I tried to pick the most odd & attention grabbing of my herd. Do you think I missed the boat by not including some of my other notable oddballs? He didn’t even mention the amps or pedals. Ha ha.
Shout-out to my peeps at Actual Ugly Guitars! It’s a Facebook group focused on looking for guitars ranging from the weirdest of the weird to just pure abominations with strings and sometimes even frets. If you’re gonna join, answer the questions or you won’t get in.
Here’s a rundown of what’s pictured if you’re interested:
Click the links on the guitar names to go to my Instagram posts where I posted all my axes at the beginning of the Covid shutdowns. You can check out most of them (& more) at Posting #AllMyAxes. 🎸 (Part 1) & Posting #AllMyAxes. 🎸 (Part 2) too. I posted all of them individually and some fun group shots & extras under the #AllMyAxes hashtag on Instagram.
If not rocking the Spark for practice or jamming along to YouTube or the built-in drummers, I like to rock a guitar through the tuner then into the A/B/Y into both the Blues Jr. and the Micro Terror through the Laney. Sometimes I put the wah up front, or sometimes on just one amp. I had a Dunlop CryBaby for years, then once I heard the “tone-suck” even when it was off, I couldn’t un-hear it. Same with the Dirt & Ernie… sometimes I just use it as a boost. It will come in handy if I ever get back to live stuff. My “sound” is pretty much gain on 10 master volume on 2 through both amps because I love the sound of the overdriven amps, so I don’t really need to add much dirt. If I set up the Trio, I run the “band” out to the PA so drums & bass come out of that nice & clean instead of one of (or both of) my amps. I am terrible with the POCK LOOP looper. The Lil’ Smokey is also a ton of fun, and I have used to to drive a 4×12. I think I need simpler one or more patience. Maybe both.
So, that’s my setup. Yes, I do play these guitars. Yes, they’re all playable. (I have a go-to guitar guy that is like a guitar-whisperer.) Yes, I have gigged & even recorded with some of them and would gig with all of them.
Which ones do you dig or hate the most? Got any oddballs you want to share? Hit me up with some comments!
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!
So, I’ve been really bad at blogging lately. It’s not that I don’t have anything to blog about, it’s mostly that I’m not finding much time to do it. I did have someone recently contact me with a complaint thinking I’m some entity… not sure who they thought. I wrote back to no avail. I think it was a dud. I may try again to get a response, maybe I’ll even post something.
Mainly, it’s because of a new job. I’m not tied to a desk with a few spare minutes or even with lunch time at the desk. Now, I’m on the road & in the field all day. When I get home, I don’t seem to gravitate right to blogging or my news feed.
I never did finish my New York Pro guitar… well, I did route out the pickguard with a Dremel set that my mom gave me, and eventually got the neck plate off, but I had my guitar guy put it all back together. If you need work done in the Pittsburgh area, let me know and I’ll send you to the right cat for repairs, setups, and even guitar insanity which is generally all I ever have for him (e.g. the Batman logo guitar went from goofy to absolutely playable in his hands). It looks ridiculous, plays like a dream, and screams through the amplifier like you wouldn’t believe. GFS pickups rule.
World (and Lunar) Domination 