So I headed out on Valentine’s Day to the Brookdale Guitar Show. This is my second year in a row attending. There was lots to look at and some decent traffic. I do think however that there were more dealers and more traffic last year. Could this be due to the economy (which I think is slightly on the rise), the cold weather and the amount of snow we have been having here in NJ or the show being scheduled on Valentine’s Day? I am going to go out on the proverbial limb and say that it was because of V-day….
Some things that caught my eye were a few dealers that had some great vintage guitars including a refin ’51 Telecaster, ’61 SG Les Paul, some cool vintage P-Basses, TV Les Paul Specials and a few vintage Stratocasters. I saw some cool old amps kicking around like some really clean blackface Fender’s and some older Marshall’s.
There was a dealer that told me he sells guitars and amps as a hobby who had a 1959 ash body blonde Stratocaster and 1961 Blonde Fender Twin-Amp. I have only seen a handful of 100% original blonde Stratocasters and only one other blonde Twin. These were definitely cool to see on a Sunday afternoon. $28k and the pair is yours……..!
The one builder that caught my eye was Frank O’Hearn of Shamrock Amplification. He was at the Brookdale show last year. There were a small assortment of his amps and the new pedal he has for this year called the Westie. It is a modified RAT pedal that has a very smooth overdrive sound. The pedal worked hand in hand with his amps and sounded awesome!! You can click here to read a review I did of his 18 watt head.
Some of the best moments though were spent hanging with some friends I have not seen in a really long time. My cousin Charlie and my really good friend Joe DeLorenzo were there whom I have not seen in a long while. We were actually in a rocakbilly band together for years called ” The Barnstormers” and worked with Dave Sharp of The Alarm for a few years together back in the 90’s. Another old bass player friend Alan Gowa was there checking out the seminars and looking at some CD’s. My old pal Jet Weston of the “Atomic Ranch Hands” scored a really cool old plastic cowboy guitar. Mr. Don, Sonny Prewitt, Mick, Michael Newman, Wayne Larsen (from Guitar Emporium), Dennis Miele and a bunch of other guys were also there and a good time was had by all. See you again next year!!!!!