Dweezil Zappa World

This is the first SG I ever bought. It sounds great but has been plagued with many problems. It would not ever stay in tune. The original bridge had been moved around by the previous owner. I ended up putting a tune-o-matic bridge on it and modern tuners to make it more playable. It's better now.

It's no longer straight up vintage but I'm not a particularly nerdy/obsessive compulsive collector. I like guitars that I can play anywhere anytime. I don't want to worry about whether or not they will get scratched. At that point they might as well be furniture in a vault that kids aren't allowed in.

This guitar has undergone many transformations in it's day. It started it's life as a Kramer flying V. In fact it's the one on the cover of my first recording "My Mother Is A Space Cadet" I was 12 years old at the time and had only been playing guitar for 9 months. (If anyone has that cover handy please post it). By the way, that was produced by Edward Van Halen and engineered by Don Landee who did the first few VH records. We recorded it at the UMRK studio.

This is my green guitar from Havin' A Bad Day. It is the first Charvel I ever bought. It has one of my favorite necks of all time. I spent a lot of time practicing on that guitar in my formative years! 

It has had different pick ups in it from time to time. Currently it has a Blues Saraceno model pick up in the bridge. Other than that it is stock from the old factory in San Dimas California. I used to keep it tuned to and open E chord a lot in the early 90's. I wrote a few things of interest in that tuning. The tapping intro to FWAK from the Confessions album and the extrapolated version called Fwakstension on the Automatic record. I have no idea how to play either of those things at this point.

This guitar comes with a great story. Picture this if you will. It's 1982 and the biggest rock band in the world is VAN HALEN. I was 12 years old and had only been playing guitar for 9 months. Eruption and the Mean Streets intro were on a constant loop in my head. I was signed up to play at my school talent show. It was coming up in a week. I was going to play "Running With The Devil" with my little teenage rocking combo.

This is a bit of an unusual guitar. I can't say that I've ever seen one on stage with anyone, nor have I seen one in a store. I got this one from Mr. Charlie Boswell. It's incredibly fun to play and sounds amazing. It's like a baby 335. I've played it on a few things. Most notably the "jazzy" solo with the clean tone on "Audio Movie", from the Go With What You Know CD.

I would like to get a real 335 like the one Frank used to play. His had the vibrola tremolo. I think that guitar got destroyed in Montreaux..."Smoke On the Water..." either that or it was stolen along with a few other guitars of his. Most notably the gold top Les Paul with the extra single coil pick up added. That was recently up for auction. If you ever see it come up again let me know. 

I played this guitar a lot in 2007 and some of 2008. It's another relic, new guitar that has been beat up cosmetically. It has Eric Johnson pick ups in it and it sounds great. I played a lot of "Yo Mama" solos with that guitar. There is a particularly good one that stands out from all of the others. It was recorded in Sydney Australia. I'll probably make it available as a single download one of these days. We'll see.

Many of you ask at shows whether or not this is Frank's guitar. I wish I could play one of Frank's guitars at the shows but the guitars are too valuable historically to subject them to any more touring. So my Walnut SG is dressed for the occasion. It's a completely stock guitar, whereas Frank's guitars have tons of electronics built in. I love this guitar. It has been the rock and brought the rock throughout this whole project. It was actually given to me as a gift when this tour began by my good friend Charlie Boswell. Many thanks once again Charlie!

This guitar is unique to say the least. Here's the short version of the legend of this guitar. FZ and JH were friends. They played at the Miami Pop Festival. This guitar was likely torched at the Astoria in London and it's remains were given to FZ in Miami by JH's guitar tech.

FZ rebuilt the guitar using only the body. The neck and electronics were destroyed by the fire. He added custom electronics - preamps and parametric eqs - in the mid 70's. He routinely played it on stage and in the studio from that point until the early 80's. It's very likely the Stratocaster heard on the legendary "Watermelon in Easter Hay."

It then disappeared for a spell. I found it in pieces under a staircase at the UMRK studio. I told Frank I found it and asked if he would like me to put it back together for him. He said, "Sure." The electronics were missing and the neck was damaged so I chose to rebuild it as a stock instrument from the original time period of the late 60's. Jay Black a master builder at the Fender custom shop built a fantastic neck with a flipped head stock - a nod to Jimi - and I procured some custom wound Lindy Fralin single coil pick ups for it.

I got it all finished as a birthday gift for Frank. When he opened the case he smiled and and played it for a while. A little later he said, "You know what, you should have this guitar." Of course I smiled in disbelief.

Guitarist friends of mine lucky enough to have had the chance to play this guitar all spoke of having goosebumps or having the hair on their forearms rise in salute. It's an experience. Are you experienced? Have you ever been experienced?

This guitar is one of my personal favorites. I remember the first time I ever saw the guitar was in a photo from Life Magazine. They followed Edward on the road around the time of the Fair Warning and Diver Down tours. That is my favorite Van Halen album by the way. Anyhow, as you may or may not know Edward built a lot of his own guitars. He was backstage with a bunch of them and this one kind of in the middle as I vaguely recall. It really stood out to me. (If anyone has that photo please post it!) It was the only guitar he had that had any green on it. I like green so it stuck in my head for years. A decade later I went to Edward's 5150 recording studio for a recording session. He played a few amazing solos on my as yet unfinished magnum opus - What The Hell Was I Thinking? (Started working on it in the early 90's so it's soon to be 20 years in the making)

Anyway the "Rasta" guitar - That's what Edward called it - He also referred to it as UBAB - was sitting in the corner. The neck was off. I said, "Hey that's the guitar from Life Magazine" and he replied, "Oh yeah, I hate that guitar... it's too heavy. Do you want it?" "Yes please" was my immediate response. It came replete with actual dried vomit in the neck joint and a little left on the guitar as well. It's still there...BRUTAL Cologna...

This Stratocaster has always been one of my favorites. I think it has great style. Jay Black also built this one for me. I saw a similar one he built at the custom shop and I said, "I have to have one!" Here it is.