OK, this ones pretty special to me. As some of you know I do work for J Mascis and have known him for a few years now. Whenever he or Dinosaur Jr tour Australia I get to catch up and talk gear, and gear, and gear ........... It's awesome.
Over the years I've talked about lots of stuff with J, both in person and by email and he's a guy who LOVES his gear, and knows a lot about this stuff, which is great because he's a wealth of knowledge and has seen and played almost everything. I consider it a privilege to know him and be able to discuss gear with him.
I've talked at length about pedals, recording and vintage gear and all of it is an eye opener. It's amazing how these guys who have been doing this stuff for so long have opinions and understandings about gear that you wouldn't hear from a "forum nerd" You learn stuff being a "professional" musician, or repairer, or builder etc that you just can't learn in any other way. It's these conversations I love to have with people like this.
Whenever J tours I inevitably end up getting contacted a couple of days before they get here and get asked to work on his amps. J is notoriously hard on amplifiers and he pretty much tours with three or four heads as he uses three stacks (yeah, count 'em) live. Dave, J's tech who tours with him is a great tech and the nicest guy, but I don't envy him his job and it's not always possible to keep gear going on the road without access to a workshop, especially when they're as hard on them as J is.
I've fixed a bunch of J's Marshalls and Marshall clones and his Hiwatts on past tours which is great except, it's always "we land Monday, first show is Tuesday night ......... at .........." Still, I'm working on J Mascis's gear !!
Last tour I also fixed his number one Big Muff which is a Ramhead era model with a few .... factory "mistakes" which makes it sound , incredible. More on that SOON.
Anyway, to the point of this story. Last time Dinosaur Jr toured here I did some work for J and after sound check all three members came down to my shop, which was under the venue at the time.
It's the first time I'd really properly met Lou and Murph, who were both very nice and great to talk to as well. J ended up playing through my Lemon amp, on ten, like he always runs his amps, in my shop after close. There were about 50 people there for the show upstairs with their faces pushed against the glass windows of my shop watching J wail away on a Strat through a Big Muff into the Lemon. It was crazy. Things were shaking, really.
After the show I asked all three guys if they'd sign on old Jazzmaster I had and they all said yes. I went and got it out of the shop and got all three original members of Dinosaur Jr to autograph it ........... J commented on how cool it was but the neck was too thin for him.
I have a great job.
The guitar itself in another "bitsa" Fender of mine and it's all made up of old bits although I neither know, nor care what year they are. It's a GREAT guitar that I used to hire out but no longer do for obvious reasons.