| Rockbeare Guitars |

I jammed with the EJ Strat last night, through my £30 Joyo Ultimate Drive stompbox and the house’s very nasty Marshall Valvestate combo.  Sounded FANTASTIC, got some  compliments.

I know it was the guitar first, pedal second and no thanks to the  amp, as the next guy to play – a great fusion/blues player with a Heritage H535 (their take on a 335) – played really well but the leads sounded like a wasp in a box.

Guitar sorted, I think.  God bless Jason Lollar.  Seriously thinking about one of his pickups for the neck position in my ’73 Tele now….

My new 50w Ceriatone Overtone Special is in the country, and being tweaked while I am abroad.

Next up is choosing the right 50w speaker driver, probably an AlNiCo, to partner it….

This site has now been up for about 18 months, but I’ve only just got round to using the blog facility.

New news – recent deliveries/acquisitions include :

Barber Burn Unit double overdrive stompbox

’05 Fender Eric Johnson Signature Stratocaster

Ceriatone Overtone Special amp head and custom 1×12 speaker cab

Lollar Special S pickups…

…and my big amp rig, aka The Fridge, is just back from my tech with immaculate new wiring and isolators to reduce rack hum.  Apart from some residual programming, after evelen years it’s almost ready to commission.  Ok, so it’s bigger than most of the venues I play, but what the hell!

Hello and welcome to my website.  It features a UK-based collection of guitars and associated kit accumulated over my 30-odd years of as a working guitarist.   Some vintage, some classic, some more recent, all excellent.   Also a few rants / words of wisdom.

NEWS, December 2011!!! Rockbeare launches YouTube channel.  First two rough videos of ’59 Gibson ES335 up now at http://www.youtube.com/user/Rockbeareguitars/videos.

The site has no motive beyond sharing with other enthusiasts and like-minded souls. It contains some information and also has numerous useful links to other, more authoritative sites for further detail.

I’m a player first and became a collector, so I buy instruments for their sound and playability before their collectibility. I’m not into having multiple examples of things, for example vertical runs which evidence an instrument’s gradual evolution.

Some of these instruments reflect lifetime ambitions to own, others are just good guitars.  All get used and gigged, some regularly, some very carefully!  All have been bought out of income and I haven’t tended to trade much – at least not thus far.

There is a feedback mechanism, but given the value of some of the items, I seek to remain anonymous and am therefore unlikely to enter into personal correspondence.  That said, I hope you enjoy it, and look forward to reading what you think.  I would particularly welcome any factual comments/corrections so I can keep improving the site.

‘Rockbeare’

Some Rockbeare guitars featured in the December 2010 web issue of Premier Guitar magazine