Taj Mahal is joined by Tuck and Patti on MY GUITAR!

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Taj Mahal is joined by Tuck and Patti on Walking Through The Fire. From the CD Getting Through It available at Gettingthroughit.com. The rootsy song deals with the process of dealing with loss and grief ......................................................
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++I bought my EPIPHONE EMPEROR-REGENT JAZZ GUITAR, in 2007, SAME MODEL, COLOUR as the EPI that TAJ MAHAL is shown playing, AND IT WAS PURCHASED in THE HOME AREA where TAJ LIVES, & furthermore, I PURCHASED THE GUITAR at "Ben Levin and Chris Cobb" """REAL GUITARS" on LAYFETTE ALLEY, in San Francisco's SOMO District, GOOD FRIENDS & THE OLDEST VINTAGE GUITAR SHOP in SAN FRANCISCO. A Place where TAJ MAHAL Goes, RANSOE BASS GUITARS & Taj Mahal ALSO with OTHER BEREKLEY friends were OFTEN ATTENDING MY STREET PERFORMING by the Nice music store in semi-posh Fourth Street area.
Down Home Music Store 1809B 4th St
Berkeley, CA 94710)(CLOSED)- DOWN HOME'S MAIN STORE === El Cerrito, CA 94530

I COULD HAVE TAJ MAHAL'S OLD JAZZ GUITAR! I TOOK IT INTO "SUBWAY GUITARS" at 1800 CEDAR STREET, Home Of FAMOUS FAT DAWG, ask Dawg if He Would Create A "LOWELL" from my EPIPHONE, He acted very "STRANGE.." Told me "DO NOT CHANGE THAT GUITAR, IT'S ALL THE GUITAR YOU'VE EVER WANTED!"
Everyone that hears me play, EVEN 27 YEARS AGO when I BOUGHT MY FIRSE VINTAGE from Ben Levin and Chris Cobb @ "REAL GUITARS" (A 1908 GIBSON ARCH-TOP L-1) Knows I SWING.

THE BLONDE EPIPHONE is MY MEDICINE for HEALING.
IT MAY ACTUALLY BE in THIS VIDEO, played by TAJ MAHAL with OKIES TUCK ANDRESS!!!! I ACTUALLY PAID $25,00 lst year to SEE TUCK n PATTY at the OACH HOUSE here in SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO, even tho I WAS SLEEPING in a DUMPSTER with my $1,299.00 JAZZ GUITAR!!!

TUCK is a ROLE MODEL 4 me!
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Product Review: Fat Dog Da Angel

by Ray Matuza
20th Century Guitar July 1999
The past few years have brought us a pickle barrel full of fine quality guitars at dirt cheap prices thanks in part to the evolution the CNC cutting machine and the global work force.

What Mr. Fat Dog, proprietor of Subway Guitars in Berkeley, California, has done is factor in the aforementioned, and with a synthesis of foreign and domestic product, produced a line of archtop instruments based on the L-5 body design. With this body design as the constant, different pick-up types and configurations are the variables in the three models available.

The Da Angel features a laminated spruce top, 17 inch body with maple back and sides. The 25-1/2" scale length runs along the maple neck sporting authentic Grover Imperial tuners, bone nut and an "ebonized" rosewood finger board.

To further the journey into jazzland, a N.O.S. DeArmond pick-up is suspended from a bracket at the end of a finger board, much in the style of a Gibson Johnny Smith. A singular volume control capped with a "Gibson-style speed knob" sits atop the hand-fashioned art deco smoked plexiglass pick guard.

Output is terminated at the tail piece end; not in an endpin jack, but in a separate quarter inch jack above the strap pin. If you like using a thick leather strap, I could see a potentially territorial problem between it and your quarter-inch plug sticking out of the instrument.

To round out the 50-cent tour, the "aged" blonde acrylic lacquer finish gives a classic look accented by the gold-plated hardware.

Predictably, Da Angel does not have the complexity and vibrancy of a solid spruce top guitar, but I was quite surprised at its "au naturale" volume -- loud! Tonal response was fairly consistent and even throughout the instrument's range with good bass response due to the body size. The neck has a Gibson feel with a slight chuckiness to it. Also, the nicely crowned and polished frets made bumpin' through some Wes tunes a pleasurable experience. However, I did notice the 6th fret lifting out a bit on the bass side.

Through a small garden variety of amps, the DeArmond single coil pick-up had a nice clear tone reproducing the guitar's sound quite adequately. The factory-equipped bronze strings gave a piano-like sound, even though the difference in alloys created a slight imbalance between the first two strings and the rest of the set. An instant solution came in the form of changing to a set of nickel-plated steel round wounds.

The Da Angel offers an affordable way to dip one's toes into the jazz guitar's waters. The ruggedly constructed instrument might also serve well where safety or environmental conditions aren't exactly ideal. Could ya see Herb Ellis, Mundell Lowe, and Joe Puma hangin' at the beach in their baggies playin' these things? "Hey Herb, ya got the changes to....?"