Jeremy Spencer's guitar relationships history...

[BluesHawk]

Jeremy Spencer is as clever a writer and humorist as he is a slide Bluesman. If you can get into some whimsical Blues esoterica, read on...

My Guitar Girlfriends Throughout the Years by Jeremy Spencer

My first guitar of note was a Japanese Futurama acoustic, which I purchased for 15 pounds when I was fifteen. Her neck eventually warped so badly that I could only play slide on her once I learned the technique, a blessing in disguise. I put a pick up on her and played her through a Futurama amp while I learned Elmore James!

Then, after over three years with Fleetwood Mac of going through various cello-bodied guitars, from Kay to Gibson, I finally settled on an old Gibson SG Les Paul (circa 1962), which Abel, a Children of God member gave to me, saying he didn't need her anymore! I ended up playing slide on her for the next 25 years.

Up until then, while in Fleetwood Mac, (besides a stint with a 59 Fender Stratocaster, and a Gibson Flying V, which was so ungainly I couldn't even sit her on my lap), I hadn't been too sold on solid body guitars for slide. But Leslie Paul SG fit the bill for some reason. I even tried another at the time to see if it was anything to do with name brand model, and it wasn't! It's one of life's inexplicable things! (Oh, I forgot to mention that for a few months up until I left Fleetwood Mac, I was having a pretty good fling with a tonally responsive, cello-bodied German blonde called Hofner Verythin!)

As I mentioned before, for about 25 years I used Gibson Leslie Paul SG for playing slide. For playing chords and regular finger-style activity, I went through a few others, including some nylon high-strung models, all of which I left behind in the countries in which I was staying at the time, taking only Leslie with me when departing. Nevertheless, I think you'd be interested in those I had left behind in port!

The first one was a petite red Fender Musicmaker, a beginner's guitar that had a clean innocent tone. I played rhythm and a little lead on her for about three years or so from 1971, and she travelled with me from the USA to England and onto France, where I left her behind. Then in 1978, I acquired a Leo Fender's Musicman Stingray in Los Angeles, and I used her for about 6 years of recording, spanning my years in Italy, Greece, Sri Lanka, the Philippines and Macau. She looked okay, had good tone, but her high maintenance of heavy weight and the dastardly need of a 9v battery for her active circuitry limited her functionality. It was with little remorse that I parted with her.

I then had little use for a finger-style electric until, while in Japan, a director of Yamaha's R&D dept. gave me a blue prototype of their newly introduced Mark II guitar. She resembled a Strat, had a maple neck and a five-way switch, but her pick-ups were weak. Although I played with her for quite a bit of recording while in Brazil and Ensenada, Mexico, I was not too impressed, and traded her for a Dobro case in San Diego 10 years later.

Speaking of a Dobro. A friend in Italy gave me one in 1977, which I used a lot until 2006, when, while in England I purchased a brand new Amistar Resounder resonator made in the Czech Republic from 'Jawbone' John Crabbe, a British slide player in the style of Black Ace. He was dealing with Amistar at the time and gave me an amazing price on it with case. It has a cutaway, a humbucking pick up, a piezo biscuit bridge and I like its trim size; I used it extensively on the recording of the 'In Session' and 'Precious Little' CDs. It mikes excellently.

And what happened to Leslie Paul SG? While living in Brazil in 1996, I suddenly received an email from Aaron, a man who I had met there in 1976, when he was but seventeen years old and to whom I had taught the rudiments of slide guitar, although I had forgotten the occasion. He was now working for a travel agent and because he spoke English well, would head guided tour buses of Brazilians visiting the States -- most often to Memphis, Tennessee, where the groups would visit Graceland, Beale Street and other places of musical interest.

Whilst on one of the tours, he stopped by a vintage guitar shop and played some slide guitar, catching the interest of the shop owner, Ron Norwood, who asked, "Where did you learn to play slide guitar like that?" Aaron told him "20 years ago from Jeremy Spencer"!

This flipped out Ron, who asked Aaron if he was still in touch with me, because through my 60's recordings, he had become an Elmore James fan.

Aaron said he hadn't, but would look into it. He eventually found out that I was living in Brazil and we renewed contact. To cut a long story short, Ron offered to swap a PRS guitar (according to my specifications, and which he found at a Chicago guitar fair) for my Leslie Paul SG, who he put in his Rock and Soul museum.

The PRS guitar (which I have since named Mercedes) turned out to be perfect for my need at the time, as I had been interested in finding a guitar that could span the bridge between a Strat and a Gibson. I had sworn never to buy a Les Paul standard, and had never really liked Leslie SG's shape (something about her horns), but I found Mercedes aesthetically pleasing in shape along with the variety of tones coaxed from her five-way switches!

Mercedes proved to be rather heavy and cumbersome, having an extended 24 fret neck and large locking tuners. She was perfect for recording sessions and I used her to record quite a number of instrumental demos on my desktop recording set up. To play live, I needed a slightly lighter version however, with the benefit of P90 pickups, which I had found to be better for capturing the nuances of slide along with the plucking of the fingers as opposed to a pick.

On a trip to Norway early in 2006 to promote the release of 'Precious Little', I decided to leave Mercedes behind, and ended up borrowing a purple Crafter Convoy FM/TPU from a woman friend who owned a music shop in Oslo. She was cheap, (the guitar that is) but not half bad. I liked her weight and her wield ability!

Jan Ingar Kviesler, a Norwegian guitar luthier, saw me playing it on an early morning TV show and was shocked. He phoned our Norwegian manager and said 'What is Jeremy doing playing a Crafter? I'll make him one to spec!'

So my wife and I met Jan at our hotel in Oslo later that day and I laid out what I wanted regarding size, weight and shape: something between Mercedes and the Crafter. Jan and I agreed on two P90 pickups and a 3-way switch. He built it for the price of the hardware (pickups, bridge, tuners etc.) which in itself came to a pretty penny!

Anyway, a couple of months later I returned to Oslo for a tour and walked away with a custom-made beauty who responded perfectly to my every pluckin' whim. The varnish was still drying on her when I played the first gig on that tour in Trondheim, Norway.

Why did I call her Mona? Well, during a fault in the drying process she developed a pattern of cracks in the varnish that resembled the Mona Lisa. Despite Jan's insistence to redo the varnish, I have kept it that way. Some people have wondered if she is vintage!

Poor Mona seemed to suffer from a hum problem (a bane of the poor P90's existence, but not to this extent), so she is presently with her maker in Notodden, Norway undergoing treatment. I miss her. Hopefully, I will have her back in my arms soon, pending a trip to Norway.

In the meantime, I have been reveling in the charms of a limited edition (100 only) three P90 pickup PRS with a 5-way switch! The best of both worlds -- the Fender Strat bite of the two out-of-phase, between-pickups sound and the definitive and mellow tones of the other three. But I miss Mona! There's nothing like custom-made! I hope they get along together once we are re-united, because both will have to get accustomed to a ménage-a-trois!