Rickenbacker "Cresting Wave" No Longer the Most Beautiful

You've got to be drop dead special if you are going to keep company with these guys. You are lining up against the most storied, highest quality, most beautiful models ever to take the stage...sorry Jeff I'm not talking about you and your awesome beard, I'm talking about the gorgeous line-up of guitars that you and Luego brought to the stage last night at Broad Street Cafe.

I have publicly stated my opinion before that the Rickenbacker "cresting wave" series of six-string and bass guitars are the most beautiful instruments in the world and Jeff Crawford's gloss black Jetglo 4001 bass is one of the sweetest examples one can see around town. Also on stage last night was Brett Harris' Telecaster Thinline, with its artful single f-hole design and thick chrome humbuckers, it is an instant impulse buy for any guitar player that accidentally walks past one at a guitar shop. To round out a threesome of archetypal American guitars, Patrick Phelan was strumming what is quite possibly the most beautiful acoustic guitar ever made, a workhorse Gibson J-45 in antique finish. Between those three guitars alone there was enough glossy tonewood on deck to make a mahogany tree blush but the standout that thieved the spotlight and redirected the attention of everyone in the room was an exceptionally bewitching custom hollow body electric guitar which had been recently hand crafted by Larry Jaeger and on this night...played by his son Nick.

This guitar is special. Its chrome appointments flowed like sailboats on a lake of varnish so pristine you could almost take a swim in it. Its elegant lines and sleek symmetry shimmered with an extra-dimensional quality that could make a Lamborghini jealous. And this was just to look at it...the sound was just as angelic. Having been seen on stage with numerous classics, such as a Gibson 335, Nick is no stranger to magnificent guitars nor is he shy for getting tone out of them. The spongy stretchy hot lick guitar solos Nick is known for needed no tuning, but this custom hummed with a special sense of angry, like a cat purring and growling at the same time. I guess there is always one better, Nick has found it in this rig.

Having been allured by this guitar's form and enlightened by its tone, it's safe to consider Larry Jaeger a master luthier and its exciting to know that his art and craftsmanship; being formed on the most micro of levels, can and does upstage the best of what the heritage of American guitar manufacturers has to offer.

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Nick Jaeger with the custom hollow body electric built by his dad.

far right: Larry Jaeger watching Nick perform with the guitar he crafted

Luego, left to right: Nick Jaegar and his custom Jaeger hollow body, Brett Harris with a Fender Telecaster Thinline re-issue, Patrick Phelan wielding a Gibson j-45, Rob DiMauro on drums, Jeff Crawford with a "cresting wave" Rickenbacker bass, Charles Cleaver on keys.

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