Epiphone Jay Jay French Elitist Les Paul (LEFT) and Thunderbird Bass (CENTER) “When Jay Jay approached Epiphone about contributing a special guitar for
this project, we were more than happy to help,” says Epiphone’s Jim Rosenberg. “Jay Jay and Twisted Sister have been die-hard supporters and users of Epiphone product
for almost a decade now—not to mention that the cause is a worthy one. Contributing one of Jay Jay’s signature Les Paul pinkburst guitars was obviously a cornerstone of
the concept and a perfect fit. However, when I found out he was gathering an assortment of instruments and had not considered a bass yet, a Thunderbird in pinkburst immediately came to mind.” The Les Paul features a Twisted Sister logo inlay on the headstock, Gibson-manufactured components, a long neck tenon, and a solid maple top.
Fender Custom Shop ’ 75 Jazz Bass Reissue (RIGHT) “I took a little different approach in the construction of this bass, as I really did not want to steer too
far away from the original look of this classic,” says Fender’s John Cruz. “The body was again made of mahogany, but I decided to make the neck with quar-tersawn maple for better stability, with a 12"-radius Indian rosewood fretboard, trapezoid inlay and Fender logo inlayed into the peg face. I used our medium
jumbo fretwire for this because I felt it worked better with the playability of a bass.”
Gibson Custom Shop SG (OPPOSITE PAGE LEFT) “I worked with Jay Jay on three guitars,” says Gibson’s Steve Christmas, “the Les Paul Standard, the SG
Standard Reissue based on a 1962, and a ’ 63 ES-335 Block Reissue. All three were built in the Gibson Custom Shop by our Pro Shop luthiers. All three have a
slim-taper neck and are standard production models with the Pinkburst finish—which has never been duplicated on any other models in the Custom Shop.”
Marshall 1959 Super Lead Reissue and 1960A 4x12 (OPPOSITE PAGE CENTER) “Marshall has been my company exclusively for 35 years,” says
French. “When I told them what I wanted, they said, ‘You’re family. We’ll do whatever it takes.’”
Orange Rocker 30 (OPPOSITE PAGE RIGHT) The class A, 30-watt Rocker features two EL34-driven channels, a Celestion Vintage 30 speaker, and grill cloth
screen-printed by Jeron Moe at Eloquent Creative. “I spoke to Alex Auxier from Orange Amps at NAMM,” says French. “One day he called me and said, ‘What’s
the name of that disease again? My best friend’s girlfriend has it. We want to be involved.’”
bankrupt you. It is the most expensive drug in
the world. When you’re a parent whose child
has a chronic disease, you have enough battles
to fight, and it becomes an even tougher chal-
lenge due to the financial strain if you don’t
have insurance—which is another reason I
want to raise research dollars.
Which leads us to the Pinkburst Project.
One day you woke up and thought . . .
I’d had my pinkburst Les Paul signature model
for a long time, and at a NAMM show I
was introduced to John Cruz from Fender.
I told him I had a pink Les Paul and asked
what it would take to build a pink Tele with
