It is almost Christmas! Few years ago we had Antoine Pütz and Frenk Felix (aka !!Achtung Achtung!!) for a visit at Château PGC. After a good meal and a bottle of exquisite wine the spirits got high. With so many guitars around and a bit of “Merlot” inspiration this Christmas song popped up. “Weihnachtslied” (German for Christmas Song) performed at our kitchen table.
The original version can be found here: Achtung Achtung
Wow, what do we have here? A custom made guitar from the GMP luthiers in San Dimas, California. In the early nineties they built a guitar for Ryan Roxie (Alice Cooper band) and thus introduced the Roxie line of guitars.
In 2010 GMP celebrated their 20th anniversary and the Roxie guitars were still their benchmark guitars. Behold the 2010 Ryan Roxie Standard in green metal flake with the “Ghost Skull” graphic. Nothing standard about this guitar. It has some unusual features.
First of all this guitar is heavy! A solid poplar/maple body, no chambering or weight relief. If you suffer back pain, don’t play this one. Eat your wheaties if you want to chop with this axe. The neck is quarter sawn mahogany with a maple fretboard. Body, neck and headstock have a silver metal flake binding. This guitar looks stunning. All green flake with a cool skull graphic. The fingerboard sports 6100-frets and big diamond green flake inlays.
The scale length is 25,5 “. A set neck, the upper frets are easy to reach due to the contoured neck heel. The headstock has an abalone inlay and is equipped with Sperzel locking tuners. The Roxie features a Graphtec nut and a TonePro bridge with stopbar tailpiece.
Monster tones come from the Rocket Guitar Pickups. An “Old School Classic” in the neck position and a “Satellite” pup in the bridge. Rockets are amazing guitar pickups handmade by Willy Houston.
This instrument comes wit a G&G custom case in green and black tolex. COA and case candy included. There is nothing standard about this Roxie Standard. Luckily I have the perfect amp to match: The Diamond “Phantom” (also part of Ryan Roxie’s rig). The amp will be reviewed in another article and I shall include a vid with this Roxie Standard.
Cheers!
GMP Roxie Standard – Green Metal Flake Skull: €3250,- Diamond Phantom – 100W class A amp head: €2200,-
Another one from the Château PGC vault! Today we have a 2007 PRS Corvette Standard 22 model. This one in particular is from a very limited run of less than 50 guitars. It is the PRS Corvette Standard Ron Fellows model.
PRS presented NASCAR racing driver Ron Fellows with a one-off Corvette Standard 22 guitar to commemorate his career. The guitar is painted to match his Corvette race car. The new Corvette was unveiled at the 2007 Chicago Auto Show and PRS was there to present Mr. Fellows, who is also a guitar player, with this instrument. After the event PRS received a lot of requests to build this guitar and they did a limited production run. This guitar is a hard to find and highly collectible instrument.
The PRS Corvette Standard 22 Ron Fellows features a carved mahogany body, 25” mahogany neck with rosewood fretboard with Z06 inlay. The headstock is equipped with PRS 14:1 locking tuners. Electronics: 2 dragon II pickups, volume-, tone control and a five -way rotary pickup selector. This one has a PRS stoptail bridge, some models feature an optional PRS tremolo bridge.
In the next days I will put it up for sale on Reverb. The guitar is in mint condition and comes with original hardshell case and hangtags.
Cheers!
Another beauty from the Gibson Custom Shop! A 2011 Gibson Les Paul Standard one-off guitar in a striking “Splatter” finish.
I don’t have much information on this one. It resembles most a ’57 ebony but with a slightly thinner neck. The headstock has the vintage style Kluson tuners and a pearloid logo inlay. Rosewood fingerboard and 22 frets. Not sure what pups are in this but to my ears it sound like 57 Humbuckers.
If you want to get noticed on stage, this is your guitar! Look at the striking color of the top. It is an ebony guitar splattered with a sort of “watered down” green ink and covered with a gloss finish. The weight of this Pauly is very comfortable, it might have some sort of chambering or not… I can’t “hear” any cavity when tapping the top or back. The action is low and the playability is superb.
But who cares about the specs? This is a guitar you play to get noticed and to look cool. Plug it into a Marshall and you are ready to rock! Under a stage light it will make you shine like a Chevy on snow chains in a tunnel! It will turn heads, even by those who don’t like… how Rock’n’Roll is that!
Would you rock this guitar? Let me know!
