Crazy guitarist tales

[Davey]

I've just been reading some of Guthrie Govan's Creative Guitar book and thought I'd share a couple of little stories from the section to do with maintaining your calluses.

First off Stevie Ray Vaughan used to put superglue on his fingers then attach his fingers to his forearm, and then quite literally "let 'er rip" by yanking the skin off of his arm so that he'd have double the skin on his fingers. (Makes you wonder what the hell he'd of done if the skin on his FINGERS got ripped off instead, lol)

Another guy that he knew maintained his fingertips so well that one evening in an Indian restuarant he picked up one of those metal skillets (the ones they tell you NOT to touch because they are so hot) took his food off of the skillet and put it on the plate. It was only until after when he couldn't put the thing down because the skin on his fingers had melted and stuck to the thing that he realised what he'd done. EEEYOOOOUUCH!!

There are a couple more but I'll save them for maybe later in the thread.

Anyone else got any gear/guitar related stories??

[ibanez2005]

i like the one about Jaco eating fried chicken so the grease would lube his fingers up.

[Eggy]

How many times have you picked up a cup of tea with your fretting hand thinking it didn't feel too hot, only to burn your mouth cos your tips won't give yopu a real reading of hot and cold any more ??

Ben

[Davey]

I must admit that has happened when I've pinched the odd chip here and there, lol

Another great one is when he's talking about humidity and how it effect instruments.

The bass player (on a tour he was on in Brazil) woke up to find all the parts you'd need to make a double-bass on the floor. In the night it'd been that hot that the glue had melted and his bass literally fell apart

[Tom Gilroy]

Originally Posted by Eggy

How many times have you picked up a cup of tea with your fretting hand thinking it didn't feel too hot, only to burn your mouth cos your tips won't give yopu a real reading of hot and cold any more ??

Ben

Plenty.

Couple of crazy guitarist stories.

A friend of mine is the great improviser when it comes to guitars, and I don't mean musically. One time he broke a string on his acoustic, cut some twine, tuned it up and used it for a few days till it pulled apart. He's also replaced lost parts of his beat to hell Tele (it was all pretty and shiny when he bought it) with parts of ballpoint pens. It works. He's also melted toy soldiers onto his amp, to patch up places where the tweed is ripping.

Another guitarist I know bought two secondhand Squier Strats dirt cheap, cut the lower half off one, the upper half off the other and made his own doubleneck guitar by gluing the two butchered guitars together (not a pretty sight). He then proceeded to make the lower neck a fretless by, you guessed it, taking out the frets. The thing is monstrous.

[OLIE_ROCKS_THE_80'S]

Originally Posted by Ibanez249

I've just been reading some of Guthrie Govan's Creative Guitar book and thought I'd share a couple of little stories from the section to do with maintaining your calluses.

First off Stevie Ray Vaughan used to put superglue on his fingers then attach his fingers to his forearm, and then quite literally "let 'er rip" by yanking the skin off of his arm so that he'd have double the skin on his fingers. (Makes you wonder what the hell he'd of done if the skin on his FINGERS got ripped off instead, lol)

Another guy that he knew maintained his fingertips so well that one evening in an Indian restuarant he picked up one of those metal skillets (the ones they tell you NOT to touch because they are so hot) took his food off of the skillet and put it on the plate. It was only until after when he couldn't put the thing down because the skin on his fingers had melted and stuck to the thing that he realised what he'd done. EEEYOOOOUUCH!!

There are a couple more but I'll save them for maybe later in the thread.

Anyone else got any gear/guitar related stories??

Well I guess SRV needed the extra skin since he played really thick gauge strings!!!

[Davey]

Yeah the guy used 0.13s. Ouch!

Originally Posted by Tom Gilroy

Another guitarist I know bought two secondhand Squier Strats dirt cheap, cut the lower half off one, the upper half off the other and made his own doubleneck guitar by gluing the two butchered guitars together (not a pretty sight). He then proceeded to make the lower neck a fretless by, you guessed it, taking out the frets. The thing is monstrous.

That actually sounds like a pretty good idea

[OLIE_ROCKS_THE_80'S]

That butchering of guitars reminds me of an old EVH story I read when he hacked up a guitar and killed it!!! (meaning the tone) he said that after the operation he realized that he had rendered it useless!!!

[Kii]

I once accidentally touched a hot soldering iron to one of the fingers on my fretting hand.

[the.godfather]

Originally Posted by OLIE_ROCKS_THE_80'S

That butchering of guitars reminds me of an old EVH story I read when he hacked up a guitar and killed it!!! (meaning the tone) he said that after the operation he realized that he had rendered it useless!!!

Thats when EVH cut up his Ibanez Destroyer. I remember reading that story too. He decided it would be a good idea to cut a chunk of wood out from behind the bridge. To make it "look cooler". But once EVH played the guitar, he realised what he had done. He had taken a vital piece of wood away from behind the guitars bridge. And it seriously affected the tone, e.g. making it completely useless. So he had to give up on it in the end. He never played it after that.

[Josh_P]

I can't 100% confirm the validity of this but a friend told me that the guitar players and bass player (Jerry Only) from The Misfits make thier own guitars from a mold using some kind of synthetic material. Also says they have know volume or tone controls. Just a kill switich because they don't want any resistance in thier tone.

[Randy Rhoads]

Judas Priest, KK Downing and glen tipton only have killswitches too....pups straight to amp!

Ace Frehley (of KISS) have been electrocuted twice by his rig.... (dont drink and play buddy!)

[Demogorgos]

My Jem7BRMR is at the luthier for vine inlay, and I've asked him to disconnect all pots too, and change the volume into a push-pull configured as a kill switch. I never use the pots anyway, so I'm gonna have that done on all my axes. The knobs will remain for aesthetic reasons only.

Regards,

JP

[bammbamm]

Originally Posted by Randy Rhoads

...Ace Frehley (of KISS) has been electrocuted twice by his rig.... (dont drink and play buddy!)

Which Ace live has told the story of, and it spawned the penning of "Shock Me", appropriately.

I saw him live in a lil hole in the wall place in Joliet, IL. (just for fun tour) and I swear to you, he was 9 sheets to the wind, but he still put on a good show. He looked as ripped out of his skull as anyone I've ever seen. Best line all night "Anyone here been in prison?...***Crickets***
No?...
Well I have, It sucks!... This is BREAKOUT !"

He did all the stuff with the burning pickup guitar solo, etc.
Probably the loudest show ever experienced by me. My ears were ringing 2 days after (and I wore earplugs).

[wallie!]

haha I went camping on Sunday night, one thing lead to another and I found myself picking up a red hot poker with my playing hand. Turns out having hardened fingers makes no difference and now most of my hand is burnt and blistered haha
Tis lucky I can still play...........kinda