{"id":4559,"date":"2017-12-26T08:52:48","date_gmt":"2017-12-26T13:52:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/?p=4559"},"modified":"2017-12-26T08:52:48","modified_gmt":"2017-12-26T13:52:48","slug":"tim-catz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/2017\/12\/26\/tim-catz\/","title":{"rendered":"For Two Decades Tim Catz Regretted Selling His Custom Guitar. Then A Friend (Maybe) Found It On The Internet."},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cWe all have regrets about guitars we lost \/ sold in our past,\u201d writes bassist Tim Catz (pictured above right in the early 1990s). He has been part of various Boston musical outfits, from thrash metal band Seka to the stoner metal band Roadsaw (both unfortunately now defunct). He’s currently helping organize the third Lemmyfest<\/a>\u2014in celebration of the life and music of Ian Fraser Kilmister, better known as Lemmy from Mot\u00f6rhead\u2014at Once in Somerville for Dec. 29, 2017.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn \u201995,\u201d the now New Bedford-based musician writes, \u201cI sold my beloved red Thunderbird that was custom made for me by Gibson.\u201d He came to regret it. And much later tried to track it down and get it back\u2014unsuccessfully. Then recently a friend found it on the Internet. Maybe. Could Catz and his guitar finally be reunited?<\/p>\n

To really understand this story of a man and his beloved, lost guitar, we have to go back to the beginning. The story starts in the early 1990s when Catz was playing bass with the thrash metal band Seka. They won the Boston Rock & Roll Rumble in 1991 and got signed to Warner Bros. Records. \u201cWe were getting ready to record our major label debut,\u201d he recalls. \u201cWe had a Gibson endorsement, so we all got shiny new Gibson guitars.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Tim<\/a>
Tim Catz with his beloved red Gibson Thunderbird bass in the early 1990s. (Courtesy Tim Catz)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

They went down to the Gibson showroom in New York\u2019s Times Square, he says, and he picked out a Gibson Thunderbird bass guitar in a custom shade of red. \u201cI thought it would be more a tomato soup red. \u2026 It\u2019s more a hot rod red.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Seka ran into trouble. \u201cThe band was forced to change its name. It got sued by Seka, the actual porn star,\u201d Catz recalls.<\/p>\n

In picking their band name, they\u2019d told themselves: \u201cSeka, the porn star of the \u201870s, she\u2019s probably dead, who\u2019s going to care?\u201d It turned out, \u201cShe cared and she had a husband who was her manager and a lawyer, who sued us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Much unhappiness ensued. The band, with a changed lineup, was renamed Strip Mind. When their debut album, \u201cWhat\u2019s In Your Mouth,\u201d<\/a> came out in 1993, it flopped. \u201cBy the time we finished the record, nobody wanted to hear thrash metal. People wanted to hear grunge,\u201d Catz says. \u201cIt came out like a fart in church.\u201d<\/p>\n