Welcome to my little corner of the World Wide Web. Take a look around...make yourself at home on Planet Casper, there is always something fun going on! Special thanks to Shelly Haffly and Libbi Bosworth for putting this together. We still have some construction to do, but drop me line to say hi and thanks for stopping by neighbor! Casper
Hi twang and aliya-
thank you for joining the planet and for your super nice comments!
twang-I guess I'm fondest of my 1968 Fender Paisley Telecaster, it has been creating havoc and mayhem around the world with me for a long time. Most of the parts are modified or changed out, so it is a real mongrel...but it plays and sounds great to me. I was lucky enough to get that guitar from a great engineer/producer named Jay Hudson in Austin...the first and original owner was Steven Hennig who had the B-Bender installed. Most of my instruments are equipped with the Parsons-White String Bending system invented by Gene Parsons and the late Clarence White. It is the bending system I learned on and is still the best to me. I'll see if I can sweet talk one of my web folks into making a link to a Vintage Guitar magazine article from 2004 (PDF) about all that. On the acoustic side I rely on Collings Guitars..any of 'em!......................
aliya-I am the lucky one! Thank you always for the love and support, couldn't do it without ya!
now back to orbit...
casper
Hey Cuz, good to hear from ya in cyber-ville! Thanks for checking out the site, I'm proud of what my web folks can do when I let 'em out of the code-dungeon I added on to the back 40! Seriously, I'm so thankful for all of their help. I need to thank you for the color picture you took of me and Buck, it is awesome and I'll have my "posse" put up the photo credit after they finish washing my Hummer. Hope we pick again soon! love to you and Mr.B!
casper
Hi Terry-
Thanks for stopping in, and for the kind words. Pull up a chair, and I'll tell you about that old guitar...I think some of my favorite Telecasters were made during the 1968 period, like the Paisley and Blue Floral. I had a stock 1968 blonde Telecaster that was stellar, too. I'm thinking that Fender was just about at the end of their pre-CBS inventory and had a batch of some real good remaining parts. That is at least one of the stories I heard from Bill Shultz about the Paisley model. Not very many folks remember that those guitars were not at all popular at the time. I wish I would have bought all the Paisley guitars I saw in pawn shops for $100! It took James Burton to make them cool.
The only thing original about my guitar is the body! I met Seymour Duncan at Mike Acosta's shop in San Antonio many, many years ago and told him I had a bridge pick-up that needed some help. He said he would re-wind it for me, so I sent it to him and asked him to make it sound like a cross between James Burton and Don Rich. Dang if he didn't nail it! I called out there and asked him if he remembered what he did, and he said yes that I now had the new "casper" model pick-up! So whenever I need one I just ask him to make my own winding. Steve Hennig sanded all the finish off of the original neck, and it was too big for me as well. Omar Dykes was playing Telecasters back then and he liked that neck a lot, so I sold it to him, and he later gave it to Stephen Bruton, who has it now. I found a replacement Fender neck up in Dallas at a music store holding a Ray Flacke guitar clinic, and I added a graphite nut. I also met Bob Sperzel at Acosta music and really liked his locking tuners, so I had Mike put a set of the locking models on. The bridge came from a now defunct music store in San Francisco called Stars Guitars. We were on tour with the LeRoi Brothers when I came across their custom six saddle brass bridge, and I really liked it. Like I said before the guitar is a real mongrel, and from a vintage standpoint (and Tele freak standpoint) I'm sure just junk. But for me it is my custom built Paisley model with all the parts I like. Plus it has the blessing of James Burton with his autograph on top of, and his pick underneath the pickgaurd. And to top it off he sat in with The LeRoi's a few weeks ago and played my Paisley for about an hour!!
Thanks for the kind words about "White Corn". Ray Benson said his son Sam drove him crazy listening to that song over and over in the car on the way to school. That was recorded by Jim Stringer in his bedroom studio, so a lot of that sound is his expertise. Donald Lindley and Jimmy Pettit really helped that track happen as well. I used an old Princeton Reverb I "stole" from the Hollisters as part of my Producers fee for helping them do their recordings.
Thanks again for visiting the site, don't be a stranger, keep on twangin'!!
casper
Aliya- You are the wings that keep the Planet in orbit. We could not do it without you!
Steve at The Continental wanted to get James to come in to play during the ACL weekend, but James was on hold for a Jim Lauderdale tour. When that tour did not come together, Steve booked James. I called James to ask which musicians he wanted to use and he said "get the band we played with at the car show, those guys were fun'! So a show is born...more fun, more rock and roll at The Continental...see ya there!
love ya,
casper
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Site design by Shelly Haffly Design Studio and Libbi Bosworth
said...
Casper -
You're the best B-bender (acoustic and electric) I've heard. You really know how to get that guitar to 'moan' and 'cry' when playing honky tonk.
Which is your favorite guitar, and why?
twangganger