Dweezil Zappa is back with another storytime session, this time showcasing his one-of-one fretless Gibson SG.
The versatile guitarist has been posting more regularly to his YouTube channel in recent months, with the unearthing of his Crazy Train performance with Jack Black also spotlighting a rather unusual and rare-breed gig rig.
Zappa’s taste for strange guitars is certainly no secret, as his patchwork Shabat signature guitar and his hand-painted Kramer, gifted by Eddie Van Halen, both prove. But for many, the thought of a fretless SG will send shivers up their spines and likely have some readers reaching for a brown paper bag.
Zappa, though, is clearly made of sterner stuff. The experimental and heavily modded guitar – which began life as his father Frank Zappa's signature Roxy SG – was used on his crowd-funded Via Zammata album and, according to Dweezil himself, it's “one of the coolest guitars I own”.
“It started its life as a Roxy SG,” he explains, “but we put a different fretboard on it – this is one of those mock ebony-style fretboards – and it has a Sustainiac built into it, and a MIDI bridge which has auto-tune built in.”
That means the fretless can offer glissando, microtonal type playing, or chromatic pitching for what he calls “the Cher effect”. A quick look at the SG’s rear also shows how much “weird electronic” wizardry is going on with this oddball electric, which echoes the shapeshifting features of Adrian Belew’s Parker Fly MIDI beast.
“This guitar was played for probably at least four or five songs on the Via Zammata record,” Zappa continues. “Anything you hear [that's] fretless, like the songs Truth or the Hummin' guitar solo, it's all this guitar!”
For another look into Zappa's madcap gear collection, check out the unholy trinity of his Hot Rats Gibson Les Paul, a Madonna-clad Jackson, and a true one-off custom PRS.
