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NGD.....my own stuff, sorta.


J Backlund

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I had spotted this guitar several months ago in a online ad for a music store in Washington, DC. It's the last of four JBD-400's built, #4 of 4, by then-JBD luthier Bruce Bennett in Chattanoga, TN. At the time, there was just no way that I could afford to buy it, so I put it out of my mind, but my wife secretly bought it, had it shipped here, and gave it to me as a birthday present last Sunday. Even though I'm this guitar model's original designer, other than photos, I had only actually seen one of these guitars one time, at a guitar show in Florida that I attended in 2010.

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What happened with Bruce? Whats' the status of the guitar company?

 

Bruce is no longer associated with me, or the JBD/Retronix company. I have no idea what he's doing now.

 

The guitar company is still operating. JBD's Kevin Maxfield is at the NAMM show right now.

 

 

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George Jetson called.......HE WANTS HIS GUITAR BACK !

 

A good friend of mine owns "Crossroads Guitar Shop" in Falls Church, VA.

I go there to hang out, drink coffee & get my guitars PLEK'ed

He has one of those guitars hanging in his shop.

I heard it sounds & plays good, I never tried it.

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George Jetson called.......HE WANTS HIS GUITAR BACK !

 

A good friend of mine owns "Crossroads Guitar Shop" in Falls Church, VA.

I go there to hang out, drink coffee & get my guitars PLEK'ed

He has one of those guitars hanging in his shop.

I heard it sounds & plays good, I never tried it.

 

That would be Vince Nettuno's shop, and this IS the guitar you saw hanging there. Small world.

 

 

 

 

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"That would be Vince Nettuno's shop, and this IS the guitar you saw hanging there. Small world. "

 

Small world indeed......

It is indeed cool but considering there were only four of those guitars made the likelihood the one you saw was the same guitar is pretty high, not like, say, a random Les Paul.

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very cool guitar. what a shame you can't afford to keep #1 of every model made' date=' I never thought about you not actually owning your own models.[/quote']

 

I was given a JBD-100 about 5 years ago, and owned it until a little over a year ago when I traded it to a Dutch builder, Marco Krijger for the construction of two prototypes of other designs that I knew were never going to be built otherwise, and I felt it was very important, to me at least, to have those guitars. I'm hoping that the company can have a number of Retronix R-100 made soon, and if so, I'll aquire three of those, two for my own use, and a third that I will ship to a well-known guitarist in England.

 

In fairness, the JBD/Retronix company has, in recent years, provided me with two Retronix R-800 six strings, and also an R-800B bass at no charge, and I've received a beautiful black/ivory JBD-200.

 

So, altogether, I've been given five guitars in total by the JBD company over the years, which is much appreciated, even if in doing so they were only satisfying a binding contractual agreement, or trying to.

 

The JBD-400 is another matter though, and I should have have had one years ago, and in fact, was told many times that one was under construction for me when it really wasn't. There's just no way that I could afford to buy one of those, seeing that they were costing over $4000 to have one custom-made. I was, and still am, on an Ibanez Artcore budget when it comes to new guitars, but ,my wife came to the rescue on this one, and having one on the wall at home now is nothing short of a miracle in my mind.

 

My intention is to have at least one example of every guitar that I've designed, mostly for display as examples of my work in that area of design, and also to play now and then.

 

I will continue to have one-off examples of my guitar designs made as often as I can afford to commision them to a builder, which isn't nearly often enough.

 

 

 

 

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Here's a photo taken years ago (2006-7?) at the winter NAMM show of the #1 JBD-100, and #1 JBD-200. I believe that both guitars are owned by Kevin Maxfield of JBD/Retronix.

 

 

If Billy Gibbons doesn't own one of one of each of those -- especially the bottom retro-future Tele -- I don't know why. They both seem right in his wheelhouse, but the Tele-style looks like it was made specifically for him.

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If Billy Gibbons doesn't own one of one of each of those -- especially the bottom retro-future Tele -- I don't know why. They both seem right in his wheelhouse, but the Tele-style looks like it was made specifically for him.

 

 

 

Billy Gibbons did try out a JBD-100 when he was in either Chattanooga or Nashville some years ago, but although he said that he liked the guitar, he never ordered one. I don't know if he is even aware of the other models, but as far as that goes, because none are currently available anyway, it's one of them there moot points.

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