and a double-cutaway body that he feels is more balanced. He also
says the neck has straighter string pull for greater tuning stability,
but he still feels the model has “the meat-and-potatoes construction
details” that preserve its essence.
“Coupling these details with the best hardware—like Buzz
Feiten tuning and modern machining technology—gets us closer to
our end result so we can fine-tune the small details,” he says.
The Metal model is the neck-through of the series (the others
feature set necks), and Baker says it grew out of his love for Randy
Rhoads and the late master’s Jackson Guitars. That said, Baker
himself prefers the Water model—a hollowbody with Lollar humbuckers and Kluson-style TonePros tuners—when he plays with his
Mean Gene Band. His has a makore (aka African cherry) back, a
maple top, a mahogany neck, a rosewood fretboard, and a recently
installed Graph Tech Ghost Acousti-Phonic bridge, which facilitates
a nice acoustic tone without switching guitars. He says he prefers
the Water because it’s lightweight and he loves the controlled feedback that the hollowbody allows him to get. His is distinguished
by an ebony veneer on the headstock, the result of a serendipitous
accident that occurred when one of his shop guys machined the
headstock thickness too thin. “I had to build the thickness back by
adding the veneer,” he says. “But it looks very cool, like an old jazz
box guitar.”
Dennis Fano’s PBG-built Alt de Facto PX6 is
available with an alder,
swamp-ash, or mahogany
body (a flamed-maple
top is optional), a maple
or mahogany neck with a
graduated 10"– 16" radius,
Lindy Fralin pickups, and
aged-nickel hardware.
Baker’s personal guitar and b3 Water prototype has a hollow makore body (production
models are mahogany) and Lollar Imperial
humbuckers. A Graph Tech Ghost Acousti-Phonic bridge and preamp were added
after the photo was taken.
The PBG-produced Jason Z. Schroeder Radio Lane has a mahogany
body with a flamed-maple cap, Lollar
pickups, and a Schroeder-designed
stop-tail bridge.
This PBG-produced Koll
Duo Glide has a chambered
mahogany body with a
flamed-maple top, thumbnail position markers, TV
Jones Classic pickups with
Gretsch-style rings, and a
Bigsby vibrato.
Pre-PBG: From GIT to the School of Hard Knocks
Before signing on with PBG, Fender, or Gibson, and before he
owned any of his own shops, a young Baker, fresh out of high
school, took his early experiments and rock-star ambitions to
Musicians Institute in Hollywood (which was called the Guitar
Institute of Technology or GIT at the time).
“The very first week at GIT, they had a student seminar and
open house, welcoming the students and whatnot,” he recalls. “And
they said to us, ‘The majority of you guys are not going to go on to
become rock stars. You’re going to find yourselves somewhere else
in the music industry if you’re lucky.’” GIT laid the foundation for
his guitar expertise, not only making him a better player, but also
introducing him to countless guitar students whose stylistic tastes
still inform his business.
After graduating from GIT, Baker moved to Huntsville,
Alabama, with some bandmates, hoping to record an album to
bring back to California. That’s where he started his first guitar
line, building 10 or so guitars under the Mean Gene brand name.
“The first guy I built one for goes, ‘Why don’t you call it Mean
Gene Guitars?’” Baker says in a thick, faux-Southern accent.
Chuckling, he adds, “I guess it just kind of stuck.”
As it happens, it was the Mean Gene brand rather than a hit
record that Baker ended up bringing back to California. He and
one other builder worked out of his parents’ garage. They survived
on small-quantity runs for a while before moving into a small facili-
ty where they kept a retail shop, a wood shop, and rehearsal studios
for local bands. “I think we only lasted about six months [in the
new facility] before we ran out of money and had to pull the cork
on it,” says Baker. “Altogether, it lasted a full two years—we should
have just stayed in the garage.”
