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Battle-axe beauties
Guitars that look as good as they rock
Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand songs.
The book 108 Rock Star Guitars demonstrates that six-stringed instruments owned by celebrities and virtuoso sidemen can look as good as they rock.
The 17-year undertaking by photographer Lisa S. Johnson partly benefits the Les Paul Foundation, which supports msuic education, engineering and innovation as well as medical research.
Paul, the Rock Hall musician-inventor, wrote the foreword before he died.
Not a guitar geek? Don't fret.
Whether you define "pickup" as a truck, a dating technique or a guitar part, you can revel in the glitz-and-grit world where these prized possessions reside.
The instruments (one's named Baby) evoke tender talk from macho musicians. But some of these battle-axe beauties have seen more action than a roller derby queen: They bear the gashes and sweat stains to prove it.
The author, who grew up in a musical family, underscores musicians' emotional attachment to their instruments.
"I don't believe any serious musician feels that his instrument is an inanimate object," Tom Scholz of the group Boston told Johnson.
The 396-page book lauds the instrument-makers, called luthiers, and the techs, along with the guitars.
Goo Goo Dolls frontman John Rzeznik resurrected a broken Stratocaster into a four-string. The word "Ouch!" is splayed over its torso. Its name? Halfcaster.
"I was amazed when I threw the guitar in the air and the top portion split right off," Rzeznik recalled.
"I had my guitar tech take it to a luthier in LA who sanded off the rough edges and fixed the electronics.
"I used it on a song called Big Machine for a couple years after that. Surprisingly, the tone didn't really change.
"It was a cheap guitar that didn't sound that great to begin with. Haha!"
The appreciation of instruments as visual art is an age-old concept.
They "may evoke status, identity, or indicate events - sacred or profane", said Mr J. Kenneth Moore, the Frederick P. Rose curator in charge of the Department of Musical Instruments at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.
"They become sounding, tangible works of art - telling many stories of the life and times of those who used them," he said. - AP
1. A double-neck guitar owned by Cheap Trick's Rick Nielsen. The figure named Uncle Dick, is a caricature of Nielsen.
2. Before a Rage Against the Machine performance, Tom Morello scrawled "Arm The Homeless" on his guitar. The words co-exist with his drawings of happy hippos.
3. A guitar owned by James J.Y. Young of the group Styx. It has an elaborate carving of Cerberus, ancient mythology's three-headed underworld guard dog.
4. A guitar owned by John Rzeznik of the Goo Goo Dolls.
5. Country singer Willie Nelson's Trigger, named for cowboy actor Roy Rogers' horse, has a hole worn through it. The guitar bears dozens of autographs, including those by Kris Kristofferson and Johnny Cash.
6. A guitar covered with fake fur, owned by Billy Gibbons of the group ZZ Top.
Guitars that look as good as they rock
Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand songs.
The book 108 Rock Star Guitars demonstrates that six-stringed instruments owned by celebrities and virtuoso sidemen can look as good as they rock.
The 17-year undertaking by photographer Lisa S. Johnson partly benefits the Les Paul Foundation, which supports msuic education, engineering and innovation as well as medical research.
Paul, the Rock Hall musician-inventor, wrote the foreword before he died.
Not a guitar geek? Don't fret.
Whether you define "pickup" as a truck, a dating technique or a guitar part, you can revel in the glitz-and-grit world where these prized possessions reside.
The instruments (one's named Baby) evoke tender talk from macho musicians. But some of these battle-axe beauties have seen more action than a roller derby queen: They bear the gashes and sweat stains to prove it.
The author, who grew up in a musical family, underscores musicians' emotional attachment to their instruments.
"I don't believe any serious musician feels that his instrument is an inanimate object," Tom Scholz of the group Boston told Johnson.
The 396-page book lauds the instrument-makers, called luthiers, and the techs, along with the guitars.
Goo Goo Dolls frontman John Rzeznik resurrected a broken Stratocaster into a four-string. The word "Ouch!" is splayed over its torso. Its name? Halfcaster.
"I was amazed when I threw the guitar in the air and the top portion split right off," Rzeznik recalled.
"I had my guitar tech take it to a luthier in LA who sanded off the rough edges and fixed the electronics.
"I used it on a song called Big Machine for a couple years after that. Surprisingly, the tone didn't really change.
"It was a cheap guitar that didn't sound that great to begin with. Haha!"
The appreciation of instruments as visual art is an age-old concept.
They "may evoke status, identity, or indicate events - sacred or profane", said Mr J. Kenneth Moore, the Frederick P. Rose curator in charge of the Department of Musical Instruments at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.
"They become sounding, tangible works of art - telling many stories of the life and times of those who used them," he said. - AP
1. A double-neck guitar owned by Cheap Trick's Rick Nielsen. The figure named Uncle Dick, is a caricature of Nielsen.
2. Before a Rage Against the Machine performance, Tom Morello scrawled "Arm The Homeless" on his guitar. The words co-exist with his drawings of happy hippos.
3. A guitar owned by James J.Y. Young of the group Styx. It has an elaborate carving of Cerberus, ancient mythology's three-headed underworld guard dog.
4. A guitar owned by John Rzeznik of the Goo Goo Dolls.
5. Country singer Willie Nelson's Trigger, named for cowboy actor Roy Rogers' horse, has a hole worn through it. The guitar bears dozens of autographs, including those by Kris Kristofferson and Johnny Cash.
6. A guitar covered with fake fur, owned by Billy Gibbons of the group ZZ Top.
