The Simmons MK. II

I now own two electric guitars…that’s right folks, my collection is truly out of hand now. In early 2009, I told Casey I wanted a non-vibrato guitar that was “kinda like a Les Paul, but not one.” He offered to sell me his “purple” guitar (called this because it’s made of chambered purpleheart wood with a flamed-maple top) and I jumped at the chance; this is the guitar he built in 2004 that impressed me so much that I commissioned the Crazy Joe guitar.  Of course, I made him modify it right away...

As I mentioned in the description of the "Crazy Joe" guitar, when I first saw this instrument I couldn't believe how well it was made, especially considering it was the second guitar Casey had ever built. But I also thought it was a little butt-ugly.  I wasn't fond of the yellow top stain, nor the fake-tortoise pickguard, and I didn't particularly care for the sound of the Gretsch SuperTron neck pickup. The guitar was a little neck heavy because of the Grover tuners.  And the Duncan Antiquity P-90 bridge pickup sounded great but squealed like crazy when I attempted to play Mountain and Sabbath licks through my Sound City 50 Plus turned up all the way (you got a problem with that?).

At Peach's Grill, Yellow Springs, Ohio, November 2009, apparently just after midnight.
Image ©2009 Laura Rigsbee
 

On my living room couch, March 2009, pickguard removed, pre-modification.
The Gibson bell knobs had to go, too.
Image ©2009 Joe Tritschler
 

So it goes that Casey re-lacquered the top and headstock, made a new pickguard of five-ply Gibson SG-type plastic, and installed a set of open-backed Sperzel Sound-Lok tuners, basically their take on the old "Safeti-Post" concept - and the lowest-mass tuning machines I've encountered, thanks to the machined-aluminum construction.  I called Lindy Fralin in Richmond and he recommended a stock set of his new hum-canceling P-90 pickups...and lo and behold, they're great.  The Hipshot bridge is still mounted on a decorative wooden spacer (a scrap from the back of the neck, revealing the three-piece purpleheart/maple/
purpleheart construction) but now sports their new stainless steel bridge saddles.  And as before, the ivory-grained cellulose nitrate bindings and Gibson Super 400 inlays on the Gibson-scale ebony fingerboard are just cool.

As one would expect of a guitar made from the densest woods known to mankind, this thing is bright-sounding...ridiculously bright-sounding, like my old G&L's...but not at all brash, brittle, or harsh.  Shimmering and pingy, but surprisingly meaty considering the screw-on neck and spliced headstock...the through-the-body stringing probably helps.  Sounds great with pure nickel-wound .012's and a wound-G.  Regarding the body shape...I asked Casey what inspired it and he told me he envisioned a solidbody version of the 1970's Gibson Les Paul Signature.  That's about the weirdest thing he could have said - and why I love this guy.
 

At my kitchen table in Enon, Ohio, September 2009.
The Teflon-insulated silver-plated wire and Wonder Solder are probably wasted on
the cheap CTS carbon-track pots and Switchcraft leaf-spring switch, but why not.
That's a phase switch between the two 250K volume controls.
Image ©2009 Joe Tritschler