While stationed in Japan, only two short years after the Fukushima meltdown began, I was sharing my barracks room with my friend and surf buddy Bill (well, he was my roommate, and in the Navy we do anything we can to make things sound less mandatory). We had just returned from cruise where we visited Singapore and enjoyed a few nights at a blues bar called the Crazy Elephant, where after watching a few people shred some amazing blues riffs and scales, I knew it was time to buy an electric at my next opportunity; hopefully something with that Hendrix tone.

The second day back from cruise I was on a mission to hit the “Book Off,” a local Japanese secondhand store, where I knew I could find an electric guitar and an amplifier. I had plenty of money saved from the three months out at sea, and so did Bill, so he tagged along with me. When we arrived, and with a $1000 budget in mind, I saw it the second I stepped foot in the store. There it was, on the far back wall among about thirty other used guitars: a black Strat, maple fretboard and white pickguard. I looked around and found a beautiful used tube amp, a bogner alchemist for an incredible price. As we went to check out, Bill stepped in front of me in line with nothing in his hands but a big grin. I say, “What the hell, bud, you buyin something in that fancy glass cabinet there?” and he responds with “Nah man I have something important to buy. That guitar. I see how much you like it, and I want to buy it for you brother.” Bill suffered through many a night and day listening to me play dozens of classic rock, blues, country, and raggae songs in that barracks room, many times while drunk and jammin with a bunch of other outlaws (our squadron nickname). There I was thinking that I was annoying the guy, and he buys me another one!

I have played this guitar to wits end, and have spent many hours making it one of a kind. I removed the white pickguard and replaced it with a clear one to display the most possible surface area for wood burning. I replaced the pickups with DiMarzio Billy Corgan signature pickups for a versatile sound, and have spent hours with the wood burner in hand adding to the design piece by piece in free time. It’s a work in progress, not the prettiest thing in the world, but I enjoy it a ton, and it still brings me to a place of solace and tranquility no matter where I am in place or mind.