has his own day at the exhibit and I could only attend the one day. There was a large collection of vintage guitars, many courtesy of the late Scott Chinery collection, well he was still alive then! I met Paul Reed Smith, Jol Danzig of Hamer guitars as well.

I got the opportunity to shake the hand of this great inventor and father of the Gibson golden years and thank him personally for all the great guitars and designs he gave to us guitarists and how much they meant tp us musicians. He signed my program in a shaky hand, but managed to do so. I truly felt in the presence of a great man, he was very humble and he was most proud of all his employees that worked with him as he emphasized that he did not do it all by himself. Paul Reed Smith was in rather close attendance to Ted, as he was presenting his ‘Mc Carty’ model guitar at the time.

He mentioned that Les Paul and Gibson’s account of the invention of the Les Paul had slight differences and was very respectful to Les, whom he was good friends with back in those days, even though Les’s ideas were originally turned down by Gibson. Fender’s production of the Broadcaster/Esquire/Telecaster prompted Gibson to move in the solid body direction..

Ted personally invented the wrap around tailpiece that transformed the original 1952 Les Paul Goldtops, almost unplayable neck angle and tailpiece/bridge, into an awesome tone machine and the start of an incredible journey of innovation, that is still unparalleled to this day. My initial impressions of Paul Reed Smith, were that he was certainly very self assured and he specifically took me over to look at a classical guitar in a display case, and said, just put your hand across the bottom bout of the guitar and you have the basis of the shape of the Les Paul guitar. This is so ironic because not many years later the Gibson company took him to court over his single cut guitars and their similarity to Gibson’s Les Paul Juniors and Specials. I must give my impression and opinion of what I observed and to me, I felt personally that PRS was sort of leeching off of Ted and sure the McCarty model is in tribute to Ted and I hope Ted was well compensated for his endorsement of Paul’s guitars, but there is nothing new under the sun these days and that was my impression.

I also met Jol Danzig of Hamer guitars, who I managed to ask the most embarrassing question of that was possible, instead of the story about him dissembling the ex Peter Green/Gary Moore Les Paul, I asked him what was the deal with Steve Stevens and his abrupt leaving from Hamer. I could tell immediately that this was not a pleasant subject for Jol to discuss. He replied and  these are his exact words “I would have coffee any day of the week with Steve….pause…but as far as working with again professionally..again silence.”

I have heard the other side of that story from the man himself, Steve Stevens..but that is for another article.

What a great time I had and shaking this mans hand was like a very moving experience for me. I have shaken hands with Yngwie Malmsteen and the late great Jimmy Smith, all masters of their instruments and a handshake is a powerful thing to me, a connection from days gone past!

But then again I am very sentimental and old school when it comes to music and musicians.

Dave

I did not know Steve personally, but I did know his work and let me say, I have never been as impressed with an aftermarket product as I have been with the parts I purchased for my 1952/1956 Les Paul Goldtop restoration/conversion project, see the story in my blog earlier on.

Steve was a Rembrandt of guitar hardware and a Michelangelo combined, he was an artisan, who was a player who understood great tone for himself and his engineering side, where he used apparently CNC machinery to produce these breathtaking versions of primarily Gibson 1950’s hardware. I can really appreciate a fine piece of machined craftsmanship and the ABR-1 that I have which is made of aluminum, is spectacular in quality function and fit, very important parts of the tone/vibration transfer. Also my light weight aluminum tail piece and steel studs are equally superbly manufactured and fit like a glove.

I have been raving for some time about the quality of Steve’s product and those in the know, particularly those with Gibson Historics, know the extremely poor quality of Gibsons modern interpretations of the ’50’s pieces and the Pigtails are as close to and in cases equal or more consistently better than the originals. That is some achievement let me say.

On the left is a picture of the aluminum ABR-1 Pigtail and right next to it is my hand holding an ABR-1 from an all original 1958 Les Paul Goldtop, I was helping sell at the Great American Guitar Show in Philly 2008.

These are various pictures and documents showing tailpieces, comparing the vintage vrs the Pigtail vrs the Historic tail pieces. Notice how different the Historic hardware is form the Pigtail and how closely the Pigtail resembles the vintage piece.

I believe from what I read in my research, before investing in the Pigtail pieces, that Steve meticulously researched the old hardware and digitally measured it, right sown to casting marks, ect.

For example his tail pieces used for a wraparound bridge, such as on a 1953-1955 Les Pauls intonate so much better than the Historic part, The ridge that the strings c go over has been shown to exactly resemble the vintage piece.

With extreme condolences to Steve’s family it is my express hope that someone will continue the tradition of these parts. Steve was primarily a one man operation as far as I know and that is always the hardest scenario to continue.

To those of us that love vintage Les Paul’s and those who GAS over Historics, the loss of Steve is a tragedy on so many levels. I understand that he had a love of vintage aircraft as well.

Something I have always said and I have willingly promoted Steve’s fine product to others looking to upgrade the tone of  their Gibson’s be they vintage or Historic, is that if I had , say a 1959 Les Paul Sunburst and wanted to change out the bridge and or tail piece, I would use Pigtail components without hesitation as these fine products are as good as or better than the original as they are more consistent, due to the modern method of construction, the high quality of metals and playing used.

On the right side of the page is my 1952/56 conversion with Steve’s hardware in place. The aluminum ABR-1 really wakes up the tone of the Gold Top and as my luthier had to slightly spray thicker lacquer die to the original configuration of the guitar, where in the conversion to TOM from the original 1952 tailpiece, the bridge was sunk into the body rather than resetting the neck angle.

Since my guitar had to be re-necked due to it arriving with a severe headstock break, necessitating the use of a old wood neck blank, which was set at the correct 1956 style angle for TOM and stop tailpiece, see my Story of My Gold Top, contained in this blog!

I love this guitar and I am honored to have  Pigtail pieces fitted and will think of Steve when I play the guitar as I do of the late John Zeidler, when I play either of my two Gary Moore Heritages, as John reworked those for me as well. God bless you Steve and thanks from every guitarist for your brilliant contribution to helping is nail that perfect tone. His hardware is practically built to military specifications, it is that superior.

You will be missed.  Dave