I’m in this band with my daft paragon cohort George. An internet band. That doesn’t make or play any music. It’s a fake band. A fake internet band.
This began when George and IG friend @goats_and_motorcycles were chatting about the RigsOfDad account and it auto-corrected to RodsOfDad. As one does in these situations, “new band name” was called out. And it stuck.
Eventually I joined. And around the same time (I think), @rudelovephoto came in as well. Followed by Canadian rocker @hessedave. A proper 5 piece with 4 guitarists. Just as any band should be.
I should at this point remind you that this is a fake internet band. So when I say people “joined” it really just means we added to our group chat.
The most recent member to join was @daveygjohnson. Not the baseball player. The fellow car-lover (and auto photog/journalist) who rounded us out with a solid 5 guitar lineup (sorry Elliot, you got the tambourines nailed down).
Our group chat went as many group chats do. We kept in touch daily. Sometimes spending way too much time going on about guitars or cameras or cars or youtube videos of CGI cats making love to corpses. And as it tends to go, one or two people might go a little stretch of being pretty quiet. Life happens, we get busy or go on vacation or whatever.
But when it was almost a week without hearing from Davey, we started to worry a bit. First it was jokes about being kidnapped. That quickly turned to real worry about something being wrong. Before we knew it, the internet kinda blew up with talk about how he was on a long ride through some mountains and hadn’t checked in with anyone for a few days. There was a search and rescue party. His bike and gear were found. Eventually he was found. It wasn’t a happy ending.
I’m not going to rehash much more than that. People who both know Davey better and are superior writers have told this story. (here’s one such example – https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a27888059/davey-g-johnson-writer-obituary/)
We went through the typical grieving and being angry at the universe. But somewhere in there I think I had the idea (if it was someone else, my bad) to make as a tribute to our fallen friend. His favorite guitar was a newly purchased Fender Meteora in Lake Placid Blue. Favorite color too. So we latched onto the color idea and ran with it.
Before I get into what we came up with, another important detail is @goats_and_motorcycles and I spawned this idea to make a sticker as another way to remember our bud. It’s designed after the speedo on his 450SEL 6.9. That’s the sticker you see on all of our guitars.
We still need to pressure the other two guys to do something in LPB, but for now we’ve got 3 guitars.
George’s Davey the RG
Started as an Ibanez RG350M in Starlight Blue (close enough, don’t hate)
- Basswood body
- Maple neck and fretboard
I had intended to upgrade the trem to an Edge Zero II like the later 350s, but there would have needed to be routed and the paint job was part of the reason this guitar exists in my collection.
Of course there were mods. Here they are:
- Swapped the pickups for Dimarzio Tone Zone/Blue Velvet/Dominion (B/M/N).
- Sanded the finish off the back of the neck and refinished it in True Oil and gunstock wax.
- Full fret leveling and dress to get rid of some nasty, nasty, treble side fret sprout.
- VDO DGJ sticker.
He’s tuned to Drop C and sounds really, really good.
Christian’s (@goats_and_motorcycles) Davey Bullet Strat
Started life as an MIJ bullet clone by Mako Traditionals. TB-2. I got it from Goodwill for $68. It’s now running a single Duncan Pearly Gates that George got me. I painted it in blue metallic from Rust-Oleum. I put on the neck Jay gave me.
Jay’s Davey Tele
Been through a few iterations on this one including starting out as a Charvel Model 7. Now it’s an American Special Tele body, Warmoth roasted maple neck, OC Duff Plankster (bridge) and Texas Special (neck) pickups. It really spanks.
These guitars are all unique enough that they’ll be hard to part with even if we wanted. And they’ll serve as a permanent reminder of our friend. May be gone, won’t be forgotten, never be replaced, forever on bass. We miss you Davey.