2009 March » Boogie Street Guitars

Monthly Archives: March 2009

Mar 23 2009

Nick Catanese 'SPADE' Stage Guitar for Sale

I’m currently selling a very rare Washburn USA Custom Shop guitar. This Custom Shop, per request from the Washburn Artist Relations department, back in 2004, made Black Label Society guitarist, Nick Catanese, a group of stage guitars for Nick to use to launch the beginning of his signature artist deal. A total of 5 or 6 guitars were handcrafted for Nick in the summer of 2004 and they were delivered to Nick backstage at the Chicago stop of the 2004 Ozzfest concert.

This guitar is one of those 5 or 6 given to Nick. Those guitars officially ‘launched’ the Nick Catanese Signature ‘Evil Twin’ Idol series Washburn guitars which were marketed by Washburn all throughout the world. As as Washburn’s largest Custom Shop dealer – and Washburn’s Finest Dealer, Boogie Street worked together with the Catanese camp over the years to make hundreds of great ‘Evil Twin’ Signature Idol guitars.

That era has come to a close. And I’m marketing one of – if not THE most rare USA Custom Shop Evil Twin Signature guitars ever made.

This guitar has a serial number from August of 2004. This is the famous ‘Spade 13′ stage guitar Nick used for part of the Blessed Hellride and Mafia tours by BLS. I acquired the guitar shortly thereafter from Nick personally.

This guitar features Nick’s personal neck profile which is THICK. Very THICK. It is easily identifiable as one of Nick’s personal guitars because it has the red ExTx inlay on the 13th fret – instead of the 12th fret, like all the commercially available Evil Twin Signatures.

The maple flame top on this one is done in black/gray striping and it’s truly a sight to behold. TREMENDOUS top on this Washburn.

The back of the guitar is where the magic is. Washburn’s paint guru and personal friend of mine, Chewy, painted this guitar for Nick. He incorporated an ‘all over’ iron cross and skull graphic together with a center graphic of a large black spade and the number 13 – Nick’s lucky number.

This guitar is completely all original including the factory Zakk Wylde EMG pickups, chrome hardware including TonePros bridge and Grover Tuners. The guitar features an ebony fretboard again with the red ExTx inlaid on the 13th fret.

The guitar has the Black Label Society ‘Skull’ on the headstock in the center of the inlaid Mother of Pearl circle and just below the inlaid ‘Washburn’ script, also inlaid in Mother of Pearl.

The guitar comes with a Letter of Authenticity from me, on Boogie Street Stationary as well as various printed photos of this guitars.

I’m considering offers. Thanks.

Mar 18 2009

New 10 Min Video Announcing the BSG eStore!

Well – after many years…and after many years of me kicking and screaming, the BSG eStore is up and running.

BSG has had so many great years working directly with our Boogie Street family and working on eBay. Back in 1999 I remember that when I really got going with BSG, we were just one of a handful of guitar dealers out there on eBay. And the eBay ‘auction’ format was tremendous and cost effective for sellers. Back in 2003 eBay changed that – thus moving the eBay experience to primarily a ‘Buy it Now’ environment. Bad decision I believe. And I think time has proven that opinion to be correct.

But, even with ‘Buy it Now’ on eBay running the show the past 5 to 6 years, eBay has been great for BSG. However, over the past 2 years – our eBay ‘hits’ are down, our eBay fees are up and our overall eBay sales are off a bit from where we want them to be. So, we will continue to market on eBay as well as gbase.com. And of course, I will always enjoy working directly with our customers. But we are going to add the BSG eStore to the mix as well.

The Boogie Street Guitars eStore has it’s own domain – www.BoogieStreetStore.com and it will be linked from within the Boogie Street Guitars website and all other locations we have all over the net.

Here is our short 10 minute announcement for the launching of the eStore.

Mar 05 2009

2nd series of Paul Stanley PS5 Preachers at Boogie Street Guitars

Things don’t always happen in ‘order’. So is life, right? Well, we have gotten a few of our PS5 series Paul Stanley Preacher guitars in recently from the FIRST RUN. This first run features a chrome set of Seymour Duncan humbuckers. A JB in the bridge position and a ’59 in the neck. The run is a total of 8 pieces.

While chatting recently with Terry Atkins, Washburn’s Custom Shop Director, I mentioned that I was looking for more PS5 guitars as soon as he could deliver… as the response has been AMAZING! He suggested sending 2 from the 2nd run – NOW. The second run was commissioned by BSG with Seymour Duncan ‘Custom Shop’ GOLD Plain Covered humbuckers!

So – yesterday, #1 of 8 and #5 of 8 arrived. #5 was on hold for my great Canadian friend and customer, Dave. And I have a feeling #1 won’t make it past today. But we will see. Folks – these guitars are amazing!

Some quick history on the PS5 guitars. In 2007 and 2008 I worked with Paul and Washburn Owner, Rudy Schlacher on two runs of very high quality PS8500 Preacher guitars. 2 runs of 50 guitars. One black and one white. Numbered, custom – the whole deal. They came out extremely well and have been gobbled up by BSG customer base and the KISS Army quickly. While we were considering putting together a 3rd run of PS8500 Preachers, I became very dismayed at how truly exceptional Korean construction prices have continued to spiral – UPWARD. Drastically. The more I kept thinking about it – the more it made sense to go back to the drawing board.

Currently, I’ve commissioned many ‘high-end’ Paul Stanley USA Custom Shop Preachers – with amazing flame and quilt tops – high end appointments – just amazing, amazing guitars. These guitars fall under the PS9500BSG USA Custom Shop moniker and are not part of the Washburn Catalog. They are exclusive to BSG. However, the idea I had this round was to work hard with Terry Atkins and his crew to see if we could make a really top notch – organic – USA Custom Shop Preacher that would hit the street at around 2K USD. And I’m happy to say – the PS5 was born!

The PS5 is an oil finished guitar. No high gloss – just a true, vintage and organic fit, feel – and TONE! Got a tube amp? You would LOVE this guitar! We spec’d them out with mahogany bodies, mahogany carved tops, maple set in neck, ebony fretboard, large mother of pearl block inlay and the beautiful slender Preacher headstock ordained with the ‘art deco’ headstock inlay. Both initial run of 8 peices each are done in black hardware. Chrome covered Seymour pickups on run 1 and gold on run 2.

There is a custom 10″ x 16″ Certificate of Authenticity from Paul and myself. We also include a large vinyl Paul Stanley/Washburn/Boogie Street dealer banner as well as our BSG ‘swag’.

Ok – enough of the ‘sales’ stuff. Below are some pics of the 2nd run PS5 guitars with Gold Plain Covered Seymour Duncan Pearly Gates humbuckers. We can be reached at www.BoogieStreet.com or by email at eric@boogiestreet.com or by phone at 412-716-3150