In the midst of working on her first album, the 17-year-old guitar star takes PG through her rig.
Guitarist Grace Bowers is a 17-year old California transplant tearing it up in Nashville. Currently working on her first album with producer John Osborne of the Brothers Osborne, Bowers invited John Bohlinger and the PG team to walk through her studio and live rig.
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Mostly Stock Special
Bowers’ number one is her mostly stock 1961 Gibson SG Special. The P90s and the skinny neck are a perfect fit for her style. The tuners were changed at some point, and the whammy is no longer attached, but the rest of the axe is original. This guitar and all others are strung with D’Addario .010s.
Osbourne's ES
For PAF humbucker tone on the album, Grace plays John Osborne’s all-stock 1960 Gibson ES-335.
With a Little Help From Her Friends
The one acoustic on the album is this 1968 Gibson 12-string acoustic, on loan from a friend.
It's Not a Phase, Mom!
Bowers’ pedal setup includes a Dunlop Cry Baby Wah, Grindstone Audio Solutions Night Shade Overdrive, EarthQuaker Devices Tone Job, MXR Phase 90, MXR Phase 95, and Boss DD-2. Bowers powers them with a Voodoo Labs Pedal Power ISO-5.
Shop Grace Bowers' Rig
Gibson SG Special - Vintage Cherry
Gibson ES-335 Semi-Hollowbody Electric Guitar
Gibson Acoustic J-45 12-string Acoustic-Electric Guitar
Fender '68 Custom Deluxe Reverb 1x12" Combo Amp
Dunlop CBJ95 Cry Baby Junior Wah Pedal
MXR Phase 90
Boss DD-3T
EarthQuaker Devices Tone Job V2
Voodoo Lab Pedal Power ISO-5
D'Addario NYXL1046 NYXL Nickel Wound Electric Guitar Strings - .010-.046 Regular Light
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The body shape of this 6-string seems surprisingly ergonomic, but that perception changes when you hold its neck!
And so it goes that I pondered this proliferation of Virgos and Libras, and my hypothesis came into focus. Were we all the result of our parents’ Christmas and New Year’s celebrations?! I have to say, there was a camaraderie discovered among my fellow party babies when I presented my findings to them. Now, being born in the early ’70s also had me thinking of the culture of the times. Hippie life was fading as young people started to realize they had to get a job, and alas, long hair and beards were being replaced by staid 9-to-5 gigs that could slowly suck the life out of you. So, given the cultural mores of that era, I thought that this month I should write about the Sorrento Swinger.
“Hippie life was fading as young people started to realize they had to get a job.”
Born around 1967—maybe in September—these Swingers hailed from the “crazy” design period of the Kawai Co. Kawai produced some of the coolest guitar designs from 1967 to ’69, and there were some very creative guitar designers there on the job. Kawai had poached some of the finest employees from the wreckage of the Shinko Gakki factory (Pleasant, Intermark, etc.) and through the purchase of the Teisco brand. In this era, Kawai usually used three different standard pickups and they all sound great, plus the units are always wired in series, which is just awesome.
For a 25-buck, Japan-made guitar from the ’70s, the Swinger has an elite-looking headstock—and, on this example, most of its tuners.
Now, the Swinger (and similar Kawai-made guitars) came from an era where U.S. importers would order small batches of instruments that were often unique and extremely gonzo. The guitars might have been destined for medium-sized music stores or direct-order catalogs, but whatever the case, the importer usually gave the guitars names. In this instance, it was Jack Westheimer who featured this model as an “exclusive” design. In Westheimer Corporation catalogs from the time, the Swinger carried the A-2T model name (there was another one-pickup model called the A-1) and sold wholesale for $25 in 1967! As the catalog mentioned, these were “priced for the teenaged trade.” This particular guitar featured the Sorrento badge, and was sold through some sort of music store that’s probably long out of business, but all the Swingers were the same.
The Swinger’s large mahogany neck (sans truss rod) is robust and beefy in all the nicest ways. Like, when I was a kid, I was considered a “husky” fit. That’s this neck: husky! The striped pickguard is a Teisco holdover and the controls are as simple as it gets. Two knobs (volume, tone) and two pickup selectors is all there is, but the beauty is in the body. That lower bout is shaped like some sort of 1969 lounge chair. The strap pin is totally in the wrong place, but the big bottom swoop is worth it. Yep, the Swinger was ready to bring in the dawn of the 1970s, but alas, the guitar came and went in a blink.
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