And here’s the final product… the 1968 Teisco Del Rey, with new pickups and a repro tailpiece. The stock tailpiece was breaking strings like crazy, and as you’ll see, I do like me some whammy bar. probably a little too much whammy bar.

I decided to write a song using the Del Rey for all the guitar parts, but I really don’t like instrumentals all that much (unless Jeff Beck is playing them). (I have dozens of songs all ready to record, all waiting for some kind of spooky-cool female vocalist - if you know of one, drop me a line!) So I hunted the interwebs and found a beautiful, spooky, sweet acapella clip of Tunisian jazz singer Wafa Ghorbal singing “motherless child”. Here’s the result - please leave a comment and let me know what you think! (UPDATE: I emailed Ms. Ghorbal with a link to the video, and she’s generously OK’d my use of her clip).

Visit the Teisco Page for more Japanese-Guitar Cloudiness.

For a higher-quality audio version, go to this page.

DOWNLOAD AN MP3 OF THE SONG at this link.