Rich’s First Year

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Rich just sent this to me. It’s great. Check it out. He plays, in order:

  • Californication Red Hot Chili Peppers
  • What I Got Sublime
  • Pipeline The Chantays
  • The River Good Charlotte
  • Fat Lip Sum 41
  • Driftwood Kash’d Out
  • Pink Houses John Cougar Melloncamp
  • N17 Wild Colonial Bhoys
  • Hey Joe Jimi Hendrix
  • The Feast and the Famine Foo Fighters
  • Lifes Been Good Joe Walsh

James Wilsey and Four Fender Stratocasters

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James Wilsey posted this on his Facebook page yesterday. Pretty cool!

All of the Stratocasters I used in over 13 years playing with Chris Isaak.

I started with the black one, it’s a 1966 I purchased in Missouri for $200. When we got a record out and started to tour, I got the sunburst 50s made in Fullerton. They never quite matched very well sound wise, the sunburst was always darker sounding.

In 1987 I decided to retire those and go with a matching pair of reissues. I talked to my friends at Fender and had them hold the next two white 62 reissues. I got them to be less concerned about wear and tear (and potential loss) I’d be facing on the road again. And I wanted two that matched better sound wise, and might as well match the color too.

I went down to Fullerton and picked them up in the warehouse, it was a fun day. The guitars were really nice and sounded great. I could not tell them apart. In the studio, I did a A/B test of the new guitars against the old ones. The new ones sounded better by unanimous vote.

I recorded the next album with the new white guitars, “Wicked Game” used one of them, not sure which.

James-Wilsey-Stratocasters