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A Tribute to the Cars

A Tribute to the Cars

A guitarist in Israel swapped a bass for a walnut-finished Gherson SG copy, and then turned it into an ode to the late Ric Ocasek.

Name: Rany Eskinazi
Hometown: Netanya, Israel
Guitar: Early-1980s Gherson SG copy, nicknamed ā€œCandy-Oā€

My story starts about two decades ago, when I bought my first (and last) bass guitar. I was trying my luck as a bassist. However, Iā€™ve found out that itā€™s rather hard for me to sing and play bass at the same time. I also realized that Iā€™m a much better guitarist than bassist. So, I put the bass in its gigbag and left it in the closet for a long time.


One day, I asked a friend if heā€™d fancy having a bass (heā€™s the lead guitarist in one of the bands I play in). He jumped on the opportunity and brought me an early-ā€™80s, walnut-finished, Italian-made Gherson SG copy. He said he liked it, but it was too heavy for him. He also said his Gibson SG is much lighter and so it became his go-to guitar.

The Gherson wasnā€™t in its best shape and needed to be serviced. The humbucker rings were swollen, the original bridge was replaced (it had a black Gotoh ABR-1 bridge), the logo was almost completely gone, and the electronics were rather dusty. Nevertheless, the guitar was still in a playable state.

As someone who really likes power pop and post-punk music, I saw a late-ā€™70s performance of the Cars playing ā€œJust What I Needed.ā€ At the first palm-muted chord, I noticed that the late Ric Ocasek played a heavily modified, walnut-finished ā€™70s Gibson SG.

The Gherson looked rather similar, so I decided to modify it as a tribute to Ocasekā€™s guitar (at least visually).

I bought the following parts: a cream-colored DiMarzio PAF ā€™59 humbuckers set, cream pickup rings, cream toggle knob, cream toggle surround, chrome Gotoh Nashville bridge, faux pearl Gherson logo for headstock restoration, a dead spot 75 mm mirror, four aged black speed knobs, and a relic-style Carsā€™ logo.

I took the guitar to my local tech, Yotam Harduf, for modifications. He remarked that I bought the correct parts and matched everything rather well. Still, he needed to do some mods, especially with the pickupsā€™ legs as these were rather long (like in old PAFs). He also set the guitar up to perfection.

The coolest part is that Iā€™ve befriended Elliot Easton, who was the lead guitarist in the Cars. I sent the guitar scratch plate to him in California to be personally signed by him.

Although this is by no means an exact replica of Ocasekā€™s guitar, the first song I played once I got it back was (you guessed it) ā€¦ ā€œJust What I Needed.ā€

The guitar sounds fatter and punchier with some balls (I didnā€™t have a twin humbuckers guitar before). Itā€™s a sound that I havenā€™t experienced as Iā€™m accustomed to a brighter sound. (I play mostly Telecasters.) It made me want to bash a lot of chords and palm mute the strings. Also, due to the generally hot nature of the pickups, it made me turn up the amp volume and overdrive the amp.

I really love the new sound and feel that the guitar is really mine now that Iā€™ve given it my own personal touch. Iā€™ve nicknamed my guitar ā€œCandy-O,ā€ after the Carsā€™ hit from 1979.

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