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My name is Kent Holmes. I currently play guitar and sing for a band called "Sleek Month" (which can
be seen and heard here: http://www.myspace.com/sleekmonth). I also play guitar for, and
occasionally sing in, a country band called "Dead Horse" (http://www.myspace.com/thathorseisdead).  When I was a kid in the '80s, I
was a guitar tech for my first seven years out of high school (mainly with L.A. Guns and Poison). That gave me a crash course in basic guitar maintenence, repair and modding.
(You have no idea how many times a guitarist on coke wants to have his speakers/pickups/amps changed out! Be thankful you don't know!)
From the early '90s on, I've been
playing in my own bands, usually with a Tele or two in the arsenal. My favorite was a 1991 Tele Plus Deluxe, the lace sensor one, black with white binding that I
bought from a friend who was selling off the guitarist from Ratt's guitars for him for heroin money. It got stolen in '95. I have never seen another like it (that being a Plus with binding).
Anyway, here are three Teles I have messed with recently...I'd like to apologize to the collectors and faint-hearted in advance. These are working guitars, so no polish, and lots of dings and
dirt. The first is pretty simple. It's a sunburst Nashville Power Tele. It has Fender Custom Shop Texas Specials in the bridge and
middle, and I put a Seymour Duncan P90 in the neck. I also did a belly-cut on this guitar and equipped it with an Earvana compensated nut. It's pretty sweet now. |
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The second is a black Schecter PT. This is my main rock guitar. It's modded with a GFS Retrotron Liverpool humbucker in the
lead position. (Great slash-esque mids!) The mini toggle switch switches between the coils on the lead pickup, so you can have either coil or both. The neck is coil tapped also, via a pull-out knob. I
also "retro-tele'd" the headstock to the Tele shape, which was done by cutting off the excess wood from the Schecter shape, glueing it back on to fill where needed, then cutting the whole thing
into the Tele headstock shape. I also did a little carving on this one... I always liked the look of Waylon Jennings leather covered teles, but figured that the cover itself was a bad idea
tone-and-sustain-wise. So I carved a pattern similar to his directly into the wood. This is kind of a work in progress, (...a year later!), as occasionally, I still break out the tools and add to it or
refine it further. Good fun. |
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The third guitar is my baby. This is another Nashville Power Tele. I put Fender vintage noiseless pickups in it, (mainly to
cut monitor buzz when recording), stripped it down to the bare wood (it was black), cut a belly cut into it and carved some nice classic Sheridan-style/Zemaitis engraving style ornamentation into. I, like so
many others, have a spade tattoo on one of my hands, so I used a spade as the central motif (close up at top of page). With all of my guitars, versatility is the key, and this one gots a huge array of
tones...excellent for recording! |
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I'm looking into some other projects right now. I'm feeling an urge to buy 2 Squier Teles and make a doubleneck out of them
(One for slide, one for regular). I'm also gearing up to start adding binding to guitars manufactured without...and I'm thinking of taking on some carving projects for hire. |
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