Las Vegas Weekly

March 12, 2010 · 4:47 PM

Cigar guitars and missing musicians

By Laura Davis

Super Fuzz proved to Neon Reverb audiences what makes him so super.

Photo: Laura Davis

What makes Fuzz (aka James Berg) so super? He can make a guitar out of a cigar box, and he can play a full set list, despite a missing band.

Scheduled to perform as the entire three-member shebang Thursday, the "experiment" portion of local jam band Super Fuzz and the D.F.C. Experiment instead was M.I.A. for the opening night of Neon Reverb at the Gypsy Den.

Fuzz, who also plays in local act Black Camaro, confessed he had a feeling this was likely to happen, as he hadn't heard from one his fellow band members in two weeks.

Deciding not to let that put a damper on his Neon Reverb experience, Fuzz did what any good superhero musician type would do: He took to the stage solo, kicking off the three-band lineup which included locals Bee Movie the Band and Vietnam Cowboy.

Solo, that is, aside from the accompaniment of two of his awesomely fashioned homemade guitars. Rotating the instruments throughout his set, Fuzz played both one-string and three-string versions of his cigar box instruments, which performed just as well as the manufactured electric guitar he strummed in between.

Despite being "smoking" enough to sell for a pretty penny (sorry, we couldn't help ourselves), Fuzz offers them up for about $200, and the custom guitars' blueprints aren't something he keeps secret. When introducing them on stage Fuzz explained to the audience how they too can make their own instruments using online directions.

Super Fuzz may have successfully filled the space in which his band was pegged to play, but the infamous D.F.C. Experiment's sound, and location, is still at large.

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