A large choice of factory electric guitars mass-produced are available in the shops of Pigalle but could we find models made by luthiers, handmade and with a more vintage look.
In the world of music, Pigalle is a the best place where there are plethora of music stores, customization workshops and luthiers.
Xavier plays mainly on two kinds of guitars manufactured by a luthier, based on Fender (Stratocaster and Telecaster) Road Worn vintage models and a Gibson SG Standard factory-made .
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His two Fender-style guitars are produced in the style of the Road Worn series, which possess characteristics similar to those luthier, such as those proposed by RebelRelic, able to produce unique models and ready to play with intensive use. Those guitars are really made by a luthier, Luke Whitfield, manager of RebelRelic and based in Amsterdam.
It is by pushing the door of the famous guitar dealer Oldies Guitars, rue Victor Massé in Pigalle, that he was able to test a Stratocaster model designed by Luke Whitfield , who distributes unique models in Pigalle.
After connecting an amp to connect the Strat and playing few chords, it is conquered by the fabulous sounds played by this guitar and which was further elaborated with a truly vintage look.
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There is nothing more subjective than the sound in general. The sound produced by a musical instrument does not escape this rule andevidently the sound will prevail over the look.
What strikes him is the aspect of the guitar, like a skin cow body cut in an old alder wood but which at first does not please him but gives him the impression that the guitar has been worn up, a Road Worn aspect.
Xavier’s choice at the outset is obviously linked to the desire to play a sound that can be closer to a particular artist and who has been able to take advantage of a specific brand using a vintage model or not. Xavier used to play first Angus Young music from AC/DC with his Gibson SG and then Jimi Hendrix with his Stratocaster.
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The choices are not so simple. When his was a kid and fan of the player Ace Frehley from Kiss, he used to play with a copy of a Gibson Guitar from Shaftesbury and many other standard guitars. Many years later he bought his first guitar made by a luthier, his Stratocaster.
The legendary Gibson SG, used by Angus Young of AC / DC, was also bought second-hand but repaired several times is still used by the latter.
While the Gibson brand already held the upper hand in the 50’s rock world, Jimi Hendrix made a new brand legendary , Fender, with his Stratocaster model in Woodstock in 1969 with a guitar body made of alder wood And a maple wooden handle. Alder wood is a very homogeneous wood, can be easily sculpted and aged very well.
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The sound restored by a guitar of 1969 will initially be better than a model fresh out of factory unless you order a model Custom Shop but there the prices will rapidly soar.
For budget reasons obviously but also because the sound of an electric guitar does not alter with time, or even it improves with time. In addition, if it’s good quality and is well maintained, it can be used again for years.
While trying to buy a guitar at a Pigalle dealer Xavier tried first some Japanese and Mexican models then true American models produced by Fender in the USA (between 1000€ and 2000€) they actually sound really good but on an American budget can quickly reach the 5000 € including a pink guitar candy with a crazy sound.
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Xavier finally tried a guitar manufactured by the luthier, Luke Whitfield (owner of RebelRelic), an american from New-York who lives in Amsterdam for a more reasonable budget around 2000 €.
The model from RebelRelic takes the manufacturing foundation of Fender USA and makes vintage models of old wood, whose finish has been aged to give it a vintage guitar look. Everything is made by hand as in the old times.
The guitar body, handle, vibrato rod, copper single coil pickups, 5-way selector, aged alder wood and all the old small metal mechanisms used will give it a vintage appearance, the road worn look, as if the Guitar had made several tours with very personal sonorities sought by Xavier.
Maximiano Fontiveros 1983
The pickups that capture the vibrations of the strings also have a way of aging with time and the choice of amplifier tested by Xavier happens to be the same as his comparison was decisive to choose his desired sounds.
After several professional uses in concerts, the choice to buy a second vintage guitar according to Fender Télécaster’s Road Worn models but manufactured by the luthier RebelRelic will naturally impose on Xavier V. Combs and this second purchase will practically be done with closed eyes .
If the two models are really different, the Gibson that sounds decidedly more rock the Strat, the two guitars will allow him to play with the most diverse artists throughout his professional career.
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In his debut with his first group Madjik, Xavier played with Gibson guitars and he tried many times to play with a Fender, but it did not suit him.
With Aloe Black, Xavier started with his Gibson SG, which definitely sounds more rock but it can also use its Stratocaster and Telecaster for more funky sounds.
For Hair, Xavier will play with his Gibson, but when he accompanies Marco Cinelli, he is on stage with his two RebelRelics.
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Xavier plans to play exclusively with his Stratocaster RebelRelic for the new musical in Paris ”Welcome to Woodstock ” from September 15 at the Comedia.It’s a small, unassuming shop in the Chase Park Warehouses district, a renovated and revitalized cotton warehouse built in the early 1900s. It’s squeezed in between a tattoo parlor and a brick room with a giant mulberry tree growing in the middle, so large that it’s supported by chains from the ceiling.
The inside of the shop is roomy, with rows of vintage guitars and gear stretching to the high ceilings. Dylan Keel, the man you’ll have a good chance finding behind his workbench, owns and manages the shop. His big black lab, Loretta Lynn, is entirely unaware of the concept of an anniversary, but loves very much when a new face comes in the shop, and perhaps loves it even more when a longtime client comes in just to take her on a walk around the warehouse district.
Keel, the son of Nashville songwriter Bobby Keel, received his first guitar at the age of 11. After a protracted hitchhiking experience led him to settling in California, he developed a love for budget vintage guitars. Brands like Kay and Harmony, cherished for their character, playability and affordability, became Keel’s bread and butter. After working at Wildwood Manufacturing, he launched his own custom guitar brand, Keelkraft Guitars, and began doing guitar repair out of his home shop, Humboldt Guitarworks.
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In 2020, Keel and his wife Liz took a leap of faith, moving from California to Athens without ever having visited. Keel worked a guitar repair job in Athens through the brunt of the pandemic before deciding to strike out on his own. While searching for a space to start his shop in, he stumbled upon a place that seemed perfect. “I kind of in my head just saw it instantly. It was this kind of cosmic feeling, ” Keel says about the space, which was formerly an alteration shop. He’s repaired hundreds of guitars since the shop opened a year ago, instruments from all walks of life and from people across the U.S.
Despite their vintage patina, the guitars Dylan finds and restores aren’t your typical collector’s vintage instruments. They’re meant to be played, and they’re restored with care that comes with a deep knowledge of an instrument’s possible past. “Guitars are artifacts of a musician’s life, ” says Keel. “They’re deeply personal. There’s always this forensic part of my job, where I’m like ‘Where has this guitar been? How did it get these marks? What do I do to fix this?’”
These were all questions Keel had to ask himself recently, when he worked on a guitar sent to him by a client from the Catskills in New York. CJ Harvey, a photographer and tour manager for several large bands, reached out to Keel after finding a guitar in her late grandfather’s closet.
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“My grandfather passed away last year during the height of COVID, ” Harvey says. “So no one was able to properly say goodbye or celebrate his life afterwards. When we eventually met up to share stories and clear out his home, I found this beautiful guitar in his back closet under a pile of dust and mold. It was warped from the humidity and probably would have gotten tossed out since no one else in the family plays.”
The guitar was a 1968 Martin D-2, a coveted model. “I knew it was something extremely special that deserved to be properly restored, ” Harvey says. So, she brought it to Keel on a friend’s recommendation. “It’s in incredible condition now, ” Harvey says.
Keel
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