Having So Much Fung

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At the Anderson Guitarworks 40th Anniversary Celebration.

And also with every other aspect of Anderson Guitarworks guitar stuff—fun every day. We have seen that from an intended harmonious and supportive environment emerges the best, most productive, and “in tune” instruments and overall experience. No disruptive ego positions to defend. As a result, ideas, innovations and great guitars just flow freely.

As we said, and you probably already know, it is Anderson Guitarworks’ 40th anniversary. Yes, we have been doing this for 40 years. In observance, we are offering only 40 very special, limited-edition guitars—20 unique builds. This essentially means two renditions of each exclusive instrument—with a variant here and there.

And the honorees for this Guitar Tales are two powerfully presented Guardian Angels, musically and visually “raging” in a Gamma Green & Black colorway. 24 frets, classic pickguard good looks, and gorgeous maple top all intertwine to incarnate the Guardian Angel.

Excuse me a moment. I think you have a typo in the title above. Did you notice? You accidentally wrote the word fung instead of fun.

Thank you for bringing that to everyone’s attention. Actually, that is an Anderson-intentional-title-deviation. We do it, hopefully making for a more intriguing and entertaining read.

So then…this is what is so fun about Fung:

These twin “Guardians” are a call out to our illustrious history, connecting with our fun Fung friend and outstanding Anderson Artist, Basil Fung.

Basil was the first. The very first.

The first guitar player to get a complete Tom Anderson guitar built by Tom himself—all those years ago. It was The Classic in Sparkle Blue, of course featuring our superbly supreme Anderson playability and custom switching—with the first Blower Switch to ever appear on the planet (to our knowledge). Basil asked for it, and Tom designed it.

Tom wanted to pay homage to this meaningful part of our past with a presentation of Basil’s latest and greatest Ande ever, a Gamma Green, Guardian Angel.

Basil is such a wonderful musician with a beautiful sonic touch. He has seemingly played with almost everyone—and for good reason. We checked in with Basil to check out his impressive discography. These are some highlights from that fun Fung interview.

TAGW: How did you initially meet Tom Anderson? How did you figure out who he was?

Basil Fung: Well, it was actually while I attended GIT. I went in September 1983, graduated ’84. Scott Henderson, I believe, and Frank Gimbale had just graduated and started teaching there. I believe they were using Tom Anderson parts for their guitars, necks, and such.

Basil Fung: I wanted to check them out and heard that Tom Anderson was located only about an hour away, so I figured I'd contact Tom when I got enough money together and order a guitar. So that's what I did. Prior to that, I had other guitars that I had modified, but I wanted Tom to build me a great guitar.

Basil Fung: I went to his house because, at that time, he was working out of his garage. He didn’t have the shop yet.

Basil Fung: I played a couple of his guitars that he had in the garage. Other than that, I’d never played any of his instruments before, but I'd heard that they were great. I told him I would love for him to build me a guitar.

Basil Fung: Yeah, so when I did finally land a gig, which was my first road gig, that's when I commissioned him to build me one.

Basil Fung: When I picked up my new Anderson Guitar, it was amazing, and of course, it played like butter, you know. It played better than any guitar I had tried in any store. I was just the 19-year-old kid at the time.

TAGW: What was the first gig?

Basil Fung: My first road gig was with Jack Wagner—TV star, Jack Wagner. At that time, he was playing Frisco Jones on General Hospital. He had a hit song. I think it made it to number three in 1984. It was called, “All I Need.” It was on Quincy Jones’ label, Quest Records. It got huge airplay and stuff. It was a power ballad.

TAGW: And you did play with Alanis Morissette, right?

Basil Fung: Yeah, but that was many years later. That was after meeting Glen Ballard. I was introduced to Glen Ballard while I was playing with Jack, so it was sometime around 1986, 87, or 88. The first session that I ever did with Glen, I came in and played on 5 demos. I think four of them made it onto the albums. One of them was on a Pointer Sisters album. The other one was on Paula Abdul's first album. Two of them were on Wilson Phillips’ first album.

Basil Fung: And then I played on Alanis Morissette’s Jagged Little Pill. Played on Paula Abdul’s first album, Forever Your Girl. I played on the Pointer Sisters’ album, I think it was called Serious Slammin.

Basil Fung: So I worked with Glen on various projects for about 6 or 7 years until the Alanis one came along. Basically, I played on her 10-song demo that got her the album deal in ’94. Two of the tracks that I played on made the album, “Ironic” and “Perfect”.

TAGW: I know you enjoyed everyone you played with, but is there some artist that stands out to you as someone you may have had the most fun with?

Basil Fung: Alanis was cool for the short time we worked together. She was only 20 at the time.

Basil Fung: Probably one of the artists that I had the most fun with and felt the most appreciated was with the French artist, Veronique Sanson. I toured with her from 94 through 98. She's a huge French pop star. I had a great time touring France, Switzerland, Belgium, all the French-speaking areas.

TAGW: Anything else around that time?

Basil Fung: I also worked with Teddy Pendergrass. I played on a couple of albums of his and did some Christmas albums and played on the Soul Train Awards. I did a few TV appearances with him.

TAGW: And are you working with Frankie Valli?

Basil Fung: Yeah, for the past 7 years now. I got that gig in 2018.

Basil Fung: So after the tour in 1998, I left to be around to raise my boys. I didn't want to tour anymore because my second son was being born, and I had to bow out of the tour so I wouldn't miss his birth.

TAGW: Yes, very impressive.

TAGW: And did you work with Jonathan Wolff around that time?

Basil Fung: I was an assistant composer for Jonathan Wolf in ’98 until 2000. Yeah, when I started working, he had just finished the last episode of Seinfeld. So I came in. We worked on 18 shows the first season and 15 shows a second. Everything from Will & Grace, Caroline in the City, King of Queens. A bunch of network shows and stuff. But Will & Grace was a huge one.

Basil Fung: So, now that my boys are grown, I figured I needed to find a road gig, so I started looking for one. I started working with Frankie Valli in 2018.

TAGW: Frankie Valli is huge—with a very impressive catalog of songs.

Basil Fung: Oh yeah.

TAGW: Now the green guitar that you just got, the Guardian Angel…

Basil Fung: I got that…I commissioned that during COVID. I got that in August of 2021. That is a beautiful guitar, and it plays like butter. It’s still my favorite guitar. It's almost too easy to play, you know.

TAGW: Oh, thank you.

Basil Fung: It plays itself. It doesn’t, of course, but it feels like it does. You know, compared to anything else I own. It plays perfectly in tune when I need it to, and it plays itself, you know. I’m completely, completely happy with that guitar.

Basil Fung: And…it has extra sentimental value as well. Tamsyn, my wife, surprised me by prepaying for part of that guitar, so when I came to pick it up, the balance was already paid. It’s a funny story. She called Tom and told him, and Tom said, “So let me get this straight. You’re Basil’s wife and you actually want to pay for his guitar? We definitely do not see that kind of thing too often.”    

TAGW: Very nice. Good person.

Basil Fung: Oh. Man, yeah, I know she’s great, a sweetheart.

TAGW: Thank you so much for being Basil and for letting us do this.

Basil Fung: Sure

TAGW: It means a lot to Tom, and to all of us, to have you included in this whole thing.

Basil Fung: …Oh man, I appreciate…I can’t speak highly enough of him as a human being, a person, a friend, and also as a builder. You know, he is definitely my favorite, all around.   

TAGW: Thank you. So great!.

Now…these two Fung-fun, Gamma Green, Guardian Angels—each very unique thanks to Mother Nature’s maple top creations—are each headed out to play.

08-12-24A to Music Store Live in San Diego, California. You can identify this guitar in the pictures as it is the one with the 5-Way pickup selector set to the neck position.

09-29-24P to 35 Guitar Avenue in Singapore. You can identify this guitar as it is the one with the 5-Way pickup selector set to the middle position.

Editor’s Note: You may have noticed Ed (not related to the editor noting here) hiding in a shot behind one of the beautiful Gamma Guardians. He snuck into a photo session to get a glimpse, and we felt happily compelled to leave him just where we found him.

 
 
 
 

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