...freaky guitars...

                                                   by Paul Xenos

…freaky guitars δεν είναι παρά ένα δίγλωσσο λογοπαίγνιο, από τις λέξεις freak – φρικιό, φρίκη…

…όταν κάποια στιγμή μετά από 25 και πάνω χρόνια κιθαριστικού βίου προχώρησα στην ψυχοθεραπευτική χομπιστική ενασχόληση της επαναφοράς, αναβάθμισης, ανακατασκευής και τελικά κατασκευής κιθάρων…

…έβλεπα φίλους μου κιθαρίστες – φρικιά να φρικιούν παίζοντας με μια κιθάρα πολύ χαμηλού κόστους ανακατασκευασμένη ή κάποια άλλη που είχα μαζέψει από τα σκουπίδια και είχα ασχοληθεί με αυτή, η οποία έπαιζε και ακογόταν όπως η κιθάρα που είχαν χρυσοπληρώσει ή και καλύτερα από αυτή……

…υποδομή του όλου εγχειρήματος ήταν η θέση πως δεν υπάρχουν καλές και κακές κιθάρες  αλλά κιθάρες κατασκευασμένες με επιμέλεια και άλλες με προχειρότητα και αβλεψίες λόγω του επιδιωκόμενου χαμηλού κόστους που όμως μπορεί να διορθωθούν με παρεμβάσεις…

…στόχος, ένα όργανο χαμηλού κόστους ή κατεστραμμένο να παίζει και να ακούγεται όπως τα καταξιωμένα όργανα της αγοράς με το λιγότερο δυνατό πρόσθετο κόστος, κάτι που

σημαίνει πως το εγχείρημα δεν ήταν εύκολο και ταχύ στην εφαρμογή του…

…αυτό δεν ήταν άσχετο με την εμπειρία μου στα τέλη της δεκαετίας του ΄80 όταν - ήδη με 10 χρόνια λάιβ είτε με προσωπικές μπάντες είτε ως σέσσιον, -  περιδιάβαινα την Ευρώπη με ένα σλήπινγκ μπαγκ για αρκετό καρό και συναντούσα πλήθος μουσικούς στο δρόμο που έπαιζαν με διαλυμένα όργανα απίστευτες μουσικές κάνοντάς με να απορώ…

…μεταφέροντας τα λόγια του Kleist από τους χειριστές μαριονέτας στους χειριστές οργάνων θα ‘λεγα πως τέλος τέλος το όργανο δεν είναι παρά μία δίοδος ανάδυσης του είναι του μουσικού γι’ αυτό και η προσεκτική και επιμελημένη κατασκευή είναι απαραίτητη για την άριστη κατά το δνατόν αποτύπωση του αποτελέσματος, αυτού της φανέρωσης...
 …όπου, η καμπύλη 

που διαγράφει 

η χορδή της κιθάρας 

είναι ακριβώς 

η καμπύλη τροχιά της ανάδυσης 

της ψυχής του κιθαρίστα…

...translation by Andreas Paraskevas...

… freaky guitars isn't but a bilingual play on words, from the words freak and guitar

… when at a certain point after 25 and more years of guitar life I went on to the psychotherapeutic activity of reinstatement, restoration, rebuilding and finally construction of guitars.

  I watched guitarist friends of mine, freaks freak out playing with a low cost guitar, reconstructed or another that I had collected from the trash and had spent some time with it. Playing on these guitars, they produced a sound as good as the guitar that they had paid dearly for.

That's how Freaky Guitars was created.

Basis of the whole venture was the argument that there ain't such a thing as good and bad guitars but guitars created thoroughly and others created roughly and with oversights due to low cost, which can be corrected with interventions...

Our aim is a low cost or destroyed instrument that will play and sound like the acclaimed instruments of the market with the least possible extra cost, which means that the task wasn't easy and fast in its application...

That wasn't irrelevant to my experience towards the end of the 80s, when – already having played live for 10 years either with personal bands or as a session musician I travelled across Europe with a sleeping bag for a while and met a large number of street musicians playing great music with destroyed instruments in really poor condition, which made me wonder.

Quoting marionette operator Kleist, I would say that in the end, the instrument isn't but a path of ascent of the being of the musician and that's why the cautious and careful construction is necessary for the top quality imprinting of the result of this revelation.

Where the curve created 

by the guitar string

 is exactly 

its trajectory of the ascent 

of the soul of the guitar player

...the screamer...final remake..

...i made this guitar about five years ago as a tribute to Albert Colince..


...you can see about it here...
http://jwarbird.blogspot.gr/2012/12/the-screamer-freaky-tele.html




...so i decided to make the screamer more worm changing the screamin' pickups  with a texas special on the neck and a kent armstrong hb on bridge... i changed also the wiring, the pots with alpha, the pickguard and the tuning machines and refretted the neck...

...dean evo XM custom modified

 ...a well known low price guitar can change 
to a superb one as i usually have said before...

...sanded the back side of the neck to change the shape and give more playability
...changed the headstock from black to matchin' with the body
...refretted the neck
...finished with gun oil
...changed the pickups with a GFS hb medium output bluesy set
...changed the wiring
...fixed the dangerous G harmonic installing a spring in the bridge in front of the g saddle
...changing the knobs





 

 

 

                           ...now this guitar plays like a high price one...

...a broken lag T66 D

a summer camping repair

...well, this repair was made in front of the see
...a young man packed his things to leave and let behind a lag T66 D acoustic guitar
...it was absolutely new except a completely broken neck
...not only broken but a piece of wood was missing
...the trussrod was out
...so i picked up some things
from the village near the camping and tried to repair it just for fun
 ...tryin' to fix it with the trussrod workin' properly

...unforunately had no camera to take some pictures so i took them all when a came back home...think plays perfect...

...ibanez SZ 520 QM custom modified

...an extremely  good guitar manufactured from 2003 to 2008 in korea


...see all about it here banez.wikia.com/wiki/SZ520QM


 ...changed the wiring, switch, pots and the pickups
...put a splittin' to single coils switch instead of apot
...left a volume and a tone pot
...changed the pickups with a dimarzio hb DP254 neck and DP156 bridge

...Rory's true relic project

...from very old parts...

...an alder body dark brown see through from 80's
...a gun oil finished maple neck from 90's
...a fender 62 bridge
...tuners from a japan fender 83
...pickguard (broken) from a fender stratocaster II, 90
...neck and bridge pickups from a fender standard 90's
...middle pickup from a fender japan 83

...tried to make all the parts workin' perfect
...let them with their true relic of the years

...this beuty its' like Rory's so i called it 
Rory's project...

 

 

 

















 
                                                  ...Rory lives forever...