Tom's Travelcaster There's a company called Traveler Guitars that makes very compact guitars to fit in the overhead bins of airplanes. Their original models were headless with the tuning pegs imbedded in the body. Weird looking and never very appealing to me. Then I saw they were making a full scale guitar with the usual headstock on top that looked like a Fender Stratocaster with part of the body cut away. Travel Guitar brand Travelcaster I set out to make my own improved ve

John on the second Ed Sullivan appearance In 1964, the Beatles burst onto the world stage when they appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show. John was playing a black Rickenbacker guitar that had been his mainstay since he bought it in 1960 from a music store in Hamburg. It was a 1958 Rickenbacker Capri model 325. When purchased, it had a natural finish, huge "stove knobs" on it and a vibrato that didn't work very well and made the guitar go rapidly out of tune. A little known fact a

Original 1931 A-22 The world's first commercially available solid body electric guitar was the Rickenbacker A-22 which debuted in 1932, eighteen years before Leo Fender released his first guitar. It had a small round body which with the neck sticking out of it engendered it's nickname of the "frying pan", The nickname was doubly fitting as the neck and body were cast as a single piece of aluminum. Not many of these were sold because it was the height of the Great Depression

Tom's tribute to Jerry Garcia's Alligator guitar Jerry played many guitars over his career, but one of the most famous was his "Alligator" guitar which was his main go to guitar in the early 1970s including the Grateful Dead's iconic Europe '72 album. Jerry acquired the guitar from Graham Nash when he played on one of Graham's solo albums. It was a 1950s Fender Stratocaster with a nicely grained Ash wood body with a clear stain that really shows off the grain. Ash is also a d

Tom's Coodercaster Tribute One of the most famous slide guitar players of all time is Ry Cooder . He has made significant contributions to various music genres, including blues, rock and world music. Cooder's innovative guitar techniques and rich musical storytelling have earned him critical acclaim and a dedicated fan base over the decades. You can see him in the movie Buena Vista Social Club which helped revive interest in traditional Cuban music. Ry's original Ry's signat