New York, NY (Top40 Charts/ Shore Fire Media) When the BoDeans first started, they needed a bass player, so frontman-guitarist Kurt Neumann grabbed the soldering gun his parents gave him at age 15 and began crafting his own guitars that created a unique sound with bigger low-ends and lead/rhythm guitar capability. He calls his creations "
Bastards" as they are Frankenstein-like monsters made from various parts of his favorite axes. He eventually even customized his own amp with his friend,
Jesse Duke. Kurt used his custom guitars & amp to record most of the songs on the BoDeans' new album, 'American Made' (June 12). Check out a photo of his four favorite Bastards below.
Want to find out what guitars and amps Kurt used to make each of these? Click the photo for technical details of each custom made instrument and more photos.
The purple guitar is one of his earliest creations, where he and a friend tried to get a Chet Atkins sound in a solid body. "The mids in this Bastard will rip your face off," Kurt says. "It was once described as sounding like a chainsaw. But, when I hear the opening lick of 'Closer to Free,' I just smile."
The blue korina unleashes the chiming tones on "All the World," the pine-top single-cutaway delivers the earthier riff to "Jay Leno," and the American star guitar with a eBay-purchased mystery neck belts the soulful leads on "Absolutely." Even his amp is a Bastard, with heads and cabs spliced together to create rock and roll beast.
Pine-Top:
35-year old wood body
Custom order Musikraft neck
Joe Barden humbucker in the bridge
Neck with a series/ parallel switch
Pick ups screwed straight into the body
American Star:
Old double-cutaway body
Mystery neck from eBay
Wilkinson bridge
Barden two tone in the bridge
Seymour Duncan stack in the middle sunk way down low
Seymour Duncan lil' 59 in the neck with series/ parallel switch
Pick ups screwed straight into the body
Korina (blue):
Korina body
Joe Barden two tone
DiMarzio singles
Pick ups screwed straight into the body
Amp:
Hand-wired Fulton/Webb 17 watt head
3/4-inch pine speaker cab
12-inch Celestion lead 80
12-inch Celestion alnico blue.
Custom cabinet
The BoDeans launch a 40+ date national tour next month. See full dates here: https://www.bodeans.com/tour-dates/
BoDeans on the Web:
https://www.bodeans.com
https://www.facebook.com/bodeans
https://www.twitter.com/bodeans
