Thanks zz666. the best part of the last year was having a few communications with Steve himself and having the opportunity to tell him and thank him personally for all his great playing and music from a true fan.zz666 wrote:nice work on your website dude, huge SS fan here, love the woodgrained version with black hardware! Probably the coolest of the 80's shred guitars along with De Martini's frenchie and Lynch's Tiger
Unfortunately it is a bitter sweet experience as a lot of my interest surrounded the Washburn guitars, which Steve has moved on from since 1993.
I wanted to tell the story of these guitars that I love and let Steve know what a great instrument he created.
It wasn't a good experience for Steve with Washburn and with Hamer before that, so Steve was pretty gunshy after Hamer and jumped ship from Washburn quickly.
I originally contacted Steve through a third party asking questions about my first SS80 that I ordered in early 1993, he kindly replied to me after looking at my pictures.
Then many years later this past year, I made a connection with Washburn through Funky Munky Music in Kansas, they had direct connections with Washburn and I learned about all these rare Steve Stevens guitars in Rudy, the ex-president of St. Louis Music, personal museum collection.
These included the Barbarella, which I didn't know even existed, apparently neither did Steve himself. So after I posted exclusive shots of this guitar on various internet forums, including the Gear Page, where Steve contacted me about the Barbarella guitar.
What I have learned from Steve I must always keep private and personal, he is an honorable person and very humble about his accomplishments.
He is a great guy and has lots of time for his fans, is a gear head, who get's as excited as we all do with new gear, ect.
He is very proud of the SS series guitars, both Hamers and Washburns, but has long moved on since those days and he working alot with charities and the Camp Freddy band project.
After two breathtaking solo albums and the critically acclaimed Atomic Playboys, Steve still finds ways to challenge himself and damn if he doesn't still deliver on the guitar.
So my project with the Washburn guitars, I cannot complete finally due to the non-involvement of Steve himself...
But I learned a lot and consider myself a leading authority on them and I love my two SS80's, as two of my favorite guitars.
Thanks
yngwie308