Re: The Steve Stevens Guitar Story
That Steve would end up being frustrated with the various manufacturers, seemed to be in retrospect, almost inevitable, given the commercial marketplace restrictions and production costs and countries of manufacture.
Steve has insisted always that the guitars bearing his name and signature be manufactured in the USA and if he wasn't allowed control of the product he co-designed, he would choose not to be involved.
Moving to the incredibly brief Washburn era, just under one year in fact, the majority of 1993, Steve was involved closely in the design of some of the most interesting, fantastic sounding and playing guitars, built in this genre.
For many years since I special ordered my black SS80 back in 1993, and I got my order in very early, the guitar I received was different than any other SS80 I have ever seen , and I have seen many, other than the specific guitars produced for Steve himself and used briefly live and in recording the Vince Neil Band album Exposed , which if you have never heard it, buy it and hear Steve really be allowed to stretch out his soloing and production values.
Steve worked diligently at Cornerstone studios with an engineer to work out demos and really nail his guitar tones, prior to the recording of the album.
He even slept on a couch in the studio as he diligently worked towards one of the best examples of loud distortion guitar recording that you will ever hear.
Steve used a George Massenberg EQ unit as part of his signal chain and recorded his guitars dry, as he mostly always does, adding effects later.
The only way I can describe the guitars, which Steve played all of himself, including bass, asMASSIVE and I still to this day use this recording as an example of analog recorded guitars, which were SMPTE coded to the final digital mix of the album, retaining all the killer analog tones.
Steve using at least six vintage Marshall heads on this recording.
He also prefers the SM57 mics to be just of center of the cone directly facing the cone in a vintage Marshall 4X12", with the grill cloth removed.
Steve has been recording this way since the earlier Billy Idol days.
Back to the Washburn guitars, please do not associate Grover Jackson, who indeed did join Washburn's Custom Shop towards the end of the SS era, with any design criteria of the Steve Stevens signature guitars, as they were developed before Grover set foot in there.
The guitar designs Grover was involved in were primarily the Mercury series, which forum member Ascension is proud of owning some rare examples.
My main interest is with the SS80 and SS100 series guitars.
Back to my first SS80, I have written on various internet forums ad nauseum about how my example from very early production, has the pinwheel truss rod, the unfinished headstock and the Famous Monsters silhouette Washburn logo and the positioning of it, with the SS signature being only on the artists spec guitars built for Steve himself.
