‘Punkaster’ owned, destroyed and hastily reconstructed by Brandon Hicks

As soon as he learnt to walk, Brandon Hicks displayed a frightening talent for destruction; burning down the family condo age 5, breaking too many bones to keep count and even shattering his front teeth trying to catch a speeding baseball in his mouth. Having exhausted the patience of his parents and small town residents of Bone Lake, Wisconsin, teenager Hicks was exiled in 1977 and left to travel across America. Drifting from state to state, more wrecking ball than tumbleweed, Hicks eventually found his spiritual home in Times Square, New York, 1979. Hicks worked a ticket booth at the Wide Eye Peep Show by day and played with his band FistMeetsFace at night. After only a few explosive shows, FistMeetsFace became the must see act on the New York punk scene where each performance would include a smashed guitar, a puddle of blood and, following the after show party, another broken heart.

Body: A car crash of a guitar body made from numerous pieces of American Alder. Remember, some things are more than the sum of their parts, just like Brandon’s 35 second song “Riot In My Brain” with its inspired use of police sirens, dogs barking and an exploding jet engine.

Bridge: The superior Wilkinson WVC Vibrato bridge enables pig waggling, string diving and note gargling. Treat it like your worst enemy and it will still come back in tune.

Pickups: Trio of Joe Doe designed Single Coils, transplanted from various guitars that Brandon has destroyed over the years. The tones range from subtle to spiky… wait subtle? Not in Brandon’s vocabulary.

Controls: Master Volume and Master tone, with a sneaky five-way pickup selector switch, embedded in an unmistakeable mismatched dual style pickguard.

Machine heads: Wilkinson WJ55 E-Z Lok machine heads provide simple, effective action. Maybe the most dependable thing in Brandon’s life.

Neck: Hard rock Maple with mismatched tuners and mismatched dots. Your sweaty palm will love the classic Vintage ‘soft C’ profile and the comfort it brings. Plus, flip it over and you’ll get a glimpse into Brandon’s personal life - contact details for emergency lawyers and phone numbers for old girlfriends.

Fingerboard: Hard Rock Maple, with custom mismatched position markers and Kate’s Cellfone number. She runs a music products company now, has twin boys and a plumber for a husband. To think, back in the day, she used to scale the PA system to dive into the crowd at Brandon’s gigs…

Scale Length: 25.5" /  648mm.

Frets: 22 Medium profile frets. Brandon’s never needed to go higher than the 10th one.

Nut: 43mm Graphite nut, smooth and friction free. Unlike Brandon’s life.

Headstock: Unique Vintage “Joe Doe” Punkaster headstock design.

Certificate: Certificate of authenticity included.

ProShop Set-Up: Each guitar is individually set-up by the Vintage ProShop team.

The JDPUPU0004 is a Vintage® ProShop® Unique guitar designed in the UK by the Vintage® ProShop design team.