Over many years Fat Old Man has collected a surprising number of guitars, with many different looks and different sounds. This page is dedicated to those Guitar Geeks who have missed the guitar photos from the old site as a bonus it also includes Fat Old Man’s footnotes on each one.
UNDER CONSTRUCTION
BC Rich: Beast Body Art Collection: OK for heavy rock but looks better than it sounds. Not as good my other Beast.
Hutchins: Ravenor: A quality instrument looks like a Rickenbacker but sounds like a quality Strat with a bit more sustain. Maybe I’ll put Rickenbacker pickups to make it sound full Ricky.
Hondo 935: Gibson 335 copy: A quality copy. Not as good as a Gibson but at least as good as an Epiphone. I don’t use it much as not really my sound.
BC Rich: Beast Platinum Series: Slight damage to 1 of the neck head horns. Excellent sound and look for heavy rock. Only problem is that the prongs sometimes get in the way when playing, especially when sitting down.
Washburn: X40 with ADDED Floyd Rose trem bar and 3 EMG active pickups. Awesome lead guitar. Quality built with excellent sound and a great Floyd Rose Trem bar. A pleasure to play, I should play it more.
FOM: Les Paul copy. Indie body. Bridge pickup: Seymour Duncan. Neck pickup: Rockfield. Jimmy Page 21 option wiring. Designed for extreme output. I only use a few settings of the 21 options. It is very heavy in weight and sound, a bit too heavy for everyday use, but useful to know it’s there when needed.
Sparrow: Les Paul copy. Previous owner added Paint job: all gold (back too) New neck and bridge pickups. Neck pickup can also be coil tapped with a push/pull knob. Also added DiMarzio middle pickup with a micro switch to switch it on and off separately from the pickup switch. Sparrow used to make excellent Les Pauls (in many reviews equivalent to Gibson). The gold paint job is professionally done and looks better than a gold top because the whole guitar is gold. The Neck and Bridge replacements are professional quality and the coil tap is very useful. The extra pickup is heavy so the sound of the guitar can change drastically with one switch. The only problem is it looks so good I don’t want to scratch it (which I have done once) so it is not used as much as it should be. In many ways the best guitar I own.
Washburn: WI66pro A quality made guitar with excellent pickups. It’s a real pleasure to play. The VCC controls don’t give you as wide a range of sounds as advertised but if you change tone with the amp/pre-amp and use the vcc as a bonus it works well. I really should use it more.
Fender: Stratocaster. Blue Flower Crafted in Japan. Customised: The Bridge pickup’s tone can be adjusted by the 2nd tone pot when selected singularly. A micro switch has been fitted which gives additional pickup selections. The main differences are with the switch engaged (leaning towards bottom of guitar) and the selector switch in the Neck position you can have the Neck and Bridge pickups working together Tele style and by moving the switch into the 4th position (normally NECK MIDDLE) you get all three pickups working. In positions 3 (Middle) and 4 (Middle/Bridge) it just alters the phasing between Middle and Bridge pickups allowing each tone knob to vary tonal qualities massively. In position 5 there is no difference at all.. A fantastic, vintage sounding Stratocaster. Sounds amazing and very versatile. It is a pleasure to play and is definitely in the running for best guitar I own.. The main problem is it is in immaculate condition and I don’t want it scratched. I only play it on special occassiona. I would never play it in the studio or live,
Atari Guitari: Made from an Atari early 80s games consul. Looks cool, sounds fine but awkward to play. The black plastic coated strings takes time to get used to.
Cigar Box Guitar: made by Chicken Bone John from a Montercisto cigar box. 2 pickups. Telecaster controls. A well built, great sounding guitar, It looks cool too as you would expect from Chicken Bone John (At the time, the main man of UK cigar Box guitars). If anything a little bit too normal sounding.
Honda: made from a go-kart engine by Chicken Bone John. 2 pickups. Telecaster controls. It sounds unique with a very metallic industrial sound. It is very heavy (it is an engine after all) and awkward to hold so it isn’t played as much as the unique sound deservers.
Casio: DG 20 midi guitar/synth. Great idea that has been improved on over the years, since. It is now a collectors’ piece. I really should use it more to get keyboard sounds from my guitar playing.
Fender: Musicmaster Short Scale Bass. A 1 pickup simple bass. Sounds great and easy to play (being short scale) Now, is a well sought after instrument.
Washburn: XB400 active Bass. A great sounding, versatile active bass. Being full scale makes it hard for my small fingers as well as I don’t play enough full scale so my fingers get tired quickly.
Washburn: Short Scale Headless Rat Bass. Originally a Steinberg copy. Roadworn. Previous owner removed frets to make it fretlrss but did not fill the ridges. Oddly it does not effect sliding at all. Previous owner changed pickups. Rewired. It looks as though it shouldn’t, but it sounds great and easy to play. If you’re looking for a Roadworn or Rat style image, it looks amazingly cool. It does play like a fretless, so not used for all occasions.
Jooky: #31 The Futureristic One Mahogany SG body Maple (I checked) Stratish neck Pat’s Platinum Blond Leaf top, corroded big-time Modified Gibson pickups (T-Top and T-Top plus a bit) Twin Volume, Twin Tone, Three-way switch.
Sounds like a Gibson and looks amazing. Great for live or general workhorse.
Jooky: #18 The Peace Train One Fender Stratocaster type, but of unknown vintage. Believed to be based on a 60s or 70s Teisco guitar.
Construction: Cloth over wood.
Controls: Active circuitry:
– Master volume on/off switch
– Three volumes, one per pickup
– Three effect switches turn on/off Auto Wah, Distortion and ‘Normal’
– Three pickup selector switches
This is an active guitar and only work when the batteries are installed.
With all the onboard effects it sounds amazing when jamming, with plenty of weird and wonderful sounds. I have never really mastered it (if anyone can) so can’t replicate the sounds when required in the studio. Changing the battery is hard. As it is under the strat style pickguard.
Jooky #26 The Rusting Nail One
Pickups: IronGear Alchemist 90 (neck), Wizard ‘Novatron’ (bridge)
Guitar Type: Gibson SG body, Fender Strat Neck
Controls: Dual Volume, Dual Tone, Three-way Switc
With a P90 style pickup at the neck and a Gretsch sounding pickup at the bridge it has plenty of twang (which is not what you’d expect at first glance.) A great guitar that I should play more.
Jooky: #14 The Funky One
Pickups: Di Marzio ‘Evolution’, IronGear ‘Hot Slag’
Guitar Type: Fender ’72 Custom Telecaster Inspired
Construction: Cloth over wood.
Controls: 2 x Tone, 2 x Volume, Three-way Selector
Despite it’s flowery looks. It is a real Rock Monster. Fun to play and cool to look at. I must play it more,
A big thanks to Jooky for supporting Fat Old Man over the years. He made incredible guitars and was generous to all.
Fender Copy: Stratocaster. Boutique vintage style pickups. American Strat body (very heavy) The body is built for Rcok/metal but the pickups are 50s style (although a bit more punch when turned up). A good all round guitar. It’s beginning to get a few battle scars.
Fender Copy: Stratocaster Body covered with Batman themed comics. Upgraded pickup I bought this so I could customise it. However the pickups sounded great, so I kept them. I was going to put on a customised pickguard but it is has a slightly irregular size so it didn’t fit. It plays well and sounds good
Fender Copy: Stratocaster. Mirrored scratch plate. 7 way wiring. Upgraded pickups (Oil City) It has a light body (so not the best sustain – but this can be sorted with pedals if needed) , great vintage/hot pickups and pro wiring. A great guitar to play that sounds amazing. My go to strat in the studio and looks great with the mirrored scratch plate (which is slowlygeting more cracks in it, for a different look)
Axentricity: Union Jack. Warman high output pickups that can be coil tapped. White stripes and knobs reflect light in the dark. Who would have thought a slab of wood could sound so great? When coil tapped, it can be made to sound like the Jam and has a real Mod feel yet when not coil tapped it is a Rock Monster. It is surprisingly easy to play with the neck angled.
Calvin: Harp. Guinness/harp themed guitar. Small hollow body A fantastic sounding guitar plugged in or acoustic. Looks great, es pecially as I love Guinness and my wife has Irish connections. The main problem, is that it has no strap buttons, so cannot easily be played standing. Also the bottom is really smooth and curved so slips off the lap when playing sitting. I may stick felt on the bottom and/or screw in strap buttons (however I’m frightened the veneer will crack)
Axentricity: Alien. Eyes are knobs and glow in the dark. I’ve played this a lot because of the small body. I can have it on my lap while surfing the net or mixing down tracks on the computer. As it does not get in the way. The P90 pickup makes it sounds warm to hot, but I often don’t plug it in.
Epiphone: Blueshawk Awesome blues sounds; dirty or clean. You can also make it sound like a Teisco style guitar.
Epiphone: Nighthawk Sounds in between a Gibson Les Paul and a Strat, it can be made to be made to sound like either as well as an SG and Telecaster. It makes it great to compose and jam because you can change the sound completely. Then if it is’t perfect you can change the guitar for recording. AWESOME! Rapidly becoming my go to guitar.
Epiphone: Wildkat. Added locking tuners and more powerful pickups. Trem bar spring shortened so it stays in tune for longer. With the modifications, it is a great Rock and Roll / Rockabilly guitar. The smaller body (for a hollowbody) also helps playing while sitting down.
Hutchins: Rangemaster Upgraded nexk pickup Seymour Duncan. The other 3 pickups upgraded to boutique. It sounds like a vintage (50s) strat but with the extra Seymour Duncan hot pickup, it can be switched easily for high output jobs.
Hutchins: Venue When plugged into a mixing desk it sounds incredibly like an acoustic. Put through the odd pedal, it can be made to sound like a range of acoustics and styles. It’s much more convenient than mixing up an acoustic.
Hutchins: Doodlebug with QTX. Middle 2 pickups up graded to Warman. Smoking wolf emblem added. With 4 pickups that can be combined in any combination and a QTX knob as well, you can get a huge variety of sounds. It looks incredibly cool too. It is a bit heavy to wear on a strap for any length of time.
Fernandes: Native with active sustainer The sustainer makes this awesome for metal/punk. Put the sustainer on with the harmonics setting on and put it through the right amp (or pedal) settings and play anything, it rocks.
Burns: Steer The short neck makes it easy to play with my small hands. Also there are a lot of sound settings. Sadly while being cleaned the chrome looking pickguard lost some of it’s chrome look. A kind Manchester music shop sent me a new model one for free so I took it apart but it didn’t quite fit, so I put the old one back on. It now needs a serious set up.
Rickenbacker Copy: 350 Apparently started out as a Tokai. Full size neck. Genuine Rickenbacker tail plate and truss rod cover. 5 knobs working. Maybe (original owner died so it’s not verified) Rickenbacker pickups. Sounds like a Rickenbacker. It jingle jangles but can also sound like the Jam.
FOM: SG Copy Started as a Tokai. Previous owner added Gibson logo. Then I upgraded pickups to Seymour Dungcan.(2 ‘59s and a Pearly Gates in the middle) A bone nut added.
My main workhorse for years. Great all round guitar That can make most sounds. It’s also quit light so fine for using live and throwing around. Being relatively cheap, I don’t mind if it gets knocked (in fact it can make it look cooler).
Burny: Les Paul Lawsuit from the 80s with the much desired VH1 pickups. Extremely heavy body. An incredibly well mad Les Paul ‘59 copy. They now go for serious money (not quite as much as the Gibson) Sounds amazing (for that vintage sound) and plays amazingly. It is very heavy so uncomfortable to play standing up. Only 1 serious scratch (on the fretbloard) but it doesn’t effect playability.
FOM: Les Paul Mahogany body. Seymour Duncan pickups. Coil taps controlled by tone knobs. I made this as a Les Paul that sounds great, is versatile and I don’t care too much if it gets damaged. I succeeded on all fronts. It’s very versatile so has become a workhorse in the studio
Epiphone: Acoustic. Just a standard acoustic guitar that I’ve had since the very early 80s. Sounds as it should but played very rarely due to having other guitars that can make similar sounds and more easily played..
Washburn: Raven (My first guitar!) Updated Bridge pickup to Seymour Duncan and neck pickup to boutique possibly Iron Gear. My first guitar ever. It did have a really dead sound. This became part of my 80s Indie Band’s sound. I have since updated it so it has become an all round professional sounding guitar. Strangely I miss the cheap dead sound.
Fender: Telecaster. Pink Paisley. 80s made in Japan model This was my main guitar in my 80s Indie band. It has all those telecaster sounds but it also has a nice warm vibe. Everyone who plays it falls in love with the sound and feel of it. Being used for many years as my main guitar, it has many knocks and dings. The Pink Paisley design is a classic, played by the Who, Oasis and many others.
Fender: Telecaster. Made in USA. 50th Anniversary edition.
A classic guitar. Plays and sounds exactly as it should. Professional quality all the way. It is a limited edition, that is made to sound vintage but is a pleasure to play. It also can sound more like a modern telecaster when fully turned up. Definitely a candidate for my best guitar
Ibanez : Artcore AF75TDG Hollowbody. Full size. A full size jazz box. Great clean for jazz but can also do Rock and Roll and country. Awesome sound plugged in and OK as an unplugged acoustic. Not played too much because of size and me not needing clean tones too often.
Ibanez: Artcore AFS75TD Hollowbody. Slimline Awesome for Rcok and Roll, Rockabilly, Punk etc plugged in or acoustic. Very sturdy and great fun to play and ”throw around”. A favourite to jam with.
Gretsch: G5129 DeArmond Pickups Hollowbody. Full size. Sounds as good as an expensive Gretsch but not as sturdy. Awesome for Rockabilly, Country, Rock and Roll etc. Can be very twangy. Not to be played live or “thrown around” as a small knock could damage the front seriously. Also the strap pins are famous for permanently damaging the body if care isn’t taken. It means I only play it when I need that Gretsch sound.
MORE COMING SOON