Eddie Pletka Bio

Bio For as long as I can remember I’ve been immersed in music and electronics (tubes in particular). My Grandpa operated his own machine shop and My father was a Machinist for the better part of his life. Both have thorough backgrounds in electronics and an innate ability to make things work. Beyond that my father was a NW music veteran playing constantly from the late 60’s through the early 80’s. Growing up under their tutelage laid my foundation for future electro-mechanical experimentation and my own personal musical interests. I became very interested in music theory and guitar when I was ten years young. After a few months of father-son lessons my folks decided I needed some proper direction. After cycling through a few teachers I started studying under Scott Pemberton whom I ended up studying under for the next ten years or so. If you have not stumbled across Scott’s music check him out: http://www.scottpemberton.com His talent is palpable and housed within one of the nicest and most sincere personalities you’ll come across. After graduating High School I bounced around Portland studying business, accounting, and electrical engineering. I have had a constant fascination with all things I could not understand. This pushed my studies and focus into Philosophy and Economic/political exploration as well. I’ve been working here at Eurotubes since my father let me bug him into showing me how to operate the test gear! Now days I spend most my time communicating with customers, managing our testing/R&D department and playing general amp geek/tech. I take care of most the amps that come in and do custom builds as well. When I'm not working I spend my time with my awesome wife (yes! you can marry your high school/freshman crush). I can also be seen flying around local hills on my long board, snow boarding on Mt. Hood, touring on my road bike, cooking and of course playing music! Influences Jimmy Page, Jimi Hendrix, Ronnie Earl, Scott Pemberton, BB King, John Mayor, Derek Trucks and the early days of Clapton. Foo Fighters, Queens of the Stone Age, Black Sabbath etc… Gear I’ve accumulated several pieces of gear over the years including: A 50’s RI sea foam green strat with a Warmoth neck. The neck wood is Goncalo Alves with a Pau Ferro fret board. The body is loaded with two single coils wound by Marc Culbertson (in the neck and middle positions) along with a Lindy Fralin Un-bucker in the bridge position. This is one of the most versatile guitars I own and one of the warmest sounding starts I’ve played. A totally custom all warmth Les Paul style guitar. The body wood is Black Limba with a tobacco burst finish and natural binding. At the moment it’s loaded with Jason Lollar’s “high wind” Imperial Humbuckers. The neck is Wenge with an ebony board. This guitar will cop that “Les Paul thing” but at the same time it’s punchier, tighter and more aggressive. This has become one of my main players… I recently acquired two guitars built by Marc Culbertson. Marc is one of Portland’s hidden Gems and truly a master Luthier. When Marc builds an instrument it’s built to do one thing: Slayyy!!! The first is a replica of a 1959 LP special. This guitar is to true to spec straight down to the traditionally placed neck P90. Having the P90 butted right up against the fret board really makes big open chords ring. The downside side is that it also results in a particularly weak neck joint. Marc overcomes this through a few different things including an extra long and deep tenon in the neck joint. This guitar is amazingly vocal unplugged. This is the guitar I grab when I’m writing a song or working something out last minute unplugged. When you crank it up it just screams with that classic P90 growl. This is my go to guitar when I need something that will go for from a super chimey clean to a straight up raunchy, gritty type of overdrive. The second guitar is T-style guitar and I picked it up right after I said I’d never own a Tele… The body is Mulberry with a Japanese Pagoda top and it’s loaded with a set of Marc’s hand wound single coils. It’s bolted up to a super fat flamed maple neck with the wildest striped ebony fret board I’ve ever seen. This guitar doesn’t disappoint. It’s got tone/chime for days with an absolutely guttural low mid thump. Interestingly enough you can play this thing for hours and never feel any kind of ear fatigue. Oh and when you need it to get nasty it’ll do that too!  Photo’s below.