New Kid in Town
May 3rd, 2008 at 3:35 pm by Susie
So I ask Kenn Kweder where I should take my new guitar to get the neck set up. (I’m teaching myself to play slide.) He recommends two different places, so I go to the one that’s closest - DiPinto Guitars on Girard Avenue.
Cool place. Lots of dirty fucking music hippies sitting around, checking out the custom electric guitars. “Whatcha got?” the guy behind the counter asks.
“I have this Strat and I need the neck set up for slide,” I tell him, heaving the gig bag up onto the countertop. “Not bad for a Fender,” he says, playing up and down the neck. (They make custom guitars.) The other guys pipes up, “You know, the best slide I ever had, I made out of one of those Fifties kitchen sets. Just hacksawed off a piece of a chair frame and filed it down. It was awesome.”
“You should make some more and sell them,” I say.
“Are you kidding? Do you know what those old kitchen sets are worth?”
I shrug. “Someone I know was leaving one by the side of the road last week. They were moving and it didn’t fit on the truck.”
“Man, I would have taken that!” he moans.
“What key do you want it in?” the other guy interrupts.
“I dunno. Open E,” I say. He writes it down on the work order.
The other guy jumps in again. “Bonnie Raitt plays slide in regular tuning and it sounds great. I don’t know how she does it,” he says.
“I have an acoustic archtop I use for slide in regular tuning,” I tell him. “An old Sears Silvertone.” (Because they’re the kind of music geeks who would appreciate that; the walls are lined with oddball vintage instruments.)
“What kind of strings? What do you think, 12s?” the counter guy says to the other one.
“I’d start a little lower. Try 11,” he says.
“But these go to 11,” I say.
He looks at me, then smiles. “Yeah, I get it.” Then he shows me a noticeable buzz in the low E that he says might be the tuning peg. “Do you want a higher nut? I’m not really recommending it just yet, because these are a bitch to dig out,” he says.
“I’m not going worry about that yet, I can always put one of those metal slide bridges in if I want,” I say.
“Yeah, but they affect the intonation,” he reminds me. I shrug again.
“You guys come highly recommended. Do what you need to do, just call me first,” I tell him. Because for once, I’m really not worried. I have a feeling Big Red is in real good hands.
Sigh. For a while there was a luthier down the hill next to the laundromat. I couldn’t imagine how he got enough business to pay the rent, but I don’t think that was the point. He just worked away in his little wood shop with bodies hanging from the ceiling (guitar bodies!) and no windows to the outside world.
The shop’s been gone for about five years now. Drat.
slide?
Is that American, Japanese or Mexican made? Big difference in the 3.
Me, I’m an acoustic player…never did much with an electric. I did pick up a used 1974 Gibson ES-355 but sold it when I needed to paint my house.
Long-time reader, first post.
I started taking guitar lessons last September and my acoustic came from DiPinto. Los Straitjackets were on “Fresh Air” with Terri Gross and Eddie Angel was playing an acoustic with the price tag still on it. Terri asked him about it and he said they have a couple of official DiPinto Galaxies (http://www.dipintoguitars.com/other.html); when the band was going to the studio, they stopped by DiPinto and picked the acoustic up. So my husband called Eddie and asked him if it was a good guitar for a novice. Eddie said yes and put him in touch with DiPinto. They shipped it with a case, some picks and threw in a practice book.
Mexican Strat. Not that big a difference, the neck’s not maple but it’s still made in the USA, they’re just bolted on in Mexico.
sorry to admit Susie…I’m a guitar snob ;-(
I guess you have a Mac, too?
I do have a Mac but it’s getting older and I rarely use it (Pro Tools for digital recording).
I also have a Windows XP system that I rarely use (in fact it’s been off for a few weeks).
I’m Linux guy through and through…but I’m a programmer and system administrator so geek is probably appropriate label.
My home system is a SFF (small form factor) Shuttle with a 2.4 GHz AMD and 1 Gb RAM (nothing special)
for fun…if you want to check out something I recorded…Single take version of Steve Hackett’s Horizons