Joe Bonamassa plays Paul Kossof's 59 Les Paul

Unbelievable tone. This is everything a vintage burst is supposed to be. Recorded at a live gig in Newcastle.

Phil X Jams - Cheap Sun Glasses

Another video with Phil and Freiheit guitar. Plus my pickups!

Oustanding Music blog

I've spent the last two hours reading through some of the posts on this blog. Written by Jas Obrecht it has interviews with many of my favourite musicians. Especially notable is the series of interviews with friends of Duane Allman, including his brother Gregg. Here's the link:

Jas Obrecht Music Blog

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Mike Bloomfield website

I'm fairly certain I visited this site a couple of years ago but there wasn't much there. Now there's a two parts of a documentary plus other videos and pictures. It's really grown in the last little while. There's a great section on his guitars and amps. I also found out there is a feature length documentary scheduled to be released in 2012.

Mike Bloomfield

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Phil X Jams - Highway to Hell

So here is Phil X playing a guitar made by Brad Freiheit with my pickups in it. A Black Widow in the bridge and a V-1 in the neck.

Phil X - 1953 Gibson Les Paul Gold Top 01130

There really is nothing like a wrap tail gold top. Beautiful example of the species with great tone.

Blackie Replica

A friend of mine has been making a few guitars lately and has become quite good at the relic thing. Here's one of his latest, Clapton's Blackie.








Those are my pickups as well. A slightly modified Superstition set.



I like the way he got the exposed wood to look old. One of the great failings of other relic jobs is that the wood looks too fresh. But this one really looks the part. I deliberately didn't show a closeup of the headstock but it has all the cigarette burns of the original.
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Douchebag meter

I truly wish they made one of these. It would sure come in handy even just to confirm your suspicions.

Jeff Beck - She's A Woman

Live from 1974. Playing his converted and re-finished '54 goldtop.

Stevie Ray Vaughan - Voodoo Chile (Slight Return)

Now here's someone I haven't listened to in years. I forgot how amazing SRV was when he hit the scene with the first album. Still an incredible guitarist.

First Video of the new year with PHILX ! 1954 Gibson Les Paul Gold Top 01093

I don't think this needs any explanation. Phil gets to play some of the finest guitars know to man. Bastard.

1950's National Amplifier

Here's a rare one. A Valco made National brand amplifier. The Two 8" speakers are the original Jensen Alnico's.





The cabinet is in pretty good shape considering the age of the amp. The top and sides have some water damage from sitting in an attic for years.




Here's the chassis unloaded from the cabinet. You can see the really small output transformer as compared to the power trannie. That's a 5Y3G rectifier next to the PT. Lots of squashy tone there. There is an added master volume ( not really needed and I didn't do that, it was already done when I got it) and extension speaker jack. That black thing with the metal cap is actually a tube. It's a 6J7 and is the gain stage for the amp. The tube behind that is a 6SL7G and does the phase inversion. Two big bottle 6L6G's for output. I didn't pull the control panel out and a friend of mine has a suspicion there's another tube hiding up in there.



Here's the money shot. You can see the old waxed paper in oil caps. It's had a cap job done and the two prong cord has been replaced with a three prong. Which is necessary if you don't want to suddenly die of electrocution.



And the original RCA branded tubes. Still going strong after all these years.

PHIL X 1956 Gibson Les Paul Custom 01070

I really want one of these. The neck pickup has an amazing tone. Very thick and bluesy. Great sounding guitar over all. Gibson re-issued this at one point complete with the Alnico neck pickup.