I met Bob Bradshaw back in ‘98 or maybe it was ‘99… I was living in the living room of a two bedroom apartment I shared with a couple roommates in Hollywood.
I had heard of him and seen his name many times in Guitar Player magazine, from musician heroes of mine going all the way back to Brazil as a teenager, to teachers, fellow students at Musicians Institute to LA guitar legends I went to see live.
It was a dream of mine to have him build me a system. I remember going to places like Black Market Music on La Cienega Blvd and little by little buying pedals and putting money aside from my local gigs into an envelope so that I could eventually have enough to get it done.
I don’t remember how I got his number, but I called him up and set up a time for an appointment to discuss what I wanted. Going into his shop on Magnolia Blvd was like entering one of the most sacred temples of guitar tone on earth. Signed pictures on the wall from guitar legends I had grown up admiring, racks and systems being assembled and tested, workbenches full of electronic components, gadgets; piles of gear scattered all around waiting for their turn to become so-and-so’s rig. This is where the best of the best took their tone and sound to a next level.
And there I was, a kid in his early twenties, nervous, shy, self-conscious, talking to the master about getting a pedal rack built to play the clubs around town. The master was, as in most cases, a true gentleman, and treated me with the same respect and attention he would a bonafide rockstar, his usual clientele. We talked about what my needs were at that moment and decided on a design. I went back to work to get the missing pieces of the puzzle and within a few months the rig was delivered.
During the months of waiting, the element of doubt crept in. Was I really gonna invest that amount of money into something I wasn’t sure (despite all the evidence pointing to the opposite) was gonna sound good. Did I even know what I expected it to sound like? Probably not.
I got the call to come pick it up and so I did. I had moved into one of the bedrooms at that point and the living room was empty at that moment as we were still looking for someone to move in. With a mind full of fear and doubts as to whether I had made a good investment, I set up my amp, the rack and pedalboard switcher and turned it on. One chord was all it took to wipe out those feelings in one single swoop. I had the biggest grin on my face… “In Bob we trust!”
Not long after that, I moved in with my then partner a couple blocks away from Bob’s shop, and would sometimes pay him visits. I bought one of his preamps and had another rack built to complement the first one. I was doing a lot of sessions at the time and the rig always sounded great.
I lost touch and didn’t see him for a number of years until I saw a post on Facebook asking for people to help him move out from his shop, then at the San Antonio Winery lofts in downtown. I called my friend Lineu Andrade and we went, helped to carry boxes for a couple hours and bid farewell to Bob as he was moving to the east coast.
Fast-forward to a couple of years ago, another friend posted a rig he had done with Bob and that inspired me (and made me a bit jealous, to be honest) to start looking into building what I named as The Last Guitar Rig I was gonna build…
A couple more years go by and I’m now looking into what I’d take on the road with Lionel Richie. After much thought, I decide to give Bob a call and talk about maybe repurposing the systems I have sitting in storage into one single rack. I find out that Matt, responsible for taking care of the guitars on the tour, lives ten minutes away from him and has worked with him before. I know Bob is always busy and has become more selective with the work he takes on, so it’s not a given that he can or will do it, but I begin planning and getting the pieces of the puzzle together, testing what I have, hoping I can use most of it so I can save some money in the process. Eventually everything falls into place with its fair share of serendipitous and synchronistic moments and it’s a go for the new rig.
I hadn’t seen Bob since helping him move out of LA back in 2017. I went to Lancaster at the end of March to pick it up and drive it to Philly where it’d join the rest of the touring equipment on its way back to the West Coast.
The same element of doubt crept in as to whether this was a wise investment on my part but again, all that was needed to calm those feelings was one single guitar chord and the repeating mantra “In Bob we trust!”
Thank you sir for being impeccable with your work and your word; for treating that kid so kindly and gentlemanly and inspiring us all over the world with your genius!
Here’s to “The Second to Last Guitar Rig I’ll Build”