This is the story of “Maggie”…
One of my most favorite guitars in my collection hand built by Willy (Willy’s Custom Guitars) and I. This is a story I have been wanting to tell for quite some time but for some reason never got a ‘round tuit’ (now that I have started this blog there are no more excuses… LOL)
Over the past year or two as folks have watched my poor little “low quality webcam videos” either on GoogleVideo, YouTube or my website, many people have asked me “What kind of Guitar is that?”…
Maggie started out as a ‘concept’ for one of my defunct heavy metal projects that never really got off the ground circa 1994. I designed the body shape on my old Apple Macintosh 2si (remember those? 4MB of Ram, 80MB HD…boy have we come along way!) using one of the first versions of what was Aldus Freehand v.4 which of course now is Macromedia, which is now Adobe (or something like that)…
First, we created a template using plywood and went out and bought a nice, thick blank of Mahogany for about $60 and the template was affixed to the Mahogany blank to prepare the wood to go under the band saw.
Next was a bit of sanding and shaping of the body, what I loved most about this phase is how Willy contoured the back of the guitar similar to a Fender Strat so it was very comfortable to play while standing up.
After the body was shaped just right, it was time to seal the wood and prep for the paint. the original plan was to go for some kind of a Candy Apple paint job and after puting down a few coats of Ditzler Silver Primer it looked so good “as is” that we decided that this was where Maggie will remain…
Once the paint dried it was time to put Maggie together, I had some parts left over from a “previous” custom guitar. The neck is a Warmouth Neck (sorry, not sure of the exact make or model) and the pickup is a hand wound Dan Armstrong with something like 128 individual pole pieces and the bridge is a Leo Quann “Badass” .
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And here is one happy guy,,, LOL
(yes, this is me circa 1994, the long hair “Heavy Metal” rebel that I was.. LOL )
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See Maggie in action on Google Video
The Flintstones
Star Spangled Banner
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About Willy’s Custom GuitarsAs a friend of mine for well over 20 years I think it is high time I talk about Mr. Willy Donica..!
Willy’s Custom Guitar Repair motto is “Dedicated To Playability” and that he is…
Willy’s extensive list of clients is quite impressive which includes:
Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin)
Michael Schenker (Scorpions, UFO, MSG)
Robby Krieger (The Doors)
Donovan
Lindsey Buckingham (Fleetwood Mac)
Don Henley (The Eagles)
Lenny Kravitz
Neil Giraldo (Pat Benetar)
Mike Inez (OZZY, Alice In Chains, Heart)
Brad Gillis (Night Ranger, OZZY)
Dan Sindel (LOL, sorry couldn’t resist..!)
• Stone Temple Pilots
• Lita Ford
• John Sykes
• Paul Raymond
• Myron Grumbacher
• John Shanks
• Lyle Workman
• Marco Moir
• Marco Mendoza
• Nine Inch Nails
• Wendy and Lisa
• Tom Peterson
• Stan Lynch
• Doyle Bramhall II
• Taco Torez
• Tony Franklin
• Dave Amato
• Wolfgang Press
• Bush
• Jon Butcher
• Jaime Walters
• Hank Steiger
• Frank linx
• Frank Black
• Gavin Menies
• Rick Salazar
• Toni,Toni,Toni
• Chicago
• Tina Turner
• Billy Burnette
• Warren Zevon
• Ricc Fierabracci
• Alex Al(Diana Ross)
• Freddy Cooper(Boyz 2 Men)
• Rick Vito(Rod Stewart, Stevie Nicks)
• Cornelious Mimms(Death Row Records)
And Many, Many more… 
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