Gear

In 1987 my longtime friend Jeff Ross introduced me to the “Holy Trinity” at G&L guitars -Sales manager Dale Hyatt, the “G” George Fullerton and the man himself, Leo Fender. Desert Rose Band was starting to tour and have chart success nationally, as well as appearing often on TV. Always looking for some good promotion, ... More

This model started with prototypes in 1997 and then was officially available from 1998-2002 as a special order signature model from Fender’s Custom Shop. Even in the late 80s while I was officially a G&L endorser, Fender Master Builder Fred Stuart had built me 2 guitars, a six string bass (later released as a “Bajo ... More

In 1996 after having been a G&L endorser for 9 years I took Jerry Donahue’s suggestion to move over to Fender, as Leo Fender had passed away and G&L had been sold to BBE. Although still satisfied with the quality of the G&L guitars, their new artist relations department left much to be desired. At ... More

This is my newest signature model guitar from Fret King, introduced at Namm Jan 2019. Based on the previous green model, but this one (even though it has a fake F hole Gretsch-style) is completely solid body. Excepting the color and the solid body, all of the other appointments are the same as the FKV325JJ. ... More

My first Fret King signature model came about from a very long friendship with iconic designer Trevor Wilkinson. I’d used his hardware products over the years and was often amazed that he’d designed things already that I’d had in my mind for years! He had the idea to marry a Tele with a Gretsch Roc ... More

After working with parent company Saga for many years developing signature models for their gypsy Jazz Gitane brand, I had the chance to try some of their flat top dreadnaught models and was very impressed with the build quality and more importantly the tone. As often happens I started asking for a particular series of ... More

I first tried a Gitane model DG250M in Frankfurt at the Musik Messe International trade show back in 2004 and was instantly very impressed, as until that time there had been no high-quality gypsy jazz guitars available in the US other than very expensive European luthier-built guitars and these guitars sounded and played extremely well. ... More

After the initial success of the DG-300 I wanted to expand the options and create a guitar that combined the features of the D hole model (traditionally a 12 Fret to the body) and the oval hole model (14 frets to the body) and this model became the DG-320 released in 2006. Marrying the large ... More

The last of the signature Gitane trio came in 2006 and was inspired by a photo on a single record sleeve of a 60s era Favino finished in all black. I loved the look of this guitar so much, and had also loved the look of the Gibson Les Paul Custom with its black finish ... More