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

I wanted a nice short scale (30") bass guitar which is a lot easier for people that are primarily guitar players to play than the standard 34" bass guitar scale. For versatility, I wanted one with a P/J pickup configuration which combines the neck pickup from a Precision Bass with the bridge pickup from a Jazz Bass. In the Fender line, the Jaguar SS Vintage Modified Bass fits those needs very nicely (the SS meaning Short Scale). I found one that I could get for a fantastic pr

I saw a Univox Ripper inspired guitar on sale at Eastwood Guitars and thought the natural finish and cream colored open humbuckers looked way cool and so I scooped one up. The setup on this was better than most guitars you buy. No string buzzing, but I still did a little bit of fret leveling just because I'm a perfectionist. Fret ends were perfect. Intonation just required minor adjustment to be perfect. It's definitely a 3 piece body and on mine, the right side of the body

The guitar that Jerry used most frequently over the last 16 years of his life was a custom guitar built by Doug Irwin called "Tiger."...

What's more nostalgic than an Etch A Sketch ? Invented in France and marketed in the US starting in 1960, it was on every baby boomer...

Fender makes a wonderful model called the Acoustasonic that gives you the sound of an acoustic guitar with the light weight, smaller size...

Back during the 1976 bicentennial, Michigan issued this beautiful license plate with the stars and stripes. I was going to school at...

Home made lap steel guitar