There is no questioning the fact that Pat is a diehard Hagstrom enthusiast. His vintage Hagstrom III is always glued to his hands, unless he decides to play bass. Then he picks up one of his three Hag vintage basses, the Hagstrom I, Hagstrom DeLuxe or Hagstrom Swede. Oh, I forgot to mention his cherry red Hagstrom Viking that surfaces whenever he needs that 335 hollowbody sound and the Hag 12 loaded with DiMarzio pickups.
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Mike Ybarra has some groovy equipment at his disposal and he really plays the dickens out of it. His Ibanez Roadstar II was his favorite ax for years, til he got the incredible PRS Custom 24 in whale blue quilted maple. He blows everyone away once he’s plugged in through the Korg G3 effects processor and Mesa Boogie Maverick combo amp.
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Crag (aka Cragax, Craig) owns one of the baddest heaps of guitars and amps I’ve ever put my hands on. Here he’s seen playing his mahogany Fender acoustic. He makes his own slides from a variety of bottles. This axe spits buckshot with an open G tuning and green glass slide.
For electric duty, the Gibson Country Gentleman can cover a variety of styles with its smooth tones. Should the “Gent” prove too mild mannered and uptown when the blues (or rock) begin happening, the natural transition comes in the form of a ‘66 Gibson Trini Lopez model archtop. This one is in top condition.
If the celebration calls for yet more of an edge, Crag grabs one of his sunburst, gold plated Fender Custom Shop Anniversary planks. Here is one for the Stratocaster animal in all of us, and one for the Telecaster speedo in some of us. Both are beautiful.
Humbucker rock? Here’s an ‘85 Hamer Special that has more spunk than a litter of Husky pups. It was personally autographed and presented to Crag by the Reverend Willie G at a ZZ Top concert here in town. What’s this? A Strat listed under humbucker rock? Actually it’s an American Deluxe Stratocaster loaded with the new noise-free stacked humbuckers. They sound just like single coils. I’ve seen both good and bad reviews of these pickups; for the record, they are good. The teal finish and wood grain on this sexy thing will make your eyeballs wiggle.
When the time is NOW for raunchy blues, only one sledge hammer will break the big stones; this ‘64 Gibson Melody Maker has a funky wail that can make you feel the pain.
Speaking of blues, how ’bout some acoustic blues. There’s this ‘46 Gibson L50 that still carries the scars from decades of abuse behind bars at the Nebraska State Pen, and a 1912 Gibson L1 parlor guitar. Each has it’s own unique tone and personality. Both do the blues in style, despite their non-blues leanings.
A significant portion of Crag’s formal musical education has been devoted to Classical guitar (he’s an instructor), so naturally he has some beautiful nylon-stringed guitars including this exquisite Ramirez 1A Concert. The sound is truly inspiring.
You gotta have amps. Here are two of the finest; a half stack Marshall JCM 800 for those British tones, and a Fender Vibro King for the thrill of your life.
Larry’s Family Reunion
In the very back middle is a 1957 Fender String master lap slide. It is the medium length, I’ll have to get back to you with the exact dimension, It is a double six with the upper neck tuned to E6, and the lower neck is usually tuned to G.
L to R on the next row; 2002 Fender Custm shop BassBreaker. This is a 59 Bassman reissue with two 12″ Vintage 30 Celestion Speakers in a finger jointed pine cabinet with laquered tweed, this amp really pushes a lot of air, more like a milkshake than a frozen Margarita. Next is a 59 Bassman reissue LTD, this is my main amp and it is almost beyond description. 40 watts into 4 10″ Jensen reissue 10PR speakers, also with laquered tweed and finger jointed pine cab., these ship from Fender with Groove Tubes 6L6C-GE power tubes and GT Mullard reissue 12AX7’s. I’m sure you recognise the next one as A Fender VibroKing. This is a 2000 model with a 6V6 reverbbbbb driver, which I have opted to change out with a NOS RCA 6K6GT for a Dick Dale sounding reverbbbbb. To the far right is a 1964 Pro Reverb, 40 watts, Point to Point wired with 2 12″ Utah speakers, somewhere along the way someone spray painted the grill cloth black. I may try some Naptha to try and bring it back to original.
L to R next row: Taylor 312-CE, this is my main acoustic, with onboard electronics and pre-amp, it sounds great acoustic or electric. Mahogany Back and sides with a spruce top and ebony fretboard. Bob Taylor knows what he’s doing. Next 2000 P Bass, what can I say, I’ve been afraid to take it beyond the 5th fret and it sounds great up to there. Next is my Taylor 914-C, this is a auditorium size acoustic rosewood back and sides, Engleman Spruce top, and a “smiley face” bridge ( an attempt by taylor to prevent cracking on the bridge,) I bought this guitar new in 1999. It has a Baggs “double barrel” Pick up, mic combo. This guitar rarely comes out of the case, but when it does this is the most expressive, vibrant, musical guitar I have ever played (yes I am prejudiced.)
I hope you recognise the next one, my 1990 Strat plus, this one has the swimming pool rout under the pickguard, and is loaded with lace sensor’s red bridge, blue middle, and gold bridge. this one also has a replacement Fender/Wilkinson roller nut bridge and Sperzel tuners.Next is a 60DN squareneck resonator made by Dobro, this was one of the last ones to ship from Dobro before they were sold to Gibson Montana, it was shipped the day before the company changed hands, this one also defies description, suffice to say it’s a dobro. Proximo es un 1959 Fender “Champion” six string lap slide, this thing is a real money maker, and has that classic Fender juju thing goin’ on, slide on. Then we come to my number 1, a 2002 custom shop 51 Nocaster reissue, I could go on for days about this guitar, 71/4″ radius C neck with vintage frets, Kluson tuners, Nocaster P’ups from the custom shop, a one piece swamp ash body, Nitro cellulose finish , and if tone were ducks I’d be up to my ass in feathers, a really, really nice instrument. Next is an American Vintage 62 reissue, although this is a team built, it’s every bit as nice as any one off, I got really lucky with this one. On the far right is my 1983 Gibson Les Paul spotlight. This is # 180 of 247 made. All hardware is gold plated with nicely matched AAAA Flame maple cap. The P’ups are PAF.
Front left is a Fulltone Tube Tape Echo, it is hard to say, but it is only the finest sounding delay on the market. Two 12AX7s, and one 12AU7 really warm things up and it is last in line in my effects line up. This is my pedal board, a piece of plexiglass with velcro strips. to the right is a Ernie Ball VP Jr. volume pedal–>Carl Martin compressor–>Boss TU-2 tuner–>T.C. Jauernig Luxury Drive–>Keeley Modded BD-2(blues driver)–>fulltone FD-2, all powered by the pedal power.
And finally is a Kendrick reverb unit, made in Pflugerville texas, and is a very good copy of a 63 fender.
Talk about going backwards through time, from Corvettes to stagecoaches and gunslingers. These wonderful inlays by Larry Robinson tell the story of the Old West in an action packed sort of way.
Western Mirage 2
The neck is inlaid with the scene of the shoot out at the OK corral. The front of the headstock is overlaid in exotic shell. The back of the headstock is veneered with mahogany and is hand signed by the artist Mark Johnson. The knobs are custom with copper US Marshal badges inlaid. The rear control plat is ebony bound in mahogany and inlaid symbolizing the end of the Wyatt Earp’s and Doc Holiday’s career as gun slingers. Inlay by Larry Robinson
These photos are but a small portion of the good things to be seen at MJ Guitar Engineering website. Now that you’ve visually ravaged these teasers on our pages, I doubt you need much encouragement to click on over to their site to check out the other amazing axes.
MJ Guitar Engineering website.