Guitar goddess and downtown NYC impresaria Viva DeConcini says she would marry her Gibson Les Paul Custom Lite if it were legal in NY State. But this is no arranged marriage. Viva has played guitar since first grade, and is one of the few female guitarists ever to be the subject of a three-page feature in Guitar Player magazine.
She knows from axes.
We asked Viva to recount some of the other memorable guitars she has owned and played over the years and the resulting essay is such a gearhead’s delight that we decided to make it our first Guest Blog Post for the newly redesigned Shore Fire blog, The Suite 16.
“I first started playing guitar at the Montessori school I went to in the first grade in Phoenix. It was a Goya classical that belonged to my father. Here’s a picture of it. (We were in the paper in an article about alternate schooling.) It was hard to play!”
Viva DeConcini on left
“My next guitar was a wine colored Gibson SG junior which my parents bought from our teacher Jerry along with a Randall Commander II amplifier. Somewhere in the ether is an incredible photo of me playing this guitar but I don’t know where that photo is so this one will have to do for now.”
“I played this guitar through the 8th grade and in retrospect it was so cool – it had the devil horns and stuff – but at the time, I didn’t like the shape or color of the body, though the feel of the neck was fantastic.
In college I bought an acoustic Guild that in retrospect was way too big for me! It was like a Mack truck, heavy and hard to play. I ended up selling or giving it or trading it (I can’t remember!) to a good friend in NY who I think might still have it.
In the meantime I had moved to Tucson and was studying with a jazz guitarist named Xavier Marques who recommended I get a Gibson ES 135. So I sold the SG Junior (which I of course regret but alas, one can only move into the future!) The ES 135 was a candy apple red arch top with P-90 pickups it sounded great and I played it through Jazz school but when I got into [acclaimed Brazilian group] Beat The Donkey it was definitely the wrong look and the body of it was also too large for me, so I got a Japanese re-issue of Fender’s Blue Flower Telecaster.”
Viva DeConcini and blue flower Telecaster
“When I moved to San Francisco I got [more] into Brazilian music so I also bought a Spanish Classical guitar by Juan Estruch of Barcelona. It wasn’t really expensive, but it was really nice and I used it to play bossa novas.
After I left Beat The Donkey, I was trying to work as a singer-songwriter in coffee houses and the Telecaster with its single-coil pickups generated way too much buzz and hum for that. I bought a ’72 Thinline Telecaster from the old Rumbleseat music in Park Slope. It had humbucker pickups and worked great but I realized I wanted to have a rock band instead. But I was also having some shoulder problems and went on a quest to find the lightest guitar possible, which was a black Gibson SG from Ludlow Street guitars.”
Viva DeConcini with Gibson SG
“But it was around this time that the idea of having a Les Paul evolved into an obsession. A friend had a black Les Paul with the three gold pickups and I had gone to hear him play one time and it looked and sounded soooooo cool. Also, of course, the great Mick Ronson plays a Les Paul in Bowie’s classic concert film. So last year I started looking for a Les Paul and found the absolute perfect guitar, and possibly the nicest thing I have ever owned in my life: a 1988 black Les Paul custom light that I bought at Southside guitars. It is definitely my favorite ever!”
Viva DeConcini playing Gibson Les Paul
New Yorkers- catch Viva DeConcini’s wild ‘Rock & Roll Burlesque’ featuring special guests on May 27th, or at The Jazz Gallery on the 28th and 29th. See details below.
Check out Viva’s website here: http://www.electricviva.com
UPCOMING DATES:
May 27 – New York, NY @ The Slipper Room
May 28 – New York, NY @ The Jazz Gallery
May 29 – New York, NY @ The Jazz Gallery w/ Peter Apfelbaum and The NY Hieroglyphics
About Andy
