I'm cool..but nobody knows it....!

Here you can discuss details about instruments, equipment and all those other bits that non-musicians won't understand !

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Russ Gannicott
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I'm cool..but nobody knows it....!

Postby Russ Gannicott » Tue Jun 24, 2008 12:30 am

I've just discovered that in 1973 I made Dave Grohl's (Foo Fighters) guitar. I didn't know it, he doesn't know it, you didn't know it......but now you do ands he doesn't. So that makes all Gordon's 'anorak readers' cooler and more enlightened than Dave Grohl. That's what I call cool!
Russ

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GORDON
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Postby GORDON » Tue Jun 24, 2008 8:01 am

COOOOOOOL :D

Best.

G.

Trevor Raggatt
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Re: I'm cool..but nobody knows it....!

Postby Trevor Raggatt » Tue Jun 24, 2008 1:09 pm

Russ Gannicott wrote:I've just discovered that in 1973 I made Dave Grohl's (Foo Fighters) guitar. I didn't know it, he doesn't know it, you didn't know it......but now you do ands he doesn't. So that makes all Gordon's 'anorak readers' cooler and more enlightened than Dave Grohl. That's what I call cool!
Russ


Come on now... you can't leave it at that Russ... details! We want details!

AND pictures! Which guitar?

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Roger
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Postby Roger » Tue Jun 24, 2008 10:04 pm

Russ,

I seem to remember that you mentioned this to me at Gordon's 60th party (PJ's Guitars?).

Roger :wink:

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Russ Gannicott
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Postby Russ Gannicott » Fri Jun 27, 2008 12:31 am

Ahh, well Trevor..it's a bit of a long story but here goes:
Dave Grohl and Keith Richard are both players of Dan Armstrong/Ampeg 'Lucite' clear acrylic guitars. Both also own and play 'back-up' instruments. These are period 'copies' from around 1973 made by CSL in the UK. In some ways the CSL's are superior guitars to the Ampegs as they have better necks and more tone variation (without the need to swap pick-us). They are also considerably rarer. Charles Sommerfield Limited had some kind of conection with Rose Morris in the early seventies and they decided to market their own version of the Dan Armstrong. 24 fret necks were sourced from what was to become the Ibanez factory in Japan and three Uk companies were commisioned to build the bodies. I'm not sure where assembly took place.
To my knowledge ther were only 200 six strings and either fifty or 100 basses built. The company I was working for at the time (as a school leaver!) got the job to manufacture 50 six string bodies and all the scratch plates from woodgrain 'Formica' type solid phenolic laminate. All the bodies were band sawed from 1 1/4" clear Perspex and the hand finished and polished. The body routing was done using a Taylor Hobson 'Model K' engraving machine. The 'K' was also used to profile and bevel edge the scratch plates.
Several years ago I was lucky eough to buy one of the six strings at auction - is it one I made? I'll never know, but I like to think it is....as I also like to think I made Dave Grohl's and Keith Richard's. Maybe I did. What I do know is that when the local supplier of the scratch plate material shut down a few years ago I rescued the last sheet of the laminate from their skip and have been able to help restore a couple of CSL's since for their owners.
So, are they any good? Yes they are - they sustain more than a Les Paul and they have 24 frets to the body. Tonally they are a bit thin, but there is a trick to get round that (using vaseline!) and then they really sing.
My one is in pretty good condition and it plays superbly apart from the pick-ups which are very tired. If anyone has a pair of early Japanese chrome Humbuckers knocking about, please let me know...you could really make my day!
So there you go!
All the best,
Russ

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Postby Trevor Raggatt » Fri Jun 27, 2008 1:19 pm

Yup! Officially cool!

Great story.


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