I finally got a permanent place set up to rock. All my guitars, ukes, amps, pedals, and even an electric kazoo are easy to quickly access and just start rocking when inspiration hits.
Axetopia? CBGB’s (Carroll’s Big Guitar Bunker)? The Guitarmory?
It still needs a name. I haven’t officially decided. I have been calling it “the music room” or “the guitar room.” Both of those seem boring. Maybe this? I find it amusing but clunky.
I may make some videos of guitar shenanigans as a creative outlet. Not sure what direction they’ll take. I’m not a particularly good or technical player, but I can demo some gear or do some fun silly stuff. I do already have a YouTube playlist started for my guitar-related videos.
The Postitive Grid Spark amp & app have really made jamming quick and fun… they have a cool in-app video feature, but it’s not much different than recording straight-up with the phone’s camera.
More setup inspires more setup. I need a way to store my physical media (mostly CD’s) so it’s easily accessible. I have a lot. Too many probably. I need to build some shelves and the stuff I’m finding online seems painfully expensive and not quite a fit. And I’d like to dump that all on a personal media server. I have a lot of stuff not available on Amazon or Spotify.
The next itch I can already feel will need scratching is some kind of recording setup. I’d like to layer stuff I can hear in my head, without the aid of a looper. I miss the days of a Tascam 4-track with a cassette tape. Maybe I’ll delve into a nice simple digital version of that.
The kids have guitars, ukes, and a keyboard too… and now we almost need drums and a bass or too, right?
At any rate… it’s important to have a creative outlet. Live isn’t conducive to me jamming regularly with a band right now. I only seem to do mazes when the inspiration hits, and I blog pretty randomly. Music is one more option for expression, creativity, and constant learning/exploring. I hope to foster the kids’ musical expression and drive home how important it is to remain creative themselves and appreciative of art in general.
Keep watching the blog, social media, and YouTube if you’re interested in the musical stuff.
If you’re a regular reader, you know I recently posted all my guitars. You would then also know that I like weird guitars. You may have even seen me in a guitar-related Facebook group defending this beauty of an axe. What is not to love? The thing is fantastic. It is a sight to behold. It probably shouldn’t even exist, but it does an I needed to have it.
Mine is serial number 059. I have even connected with a few other owners out there via a Facebook Fan Page. I had expected to swap out pickups and drop in some rails… but, man this thing sounds beautiful. The neck feels great. It hangs well when standing. It is just a great damn guitar.
I would say it is probably in my trifecta of ire along with the Dewey Decibel FlipOut and the Galveston B.B. Stone. I have had people at shows come up just to tell me that they hate them! Ha ha. It amazes me that a music genre predicated on the idea of just pissing off the previous generation has so many purists who must adhere to some sort of imaginary rules of guitar design. and tired traditions. It would be a fascinating sociological study to see exactly how that can be. It’s OK to enjoy the classics and get a little wild sometimes.
Of course, many people get the joke and love them too.
In with posting All My Axes(did you see parts 1 & 2?), I really got to wanting to dive deep into the story behind each of these if I could. The creator of the FLyCaster, Jimmie Bruhn was easy to find online, and seems like a great guy. I would even say he found me in an “ugly guitars” group or two. Check out my questions for him and his fantastic answers below my embedded Instagram Post of the FlyCaster. The interview was conducted via the highly professional Facebook Messenger.
Jimmie Bruhn:There was no Indiana Custom Guitars. Indy Custom was that particular brand. Its actually a much bigger thing… SHS International was the parent company. It was an international music wholesale company that distributed products to music stores. Its where music stores nationwide (and globally) got a lot of their stuff. We designed, imported and sold products. Here are some of the following brands of SHS International (this is not the full list but the highlights)
Morgan Monroe Bluegrass Instruments
Eddy Finn Ukulele Company
Indiana Guitar Company
Indy Custom Guitars
ModTone Guitar Effects
Bean Blossom Instruments
Tune Tech Tuners
SHS Audio
Devlin Guitars
College Guitar Company
Sundown Amplifiers
I worked as a media producer for the company for close to 30 years and my fingerprints were on most everything from every brand. I wore many many different hats and guitar design was a tiny part of it. Fun but it wasn’t the bulk of what I did. That’s a whole other story. Suffice to say, anything you saw from any of those brands, I had a major role in bringing to life.
In addition I’ve played professionally for a long long time. I’m a writer, singer and I play a lot of different instruments. Guitar is one part of it but probably the biggest part as I am a lifelong collector and nerd. The collection is out of hand but I simply can’t help myself. I still have my first guitar. I never get rid of anything! You can hear and see my work on YouTube. Oh…one other thing…if you ever see Indy Custom Relic guitars, that was me. A one man side business I started where I produced over 400 hand relic’ed guitars. In that time I still played all the time, traveled and played all over.
Ⓐ⑬: Do they have a website?
JB:Not any more.
Ⓐ⑬: Do you have a website you’d like me to link to?
Ⓐ⑬: How did you come to be a guitar designer? Have you designed any other guitars?
JB:I’ve been collecting guitars for over 40 years. It was natural that my need to build and tinker with stuff would spill over into my professional day gig.
Yes, I designed many guitars and would then send my renderings to the factory for prototypes and then on to a bigger run of them. When I say “designed” I in no way want to make it seem that I am some schooled luthier or anything of the sort. I just came up with designs and through trial and error, we would arrive at something unique but I wasn’t in a workshop running a saw!
Ⓐ⑬: How was the Indy Custom label to be different?
JB:By trying to get the best things we all liked about particular models into an affordable recreation that was a Big Bang for the buck. There were some really cool models that came out. I can’t say exactly how many but there were lots of designs over the life of that line.
Ⓐ⑬: I know you were in part inspired by the Zakk Wylde guitars with an SG top & a V bottom… did anything else go into it?
JB:Yes, comedy. It just made me laugh. Another thing that REALLY inspired it were people around the company who were genuinely disgusted by it. That made me want to get them produced even more. Yes, it was stupid, yes it was hideous but I knew it could get a lot of attention for the rest of the line. The powers that be couldn’t see the value in that but here we are all these years later still talking about it. ZERO advertising dollars spent. I wasn’t wrong!
Ⓐ⑬: Was it a hard sell getting in into production? (Convincing everyone else at the company/factory to go with it?)
JB:Some understood. Some did not. The ones that didn’t inspired me to push that much harder. The point was, good or bad…it was getting a major reaction. The only bad press is no press.
Ⓐ⑬: Where was it manufactured?
JB:These were all manufactured in China once final prototypes were approved.
Ⓐ⑬: Were there any issues with manufacturing? (Seems like a big body to be on a manufacturing line.)
JB:There are always issues in manufacturing especially trying to do it from thousands of miles away. Visiting the factories can keep quality control in check but ultimately once production starts things can go wrong. Not always, but that potential is there. Overall, there were no problems in the Flycaster. Even my Chinese contact remarked that the guys on the factory floor thought it was “a weird guitar” which meant even a cultural and language barrier cannot deny that The Flycaster is globally offensive!
Ⓐ⑬: Why “FlyCaster?” Everyone who sees it calls it a TV or a Tele-V. Ha ha. Was that by design?
JB:Because it needed a name, an identity. Plus it had some weird fishing connection so…
Ⓐ⑬: Why 100? Why not 200 or 50? Were they all sold?
JB:The idea was that we would only do limited runs of guitars for the Indy Custom line which we did on other models besides The Flycaster. I think they may have even commissioned a second small batch to fill an order. The dealers that understood the value liked them and they helped bring attention to the other models. Limiting them to 100 kept it fresh and helped if a particular model completely tanked. That way you aren’t stuck with so many. If it’s a hit? Make more! Yes, they were all sold.
Ⓐ⑬: I love mine. I love that it just seems to enrage purists, and it just “outs” so many people as not having any sense of humor or whimsy. Was any if this in your original intent?
JB:This was absolutely the intent from the beginning. I love music, I love comedy and this thing was both. It was just so incredibly stupid that one has to laugh or at least, I did! The ones that were truly offended because they had such a death grip on tradition well, as previously stated, that just fueled my fire!
Ⓐ⑬: Why are so many guitarists stuck in traditional designs and setups, when rock n’ roll at its core is about rebellion?
JB:Because they are either afraid or don’t have the slightest concept of being original. They are too worried what other people think.
Image Provided by Jimmie Bruhn, from his digital book.
Ⓐ⑬: I know one burst prototype exists. Do you ever play it?
JB:I play it occasionally but I see it every day as its hanging on the wall of my studio.
Ⓐ⑬: Did you ever have any other color schemes in mind? I would love one with an antigua finish!
JB: I wanted it to get to that point but those in control saw otherwise.
Ⓐ⑬: Do you have a guitar collection? What are your non-FlyCaster favorites?
JB:Yes. I have a pretty big collection. It’s fairly insane. I have everything from top shelf vintage stuff to weird a wacky. Lots of stuff I built in the shop, some wonderful mutts and some serious collector stuff too. As I said, I never get rid of anything. I come from a musical family.
Ⓐ⑬: Have you seen any other weird guitars out there & thought “I wish I came up with that!”?
JB:All the time! That’s the great thing for me about the world of guitars, its constantly evolving. There are some absolutely great things being produced and it seems people aren’t so brand conscious as they used to be.
Ⓐ⑬: Anything else you would like to add?
JB: Just a thank you for taking the time to even ask me this stuff. It was an honor!
Did you see part one? I felt like posting all my guitars online simply for something else to look at, and I thought others might enjoy.
I still plan to blog about some of the more interesting ones. Hopefully you guys enjoy the content. Thanks for the likes on social media. I don’t think anyone else started to use the #AllMyAxes hashtag. Oh well. Ha ha.
Show me some of yours in the comments, tag me on social media, or use your own hashtag!
Since the world is a bit strange right now, I decided I wanted to see more guitars on social media. Maybe it’ll start a trend, maybe not.
I like classic guitars, I like modern guitars, I like classy guitars, I like ugly guitars. I like guitars. I like playing them. I like looking at them online. I like looking at them on my wall. I like looking at them in the store. I like hearing them. I like arguing about them on the internet. I also like other assorted stringed instruments.
Maybe this will make the world a little brighter. Maybe people will like these guitars. Maybe people will argue about these guitars. Maybe absolutely no one will notice. Who knows?
Below the collage, here are the ones I have posted so far via Instagram with the #AllMyAxes hashtag, minus today’s. The rest will be in the next post. This is the bulk of my guitar collection. The rest of the stuff in the house are my ukuleles and mandolin, the wife’s ukuleles, and the kids’ guitars and ukuleles.
There is a little bit written about each guitar if you click through to Instagram or follow me on Facebook. I hope to blog more in-depth about each of them, or more than I have in the past anyway… reaching out to some manufacturers and designers, especially for the most interesting ones.
World (and Lunar) Domination 