Glenn's Guitars - History Plus

So I know many of you realize I'm a life-long musician who loves to write lyrics, music, sing, play guitar. The thought comes to mind that many of my readers/listeners/show attendees are also guitarists or in any case play the instrument and may wonder about my own guitar history, likes, dislikes and present arsenal, ha! If all that bores you, of course skip the following. If not, here comes at least -some of my thoughts- on the subject.

After many decades of travel, input from others re. tone, recording various styles and songs that call for a wide range of sounds, an incredible number of friends who have given me guitars, etc., built some for me as gifts and various cigarbox and found object guitars they've sent as well as those I've built myself there are a HUGE number I have on hand at home and in our pro studio. Believe it or not I think materialism is a serious issue in and outside of a Christ-following life -at the same time there are tools worth using, some worth giving away and some of little value and all of this for many reasons.

My first guitar was a simple Kay 6 string acoustic that my brother gifted me when he brought it home from his completed U.S. Army service (mostly in Germany). He didn't really play it and thought I might learn to.

Not knowing any better I bought a cheap set of electric light gauge strings and put 'em on 'er. Through a younger friend in the first band I was ever in (at age 13) I learned "2-string chords" and just kept going -by ear, trial-and-error.

After seeing The Beatles on Ed Sullivan (like so many of my generation) I bugged my Mom until she bought me a cheap electric Harmony single pickup and little Harmony amp as Christmas gifts.

From there it's a very long story of borrowed guitars and eventually (in Resurrection Band) I went through a LONG list of electrics, then acoustics. Here's all I can recall at the moment of this writing in August, 2026- not counting what I have on hand now... I'll list those at the end as well as my present personal likes and reasons for using 'em.

Back in the day: Harmony Bobkat, Fender Jaguar (borrowed), Kay acoustic dreadnought.

Early to later REZ Band: Gretsch single pickup semi-hollow body, Gibson Melody Maker (the very thin, very SG-like one w. 2 single coil pickups), my second Harmony single pickup Bobkat, Fender 60s Mustang (3/4 neck, I eventually replaced the pickup with a stock Les Paul humbucker), Gibson Firebird (II re-issue), Les Paul Studio model single pickup (which I eventually replaced with a single coil Strat pickup), Fender Strat (asked Stu Heiss to add a built-in fuzz unit which he did), Travis Bean Artist Model (solid aluminum neck), Gibson SG- with stock humbucker pickups, 2 Les Paul Customs (stock Gibson Humbuckers), Les Paul Studio Model w. stock humbuckers -I eventually re-finished it to natural wood from the original white, a borrowed Fender Telecaster Custom. With REZ Band on the acoustic side, a borrowed mid-range Martin w. pickup (don't recall the model), Ovation cut-away, Taylor 950 Series. I think that's about all though I borrowed several other guitars on occasion from friends. Note: PLEASE don't ask which of these I used on specific songs/recordings as it'd be quite hard for me to remember after so very many records and years in the several decade run with REZ!

GKB and Solo: WAY back in the day a bro gifted me with a Gibson Blueridge acoustic when I first led worship and played at our coffeehouse in Jesus People of Milwaukee. With GKB and beyond, I had a Guitar Aid light blue Strat, a loaned black Tele, Warmouth-based Strat, acoustic Takamine 12 string w. on-board internal mic pickup, several of the following guitars have been gifted to me and a couple of them live in Studio B (Grrr Records) which I use among others, in recording and live- Epiphone Sheraton, 2 "parts-caster" Teles, black Fender Strat, Epiphone Les Paul, a single-pickup mini-strat style travel-size guitar, older Gibson lapsteel with Bill Lawrence pickup, Trimmed & Burnin' 3-pickup resonator guitar, Weissenborn-style acoustic with pre-amp/pickup, old Danelectro electric w. original single coil pickup, Teisco Del Rey triple pickup, Epiphone "gold top" Les Paul Blues Power w. one P90 pickup, Recording King resonator guitar w. pickup, Shane Speal 3 string cigarbox guitar w. pickup, Tony Taylor (Ascendent Instruments) cigarbox guitar with pickup, Seagull "Merlin"/M4 guitar, Dobro Duolian (full metal body slide guitar), a gifted ukulele -and several more cheaper acoustics, an acoustic bass and last I counted some 30 or more cigarbox and found-object guitars I've mostly built though several were given to me as gifts, 3 string, 1 string and a few 2 stringers. I also converted a Fender Squire Strat to a 3 stringer (playable with fingers, pick or slide) and fitted it with a single bass pickup- great tone!

As for other -not- guitars (yet stringed instruments)- Had/used 2 different 4 string dulcimers, a 6 string dulcimer and I've 3 fishing-line 5-7 stringed cigarbox/found object lutes I built. I mean... whew!!

Presently I'm doing solo gigs with one of the Tele's and the Shaner (Shane Speal cbg slide git) to keep things a bit more sane. I LOVE both of these Telecasters for a load of reasons.

I should mention that on occasion concert promoters and/or fans have rented or loaned me a very wide range of electric and acoustic guitars for live shows or worship services so you may see photos of me playing those too, especially for travel dates that include flying.

Both live and in recording my main consideration is The. Song. -what tone or tones does it (or most of the songs on a particular project) seem to call for? What about the solo section/s?

Live it's again about the over-all tone, songs, setlist, and feel. "Feel" is of course quite subjective. I LOVED my super-light SG w. REZ but it didn't have the depth and fullness of the Les Pauls. I personally often favor a bit brighter sound of Strats and Teles but sometimes humbucking pickups and a fatter low-end works best -and my moods change of course so having this mass of instruments both electric, acoustic, slide and cbg/found object 3 string and 1 string (mostly slide) guitars all have their place and use, appeal to me as a writer, recording and touring artist.

Now- some by now are perhaps tempted to be jealous or covet -well know this, I've heard some of the best guitarists use ALL KINDS OF GUITARS as well as amps, pedals, mic'ing amps w. various mics etc., and they all sound amazing and like themselves though tonality and playability all vary for a lot of reasons. How could that be?

Guitar weight, shape and speed of neck re. one's hand sizes and strength, preferred string gauges all figure in.

Sound, tone, personal sense of "feel", of instrument coolness IS subjective as well as objective, but I think we all have these things in our brains and soul as we pick up and play any instrument. Then when playing- if we're "in the zone" so to speak, the instruments sort of speak to us and there is an inspiration element that happens -not every time but often, not with every instrument... sometimes with a different instrument on occasion.

Getting toward the end of this post but I want to add just a little more but not go down the list of amps I've used as perhaps that'll be for another post at some point... that and to some extent pedals and in studio recording outboard affects all figure in greatly.

Having a sort of "guitar shop" full of gear at my disposal you can never be certain what you'll see in my live gigs be it with GKB, solo or jamming with others. My mood or sound sometimes changes in terms of what I want to take out on the road -and the same goes for studio recording, pedals and amps.

At present doing many solo gigs I typically don't use any pedal at all, just one or two tuners. As I play 85 or more percent blues when doing solo shows it makes sense. But wait, there's more :)

My go-to in this season is a little Trimmed & Burnin' 5 watt amp w. an 8 inch Weber speaker. She's warm, full and plenty loud. I created a simple amp stand which angles it toward my best (left) ear and typically mic it a bit off center of speaker cone and out about 4 inches with a Shure 57 mic on a boom stand. The 2 Tele-style guitars I have were gifted me by 2 different friends and both arrived at my home as complete and total surprises.

One has a Fender Squire Tele neck on it but the bro put "Kaiser" on the head stock, heh! He found the body w. a Thrush Auto Parts bird on it, heavy body with cool wood grain and painted red on the back. That partscaster sports a Fender Lace Sensor noiseless pickup in the neck position and (we think...) maybe a Kramer single coil pickup at the bridge. Instead of a 3 position switch he put rubberized stuff in the slot so you can stick an extra guitar pick there! Plus- it has one volume control and something I'd never seen but really love- rather than a tone control he wired the electronics to where that second knob has a detent when you dial it dead-center. In one direction it gives more and finally nothing but the neck pup and in the other direction the same for the brighter bridge pup. Centered you get both full on and then one way or the other tweak as you wish. I LOVE it!

The other Tele is black with white pearloid pickgard, a DiMarzio Twang King single coil at the neck and a Seymour Duncan JB Junior stacked humbucker pup in the bridge. AND... 3 position slide switch, 1 volume control and a push-pull coil-tap function for the tone control. He also loaded it with Fender locking tuners and because he heard I love rosewood (fretboards) actually put a solid rosewood Tele neck on 'er! Wow.

I am presently LLLLLLoving these two Tele-style gits as they are bright yet have a fullness not usually associated with Telecasters.

A Tale of Two Tele's

At this time I take one of the Tele's out along with my Shaner cigarbox 3 string slide guitar and a couple harmonicas- and anything I use gets fed right through the T&B amp. On occasion I bring a Shure Green Bullet harp mic and run it through the amp while sometimes just blow right into the vocal mic -and for that I prefer Shure 58s. So that's the story in August 2026.

For me, from 1965 until now my musical life has been enriched by Father/Son/Spirit even before I knew and followed... and after all these years the wide, wide range of guitar and guitar-like instruments He's brought my way have been tools through which I hope have expressed Jesus' incredible love and His truth that challenges and redeems like -no- other. In my view, that's the ultimate blessing of wood or metal- and strings! For me, they are tools of proclamation and worship.

As always, thanks for stopping by! -Glenn