So I have been thinking of retiring them for some time. The perfect time came just over a year ago when Mick started to complain about the pain he was getting in his left hand, I suggested we find a guitar with a slightly slimmer neck profile, And while were at it one with a little less weight to take strain off his shoulder… A Les Paul is quite a big chunk of wood to have slung around your neck for an hour and a half….

Now the hard part… how do we replace a Les Paul ???

Through a mutual friend I contacted a guitar company in Canada called
“Dot On Shaft” A quick check on the web site showed me they could knock out a very good looking guitar.. But how would it play and sound???

Only one way to find out I contacted the owner Mike Carperelli !

Mike is a fantastic guy with an amazing attitude to life and a passion for guitars.

And after a few E-Mails, Mike very kindly offered to send me one of his guitars for Mick to try out !

WOW !!!! The guitar was amazing…. Mick took to it in an instant and from that day to this .. that guitar has been Mick’s number one.



Mick played the guitar for several shows and when we where 100% sure about it I contacted Mike again to tell him the good news, And order a second guitar…

Now this is where it gets cool…. The guitar was great but even on the Gibsons I had swapped certain parts, The Bridge, The Nut, The Tuners, Tone and Volume pots etc…

I asked Mike if he could fit the same replacement parts to the next Dot On Shaft ?

And from that the idea came about to make a full on Mick Box Signature Guitar

So now we have the two Prototypes on the road with us and the Gibsons are safely sleeping at Mick’s place….

The guitars have been well and truly road tested. Along the way I have changed a few things, always keeping in close contact with Mike And now the first signature model is underway.

The guitar has a solid Mahogany Body with a Maple top and a Mahogany neck with Rose Wood Fingerboard.

The hardware is all gold plated with a TonePros bridge with Graphtec saddle, A Graphtec nut and Grover Rotomatic locking tuners.

Photos by Dave White and Richard Wagner

The guitar is finished in (What else ??) high gloss black..

There will be two production models one as above and one with a Kahler trem..

These will be the exact same guitars as Mick is using and come with a signed certificate from Mick Box and Mike Carperelli….

But what about the pick ups I hear you say ????
How do Signature pick ups strike you ???

That’s right our very good friend Dom Wagner at Shadow Electronics in Germany has very kindly offered to make Mick some custom wound pick ups …

These have been designed by Mick himself to get the perfect tone for his music…

The neck and bridge units have been specially voiced to complement the tonal characteristics of the Dot On Shaft guitar These units define the term “Classic Rock”

The pick ups are black open coil design with Mick’s name on them The neck unit is called the Wizard and the Bridge is called the Demon, tying them in nicely with the whole Uriah Heep connection…

To start with these pick ups will only be available fitted to the signature guitar but Shadow has plans to market them as retro fits in the very near future…

And while we are getting new guitars I thought it might be time to change the backline too…

We always rent our amps from a company in whichever country we are playing in.. and at times it can be hard to keep a constant sound.

So now we run a Marshall JMP 1 pre amp in to a Marshall EL34 100 watt power amp.

A bit of tweaking and lots of A/B testing with a good SLP and we have a great and consistent sound.

I threw in a Rocktron Hush to get rid of the “bacon in a fry pan” hiss and crackle and off we go.. I also stripped down Mick’s pedal board He is down to a Chorus pedal and the Cry Baby now…. Drop some very expensive cables in there and we now have a clean and pure signal path that sounds awesome..

So there you go… If you want to sound like Mick then that’s the gear you will need.
Oh you need his hands too.. I play his exact gear every day and sound nothing like him… They don’t call me Fingers Bananas for nothing you know !! :-)

So that’s about it for now..

The Signature guitar will be available soon from Dot On Shaft… and will be coming to a town near you very soon as we start our tour for the new Wake The Sleeper album