If you are not an Eastwood Artist yet, here is the link to apply.

Artist Page at Eastwood Guitars from MyRareGuitars.com

Eastwood Radio is on the air!

Eastwood’s new Artist Endorsement Program is in full swing. In addition to the upcoming Compilation CD, Eastwood has launched Eastwood Radio. It plays 24/7 featuring artists that use Eastwood Guitars. If you are already an Eastwood player, submit your MP3 for consideration at www.eastwoodguitars.com!

Eastwood Radio Hits the Airwaves! from MyRareGuitars.com

Eastwood Guitars Announces Artists Compilation CD 2008

Although still in the planning stages, we are working on a new project here for 2008. The Eastwood Artists Compilation CD. We plan to release at least 2 CD’s per year, each featuring 20+ tracks from Artists that use Eastwood Guitars. If interested in having your song included, please send us an email.

Eastwood Guitars Announces Artists Compilation CD (2008) from MyRareGuitars.com

[See image gallery at www.myrareguitars.com]

Eastwood Guitar Players & Featured Artists from MyRareGuitars.com

Headstock: Joey Leone RBC Guitar from Eastwood Guitars

Eastwood CEO Mike Robinson and I have been working together for years – improvements on existing designs, new ideas and alike. Mike has always encouraged me to think outside the box, and in turn I have given him many ideas and concepts, some discussed and put aside, but this Signature Moded was a concept we both loved. This guitar was to be a players guitar – one that offered an opportunity for guitar players to have a wide palette of sounds to draw from – yet did not look like a crowded subway car.

OK Joey, “what does this guitar do that is so special?” Here’s where the fun begins…. First I thought about some of my favorite guitar players and the guitars they played. I tend to think of guitars and players in groups, organized by styles and tones. Hmmm? Matt Guitar Murphy played an ES 345, T-Bone Walker played an ES-5 Switchmaster, Mark Knopfler a Strat, Roy Buchanan a Tele, double hmmm? Pickups?A triple hmmmm?

Pickups: Joey Leone RBC Guitar from Eastwood Guitars

I knew I wanted my first design to be a versatile guitar that would be a clean, and clear voiced guitar that could be played at a low volume and still be strong sounding, but also one that would sing and sustain at higher volumes. I wanted the guitar to cut through with a high mid voice that would be there even when mixed at lower volumes. Here’s how I did it!

First I decided to go with a semi-hollow archtop design like a 335, but use P90 pickups. I knew that there were very few if any semi-hollows with P90 pickups. Next I wanted to have the scale length be longer then the standard Gibson, so I created a Fender scale (25 ½ inch) on a Gibson style frame. This would afford the player the opportunity to use heavier gauge strings without the hand fatigue that we incessant pickers tend to experience. Also this would make bending strings more pleasurable.

Flamed Finish: Joey Leone RBC Guitar from Eastwood Guitars

I also asked the builders to make the neck a bit wider (2 mm’s) so the strings would not feel crowded. This is the feel you get when you play an L5 or any high end archtop, again wanting to give the player a really fine guitar for his or her money. I also asked them to make me a one piece mahogany neck; this design in my opinion gives the guitar a more consistent transfer of vibrations throughout the guitar. I have always felt that multi-laminated maple necks were strong and stiff to a fault as the glue joints make the neck dead. I also never liked the idea of guitar builders gluing together piece of wood that did not have consistent grain and or density. Yes, more expensive, but Mike said, “Let’s design the guitar FIRST, and worry about cost SECOND.”

I insisted that this guitar have a book matched flamed maple top and back of similar grain and density for the same reasons mentioned above. I also added flamed maple sides as well for aesthetics mostly. And speaking of aesthetics I also wanted real mother of pearl instead of “pearloid” or some other faux material. Tell me that never drove you crazy, over $3,000 for a guitar and when you friends say, “is that real mother of pearl?” you have to say… ahhh.. kinda…..no!!!

Switches: Joey Leone RBC Guitar from Eastwood Guitars

Now onto the electronics, an aspect of which I am most proud. I went to pickup visionary Kent Armstrong (son of Dan) and told him I wanted P90 pickups that would also be able to get a Strat sound as well as the standard P90 voicing. Through many, many hours of work in Kent’s workshop we came up with a hot P90 pickup with a coil tap that would yield the signature Strat sound. This is not one of those stacked humbuckers that I have always thought to be okay at best, but not having a single coil sound at all. These pickups sound great and they are potted with wax to avoid almost all microphonics. Then, three pickups like T-Bone’s ES-5 with the middle pickup reverse wound to get the humbucking sound when combined with any of the other pickups, this we did – but again through many hours of skull sessions – we made the middle pickup not only a coil tapped single coil but used AlNiCO 5 magnets like on the old 55 Les Paul Custom – but really closer to the McCarty Pickups found on the old L7 “pickups in the pickguard” design. These can be adjusted by simply pushing the pole piece up through the bottom of the pickup with a small screwdriver. This pickup when coil tapped sounds very similar to a Jazzmaster pickup but with a bit more balls. All these custom creations add expense? You bet it does, but when you play this guitar and start to explore the tonal palette, it will blow you away….

What we end up with is a guitar with 27 useable sounds – no throw away “excuse” sounds – with 9 humbucking combinations. All of this is easily accomplished by using the three full size toggles located between the master volume and master tome pots.

You will see some pictures here is this article of the first two prototypes. Production models will be available in April 2007. I’ve asked Mike to do two colors – Natural (pictured here to the left) and an Antique Sunburst (the Cherryburst will not be in production until later next year).

Natural Finish: Joey Leone RBC Guitar from Eastwood Guitars

Now onto some of the other design ideas that went into the RBC model. Medium jumbo frets on a slightly curved fretboard, this will make this guitar an axe blues players as well as shred guys who are used to flat fingerboards feel at home. Add some Grover Imperial Tuners, a tunematic bridge, and trapeze tailpiece to the design of the Joey Leone Signature RBC Model, and you have a guitar designed by a player for players. No B.S.

One more thing my friends, my buddy Mike Robinson at Eastwood Guitars has been behind this guitar from the beginning and will deliver this guitar to you with his usual rock hard, unsurpassed customer service that has helped make Eastwood the up and coming guitar company out there today. This guitar will be of the highest quality and be affordable. No B.S. there either!

Joey Leone Signature RBC Eastwood Guitar (Rock, Blues & Country) from MyRareGuitars.com

Bill Nelson, guitarist for Be Bop Deluxe

Here we are 30 years later and after following my passion, I find myself as the president of EASTWOOD Guitars. My enthusiasm for music has not diminished one bit. I still seem to spend more money on CD’s than groceries. I have thousands of LP’s that have not seen a needle in years, due to the fact that I now have thousands of CD’s that for a large part, replicate my LP’s. Of course now that I have my 60G IPOD, the CD’s are getting a rest. Crazy? Perhaps, but I would not give them up for the world. Being surrounded by music and electric guitars, I find myself enjoying life more now than ever. How could it get any better? How about reconnecting with Bill Nelson!

As luck would have it, our paths recently crossed again – this time not through my pursuing an autograph – but through Bill’s on-going interest in Bizarre Guitars. I have followed the career of Bill Nelson since his first release in 1971, Northern Dream (which by the way was the album I had him sign). Most of us were introduced to Bill through the critically acclaimed 70’s band, Be Bop Deluxe. I still play air guitar when listening to riffs from LIVE IN THE AIR AGE, possibly one of the greatest LIVE band recordings from that era.

Bill continued through the next 3 decades with a solo career that amassed a staggering number of releases. I cannot remember a year going by without the purchase of at least one Bill Nelson CD, often two and three. Some of my personal favorites include QUIT DREAMING AND GET ON THE BEAM (1981), CHIMERA (1983), MAP OF DREAMS (1987), AFTER THE SATELLITE SINGS (1996), MAGNIFICNET DREAM PEOPLE (1997) and DEEP DREAM DECODER (1998).

If for some reason you missed the last three decades and are in need of a quick fix, run out and get WHAT NOW, WHAT NEXT?, it is an exceptionally good compilation of the Cocteau Years from 1980-1990. Also pick up SATELLITE SONGS, the perfect companion. More than enough to rekindle the spirit.

I am the proud owner of over 40 CD’s (and a few dozen vinyl LP’s) from Bill Nelson. Thirty years later, now that our paths have crossed again, Bill is the proud owner of an EASTWOOD Saturn ’63. How cool is that!? Imagine the smile on my face when Bill wrote back with the following message:

I’m one of those post-war baby-boomers who were born into the era of rock n’ roll and science-fiction. Like many well-known British musicians of my generation, I attended Art School in the ’60’s and have always had an eye for unusual visual design, whether that be in the realm of cars, clothes or architecture… guitars too. Especially guitars!

I remember standing outside local music store windows as a 12 year old, blown away by the exotic, futuristic designs of many ’50’s and ’60’s guitar manufacturers such as Fenton Weill, Wandre, Hopf, Guyatone and Teisco. These were not the big name, glamorous makes that famous stars played, but they were, for me and my budding young musician friends, even more other-worldly, more electric than the expensive mainstream brands. Their visual appeal went way beyond practical considerations and strayed into the realm of pure fantasy. They were aesthetically ‘out there’, super-modern, ultra-baroque. They embodied the essential, electrical essence of rock n’ roll.

Unfortunately, they were not the most player-friendly instruments in the world, often being manufactured cheaply, despite the avant-garde nature of their visual appeal. Nevertheless, 40 odd years later, these vintage designs have become rare and coveted instruments, (‘though sadly more suited towards the wealthy collector’s cabinet than the recording studio or stage.)

Hats off to Eastwood Guitars for their visionary mission to re-issue some of these rare designs yet keep the guitarists of the 21st Century in mind. Eastwood guitars look just like the original instruments, but with the added bonus of superior build quality, modern playability and a vibey, characterful tonality. These guitars go beyond retro-futurist nostalgia to expand any contemporary guitarist’s tonal palette. And separate you from the herd.

Magically, my Saturn 63 reminds me of just how I felt standing outside that music shop back in the late ’50’s, and confirms just why I fell in love with electric guitars in the first place, all those years ago.

Somehow makes it all worthwhile, don’t it? Well, if you are a regular reader of this newsletter, you know what I’ve been up to lately, but what about Bill Nelson? Quite a lot actually.

In the past 30 years, Bill has released close to 50 CD’s, many of which are double, triple and even quad disk sets. You wonder when he finds time to sleep! He has also worked on film, television and video scores, directed a variety of videos, toured as part of Heroes De Lumiere with his brother Ian, worked with Roger Eno, Gary Numan, Yellow Magic Orchestra, Harold Budd, Flock of Seagulls, John Cooper-Clarke, David Sylvian, Laraaji and Kate St. John under the Channel Light Vessel name and performed as part of the Japanese group Culturemix. Phenomenally busy, driven by his muse and an active imagination, Nelson continues to delight and confound.

No signs of slowing, either. Bill tells me he has got two new albums in the pipeline: ‘Neptunes Galaxy’ and ‘Return To Jazz Of Lights’ as well as some rare, previously unreleased Be Bop Deluxe material, all coming out later this year. You can get in line (behind me) to sign up for these releases on his website, Dreamsville (www.billnelson.com). There are plenty of things to do during your visit to Dreamsville – pack a lunch and have fun!

Here is a short list of recent releases from Bill Nelson (all available at DREAMSVILLE):

• Gleaming Without Lights (CD)
• Getting The Holy Ghost Across (CD)
• Return To Jazz Of Lights (CD)
• The Alchemical Adventures Of Sailor Bill (CD)
• Rosewood Volume 2 (CD)
• Rosewood Volume 1 (CD)
• Atom Shop (CD)
• Crimsworth (CD)
• What Now What Next? (2CD)

I’m an Axe Victim: Reconnecting with Bill Nelson of Be Bop Deluxe from MyRareGuitars.com

Metric is on tour now!

Tour Dates:

• 09/28/05 Toronto ON The Phoenix Concert Theatre (all ages – retail info soldout)
• 09/29/05 Toronto ON The Phoenix Concert Theatre (all ages – retail info soldout)
• 09/30/05 Ottawa ON Capitol Music Theatre (all ages – retail info)
• 10/1/05 Montreal ON Club Soda (all ages – soldout)
• 10/2/05 Boston MA Paradise Rock Club
• 10/3/05 Providence RI Century Lounge
• 10/5/05 New York NY Bowery Ballroom
• 10/6/05 Brooklyn NY Southpaw
• 10/7/05 Philadelphia PA First Unitarian Church
• 10/8/05 Washington DC 9:30 Club
• 10/10/05 Carrboro NC Cat’s Cradle
• 10/11/05 Atlanta GA The Loft
• 10/12/05 Birmingham AL Zydeco
• 10/13/05 Nashville TN Exit/In
• 10/14/05 Cincinnati OH Top Cats
• 10/15/05 Cleveland Heights OHGrog Shop
• 10/17/05 Detroit MI Magic Stick
• 10/18/05 Chicago IL Empty Bottle
• 10/19/05 St. Louis MO Creepy Crawl
• 10/20/05 Lawrence KS The Bottleneck
• 10/21/05 Omaha NE Sokol Underground
• 10/22/05 Minneapolis MN Ascot Room @ The Quest
• 10/23/05 Winnipeg MB Ramada Conference Centre (all ages – retail info)
• 10/24/05 Saskatoon SK Louis Pub / Univ of Saskatchewan (all ages – retail info)
• 10/25/05 Edmonton Starlite (all ages – retail info)
• 10/26/05 Calgary AB MacEwan Hall / Univ of Calgary (all ages – retail info)
• 10/27/05 Edmonton AB Starlite (all ages – retail info soldout)
• 10/28/05 Edmonton AB Starlite (18+ soldout)
• 10/30/05 Vancouver BC The Commodore (afternoon show – all ages – retail info)
• 10/30/05 Vancouver BC The Commodore (evening – 19+ – retail info)
• 11/1/05 Seattle WA Crocodile Cafe
• 11/2/05 Portland OR Doug Fir Lounge
• 11/3/05 San Francisco CA Slims
• 11/4/05 Los Angeles CA El Rey Theatre
• 11/5/05 San Diego CA The Casbah
• 11/7/05 Tempe AZ Big Fish Pub
• 11/8/05 Tucson AZ Plush
• 11/10/05 Austin TX The Parish
• 11/11/05 Dallas TX Gypsy Tea Room
• 11/12/05 Houston TX Meridian
• 11/15/05 Fort Lauderdale FL Culture Room
• 11/16/05 Tampa FL The Orpheum
• 11/17/05 Orlando FL The Social
• 11/18/05 Miami FL Club Revolver
• 11/25/05 FRANCE Nantes Olympic
• 11/26/05 FRANCE Angouleme La Nef
• 11/28/05 FRANCE Paris Trabendo
• 11/29/05 FRANCE Rennes La Cite
• 11/30/05 FRANCE Strasbourg Laiterie
• 12/1/05 FRANCE Evreux Abordage
• 12/3/05 FRANCE Winterthour Gaswerk

Metric CD

Toronto Band Metric On Tour This Month from MyRareGuitars.com