FENDER NOCASTER

“This came into Guitar Center in Hollywood about four or five years ago. It was a guy, and I think he took it to a few different shops in LA and nobody wanted it because it had a humbucker. Most people would restore something like that. Guitar Center took it in and hung it on the wall. I walked in and went, ‘Whoa, that’s right up my alley.’ There’s something about that Nocaster that’s a cut above the rest… There’s something about that lead pickup that’s a cut above.

“So, that’s the one I play. The humbucking pickup in the front is out of an SG Custom, like a 1961, so it’s got a gold cover. It doesn’t look like gold, but it’s gold. It’s a PAF, but it’s an SG. I know this because I bought the harness, with all the papers, from a guy in South Africa who found it in the trash. Anyway, it’s sort of phased in a really nice, funny, cracky way in the middle.”