Thomas Nordegg - TimeSpeed Studio

Started by Elantric, February 06, 2014, 12:31:52 PM

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Elantric



We visited Thomas Nordegg at his place in Van Nuys, CA. He walked us through his amazing Guitar Rig and showed some of the modifications that in his opinion make a today's state of the art guitar.

and an earlier video from 2010


Thomas Nordegg was Frank Zappa's guitar tech back in the day. Later, he became guitar tech for his son, Dweezil Zappa, and for former guitarist in Frank Zappa's band; Steve Vai! Thomas Nordegg has quite an impressive effects setup, including lots of TC Electronic gear, and a bunch of rather unusual guitars that can pull off some amazing tricks!





==
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3627927/
Thomas Nordegg
Biography
Mini Bio (1)
Born: Vienna, Austria

Became interested in playing guitar after first listening to The Beatles.

Later moved to Los Angeles, California but still maintains an apartment in Vienna, Austria.

Worked several years during the 1970s and 1980s as a guitar tech and concert video taper for composer/guitarist/band leader Frank Zappa. Later worked as guitar tech for Steve Vai, Warren Cuccurullo, and many others.


Known For

Video from Hell
Video from Hell
Camera and Electrical Department
(1985)
The Dub Room Special!
The Dub Room Special!
Camera and Electrical Department
(1984)
Uncle Meat
Uncle Meat
Camera and Electrical Department
(1987)
Baby Snakes
Baby Snakes
Miscellaneous Crew
(1979)
Hide Hide all  |     |  Edit
Filmography

Jump to: Camera and Electrical Department | Miscellaneous Crew | Self | Archive footage
Hide HideCamera and Electrical Department (3 credits)
1987 Uncle Meat (Video documentary) (video camera operator)
1985 Video from Hell (Video) (video camera operator)
1984 The Dub Room Special! (Video) (camera operator)
Hide HideMiscellaneous Crew (1 credit)
1979 Baby Snakes (Documentary) (stage crew)
Hide HideSelf (1 credit)
1985 Video from Hell (Video)
Himself
Hide HideArchive footage (2 credits)
1993 Ein Leben als Extravaganza - Das Genie Frank Zappa (TV Movie documentary)
Himself
1989 X-Large (TV Series documentary)
Himself
- Frank Zappa - 20 Jahre Extravaganza (1989) ... Himself


MusicOverGear

#1
I like what he says about the sustainer - you can kinda overcome the thing I was thinking about yesterday on the SY-300 tip - that it's kinda pointless to put a full ADSR on something that is just filtering a guitar string because its ADSR is only slightly alterable. NOT IF YOU USE A SUSTAINER LOL. I actually have a broken Fernandez setup I got for next to nothing - needs a new switch I think. Hmmm... if I start fiddling with that it will be a week out of my life, minimum... Very cool idea tho - and it just tumbled out of his mouth as an aside LOL

"Recalibrate, just in case of weirdness..." LMFAO

Was he starting to play Chameleon?! I love this guy

"No thinking necessary"

Still trying to grok his idea of "You can go anywhere..."    I love the idea of kinda sound designing as you play - the way he just picks and selects things and blends them together. I'm interested to investigate that kind of thing with my tiny, 1-trip-to-compact-car computer rig.

Okay the Frank Zappa connection makes perfect sense. Let me see if I can find the YouTube clip that made grok where Zappa was coming from... http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=1MewcnFl_6Y#t=283

Makes me wonder how much there is left to do with just electronic and digital audio. Esp because people like Metheny have moved on to stuff like robotics....

Too much to think about. Wish I hadn't seen these vids LOL

Elantric

#2
Quote"No thinking necessary"

Thomas works on many big name guitarists gear.

For example of "No thinking"  - Here is an example, Thomas created the the "Color Coordinated" Labels   for Dweezil Zappa's Roland EV-5 Pedals FX pedal board

Dweezil Zappa Live Rig 2012
https://www.vguitarforums.com/smf/index.php?topic=5326.msg36446#msg36446



Elantric

#3
http://www.autotuneforguitar.com/media/artists.php



Thomas Nordegg modified Ibanez Guitar with Line-6 Wireless, Antares Autotune DSP, Fernandes Sustainer


Don Ramsay's Linear Tremolo
http://www.lineartremolo.com/
&  Shadow Hex PU for Antares DSP AutoTune / Guitar Modeling System
http://info.shadow-electronics.com/Product%20Catalog/Shadow%20Product%20Catalog%202010.pdf



Steve Vai, Guitar Legend


"The ATG Auto Tune System is unlike any other. It's intuitive to a players idiosyncrasies and offers stunning intonation within a vast amount of instant tuning potentials and variety of eclectic guitar modelings. It aids the player in walking that bridge to being tuned up, turned on and tapped into their infinite, unique creativity. It helps me to sound as good as some people think I am."







Me with Thomas at a recent Eric Gales show in Agoura Hills , CA






Elantric


thebrushwithin


Elantric

pick up the March 2016 issue of VintageGuitar Magazine for an interview with Thomas Nordegg (Steve Vai, Dweeezil Zappa, Frank Zappa)

http://www.vintageguitar.com/current-issue/


We interview John Fogerty, who is happy, healthy, and back to playing classic songs on classic instruments, having looked past his experiences with the pitfalls and dangers of the rock and roll business. We talk new music with John Jorgenson, Joe Louis Walker, Mark Dutton, Dave Alvin, Thomas Nordegg, and Eric Schenkmann. Then, Andre Duchossoir continues his in-depth look at classic custom colors, this time focusing on Gibson's offerings in the '60s. We also tell how Bobby Whitlock discovered his famously inlaid Martin D-35, give you a guided tour of the Musical Instrument Museum, and profile the Jim Kelley FACS Reverb amp, the Tonk Brothers/Washburn 5241, a classical guitar built by Enrique Coll in 1933, and Supro's 600R Deluxe reverb unit. Wolf Marshall analyzes the impact of Jerry Garcia's guitar playing, Dan Erlewine restores a 1953 Gibson ES-295, and Will Kelly builds a slide guitar for Rick Vito. If you're on the hunt for new gear, check out our honest reviews of the PRS CE 24, EHX's Bad Stone/C9/Pitch Fork, the Epiphone Joe Pass Emperor II-Pro, Gibson's L-5S Ron Wood, Homestead Amps' HS50, MXR's Sub Machine, and Phantom Guitarworks' Teardrop. Plus, our music-review staff takes a listen to new releases by Jimmy Bryant and Speedy West, the Wrecking Crew, Buddy Guy, Los Lobos, Pat Metheny, the Doobie Brothers, and more. 


Elantric

#7
http://nermark.com/reports/NAMM_Winter_2016/NAMM_Winter_2016_4.htm


Thomas Nordegg is not an exhibitor but if any one person ever deserved his own headline, it's Thomas Nordegg. Guitar tech for numerous great players, most notably Frank Zappa, Mr Nordegg is a guitar visionary extraordinaire.

The guitar he's holding is a guitar he put together for Richie Sambora. Riche S saw a guitar Thomas made for Steve Vai and simply had to have a similar one. So basically it's an Ibanez JEM but then Thomas went kind of crazy with it, in a good and creative way. There's Don Ramsay's Linear Tremolo.

https://www.vguitarforums.com/smf/index.php?topic=10457.msg75530#msg75530

If you haven't seen or heard that in action, you should definitely check it out. There's also a Sustainiac.


The back shows the inclusion of the Antares auto tune and guitar modeling system for guitar as well as a battery pack for everything . Down right you see the Line 6 digital wireless transmitter.


Richie Sambora's signature stars and his initials as illuminated fretmarkers.


Elantric

#8
Thomas Nordegg  - typical night as road crew for Yngwie Malmsteen


Elantric

#10
Another rear  view of Thomas Nordegg's ATG-1 with custom labels and new rear 1/4" normal Guitar putput jack


whippinpost91850

Very nice I wonder where he got the custom labels

Elantric

Thomas Nordegg designs these and sells them

But he wil not be back in USA until late september - attending a big guitar show in Europe

whippinpost91850


Majiken

What big guitar show in Europe  :o? Must not be in Germany.... there is the Holy Grail in Berlin, but that's primarily acoustic & not so big (yet)
Take what you need, put back a bit more, leave the place behind you better than it was before :-)

www.majiken.rocks

Elantric

#15
QuoteMust not be in Germany.... there is the Holy Grail in Berlin, but that's primarily acoustic & not so big (yet)

Thomas Nordegg  is a celebrity at Holy Grail Guitar show in Berlin and attends each year and presents seminars and is indeed where he is heading
https://www.vguitarforums.com/smf/index.php?topic=10539.msg128225#msg128225


And its far more than "just acoustic guitars"

Review last years program: (Thomas's friend Matt Groening (The Simpsons) created cartoon faces of Thomas Nordegg )
http://holygrailguitarshow.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/2015-Catalogue_lo-res.pdf



https://www.facebook.com/PimpMyGuitarCustomShop/photos/?tab=album&album_id=725459790872671


http://www.spaltinstruments.com/blog/


http://www.spaltinstruments.com/2012/11/15/steve-vai-in-vienna/




Guitar tech for Yngvie

admin

#16
https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/news/interviews/exclusive_interview_with_steve_vais_tech_thomas_nordegg.html

Exclusive Interview With Steve Vai's Tech Thomas Nordegg
Here he talks about his work and guitars.

StevenRosen

Exclusive Interview With Steve Vai's Tech Thomas Nordegg

Immediately upon entering the home of veteran guitar tech Thomas Nordegg, you know you are in the presence of a guy who lives, breathes and dreams guitars. His groundbreaking Sonica system covers virtually every square inch of his living room. Guitars line one wall — all of them outfitted and repurposed with Nordegg's cutting edge wireless systems [he picks up on instrument, taps a button and the lights in his apartment come on] — while a special guitar autographed by more than 150 of the world's greatest players sits against another wall.
Nordegg, born in Vienna, Austria, first came to the U.S. and specifically California in the early 1970s. He got a gig as Frank Zappa's tech — though he handled everything from lights to keyboards — and from that point on he never looked back. He's been Steve Vai's tech for many years and before that has worked for everyone from Warren Cucurillo, Steve Lukather and Yngwie Malmsteen to the Pretenders and Jimmy Page.
UG: You have a guitar over there with signatures of every famous guitar player in the world. How did that happen?

Thomas: I got the guitar while working with Mike Kenneally on a tour from Fender. When I started with Vai, he actually signed that guitar first. He liked that guitar and played it for the whole world tour in '99 on "Little Alligator." At the end of the tour he asked if I wanted to partake in the design of a new Vai model with all these things that guitar had.


UG: What was in that guitar?

Thomas: It had lights in the neck and the wireless was already in the guitar like all my guitars have. No cable just an on and off switch. The latest technology by Guy Coker who was the creator of the first digital wireless, the X2. On all these wireless units, you turn 'em off and if you're not moving for two minutes they shut off and instantly they're back on so you can have 'em on for weeks. On all my guitars, I have a power switch if I play wireless because you have to turn the guitar electronics on unless you plug in a cable.

UG: That's why wireless units run down so quickly?

Thomas: The batteries are dead because I forgot to turn it off. My partner Ed Clothier who is really the brains behind the Sonica system, he designed it, which took eight months. My other partner is Ed Simeone [17-year vet at TC Electronics]. He used a little accelerometer the size of a quarter with two relays that does that. It's more deep because imagine when this happens, you want it to shut down quietly without electronic noise so it has to be muted pre- and post and then it comes back on when you move it.

UG: Who else signed the guitar?

Thomas: Yeah, Vai signed it and then at one event at M.I. [Musician's Institute], Satriani, Tom Morello, Trevor Rabin and Lukather signed it. I drove home and said, "I'm gonna bring my guitar" and brought it back so that's how it started. Then over the years, I've got 135 signatures now from Les Paul to George Harrison to Santana, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck twice.

UG: Who's left to sign it?

Thomas: Whoever comes next. Recently, I got Angus [Young] and Tony Iommi. I did one show with Jimmy Page so he would be great. Of course, Paul McCartney or Ringo.

UG: What was your first guitar tech gig?

Thomas: Frank Zappa. Those were the best years of my life.


UG: Why was that your favorite gig?

Thomas: I was young but thanks to Frank, all this is happening here [gestures to the Sonica system and all the guitar inventions scattered around his house].

UG: Frank was a big experimenter with guitars.

Thomas: Oh, for everybody.

UG: I had met Frank Zappa several times and he was a pretty demanding individual.

Thomas: Oh, he is. That's his whole thing about not wasting time. He died at 52 with 80 released albums with unmatched content I might add.

UG: What were the first gigs like with Zappa?

Thomas: It was fantastic just to learn. With Frank, it was different than another band where there's a drum tech or a keys tech, which was in our case too. But with us, the crew in the morning when we got to the gig, everybody got out and helped on the lights.

UG: Tell me one great Zappa anecdote.

Thomas: To be around Frank alone every day and every show was an event. A keyboard comes in for an audition and Frank says, "No, thank you so much. It's not what I'm looking for." The guy says, "No, Frank. I'll play something else." The guy wouldn't let go and Frank says, "You know what? There was once a carpenter and he built a door and the door is there."

UG: Was there ever a moment when Frank wanted a guitar but it wasn't in tune?

Thomas: I wasn't actually a guitar tech for Frank. I was the keyboard tech and for 160 shows I was the video cameraman. Joe Travers who is in charge of the Zappa vault with Ahmet, he has a guy now that's editing and transferring all my footage. Frank released on Video From Hell, it's him and Steve Vai on "Stevie's Spanking." In fact, we use that when we do that tour now with Vai. There's a video projection in sync when Frank plays with Vai.


UG: Who came after Frank?

Thomas: I guess it was Missing Persons.

UG: You worked with Warren Cucurillo?

Thomas: I've been with Warren for over 40 years now. I met him with Frank of course. I was managing this keyboard player from Vienna and we made it to L.A. That was the second time I came to the States. The first time I came with a gypsy guitar player from Austria who couldn't read or write but could play accordingly and with him it was also an adventure. That was '72 to '74 and in '76 I made it back to L.A. with Peter Wolf [the keyboardist].

UG: What did you think of L.A.?

Thomas: I always wanted to audition at the Magic Castle because I was a trained and very proficient sleight of hand artist. That was another life. I wanted to audition at the Magic Castle and I did and they offered me work literally that evening. Dai Vernon, the dean of card magic, called me after my audition and asked if I wanted to work.

UG: Did you actually work at the Magic Castle?

Thomas: The next day Frank Zappa called at our apartment. Wolf and me drove up and figured out the gig. Anyway with Warren, Adrian Belew was the guitar player for Frank's band. It was Terry Bozzio and Patrick O'Hearn. Adrian Belew and Tommy Mars who was a genius on keyboards. Vai just had him on his new album called Modern Primitive (UG Score 8.4).


Modern Primitive album cover
UG: What did you do after Missing Persons?

Thomas: Warren was my roommate for at least two years here in my apartment. When he got the gig with Duran Duran after Missing Persons, he had two big Bradshaw rigs back then and created all these loops. Warren was a fantastic musician on all levels. Frank said to him, "Warren, you're my most favorite guitar player" more than once.

UG: Then Bozzio, Patrick O'Hearn and Warren went off and started Missing Persons.

Thomas: When Bozzio left when I was with Frank, I thought, 'What's Frank Zappa gonna do?'" Sure enough, one day Vinnie Colaiuta walked in and in five minutes Frank walked up in silence and reached out his hand and said, "You've got the gig." Vinnie was my roommate here for a year-and-a-half when he was playing with Frank.

UG: Vinnie is a spectacular drummer.

Thomas: He's the one. He's the chosen one.

UG: As a guitar tech, do you pick things up along the way that you bring along to your next gig?

Thomas: Right.

UG: With all the new technology and new amps and effects, has that made your job easier? Do guitar players get better sounds now with all the gear around?

Thomas: No, I don't think so. First of all, to me it's only between the finger and the string. I had Guthrie Govan over here playing for almost three hours and I just changed patches and whatever sound came, he had instant music to do with it. But that's Jesus himself on guitar.

UG: You're right. The great guitar players sound the same on whatever guitar they're playing or whatever amp they're using?

Thomas: One day, Guthrie and his manager walked in and I thought, "Wait a minute. What am I trying to do here to show Guthrie a pedal or two?" I fired up the guitar wireless and everything and he played a few sounds and I stopped about two or three minutes into it. I said, "So, Guthrie. What do you think?" Guthrie, "Thomas, you need more gear" [laughs]. Guthrie is the star to me.

UG: The truth is, gear doesn't make the player. Right?

Thomas: I'm all for the smaller the better. I'm trying to get the [Fractal] AX8 now for Vai. Matt Picone is the star of Fractal who gave Dweezil thousands of hours of assistance to have Frank Zappa's sound coming out of those Fractals and they do. Today, we spend a fortune on just flying the gear.

UG: Being able to take a couple rackmount pieces on the road instead of amps and cabinets must certainly make life easier.

Thomas: There's a company called Positive Grid with the JamUp Pro and all this software. The people from Kemper made me aware of this app and told me, "That's the next best thing to our amp." You can do all of it on a computer.

UG: Unbelievable.

Thomas: I want to mention one more person in my life I met about three years ago. I've been with Antares since 2012 with Andy Hildebrand, a genius. This fellow's name is Steve Conrad and he's the founder of the Big Guitar Forum with 16,000 strong. This guy knows more about gear than anybody in my life.

UG: You also worked with Jimmy Page at Knebworth.

Thomas: That was great. I was with Duran Duran at the time. I remember walking into the rehearsal hall in London and there were only techs onstage. I was waiting and one of the Les Pauls goes boom and bounces off the floor. At the gig, I realized there was a fine hair crack. I said to Page, "Sir, I wanted to tell you that..." and he said, "No, I don't want to know anything."

UG: You also worked with Steve Lukather?

Thomas: Oh, yes. I did a whole world tour with Lukather when Jeff Porcaro and Simon Phillips came in. At that last show at the Universal Amphitheater, there was a benefit for Jeff's family and ask me who was not onstage. From the Eagles to George Harrison and that's how I met Harrison. I gave him one of Lukather's guitars and Luke got me a signature later that is on my guitar.

UG: Luke was always a gear guy.

Thomas: Yeah. I found a photo of Lukather, myself and Bob Bradshaw [built the first pro guitar rifs] with the two refrigerators [gear racks] we had.


UG: You worked with Yngwie Malmsteen?

Thomas: Yeah, he's a big teddy bear and he's a handful. He's a bigger than life cartoon in a good way. Yngwie is Yngwie and he does totally what he does. I did two tours with him: one in America and one in Europe. I have stories. People tell me to write a book and I say, "When?"

UG: Did you work with the Pretenders?

Thomas: I did three shows with them up in San Francisco at a Neil Young event at a theater and one in New York. That was great.

UG: Were any of these artists more demanding or challenging to work with than the others?

Thomas: Well, Steve probably because all day long he takes on various personalities but not in a bad way. He's like a son to me and when he was with Frank, he was a youngster I called him.

UG: Finally, give the readers of Ultimate-Guitar your inside tips on changing guitar strings and keeping them in tune.

Thomas: What I do with Vai is, the two guitars he plays most, one day I change guitar A — Evo — and the next day I only do E and B, the high two strings, on Evo. Then do Flo and vice versa subsequently. It's stretching all day until showtime.

UG: A lot of stretching of the strings?

Thomas: Yeah, I have to. I have a string stretcher I modified and I stretch with the fingers too. There's nothing for that touch. But you don't want to stretch it too much so it's dead.

UG: How do you change strings?

Thomas: First of all, motorized, I take the strings down. Right in the back where the springs are, I put a spacer, a double-AA battery with tape around it so it doesn't move. So it stays in that position because the whammy bar has to be five centimeters from the tip at a 90° angle down to the pickguard so Vai sees it the same place every day. That is the spring tension for everything to be right.

UG: What else do you do?

Thomas: I loosen the strings and open up the bottom and make it where the hole of the string aligns with that nut. I put all the strings in in order to the ball, hold them and pull 'em up and know exactly where the shortest is that I can cut it. You don't want to have endless spools up there because the string is live from the ball to wherever the last cut is. I make that cut and insert the individual strings and then I go up with a machine, brrrrr. I use the T.C. Electronics clip-on PolyTune. When the strings are back up to pitch, that battery will fall out. Then I start stretching all six strings on the 12th and 24th frets.

Elantric

#17




Meeting at 2017 Winter NAMM
(l-r) Thomas Nordegg (Steve Vai)
Steve Conrad (Elantric)
Yoshi Ikegami ( Roland/ Boss)


"Katana Users firmware upgrade Wish List"
https://www.vguitarforums.com/smf/index.php?topic=20367.msg146811#msg146811





read the Katana FAQ
https://www.vguitarforums.com/smf/index.php?topic=20367.msg146811#msg146811



Nice that Thomas Nordegg mentioned me in a recent interview.







https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/news/interviews/exclusive_interview_with_steve_vais_tech_thomas_nordegg.html
QuoteThomas: I want to mention one more person in my life I met about three years ago. I've been with Antares since 2012 with Andy Hildebrand, a genius.
This fellow's name is Steve Conrad and he's the founder of the Big Guitar Forum [sic - actually its VGuitarForums.com ] with 16,000 strong. This guy knows more about gear than anybody in my life.

Nice that Thomas Nordegg mentioned me.

I like to think VGuitarForums is a "Big Guitar Forum" ;)

https://www.thegearpage.net/board/index.php?members/elantric.63374/#info

my bio
https://www.vguitarforums.com/smf/index.php?topic=82.0

admin

FZ Footage shot by Thomas Nordegg


admin

#19

https://www.willcoxguitars.com/product/atlantis-hexfx-guitar/



QuoteDuring this year, so far, Eddie and me came up with now a total of 14 electronic goodies, in particular a working 'SuperPower' gizmo, that will put any battery powered guitar to sleep, for weeks, and play when picked up, even without the 'Plug', as in plug-and-play...


And as we got involved with the good people at Lightwave Technology, (Wilcox Guitars) we did 18 mods on their 'ATLANTIS' guitar, featuring, in our opinion, the most intuitive 6-button  hex platform controller ever, called DOMINO !
And it allows to kill individually the guitar, synth, or BOTH...

Jude Gold, LA Guitar Player Magazine editor came by and did a really sweet 2-page segment about SONICA, featured in the September issue, at the stands now !
Maybe check it out ?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jude_Gold
https://www.guitarplayer.com/


I think your V-Guitar disciples from around the globe might be very intrigued by our DOMINO, allowing unprecedented control of your Hex instrument ! !


Here a quick pic of the Lightwave ATLANTIS, also featuring our all new re-invention of the wheel, that we call TIMESPEED Lectronx Volume Wheels, as we found out, the larger, the better !
You could never before cross-fade the platforms like that, turning the typically very 'boring' Volume knobs into actually very powerful instruments ![/i]

https://www.facebook.com/TIMESPEED

admin

https://www.pledgemusic.com/projects/steve-vai-jamathon-2018/updates/100619/preview?path_token=a7da8361ca3e33b412b5af4c1bd50e67&user_id=2022223


Thomas Nordegg's "Super Strat" Signed by Over 100 Guitar Gods!
Thomas Nordegg, guitar tech to the stars (Zappa, Missing Persons, Steve Vai, Dweezil, John Pettrucci, etc.) has accumulated over 100 signatures during his work with these immistakeble forces on the guitar:

JOHN ANDERSON
MICHAEL ANTHONY
KENNY ARINOF
HANK AZARIA
JEFF BECK (2)
MICHAEL BEARDEN
ADRIAN BELEW
BRYAN BELLER
JENNIFER BATTEN
NUNO BETTENCOURT
BUD BISSONETTE
MATT BISSONETTE
JOE BONAMASSA
TERRY BOZZIO
BOB BRADSHAW
BUNNY BRUNELL
LINDSEY BUCKINGHAM
NANCY CARTWRIGHT
CRAIG CHAQUICO
CLIFF CHASE
ERIC CLAPTON
STANLEY CLARKE
VINNIE COLAIUTA
ALICE COOPER
CHICK COREA
BILLY COX
ROBERT CRAY
WARREN CUCCURULLO
CC DE VILLE
DICK DALE
MOHINI DEY
RICK DERRINGER
WARREN DI MARTINI
RONNIE JAMES DIO
VIRGIL DONATI
MATTIAS EKLUNDH
FLEA
BELA FLECK
ROBBEN FORD (2)
DAVID FOSTER
PETER FRAMPTON
ROBERT FRIPP
STEVE GADD
FRANK GAMBALE
BILLY GIBBONS
PAUL GILBERT
CHRIS GOLDEN
GUTHRIE GOVAN
MATT GROENING
BUDDY GUY
VAN HALEN
GEORGE HARRISON
SCOTT   HENDERSON
NEILHEYWARD
JOHNNY HIGHWAY
ALLAN HOLDSWORTH
STEVE HUNTER
TONY IOMMI
PAUL JACKSON, JR.
JOHN 5
ERIC JOHNSON
STANLEY JORDAN
MIKE KENEALLY
ROBERT KNIGHT
EDDIE KRAMER
ABE LABORIEL, JR.
ABE LABORIEL, SR.
BEN LACY
MIKE LANDAU
SIMON LE BON
JAY LENO
ALBERT LEE
WILL LEE
HERMAN LI
STEVE LUKATHER
GEORGE LYNCH (2)
TONY MACALPINE
YNGWIE MALMSTEEN
PAT MARTINO
DAVE MATTHEWS
JOHN McLAUGHLIN
PAT METHENY
RICKEY MINOR
LARRY MITCHELL
VINNIE MOORE
TOM MORELLO
STEVE MORSE
RICK MUSALLAM
ORIANTHI
OZZY OSBOURNE
TOSS PANOS
JOE PERRY
JOHN PETRUCCI
MATT PICONE
DOUG PINNICK
JEAN-LUC PONTY
TREVOR RABIN
NICK RHODES
CARLOS RIOS
ROCKET RITCHOTTE
JAY ROBERTS
MICKEY ROURKE
RICHIE SAMBORA
CARLOS SANTANA
BLUES SARAZENO
ERIC SARDINAS
RUDY SARZO
JOE SATRIANI
AL SCHMITT
NEAL SHON
BILLY SHEEHAN
KENNY W. SHEPHERD
SLASH
YARDLEY SMITH
JOHN SPICER
STEVE STEVENS
JOHN SYKES
TY TABOR
JOHN TAYLOR
MICHAEL THOMPSON
ANDY TIMMONS
JOE TRAVERS
DEREK TRUCKS
STEVE VAI
WADDY WACHTEL
JOE WALSH
DAVE WECKEL
DAVE WEIDERMAN
BRAD WHITFORD
ZAKK WYLDE
TAL WILKENFELD
EDGAR WINTER
JOHNNY WINTER
DWEEZIL ZAPPA
VICTOR VOOTEN
ANGUS YOUNG
NEIL ZAZA
NEIL ZLOZOWER

This is so rare and it's so very generous of Thomas to help us raise funds for EF.

$10,000 of the purchase price will go to Extraordinary Families.

Tab width
The backstory:

"I got it in the late 90s as part of my pay for a Mike Keneally Tour.

As I'm a Technology inclined person, I outfitted this guitar with whatever was considered as innovative, and also put Guy Coker's back then all new digital X2 X-WIRE wireless system inside the guitar, plus a 'kill' switch, a booster, my still to date favorite STEINBERGER Tuners, a Fender LSR nut and much, much more...

All these efforts were eventually leading up to today's 'Super' Guitars that my partner in crime, Ed Clothier and I have been coming up with, incorporating the latest of what technology is offering, in the absolutely best possible ergonomic fashion, so everything is totally user friendly and 'effortless'....

Steve Vai was actually the first Signature when I started touring with him and he actually played it on 'Little Alligator' every night throughout my first World Tour as his tech, in 1999!

One of the main reasons why Steve wanted to play it were the illuminated dots on the neck, front and side, plus a sort of holographic film by Soectraflex, on the neck and the pick guard, that 'explodes' when hit with Stage Lighting, and thus adding to Steve's flamboyant performance antics....

Over the past 2 decades I randomly added all the listed signatures, that somewhat depict my American musical journey's storyboard....

At the end of that 1999 World Tour Steve approached me to partake in the design of a new Steve Vai guitar design, which I delivered, 15 years later, in full regalia, which guitar he named 'SAMOHT', my first name in reverse..."



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Thomas Nordegg's latest backstage guitar tech bench


Elantric



Adrian Belew wrote>
when the cruise to the edge (which was great fun) ended in miami, I flew from miami to los angeles. yesterday evening we rehearsed for tonight's Celebrating David Bowie performance.
my gear had somehow been damaged along the way so I was extremely lucky Thomas Nordegg was there to help.
when I joined frank's band in 1977 Thomas Nordegg took care of the keyboards and electronica, eventually working with Steve Vai for 25 years.
he is a legendary figure and a true wizard. it didn't take him long to suss the problem, a tiny broken button and a bad chord. but at that point I couldn't play a note!
so Thomas made some calls, found the part that was needed, drove his motor scooter 30 minutes each way to Sherman Oaks and back, took apart my very complex midi controller, and fixed it in time for me to join in the rehearsals!!
I couldn't bare to watch while he had it torn apart, it looked like an operating room!
Thomas Nordegg is a hero, just for one day. 🤣
later that evening he sent this diagram of my current guitar setup. thanks mr. wizard!