Billy F Gibbons: Rock + Roll Gearhead

THE CARS

WHISKEY RUNNER

The bad little sister of the BFG Eliminator Coupe is another fine ’34 three-window. Fierce and fenderless, the backwoods roller outruns the best of ’em, coast to coast and border to border. Under the skin runs a time-tested Cadillac mill, the first GM prototype overhead-valve V-8 from 1948! It comes on strong and bright when the hood-mount 747 landing lamp illuminates the asphalt. Light ’er up!

THE GROCERY-GETTER EL CAMINO

The star car from the documentary BFG’s Rockin’ Roadsters, this deserted desert shell retook to the boulevards after a total transformation through the fabrication excellence of the Jimmy Shine Speed Shop in Orange County. Triple-color kandy sets off the chromed grocery karts ready for a bedload of spices, hot sauces, toreados, and tortillas to make way to the cocina. It’s party time.

THE QUINTANA 1950 CUSTOM FORD RAGTOP

Yaril Quintana gave this one the restyle required to complete the tail-draggin’ Carson-topped custom. The deep burgundy, candy-like coating sets it right with a look that is true old-school finery. Kaiser-meets-Caddy makes the grade. Nosed, decked, and slammed to the weeds . . . this is high quality with dependability underfoot. What’s not to like with a coast-to-coast trip tossin’ the roadmap through the window!

THE GUITARS

A ’58 Les Paul ’Burst. Another rare but fine-sounding standard, heard on “Just Got Paid. ”It stays outfitted with extra-heavy strings and the action stays set high for bottleneck playing. This is a fierce performer slippin’ around with a slither of a slide.

A late-’30s National Tricone, and a rare example of a non-etched body. This one, refit with a custom-made neck, has been adorned with a superb inlay, images of Bones and Lizards. Precut pieces, shaken up by a local fortuneteller, like the reading of tea leaves, create a magnetically graphic inlay vision, a Mayan/lizard-like theme, cradling the yin and yang symbol. The words “ZZ TOP” adorn the center section.Again,another fine,resonator-electrichybrid.Typical of these innovative steel guitars circa the 1930s.

A creation from street artist Eric Yunker of San Francisco, a talented scavenger who used “found” parts to make his unusual creations. This six-string jewel was highlighted on the cover of Guitar Player Magazine for the feature “The Guitar as Art.” Rather clunky and heavy, it’s still playable and invites an excursion of the wire into places unknown. A strange instrument from an engineering genius...sliding pickups, retro tuners, and finger-controlled volume and wah-wah knobs. Take note of the Westinghouse leveling springs and Dodge Ram hood ornament as the positioning stretch at the rear of the instrument. Quite exotic.