The Music Zoo's Blog Has Moved!

First of all, sorry for the inactivity lately, but we've been busy. Along with a brand-spanking new website, the Blog is now in its new and improved home at:

www.themusiczoo.com/blog

Please check it out!

The Music Zoo / Fender® CS "Vintage Not Rod"

Get ready for the next big thing from The Music Zoo and the Fender® Custom Shop: The "Vintage Not Rod" Series. Back in the early '50s, Leo Fender felt that if a guitar was built right, it didn't need a truss rod (the adjustable metal rod embedded in the neck that helps keep the neck from bowing over time). But the reality of mass production meant that the assembly line could never spend enough time with each neck to ensure that it was made perfectly, so the truss rod went in, and the rest is history. Until now. Tommy Colletti and The Music Zoo traveled to Corona a few months ago to work with the Fender Masterbuilders on making a series of vintage-spec guitars with a solid, no truss rod neck. The Not Rod!

Some of the Fender employees could just not believe that a solid neck would be strong enough to not bend so we tested it out: above, Masterbuilder Mark Kendrick is standing on a neck that has no truss rod inside as other Fender employees and Masterbuilders look on. Mark proudly declared after the test that the neck was still perfectly straight. Masterbuilder Jason Smith didn't believe him, but after looking it over had to agree. It's an awesome piece of work that only the Fender Masterbuilders can pull off.

In the 1950 Fender built a handful of Broadcasters and double pickup Esquires with no truss rod, and those guitars are incredibly sought after today. Why do this now? Tone. Installing a truss rod in a neck means carving out a channel for the rod to lay inside, and where there was once wood, there is either empty space or there is metal. Less wood resonating, less vibration, less tone out of your amp. Plus, it's how the very first Fenders were built, and that's just cool.


The necks are carved slowly, in steps, to give the wood time to acclimate and adjust to its new shape. When they are done they will be completely stable. We'll be releasing more info very soon on specific guitar models that will have the Vintage Not Rod neck, so stay tuned!

Tommy with the Charvel® Nitro Aged San Dimas

The Music Zoo and Charvel® have teamed up to bring you the Nitro Aged San Dimas series of guitars. The Music Zoo's owner, Tommy Colletti, takes us through the guitar and plays some mean guitar to boot.

More Info Leaks Out About the "Cooked Wood" Guitars

We recently announced our latest project with Charvel - a run of guitars that are being built using wood that, using a proprietary kiln-drying process, has 6% moisture content. To fuel the fire (no pun intended), here are some more details about this amazing "cooked wood":

The wood is cooked in a kiln in its own smoke with steam introduced throughout the process. The resulting moisture content is locked at 6% and should not change over time. This means that the guitars, especially the necks, should be much more resistant to atmospheric and climatic changes; in other words, fewer neck adjustments. We are planning to do cooked maple necks to start with, then branch out into using cooked wood necks with regular wood fingerboards and other such combinations.

How light is the wood? Very light. We don't have a fully built guitar weight yet, but when we were at the factory our "arm scales" told us that the treated body and neck together was comparable in weight to a single untreated maple neck. That's really light, y'all. And the wood is very resonant; tapping the bodies revealed a loud, higher-pitched resonance than what you would get from an untreated body blank. To maximize the resonance of the body, our first guitars will have an oil/wax finish and direct mounted pickups.

There is one other nice attribute the raw cooked wood has that will unfortunately most likely not exist on a finished guitar: it smells like delicious mesquite bar-b-q. Mmmmmm, bar-b-q.

Can you smell what The Music Zoo is cooking?

Hold on to your hats folks, because The Music Zoo has some big announcements to make in 2009. We aren't going to drop all the specifics yet, but one of the things we can't wait to show you are the guitars we are building with Charvel using very special wood that has been "cooked" using a proprietary technique that reduces the moisture content to below 6%. The resulting wood is incredibly light, and extremely resonant; two qualities that when applied to guitars are, you know, really good. We went to Charvel's Custom Shop and oversaw the whole process. Pictured above is the Charvel's legendary "Red" Dave proudly holding one of the first pine bodies and maple necks that we will soon have fully dressed and in our hands. Stay tuned for the tone report...

Robben Ford Plays Louis Electric

Here's a clip that was just brought to our attention by the guys at Louis Electric Amps -Robben Ford playing through a KR12 amp. Both Robben and the amp sound great.

Video Evidence: Jim Campilongo is a Bad Man

This happened almost a month ago, but we just noticed that Fender has posted a video from their NAMM Kickoff of the Jim Campilongo Trio. Click here to watch. Jim is a local hero in New York City, and we've checked out his regular gigs at the Living Room on Ludlow Street many times. Anyone in New York on a Monday night could really do a *lot* worse than to drop by and catch his no-cover performance. His incredible tone (aided by the vintage Tele plugged directly into the amp), combined with his behind-the-nut string bends and endless bag of country-fied licks leaves guitarists in the audience shaking their heads.

photo: Ian Meyers

Fender Roadworn Contest: 50K+ of Free Gear!

At NAMM this last January we spotted a pimped-out Toyota Tundra parked in the Fender booth, filled with gear. We wanted to let you know about the contest that Fender is running so your band can have a chance to win it, a trailer, and all the gear too! Check out www.getroadworn.com

Eddie Van Halen CNN Interview

EVH is back in the news once again, talking with CNN about the new Wolfgang guitar, the original Wolfgang (his son), getting married soon, and promises a new Van Halen album and tour in the future. Transcript of interview here.

Jeff Beck Interview: '54 Oxblood Les Paul

We saw the Gibson Jeff Beck 1954 Oxblood Les Paul a few weeks ago at NAMM; here's Jeff talking shop about the guitar and about musical inspiration. Good stuff.

The SS Maton Guitar Boat

Australian singer/songwriter Josh Pyke is eBaying what may be the only seaworthy acoustic guitar on earth, to benefit the Indigenous Literacy Program. Now how about a Randy Rhoads V Hovercraft?
[source: I Heart Guitar]

Mike Bloomfield Prototype, Live in New York

If you're like us, you were wiping the drool off your chin looking at the gorgeous Gibson Custom Shop Mike Bloomfield Les Paul Prototype unveiled a few weeks ago at NAMM. And if you're in the New York area, you have a chance to see and hear this particular guitar in person at B.B. Kings on February 7th, played by Jimmy Vivino, according to Allen Bloomfield's blog. Allen Bloomfield is Mike's brother, and he is the rightful owner of the prototype Bloomfield Les Paul. It's cool that he's loaning out that beautiful Les Paul to do what it's meant to do. Jimmy Vivino will be performing at B.B. Kings to celebrate Al Kooper's birthday.

You Say It's Your Birthday: Eddie Van Halen

A very Happy Birthday to Eddie Van Halen, who turns 54 today. Eddie's officially back, with a successful reunited Van Halen tour under his belt, a new wife-to-be, and a deal with Fender Musical Instruments Corporation to build his new EVH Wolfgang guitars and EVH 5150 amps. What's next for EVH? According to Eddie when we met him at NAMM (pictured below with Music Zoo Owner Tommy Colletti), a revolutionary new guitar bridge coming this year. More on that soon.

Jennifer Janesko's Pinup Art Guitars

We were just, you know, living the "Gibson Lifestyle" when we noticed this article about Pinup Artist Jennifer Janesko. Whaddya know? The guitar she calls "Video Vixen" (above) is currently consigned in our pre-owned section. It's a great looking guitar, in pictures and in person.

Charvel San Dimas Natural Series Review

This month in Premier Guitar's "Hot Rod Strat" issue, Steve Ouimette reviews The Music Zoo Exclusive Charvel San Dimas Mahogany Natural guitar. He loves it! Check out the full review in the online edition of the Premier Guitar here.

NAMM 09: Charvel Builds Custom Guitars Live

Charvel set up a full workbench in their booth this year and actually built some custom guitars from start to finish live and without commercial interruption. They all wore oil finishes, since it would be impossible to spray paint in their NAMM booth. There was one in particular we really dug, and are bringing it home. It had a real rosewood neck and a birdseye fingerboard:


The Music Zoo's owner, Tommy Colletti and Charvel's Mike McGregor with the NAMM Show-Built San Dimas Custom:


Let it be known: Tommy can really shred. We all really liked the way that guitar sounded through the EVH halfstack:

NAMM 09: Martin Booth

Everybody was tripping out over the Psychedelic Custom in the Martin booth, even Chris Martin:


This one-of-a-kind will surely end up in the Martin Museum.






The Music Zoo's owner, Tommy Colletti, was checking out the new Limited Edition 000-28M Eric Clapton:


We were also digging the new 00-42 Linda Ronstadt:

NAMM 09: Duesenberg Booth

Duesenberg is making their first amplifier, the "Doozy! One". We sat down and played it through their new pedals and, well, drew a bit of a crowd. It had great low-end and mid-range detail, and a really nice crunch without sounding harsh. There were some new guitar models and prototypes on display:






The Duesenberg guys invited us down to their annual NAMM party Saturday night, just down the road in Fullerton. Compared to the freak show that went on every night at the Hilton, it was downright classy. We rocked out to Mike Campbell (Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers) and the Dirty Knobs:


Also at the Dirty Knobs show was artwork by Ronnie Wood on display:

NAMM 09: Hofner Booth

We love all the Hofner guitars and basses, but we came down to their booth this year to check out just one thing; the upcoming '58 Violin Bass.


From what we hear, this run is limited to only 58 pieces, and each will be made by the same luthier who built Paul McCartney's original '58 Hofner. Then he will retire. Here's the beautiful flat back:

NAMM 09: Zemaitis Booth

Two things worth noting at the Zemaitis Booth; first, a neat new line of Zemaitis guitars with carved tops:







And two, all Zemaitis guitars will enjoy a list price decrease (yes, decrease) in 2009. The guitars will remain exactly the same, just more affordable.

NAMM 09: Trillium Amplifiers

We stopped by Trillium Amplifiers to say hello, and we found a surprising new look for their ultra high-end amps. These are called the Custom Series:


According to the Trillium guys, some people were too afraid to gig with the original Trillium amps (which look like they belong in the Smithsonian) so they built these. They are all made with solid, dovetailed cabinetry, two-tone painted finishes, and have the same high-end guts as the originals. There were even matching pedalboards:

NAMM 09: ESP Guitars Booth

By far the coolest thing (in our humble opinion) in the whole ESP Guitars booth was the new limited edition James Hetfield Iron Cross model:


Only 40 of these are being made in full ESP trim, and The Music Zoo will definitely have one or two. It's inspired by the '73 Les Paul James used to play.


The Music Zoo also put in orders for the new Kirk Hammett "Ouija Board" guitars:




There were 3 limited edition LTDs on display, all of which we will be getting:






ESP also had a lot of nice custom paintjobs on Custom Shop guitars, but unfortunately they weren't being offered to dealers. The Music Zoo will be stocking a lot more Custom Shop ESPs this year, so let these whet your whistles while we come up with some of our own:

NAMM 09: Paul Reed Smith Booth

PRS dropped a few bombshells recently. First, they are making acoustic guitars now:


And, while they were at it, they decided to roll out a whole line of amps as well:


To us, the best news was the new Sunburst Series. It's comprised of the Sunburst McCarty, Smokeburst McCarty, and Sunburst SC245, they have the new 57/08 pickup (which is supposedly dead-on the PAF vibe), and (finally!) nitro-cellulose lacquer finishes:

NAMM 09: Dean Booth

Dean Guitars were up to their usual hijinks: Dean Girls, celebrities, and more Dean Girls. Heavy Metal God Dave Mustaine (Megadeth) was on hand signing autographs:


Dean CEO Elliot Rubinson being interviewed by a highly trained team of future Pulitzer-prize winning journalists:


...which was lead by a woman you might recognize, VH1 Rock of Love's Lacey Conner:


And that wraps up Dean at NAMM '09! Oh, sorry, there was actually a guitar or two... here's the new limited edition Leslie West model: