Unquestionably the best electric guitar I’ve ever owned. When I first got it I was so happy I called Paul and I was so happily worked up that he actually thought I was mad about something. It is just super sweet. Better than any Les Paul I’ve ever had. It really, really sings (even moreso now than I’ve reset it for light top -heavy bottom [i.e. 10-52] strings!)
Nice little story goes with this guitar:
I was at the factory doing overhauls on my CE’s as Rollins Band touring used to take its toll and the then artist rep, my friend (the remarkable and wonderful) Bonni Lloyd said, “We owe you a guitar, what do you need?” and at that point I didn’t really need anything but I said, “Well let me check out one of these new McCarty thingies.” She said, “Well we only have one right now and it’s a custom for a client but you can try it.” So there I am sitting on the floor of the room with this guitar and it is LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT! This guitar is amazing. Butter. I had just gotten the second Led
Zeppelin box set and I’m sitting there playing “Bring it on home” and all this Zep stuff and I tell Bonni, “You’re NOT getting this back. I want you to get a time machine, go back in time, remake this guitar without the tremolo and then give it to me.” All the while plinking
away at Zeppelin and Bonni says, “We don’t have any time machines and we need to take the action down on that one and ship it out.”
Just as I’m saying, “Take the action DOWN? It’ll buzz, who’d want that?” I look over at the case and the strip of tape says “;J. Page”
Bummer.
But that’s not the end of the story: a few weeks later Bonni calls and says, “Your guitar’s ready.” “What guitar?” I enquire. “Your
McCarty” says she. "When we made the one with the trem for Jimmy Page we figured he wouldn’t actually like it so we made a standard
out of the sister cuts of the same wood. He likes his so you get the other one.” Someday maybe the two guitars will meet. I DID actually meet Jimmy Page once. Our conversation ran something like this:
ROSS HALFIN: Jimmy, this is Chris Haskett.
JIMMY PAGE (for it is he): Hello.
CHRIS HASKETT: Hi.
Or maybe I said “hello” and he said “hi” There was nobody there to transcribe this historical event so we’ll never be sure.
Chris Haskett, you are the motherfucking man. It’s great to see you still kicking. I jam old Rollins Band records on at least a weekly basis, and your playing on every one of them is distinctive, immediately identifiable, unpredictable, and just generally insane. I’m 29 and have devoured my fair share of music both obscure and mainstream, and I have yet to hear another guitar player who sounds anything like you. Brother you are one of the most underappreciated guitarists in the last 25 years of music. Whatever it is you’re up to these days, kick the shit out of it. I’m sure I’ve missed some recent output of yours but I will be rocking the old Rollins Band stuff, plus Language & Non-Fiction, until I am deep in the cold, cold ground. Chris Motherfucking Haskett, no shit.
Just tried to purchase Not Part Of The Solution online – not available internationally. (I’m in Canada).
/sobbing
That’s weird. I thought I was selling through itunes up there. Let me check what’s going on.
I hadn’t tried it through iTunes, I was trying to purchase the mp3 album through Lala. I’ll see about getting Itunes installed and try it that way – this lack of Chris Haskett music must be rectified, post-haste!
Cheers man!
Yeah, I remember that. I think it was what I used for the clean tone. It used to sit on top of my rack. With hindsight, kind of a funny way of organizing things but there you go. No, it wasn’t stolen or anything, but who was selling it?