Originally a 1997 Fender Floyd Rose Classic Stratocaster, David's workhorse has seen quite a few miles and quite a few alterations.

After he had enough with the locking tremolo system, a major overhaul took place.  The neck was replaced from an eBay snag, a Fender American Lone Star Strat neck and Sperzel locking tuners have replaced the original ones.  

The Floyd Rose trem was replaced by a friend from Louisville, KY at the Guitar Emporium, and the Fender Deluxe bridge that was installed also features graphite Graph-Tech bridge saddles.  The pickups and pickguard were replaced, and David currently has a Seymour Duncan JB humbucker (bridge), a Seymour Duncan Reverse-Wound Custom Shop (middle), and a Seymour Duncan Cool Rails (neck) pickup configuration.

This guitar has traveled many miles and has seen many stages, backstages, lessons, tour buses, bars, recording sessions, hotel rooms, backseats, and workbenches, and is David's go-to guitar.

 

 
This 2000 Gibson Les Paul Standard is David's fantasy guitar, with a story attached.

Way back when...

David was shopping for albums at a record store when he stumbled upon an album with a guy holding a dark Gibson Les Paul. He thought it looked cool, so he bought it and went home in haste to listen to it.  It blew his mind, and needless to say the album was Jeff Beck's masterpiece Blow By Blow.  The image of Beck painted on the front and photo of him on the back really caught his eye, and from that day forward David wanted a black Gibson Les Paul Standard.

He finally got one in the Spring of 2000, fresh from a shipment at a music store where he was teaching guitar lessons.  The guitar came in, it was shown to him, and he was drawn to it.  After several sessions of jamming on it in his teaching studio, he decided he had to have it, and picked it up - at cost!

The guitar has seen a little alteration, as the pickups have been replaced with a Seymour Duncan JB humbucker (bridge) and a Seymour Duncan Pearly Gates (neck).  The guitar also has a custom push/pull knob at the bridge volume control, so the bridge humbucker can split into a single-coil, giving the beefly tone of this Les Paul guitar the option of imitating the twang and sharper attack of a Fender Telecaster.

The bridge saddles once again have been replaced with Graph-Tech graphite saddles, which were installed to increase tuning stability and reduce string breakage.

This guitar is totally and tonaly awesome - David calls it his six-string grand piano.