Christmas Presents 2020

What did you all get for Christmas? I got a number of genuine Fender parts, Adeson vintage single coil pickups and a Jamie Humphries instructional DVD from the excellent Lick Library series. I intend to return my red Strat to original Fender specification as I prepare to put Brian May guitars and gear on the shelf and move in a new direction in 2021. I got into Pink Floyd in my first year at Durham University in 1992 when my then room-mate Phil Malone at Grey College played The Wall constantly. I listened to Brit Floyd and The Australian Pink Floyd Show (TAPFS) a lot recently while developing this web site.

It goes without saying that David Gilmour is revered amongst guitar players for his unique sounds which, unlike Brian May tones, are surprisingly challenging to nail down at home. I have ordered an EMG DG20 loaded pickguard from Andertons which is due back in stock at the end of January 2021 but this standard Fender Stratocaster outfit will do the job along with RAT 2 and Big Muff Pi distortion pedals and a TC Electronic G-Major 2 effects unit. Nigel Knight has built himself a custom KAT-DG HiWatt 50 Special amplifier with Fane Crescendo speakers and is willing to explore a lower-powered custom HiWatt project for chasing Gilmour tones at home… unless I splash out on a HiWatt Little Rig DR20/0.5 first! Check out the details on his website:

http://www.deacyamp.com/index.php?route=information/information&information_id=35

One of the leading internet resources for Gilmour information is the excellent Gilmourish site founded 2003, designed, written and hosted by Bjorn Riis:

https://www.gilmourish.com/

Maryport Bitter and Blues Festival 2004

While browsing my photo albums I had a flashback to one of those rare and memorable occasions when a big name star performs at a small local venue: in this case legendary blues guitarist Buddy Guy at The Maryport Bitter & Blues Festival in August 2004. I was right at the front and the ringing in my ears took at least a week to subside! The festival was beginning to gain momentum and Buddy was the biggest star to appear at that time. He played all his best material and engaged with an enthusiastic audience in an intimate marquee venue via his mid-song conversations, a crowd ‘walkabout’, some musical impersonations of greats such as John Lee Hooker, B.B. King and Marvin Gaye and he threw all his guitar picks into the crowd at the end. My only complaint was that his crew did the longest sound check in history… Nothing like building anticipation!

https://www.facebook.com/maryportbluesfestival/

Spotted. Mr B. Guy. Loud and proud and way off his usual manor in West Cumbria.

Fender Stratocaster Conversion to Brian May Specification

I have completed converting my 2012 Fender American Standard Stratocaster to Brian May Specification. It has Adeson pickups, a custom switching PCB module based on that fitted to the Guyton RS Transporter designed by Nigel Knight of Knight Audio Technologies, Anotone aluminium Strat style control knobs, Fender branded Schaller locking tuners and roller bridge saddles. I designed the custom pickguard in CAD and CNC cut it myself using my Stepcraft 2/840 CNC machine. You can find full details of the project here:
https://dsgb.net/projects/maycaster/