Worship Musician Magazine December 2020 | Page 90

among the crowd . Tell us about how you met and developed such a strong bond with him ?
[ James ] I had a shop in North Hollywood , CA . in the area where there were several of the well-known recording studios . Session players would stop in all the time for work . I ’ ll never forget , on the same day Mike Landau and Buzz Feiten came in to get their guitars worked on . I didn ’ t know who they were . I remember Landau needed a re-fret on his main guitar , a red 50 ’ s Strat with a Floyd . Later that same day , my old friend Ted Greene stopped in the shop and when he saw Mike and Buzz ’ s guitar cases , he said , “ Wow , do you know who these guys are ?” I said , “ No ”. So , he educated me .
I guess Mike was happy with my work , and he came back for more repairs and mods . He had ideas about sounds he was looking for , and I had ideas about guitars and wiring . We would talk about pickups wiring options and hardware , and pretty soon I was building guitars for him .
If I had a new idea , I would offer it to Mike first . Lots of times he would try it and use it , or suggest a tweak to get it where he wanted it . Once Mike had something , a lot of the other L . A . session guys would come in and want it . Everybody was after the “ Landau sound ”. When Dann Huff moved to Los Angeles , one of the first things he did was come in and ask for everything Mike had .
[ WM ] You truly have a creative streak when it comes to your guitar finishes . Your Psychedelic Vomit paint job doesn ’ t sound appealing , but sure looks cool . How did that come about ?
[ James ] Well , if you are uncomfortable with “ Psychedelic Vomit ”, you really aren ’ t going to like a later version with different colors called “ Fresh Vomit ”.
Psychedelic Vomit started out as a failed paint job on a guitar body with no arm contour . We were in the process of sanding it off to redo it . I don ’ t remember exactly , but I think I had sprayed another color over the sanded off part
Psychedelic Vomit
to see what the color looked like , and soon after Landau stopped in . Mike saw the half sanded , two color body and kind of liked it . We started joking about adding other colors and layers , and finally I said that when it was all done , I could whack off the arm contour and leave it bare wood . So , I painted one like we had joked about and Mike really liked it . That became the first Michael Landau model . It all started as a joke . ( laughing )
[ WM ] Another one of my favorite finishes of yours had a 25 th Anniversary , explain to us the Burning Water finish ?
Burning Water
[ James ] Landau again . After several years of playing the vomit guitar , he came to me and told me that he had come to think the finish was a little too bright and happy looking . He said he wanted something a little more “ sinister ” looking . Mikes band , Burning Water was becoming very popular around L . A . at that time , so I came up with a finish that represented fire and smoke over water . It ’ s been over 25 years now and it is probably our most popular guitar model and paint finish .
[ WM ] You have a prolific assortment of your own pick-ups and have certainly been
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