Roine Stolt has become the dominant progressive rock
guitarist/composer of the 21st century. He started his career in the late
60's playing bass in local rock bands, covers of Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Beck,
Beatles and King Crimson. The psychedelic era really made an impression and
groups like The Doors, Jimi Hendrix Experience, Vanilla Fudge, Procol Harum
and the Beatles "Magical Mystery..." era was the new exciting world of music
in his youth.
Switching to guitar in 1973 (a Hagstrom "Swede") plugged into a blackface
Fender Bassman amp with JBL cabinet, Roine joined KAIPA, a
hard-working, professional, progressive rock band with daily rehearsals. It
was a magical experience for a 17-year old musician. The group made three
successful albums on the DECCA label and was busy touring more than 100 gigs
a year, including national TV and radio performances in Scandinavia.
In 1979 he left KAIPA to form FANTASIA and made three albums, then started
working as a session musician, arranger and producer learning all the
mysteries of the studio.
The 90's saw the rebirth of progressive rock and the time
was right for a revisit, so Stolt recorded and released the CD "The Flower
King" in 1994. (This was around the same time that Neal Morse recorded "The
Light", the other major prog breakout of the 90's.) It was an album that
tried to unleash the forces of good in the negative, violent, aggressive,
competitive music business of today. Reinstate the old hippie ideals,
lyrically and musically. It was a smashing success, and since then The
Flower Kings have released nine more studio albums, gaining more fans with
each one. The Flower Kings have now grown into a international prog
rock act and business of medium size, touring every year in USA and Europe
in the club and small theater size venues. Like Zappa and King Crimson, they
are also becoming known as the best band to join to advance one's music
education & horizons.
Roine has also kept busy with numerous side projects around the world,
notably "Trans Atlantic" featuring Mike Portnoy, Neal Morse & Pete Trewavas -
a true supergroup of near nuclear brilliance.
Throughout The Flower Kings years Roine relied on an Ibanez (the one with
the bird head painting) and later a Parker for live performances. Recently
he has been working his custom-ordered JET Earlewood* into the shows.
Roine Stolt
with his JET Earlewoods
This guitar was custom ordered by Roine Stolt of The Flower Kings. It is the
first JET to feature the ultra-sophisticated Skyway tremolo bridge - (there
are only 3 Skyway equipped JET's in existence). Unfortunately, Roine
stipulated a piezo system and the piezo saddles are still under development.
When it became clear that missed deadlines were becoming too routine, a
second JET was started using a Hipshot bridge equipped with Graph Tech
saddles. The original shown here is for sale and is completely
functional except there is no piezo. However it is ready for a drop-in
retrofit when it becomes available, all the wiring is already done. The
"magnetic" circuit features a unique wiring scheme to provide virtually any
tone from the out-of-phase pickups.
The controls are
Master volume, Blend, 15-position Tone Styler, & Piezo Volume (not
connected). Switches are Piezo/Mag (upper bout), Bridge Pickup Blow, and (2)
3 position pickup coil switches that give series, parallel or single coil.
This guitar is currently strung 049-011 and tuned down 1 wholestep, but
Jeffrey can set it up differently if you like.
The only other personal touch is "RS" inlaid at the 12th fret. If you so
desire Jeffrey will change this inlay to 2 letters of your choice for only
$50 before shipping. The rather unflattering picture of Roine shows
both guitars on the day they were exchanged.
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