I ran into kid red the other day and he was playing a very interesting guitar painted with some wild art. When I asked him about it he answered in guitarese:

“It all started,” he explained, “with a sharp pain in my left shoulder from my guitar strap. I needed a lighter guitar. I already had an old Squire neck, so I got a @2lb paulownia Tele body from Guitar Fetish and dug out some Fender N3 noiseless pickups that came out of a different Tele I used to have.

“I already had a regular Tele, so I decided to go Nashville with this one. But being broke, I settled for a Wilkenson hot blades knock off for the middle pickup.

“The body came plain red,” he continued, “but I wanted something different, so I asked Amzie Adams paint the front based on his dancing cats poster that was also part of my Checkpoint Charlie CD cover.

“I painted the rest of the body to match the painting on the front, added a little messy routing hidden by the pick guard, and finished it off with ten or so coats of poly. I’m getting too old and squinty to do much soldering and wiring so I took it to John Wolverton in Picayune so he could squint and solder for me.

“Last thing was to take it back to Amzie and have the headstock signed to christen my first prototype art guitar, the AMZIECASTER.”

I’m told there are people who will understand what he said.

kidred.com

amzieadamsfineart.com

Main photo by Diana Thornton. Other photos by kid red.