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Thursday, 21 March 2013
Sunday, 2 December 2012
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| Jimmy Page's Number One Gibson Les Paul |
Jimmy Page is known to most people as a player of Les Pauls, and his Les Paul of choice, his "Number One" as he refers to is as, is one of the most iconic guitars in rock and roll. Jimmy has described the guitar as both his mistress and his wife...except it doesn't ask for alimony! In the book "Million Dollar Les Paul" Edwin Wilson the Gibson Historic Program Manager described the experience of handling Jimmy's guitar:
"Okay, I need to get started. Shall I wear gloves?" Wilson asked Page. "No, that's okay, take it apart. Do whatever you want to do." Jimmy responded. Wilson was stunned by his response and later reflected, "I realized that one of the things that makes his guitar the coolest Les Paul ever is that he knows very well what that guitar is. He knows that it's a tool for him. It's not something he hangs up on a wall. And that made it very easy to go through the guitar and do my thing.
Page bought this guitar from Joe Walsh of the James Gang, and later of the Eagles, in April of 1969 while he in San Francisco on a tour of America. Jimmy recalled the transaction in 2004, "Joe brought it for me when we played the Fillmore. He insisted I buy it, and he was right." In the May 2012 issue of Guitar World just released, the magazine did an interview with Walsh where he told the story of the transaction: "Jimmy was still playing the Telecasters that he played in the Yardbirds. He was looking for a Les Paul and asked if I knew of any, 'cause he couldn't find one that he liked. And I have two. So I kept the one I liked the most and I flew...with the other one. I laid it on him and said, 'Try this out.' He really liked it. So I gave him a really good deal, about 1,200 bucks. I had to hand-carry it; I flew there and everything. So whatever my expenses were, that's what I charged him...But again, I just thought he should have a Les Paul for godsakes!"
"Okay, I need to get started. Shall I wear gloves?" Wilson asked Page. "No, that's okay, take it apart. Do whatever you want to do." Jimmy responded. Wilson was stunned by his response and later reflected, "I realized that one of the things that makes his guitar the coolest Les Paul ever is that he knows very well what that guitar is. He knows that it's a tool for him. It's not something he hangs up on a wall. And that made it very easy to go through the guitar and do my thing.
Page bought this guitar from Joe Walsh of the James Gang, and later of the Eagles, in April of 1969 while he in San Francisco on a tour of America. Jimmy recalled the transaction in 2004, "Joe brought it for me when we played the Fillmore. He insisted I buy it, and he was right." In the May 2012 issue of Guitar World just released, the magazine did an interview with Walsh where he told the story of the transaction: "Jimmy was still playing the Telecasters that he played in the Yardbirds. He was looking for a Les Paul and asked if I knew of any, 'cause he couldn't find one that he liked. And I have two. So I kept the one I liked the most and I flew...with the other one. I laid it on him and said, 'Try this out.' He really liked it. So I gave him a really good deal, about 1,200 bucks. I had to hand-carry it; I flew there and everything. So whatever my expenses were, that's what I charged him...But again, I just thought he should have a Les Paul for godsakes!"
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| Joe Walsh with a 1959 Gibson Les Paul |
The timing was dead on for Page as well as his trusty Fender Telecaster had seen better days and was in bad shape. Peter Grant: "San Francisco was the first show that Jimmy played the Les Paul guitar on stage. He was playing a Fender before that. He had it for years, from being in the Yardbirds. There was something wrong with the pickup, and I remember he was there with the soldering iron, soldering the guitar."
Jimmy instantly grew attached to his new guitar, "As soon as I played the Les Paul I fell in love. Not that the Tele isn't user friendly, but the Les Paul was gorgeous and easy to play. It just seemed like a good touring guitar." It was certainly a contrast from the Telecaster he had been using, "It's more of a fight with the Telecaster but there are rewards. The Gibson's got all that very stereotyped sound, maybe, I don't know, but it's got a really beautiful sustain. I do like sustain. It relates to bowed instruments. Sustain speaks for itself, that's the whole thing. It's the whole are that everyone's been experimenting in, once it became electric, if you think about it - it was mainly sustain." Page declared.
Jimmy instantly grew attached to his new guitar, "As soon as I played the Les Paul I fell in love. Not that the Tele isn't user friendly, but the Les Paul was gorgeous and easy to play. It just seemed like a good touring guitar." It was certainly a contrast from the Telecaster he had been using, "It's more of a fight with the Telecaster but there are rewards. The Gibson's got all that very stereotyped sound, maybe, I don't know, but it's got a really beautiful sustain. I do like sustain. It relates to bowed instruments. Sustain speaks for itself, that's the whole thing. It's the whole are that everyone's been experimenting in, once it became electric, if you think about it - it was mainly sustain." Page declared.
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| Jimmy with the Les Paul a week after he purchased it in San Francisco, playing at the Rose Palace in Pasadena, CA |
There have been many modifications to this particular Les Paul, but the most glaring is the neck. The profile of the neck of Jimmy's guitar is very shallow, much more so than Les Pauls of the time were known to be. "It came as it was with a shallow neck, " Jimmy recalled to Edwin Wilson, "When I acquired it from Joe Walsh it had already been refinished. It's possible that one of the reasons he wanted to sell me the guitar was that it didn't feel the same to him when he got it back from the shop." Walsh later told Guitar World about the work he commissioned on the guitar, Joe took the guitar to Virgil Lay of Lay's Guitars in Akron, Ohio, "Virgil was the guy that, if you had a crack in your neck you'd go and he'd repair it...he's kind of a master luthier. So I had Virgil shave the neck of that Les Paul a little. It was a big, fat neck originally, and I didn't like that. And I think the shaved neck is what Jimmy liked about the guitar. It was kind of a custom neck on a Les Paul."
Wilson himself was astonished at the profile of the neck, "What's real interesting is that the neck is as stable as it is given how thin it is. In the middle section it's sanded really strangely. It's right on the truss rod...I think you could probably take a pocket knife and shove through that thin section there and you'd hit the truss rod, that that much wood gone out of there.
Wilson himself was astonished at the profile of the neck, "What's real interesting is that the neck is as stable as it is given how thin it is. In the middle section it's sanded really strangely. It's right on the truss rod...I think you could probably take a pocket knife and shove through that thin section there and you'd hit the truss rod, that that much wood gone out of there.
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| Good view of the neck from behind |
The electronics of the instrument have been modified over the years as well. At some point Jimmy added a push/pull pot on the guitar that sends it's pickups into an out of phase mode. "I wanted to be able to reverse the phase of the pickups to get a close approximation of the sound Peter Green got." he explained. The pickups in the Number One have been changed out numerous times as well. The guitar of course began it's life with the legendary Seth Lover patent applied for humbucking pickups, but after a tour of Australia in 1972, the double white bobbin bridge pickup failed, and was replaced by a chrome T-Top humbucker which remained there for the duration of Led Zeppelin. The T-Top was switched eventually switched out for a custom wound Seymour Duncan pickup sometime in the 1990's. The neck pickup remained in position until the 2000's when it was replaced by a patent applied for humbucker from 1960; the reason why is unknown.
Jimmy also replace the Kluson tuning machines with Grovers, "The only thing I did was change the tuning machines to the sealed Grovers, which I was familiar with from my Les Paul Custom. With a three-piece band like Led Zeppelin, you couldn't have slipping machine heads."
Jimmy also replace the Kluson tuning machines with Grovers, "The only thing I did was change the tuning machines to the sealed Grovers, which I was familiar with from my Les Paul Custom. With a three-piece band like Led Zeppelin, you couldn't have slipping machine heads."
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| You can see the original white bobbin humbucker in this photo |
One of the biggest mysteries surrounding this guitar is what year model is it? Due to the refinishing job commissioned by Joe Walsh, the serial number on the back of the guitar was sanded off, furthermore, the biggest clue to identifying what year a specific example of the 1958-1960 run of sunburst Les Pauls is to look at the neck profile, which of course was modified in Jimmy's guitar. Edwin Wilson who was asked by Page for his opinion on the matter, and who had time to examine the guitar for himself thinks he has the answer:
"I was looking at the guitar from the standpoint of somebody who works with tooling for making these things, who has dealt with tooling and production on many levels," Wilson prefaced. After examining the neck, Wilson deduced that there hadn't been enough wood for whoever sanded the guitar down for it to be a 1958, "It would have swollen up more around the heel, and if it were a 60, I don't think the heel would have been shaped as it was. If it were a late 60, where the neck was real thin, there wasn't enough wood there. So I said to Jimmy, to me it looks like a late 59, or maybe an early 60."
For additional proof that the guitar is a late 1959, or early 1960, one needs to also consider the bobbins. When Page uncovered his bridge pickup shortly after purchasing it from Joe Walsh, it was revealed that the bobbins on the pickups were white. Gibson didn't produce pickups with white bobbins until 1959.
"I was looking at the guitar from the standpoint of somebody who works with tooling for making these things, who has dealt with tooling and production on many levels," Wilson prefaced. After examining the neck, Wilson deduced that there hadn't been enough wood for whoever sanded the guitar down for it to be a 1958, "It would have swollen up more around the heel, and if it were a 60, I don't think the heel would have been shaped as it was. If it were a late 60, where the neck was real thin, there wasn't enough wood there. So I said to Jimmy, to me it looks like a late 59, or maybe an early 60."
For additional proof that the guitar is a late 1959, or early 1960, one needs to also consider the bobbins. When Page uncovered his bridge pickup shortly after purchasing it from Joe Walsh, it was revealed that the bobbins on the pickups were white. Gibson didn't produce pickups with white bobbins until 1959.
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| Old Friends |
Here are some closeup shots of the guitar as well
Many people have requested a neck profile shot of Jimmy's Les Paul, I was able to find a picture that contrasted the neck with other Les Paul necks so that you can get a feeling for how shallow it is. This is not Jimmy's actual Les Paul in the photo, but a re-creation of the guitar done by Gibson in 2005, nevertheless it has the same specs as Jimmy's actual guitar.
Monday, 19 November 2012
Of all the guitars I have had occasion to write about thus far, I think it is safe to venture that none are more iconic, nor burned into the public mind than the white Fender Stratocaster that Jimi Hendrix played at the Woodstock Music and Arts Festival in 1969.
According to Mitch Mitchell, Jimi's drummer, Hendrix purchased this guitar from Manny's Music in New York City in 1968. The guitar itself was a 1968 Fender Stratocaster (serial number 24098) in an Olympic white paint job. The body of the guitar was made from alder wood, while the neck was made of maple; the fretboard was also maple but was a separate piece of wood as evidenced by the lack of the walnut “skunk stripe” that is present on all Fender one-piece necks. Being a left handed player, Jimi was forced to flip this guitar upside-down and reverse the nut at the top in order to string and play it properly.
This guitar was a favorite of Hendrix's and he took pretty good care of it, which was saying a lot for a man who was known to treat his instruments with less than the utmost care. Jimi played this guitar on several occasions both in the studio and on the road. However it is for one gig in particular that this guitar is most well known and highly regarded for.
Jimi Hendrix and The Band of Gypsys took the stage at the Woodstock Music and Arts Festival at 9am on Monday, August 18th, 1969. They played for over two hours that morning to close out the entirety of the three days of music that had preceded them. When Hendrix took the stage, the crowd of nearly half a million had dwindled down to well under half that number. The entire performance was captured on film along with the rest of the festival and was released in theaters across America and went on to become a huge success. Of course the undisputed highlight of the film was Jimi Hendrix's indelible performance of "The Star-Spangled Banner". The image Hendrix with his white Stratocaster in hand picking out the strands of America's national anthem has been burned into the minds of generations of people ever since and become to be regarded as a seminal moment of the 1960's.
Jimi Hendrix would continue to play his beloved white Stratocaster well after Woodstock, including at his final live performance at the Isle of Fehmarn in September 1970. Shortly after the show, Jimi bequeathed the instrument to his ever faithful drummer Mitch Mitchell. Mitchell would later recall the circumstances that led to his obtaining the guitar, " I had given him a drum kit as a present some time before and I said to him “I’ll have that guitar before you break it up” (I do not think that he would in fact have broken this particular guitar). He said, as was his way “You got it” and he then gave me the guitar. In retrospect I think it was by way of a gift as my daughter had just been born a few days previously."
Unknown to most, Mitch Mitchell held onto the guitar for many years after Jimi had passed away until he finally decided to part ways with it at an auction held by Sotheby's in 1990. The guitar was sold to Gabriele Ansaloni for the astronomical sum of £198,000. Ansaloni held onto the guitar for two years until finally deciding to sell it to Microsoft CEO Paul Allen for an undisclosed sum (rumors are it was somewhere in the neighborhood of upwards of $2,000,000). Allen of course decided to house it in The Experience Music Project in Seattle, Washington, the museum he founded in order to highlight the history of Jimi Hendrix as well as rock and roll in general.
Below is a transcript of Mitch Mitchell's letter of provenance provided to Sotheby's prior to the auction of this world-famous instrument:
STATUTORY DECLARATION
I, Mitch Mitchell of Tunbridge Wells in the County of Kent do solemnly and sincerely declare as follows:
1. Between October 1966 and September 1970 I was the drummer of a musical group called The Jimi Hendrix Experience with Jimi Hendrix.
2. The white Fender Stratocaster guitar belonging to Jimi Hendrix came to be mine in September 1970 in the following circumstances:
3. Jimi Hendrix was always breaking his guitars and getting new ones but this particular white Fender Stratocaster serial number 240981 was a particular favourite of his. He used it at the Woodstock Festival in August 1969 playing the now famous “Star Spangled Banner” on this guitar. I had given him a drum kit as a present some time before and I said to him “I’ll have that guitar before you break it up” (I do not think that he would in fact have broken this particular guitar). He said, as was his way “You got it” and he then gave me the guitar. In retrospect I think it was by way of a gift as my daughter had just been born a few days previously. I think this was one of the last gigs ever played by us.
4. Jimi Hendrix bought the guitar from Manny’s in New York in 1968. As it was one of his favourites, it was used all the time at both live concerts and recording sessions. A picture of it can also be seen inside the Rainbow Bridge Album Cover and on countless posters and in most books written about Jimi Hendrix.
5. This guitar has never been out of my possession since it was given to me and it has remained in my possession until I delivered it to Sotheby’s in London for sale by auction.
I make this solemn declaration conscientiously believing it to be true and by virtue of the provisions in the Statutory Declarations Act. Declared at 6 Clanricardo Gardens, Tunbridge Wells in the County of Kent.
Mitch Mitchell
I, Mitch Mitchell of Tunbridge Wells in the County of Kent do solemnly and sincerely declare as follows:
1. Between October 1966 and September 1970 I was the drummer of a musical group called The Jimi Hendrix Experience with Jimi Hendrix.
2. The white Fender Stratocaster guitar belonging to Jimi Hendrix came to be mine in September 1970 in the following circumstances:
3. Jimi Hendrix was always breaking his guitars and getting new ones but this particular white Fender Stratocaster serial number 240981 was a particular favourite of his. He used it at the Woodstock Festival in August 1969 playing the now famous “Star Spangled Banner” on this guitar. I had given him a drum kit as a present some time before and I said to him “I’ll have that guitar before you break it up” (I do not think that he would in fact have broken this particular guitar). He said, as was his way “You got it” and he then gave me the guitar. In retrospect I think it was by way of a gift as my daughter had just been born a few days previously. I think this was one of the last gigs ever played by us.
4. Jimi Hendrix bought the guitar from Manny’s in New York in 1968. As it was one of his favourites, it was used all the time at both live concerts and recording sessions. A picture of it can also be seen inside the Rainbow Bridge Album Cover and on countless posters and in most books written about Jimi Hendrix.
5. This guitar has never been out of my possession since it was given to me and it has remained in my possession until I delivered it to Sotheby’s in London for sale by auction.
I make this solemn declaration conscientiously believing it to be true and by virtue of the provisions in the Statutory Declarations Act. Declared at 6 Clanricardo Gardens, Tunbridge Wells in the County of Kent.
Mitch Mitchell
Tuesday, 30 October 2012
Nils Lofgren is one of the most prolific and multi-talented guitarists working in the music industry today. Lofgren got his start working with the ever enigmatic singer-songwriter Neil Young in the early 1970s and hasn't look back since. The guitarist has stayed busy ever since releasing four albums with his first band Grin, and almost twenty-five solo records including his newest effort, Old School. Currently Lofgren works as a sort of swing man in Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band and has acted in that role for the past twenty-five years playing acoustic guitar, electric guitar, twelve-string, banjo, and dobro among other things. In this extensive interview Lofgren discusses working with Bruce and Neil, the passing of the legendary of Clarence Clemons, his latest album, his online guitar school and what we can expect next.
CR: How is the current tour going?
NL: Couldn’t be better! I’m just honored and thrilled to be in this eighteen-piece band – roaring rock band, soul band, soul review, whatever you want to call it. It’s everything I love about rock and roll wrapped up in one beautiful show and band. I’m really grateful that Bruce decided to take on the huge challenge of another chapter for us without Clarence [Clemons] and of course Danny [Federici], which were terrible losses, but I’m really proud of him. I’ve never seen him stronger or working harder to put on a great show. You know we’ve got a five-piece horn section, some extra percussion, singing, it’s just an amazing band to be in the middle of playing my guitar. I think we’re doing the best shows we’ve ever done.
CR: What is the dynamic of playing in a group with three other guitarists, not to mention all of the other members of the E Street Band?
NL: Well when Steve [Van Zandt] came back in 1999, and of course with Patti [Scialfa] playing rhythm a lot I certainly recognized that we don’t need four guitar players. So it was a great opportunity for me to challenge myself to basically become the swingman in the band. I went and took some lessons to learn a little pedal steel guitar, a little dobro, lap steel, bottleneck and six-string banjo. There are four or five new sounds and tools to throw into the tool box and certainly it’s very natural. I look over and I see Steve and Bruce and look to see what they’re playing, a lot of times it will be two electrics, so usually I want to pick up an acoustic – I love playing rhythm. It’s certainly something I don’t get to do a lot in my own shows.
CR: What kind of dynamic do you have between Bruce and Stevie?
NL: Occasionally, Bruce will want three electrics so I have a couple Fender Jazzmasters that have the heaviest strings you can buy on them so they’re kind of a different warm sound that you can put between Steve’s Strat and Bruce’s Tele; It’s kind of natural. It is a great opportunity to play some different instruments and get some different sounds. The songs kind of dictate what needs to be there, and of course Bruce is the singer and a lot of times Steve is singing with him so if there’s a line or two when the singing is going on – they’ve got that great rough rock duet thing going that only Mick and Keith did in the past – you’ve just gotta look at what those two guys are doing. I’ve never stopped hearing parts or sounds so I’ll just pick the next sound I hear; that’s what’s most important. A lot of time Bruce will have an idea too, but in general it’s pretty organic, and whatever two instrument they’re playing, I’ll just grab the next sound I hear, whether it’s acoustic, or one of those instruments I’ve mentioned, or just a different type of electric.
CR: How has the absence of Clarence and Danny affected the chemistry within the E Street Band, and how has it affected you personally?
NL: Well…they’re very unique, soulful players. There’s no Danny II, and there’s certainly no Clarence II so it’s not like you’re going to get anyone to recreate what they did, and with that in mind you just carry on. I stood next to Clarence for twenty-seven years and we talked every week offstage, we were very close friends, and he was always very kind to my wife and son, Amy and Dylan. We both liked to chat, so we talked a lot and I’d be a guest at some of his shows with his band; we had a great friendship. I feel it’s spiritually carrying on, and I feel him with us every night, but of course we can’t bring him back so I thought, getting a five piece horn section, with two sax players to share the duties and a couple of trumpet players and a trombone with great great players we have, I mean look, there is no Clarence II, but it’s a chance to carry on and create a new chapter that’s still as powerful and presents Bruce’s great body of work.
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| Nils, Clarence and Bruce |
CR: How did you first meet Bruce Springsteen?
NL: Well, I was aware of him as a great new artist out of New Jersey, I was out of D.C. with my band Grin. In fact Steel Mill, his band, and my band Grin shared an audition night in 1970 for Bill Graham out at the Fillmore West; we were both looking for an opening act slot. I used to go see Bruce play in the early seventies, I saw him at the Bottom Line in 1974, then the Roxy in L.A., the sports arena in L.A., and was always an admirer of his and had a distant friendship with him. I went out to L.A. in 1968 and I’d see him out there and we talked about music and kinda had the same view of its potential and power in a positive light
CR: How did you feel about the prospect of joining up with the E Street Band so many years ago?
NL: Well, to make a very long story very concise, I’d spoken to Bruce about working with Neil Young in the past and how much I loved taking a break from being a bandleader and being in a great band just playing great music and I think he filed that away. When he needed a guitarist prior to me getting a call I did go up to jam for a couple of days with the band just to see how it felt to the both of us and them and fortunately it felt great to everybody and he asked me to join up in May of 1984. A week or so later we brought Patti in to cover some of the high harmonies that I couldn’t nail and just carried on from there; it was great! Then of course in 1999 to get Steve back in the band was wonderful, it was kind of like a homecoming. I mean look, I’m happy to sing, “Prove it All Night” every night, but it’s nothing like hearing Steven Van Zandt sing it with Bruce. When you make a powerful record like that you want to hear those voices.
CR: How would you describe Bruce Springsteen as a bandleader?
NL: He’s a great bandleader. He’s got a great sense of humor but at the same time he’s very professional. You don’t sit around wasting time; you get to the meat of it right away and very clear. A lot of time he’ll start playing something and we’ll all just pick up whatever we hear and pick a sound we think will fit and a lot of times it does. Occasionally he’ll have some instructions or if you have a question he’s always very clear, sometimes he’s like “Sounds good either way, just use your instincts.” He really is a great combination of professionalism, intelligence and most of all passion for live performance. He’s very intuitive about what to do, changing songs every night, changing the show, changing arrangements. He’s just got a natural gut instinct of what works moment-to-moment best for a great live show. Something I’ve always admired about Bruce is that he’s determined to make each show a once in a lifetime night for the audience every night.
CR: Bruce is of course famous for changing the setlist every night, even including crowd requests, are there any songs that you particularly enjoy playing, and that you hope end up in the set from night to night?
NL: I love them all; I love playing all of them. Certainly more of the complex songs you don’t want to see as an audible, you want to have time to work on it and do some homework. Some of the songs are quite complex to perform live, but that’s for all of us and we have a good sense about that. Occasionally I like to go over early ahead of the band and work on songs that I know I’ve forgotten. I mean, I know the song, I know how it goes, but I might have two guitar changes during the song, or need some special foot pedals, sometimes different gauge strings or a bottleneck slide. Some songs just have more complexity in regards to how you present them, but they’re all great. It’s kind of a healthy homework situation in the back and we all help each other out to try and remember things; a lot of tapes and notebooks full of chords. It’s such a really healthy and fun vibe to do shows that change every night like that.
CR: What kind of amplifiers are you using on this tour?
NL: I’ve moved into a new amplifier called Fuchs, which are 50 watt heads with 4 6V6’s Tubes. I’ve got two heads running into some Buzzy Feiten cabinets; Buzzy Feiten is one of my early guitar heroes and he’s designed some beautiful cabinets. They have twelve-inch speakers, there are two twelves in each one.
CR: How about guitar pedals?
NL: I’ve got a G-Force for choruses and delays, which is a rack-mounted piece. Then I’ve got a foot pedal filled with presets I did with my tech. Like with “Jack of All Trades”, I’ll hit one button then it’s programmed into a rack that was designed by my guitar tech Roy Witte that’s underneath the stage with him. So I’ll hit a button and it will kick in an overdrive, it’ll kick in a chorus, it’ll kick in a delay all at once. It’s pretty complex, I certainly couldn't put it together but over the years working with Roy, who’s fabulous, we’ve gotten together a pretty formidable system of presets. Sometimes though I’ll jump down there and turn the dials and change the sounds as we go because I get ideas that I might have never had before. We stay away from the preset thing a lot of people do where their tech does all the button pushing for them; I like to be in control of that.
I also have a lot of the old standard foot pedals that if I wanna hit on the fly. I’ve got a Boss Chorus, I’ve got the delay octave pedals, I’ve got an Electro-Harmonix Micro-Pog which kind of makes everything sound like a church organ. For fuzz tones or overdrives, I’ve got two of them and each one has two settings each; they’re called Burn Units. A guy named Barber out of Annapolis makes these beautiful overdrive pedals and the advantage is that there are two sets of settings so I might have a screaming fuzz on one and the other might just be a bit of saturation just to beef up the sound without getting too fuzzy. I’ve got a wah pedal, a volume pedal just to keep things down or move them up. Sometimes I’ll shut the sound down in tune on the fly because sometimes with different weather or conditions, or you bump into something and knock your guitar out of tune, I don’t want to have my tech do everything so I’m pretty self sufficient up there with all the sounds and pedals.
CR: How important have your guitar techs been to you in helping you capture the sounds you feel you need in a particular moment or that you hear in your head?
NL: Well recently Roy has had some back surgery, he’s off getting well from that so Jon Gosnell is out there running my rig and he has actually been the guitar tech on my solo tours over the last number of years; Roy Witte moved to mix front of house. You need a lot of help, you need great guys, great tech guys helping you out with the backline support because it is a very ambitious show, especially with the improvisational nature of it. I mean I’ve got over fifty instruments on the road, just a massive collection of acoustics, electrics, twelve-strings, Gretsches, Paul Reed Smiths, a lot of old Fenders with different gauge strings, pedal steels, lap steels, bottle necks, dobros, six string banjos. It’s like a music store out there.
CR: Wow! How do you end up deciding which ones to use on stage?
NL: Well in rehearsals we’ll mess around, sometimes Bruce will have an idea. A simple thing would be like if there is a banjo part on a song in the studio, Bruce will want someone to play it while he sings and plays guitar so I’ll take that. Steve has been actually playing banjo on this trip and there’s a song called “We are Alive” where there’s a baritone part and Steve move over and is finger picking the six-string banjo which is kind of like a guitar so it’s kind of like cheating. But you have you have to put the metal on your fingers to get the right sound which if you’re not used to playing with metal on your fingers, that’s a bitch to get used to. It’s very natural though, and that's what you do in rehearsals.
CR: What are rehearsals like in the E Street Band?
NL: Well, Bruce is focusing on the overview and his thing and a lot of times he’s so wrapped up in the arrangements and the overall sound so while he’s over there working with the horns or something, I’ll keep trying it out using other guitars or maybe two or three days in I’ll hear a different sound or think of a heavier string that will work. You kind of get deep down in it in your own little world but all of our instincts are pretty good because we love the music and understand it so it’s very healthy. Sometimes we don’t rehearse enough in my opinion and in this last tour of course we took a lot of time to get prepared and I really appreciated that. There are some days when we would be working on all of our tech stuff and Bruce wouldn’t show up, he’d be doing other things…probably in his notebook on how to put a show together, so we were all taking advantage of the time with our techs. You can’t really work with you tech and get deep down into the minutiae in your own world if the whole band is playing together. It was fun, I’m just glad we took our time to put the whole show together from the technical side to the production side then of course the music side. It’s a big jigsaw puzzle, a big beautiful jigsaw puzzle.
CR: If you could only use one acoustic guitar, one electric guitar and one amplifier for the rest of your time, what would you choose?
NL: [Laughs]
CR: It’s every guitarist’s nightmare I know.
NL: Well without getting too serious about it, right now with the audible nature of everything, sometimes a song comes by so fast that you’ve never played like with the audience requests, you don’t get time to get the right guitar from your tech so I have a backup Strat onstage, I love the Strat. That would be the first electric guitar I would pick up. Then I have a cutaway Takamine acoustic that I love playing live, I’m very used to it; comes with medium gauge strings. I love that. Then right now, I’m loving these Fuchs amps, so if I had to do a show tonight with only one acoustic, one electric and an amp, that’s what I would use.
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| Nils with his Guitar of Choice |
CR: To go back in time a bit, you got your start in a lot of way working with Neil Young on the albums After the Gold Rush and Tonight’s the Night. How did that opportunity come about, and what were those sessions like?
NL: I met Neil when I was seventeen when my band Grin was headed out to L.A. I did the After the Gold Rush album when I was eighteen, mostly playing piano, a little acoustic guitar and some singing. That was all pretty much done live in the studio, those sessions, with Greg Reeves on bass and Ralphie Molina, the Crazy Horse drummer and I. We did it all up at Neil’s home with a remote truck. They were great sessions, very earthy. Neil was always singing live with us in the studio, a tiny room in his home. We would take breaks and have a sandwich on his deck overlooking Topanga Canyon. It was a very beautiful project to be a part of. Tonight’s the Night was kind of an antithesis to production. There was no overdubbing, we all did everything live, it was always a live take on a song. Neil didn’t even want us to know the songs very well; he wanted to get a very powerful, emotional performance before the musicians had time to really craft parts, which happens inevitably if you work on a song long enough. It was kind of a theme record, kind of a wake for our friends that we had lost, Danny Whitten and Bruce Barry. They were just historic records that I was very honored to be a part of.
CR: Neil in his new autobiography Waging Heavy Peace has said that when you arrived to L.A. from Washington you actually walked fifteen miles from the airport to his house in Topanga, is that true?
NL: Yeah, that was kind of crazy. I had met him three weeks earlier, he was very kind and supportive and said come up to L.A. and eventually turned me on to his producer David Briggs so I moved in with Dave and I got to know both of them pretty well. But, the day I landed in L.A. I dragged a giant suitcase, and of course I tried to hitchhike, but no one would pick me up so I ended up dragging this thing. It took me all day long, I got there early in the day and I didn’t get to Neil’s house until mid-afternoon; it was hours and hours of dragging this suitcase. So then I got to Topanga Canyon and I dragged it into the middle of Topanga, and I didn’t have any idea of where he lived. It was weird it was like a Mission Impossible Force. I kept asking people and trying to assure them that I meant him no harm, of course I was just seventeen and a tiny teenager so it wasn’t like I was threatening. Finally someone pointed to this beautiful wooden house way way up on a…well, I won’t call it a mountain, but it was a high as hell hill, and a I dragged my stuff up there and sure enough, there he was. I was sweating profusely and delirious by that point from hours in the sun dragging a suitcase, and he was jumping into a van to go back into Hollywood and like an idiot I didn’t ask for a ride. He said, “Oh yeah, yeah, it’s good to see you. Come on back tomorrow and we’ll talk.” Then he took off and left me standing there on top of this mountain realizing it’s about twenty miles into Hollywood and that’s my job now to drag this suitcase and get back into town which took me most of the rest of the day and night. I did however, get a few rides headed into Hollywood, but it was a crazy adventure that only a nutty seventeen year old could pull off.
CR: One of my favorite songs off of Tonight’s the Night is the track “Speaking Out”, and there’s that moment right before your solo when Neil says, “Alright Nils.” And then you take off. Was that a planned moment or was it more like, you’re up at bat, let’s see what you got?
NL: Yeah, there was nothing planned about that record. That was a record where he would show us a song, or three or four, and we would play a mini-set. We would shoot pool and drink tequila until midnight starting around dinner; we wouldn’t even play until after midnight and into the early morning hours. So we’d get up and do a performance piece of four or five songs that we barely knew. Neil was looking for this really primitive, souful rough vocal and [Producer] David Briggs warned us that as soon as he got the vocal that was it, we weren’t going to change a note. Ralphie Molina, the drummer, and I would often ask to re-sing our parts because we barely knew the words and we’re sitting there trying to sing harmonies and play a song that we had barely learned, or were learning. But that was the theme of the record, and that moment was a totally improvised moment that just happened and it just so happened to be on the track where he thought his vocal was right so we were done.
CR: Both Neil and Bruce are incredible songwriters, what are some of the similarities and differences you’ve noticed between them, and what have you personally learned from them?
NL: Not to get too analytical about it, they’re both at the top of the list of songwriters. I think really you’ve got Dylan, and Bruce, and Neil Young, The Beatles and the Stones; I think those are the top five bodies of work in popular music history. There’s a lot in common with Neil and Bruce in the sense that they kind of leave you alone to your own instincts. While they’re working on their stuff they give you some rope to find something that feels right for you to add, and it usually works. Just to be around them is inspiring, you don’t analyze it too much you just work with them and watch how they tweak their songs. Look, a lot of it is rock and roll, and we all came from the same soup, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, Elvis Presley and all the way back to the early blues, Muddy Waters, Howling Wolf and Robert Johnson; we all kind of grew out of that soup. So I mean, just being around them and putting a song together as a musician in the band you learn and you get inspired, you just kind of soak it in and it rubs off on you. In general though, the similarities are greater than the differences other than obviously a different tonality in their voice, but they’re both very passionate and powerful writers and performers. They are both into the immediacy of a live performance even in the studio. In general they’re very similar in the sense that they’re all about a great song and delivering a high level of emotional content in the performance.
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| Nils and Neil Young |
CR: Would you mind telling us a little about your online guitar school?
NL: Yeah, you know for years people would tell me that they wanted to play rock guitar and they weren’t allowed to because they had no talent and they had no rhythm. I would ask them who told them that and of course they never knew; it was just an impression. I studied classical accordion for ten years when I was a kid and took some guitar lessons in the early days but also self-taught a lot and I felt like I could put a beginners school together for people. There’s an intermediate school for people who play a bit more as well, but the beginners school is for people who want to start at zero and I teach them tricks, shortcuts and a new angle at it that makes it easier to enjoy playing music. Its gymnastics for the hands so it can be frustrating so what I try to do is say here’s something that takes one finger to do with no practice and very little rhythm and I’ll back you up and let’s make music right now, today. People are too busy today with the crazy world we live in with kids, parents, dogs, cats, employers, teachers, bosses; music needs to be a gift immediately and a lot of times it isn’t when you’re learning. The theme of my school is, here is something that sounds like music, and you’re making music, and if that’s all you do, it’s not a race, don’t worry about learning anything when you don’t want to, when you’re excited about learning something, here’s what to practice. They are hour-long lessons and you can download an hour whether they last you a week or a year, whenever you’re ready, just order the next one.
(You can check out Nils' Online Guitar School Here)
CR: You recently released your first album of original material in five years, Old School, what made you decide it was time for a new solo record?
NL: Well, we’d been really busy with two back-to-back album and tours with Bruce, Magic and Working on a Dream so when we got off the road I was really excited about another chapter for me as a solo artist but I was not musically rusty, I was very sharp from recording and performing live for the past couple of years with the E Street Band. It was a good combination, I was coming up on my 60th birthday and I wanted to write an authentic record about being around for a while; it’s not all good and it’s not all bad. I waited until I had about twenty songs that to me reflected an authentic look at forty-four years on the road and life as a professional musician on and offstage. So I started recording, and I didn’t even didn’t even record until I could sing the songs live, again trying to trick myself into what I do best which is playing live. I don’t have much patience in the studio for crafting things and analyzing things so it really was a homegrown thing, and I think one of my best records ever. I called up a few great friends to sing on it and all three of them, Paul Rodgers, Lou Graham and Sam Moore all listened to the tracks and said they’d help me out and just sang beautifully on the record.
CR: It seems like a running theme to me on the album, to me anyway is looking back, especially with the songs “Ain’t Too Many of us Left” and “Miss You Ray”. Do you find yourself looking back more often these days?
NL: Yeah, but not in a bad way. I’m always looking forward to what is my next chapter in music, but looking back in the sense to find some gratitude and comfort amidst the loss and the reality that, hey, there’s more of my life behind me than in front of me. That is not an easy thing to swallow if you’re still a seventeen-year-old kid at heart. Then when you start burying friends, I mean the greatest hero in my life was my father and we buried him fifteen years ago, we lost Clarence last year so I wrote that song “Miss You Ray” about that loss. It’s carries a message of, hey, we’re losing our heroes, not just in music but also in life and the grief can take you out if you don’t work a little harder and focus on what’s left. That was theme of that song, and I thought it was one of my best songs ever. There’s actually a video of “Miss You Ray” that you can find on YouTube that I did with a high school class in Arcadia High School in Phoenix, Arizona they just did a great job with it. You know, three months after I wrote the song Clarence died so I started singing “Miss You C.” in my shows and it’s just a very powerful message. I was hoping to fly to Florida when Clarence was recovering and visit him but tragically he passed away before I could make it down there. I got my wife Amy and we went to Florida and on my 60th birthday we had Clarence’s funeral service. I just wanted to get back home, I was feeling pretty miserable, but my wife Amy insisted on taking some of the band and the crew and some of our friends out to a birthday dinner, which was much like the song. It felt like, yeah we just lost one of our dearest friends and it’s a terrible loss and it reminded me while I was sitting there looking at the people I loved in my family and in my band and realized that they were still there. It helped me to keep a perspective that I had lost that day and that’s the thing, sometimes that kind of grief will take you out but you have to focus on today because it’s still a precious day with a lot of gifts.
CR: Are there any plans to extend the current tour you’re on with Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band into 2013?
NL: Yeah, we got one show booked next year so, next September 13th I know I’ll be working [laughs]. There are no plans past that but that’s between Bruce and his management but obviously as a big fan and a member of the band I’m thrilled that we didn’t…originally we were going to stop after the stadium tour at MetLife Stadium and was grateful for this two month extension. So they’ll figure that out, if Bruce and Patti feel up for doing more work next year, but right now the only plan for next year is to play the Rocking in Rio Festival. I’ve learned even back with Neil Young that until you can buy a ticket it’s just a rumor; don’t pay attention to them. So if you can buy a ticket, then get excited.
NL: Yeah, we got one show booked next year so, next September 13th I know I’ll be working [laughs]. There are no plans past that but that’s between Bruce and his management but obviously as a big fan and a member of the band I’m thrilled that we didn’t…originally we were going to stop after the stadium tour at MetLife Stadium and was grateful for this two month extension. So they’ll figure that out, if Bruce and Patti feel up for doing more work next year, but right now the only plan for next year is to play the Rocking in Rio Festival. I’ve learned even back with Neil Young that until you can buy a ticket it’s just a rumor; don’t pay attention to them. So if you can buy a ticket, then get excited.
CR: Have you heard any rumblings about a new album? I’ve heard some rumors that there might be a new album in the works.
NL: No, I’m just so deep into the show that I’m kind of insulated out here.
CR: Bruce and the E Street Band are notorious for playing three to four hours on a given night, and I know you’ve recently had some work done on your hips, how are the hips holding up, and how are you feeling?
NL: Yeah, I had both hips replaced four years ago; too much basketball on city courts and trampoline stuff and jumping off drum risers, but the hips are great! They’re holding up wonderfully, I had a great surgeon out of New York City who did them both at the same time. My wife Amy flew in and moved into the hospital to be with me, in fact my first during my first three block walk outside of the hospital about four days after my surgery we walked up the road to Clarence’s room. He had just had his first knee operation and three weeks later ha had a second one done so it was kind of funny to hobble into Clarence’s room with two new hips. He had three new hips at that point in his life so it was a new crazy thing to commiserate with my buddy Clarence about. The hips are holding up great but I tore my rotator cuffs falling over monitors on this tour. I got used to a bare stage with everything hung underneath, all the monitors are under grates that blow the sound up at you, but then we’ve done nine or ten festivals where there are thirty or forty metal boxes all over the stage. You can’t really look over your shoulder over a three and a half hour show with Bruce and I’ve taken some nasty spills. I tore my calf muscle to shreds, tore both rotator cuffs but I’m doing physical therapy and knock on wood we’re done with the festivals until Rocking in Rio and I can back up safely knowing our monitors are all under the stage.
CR: What would be the one piece of advice you would like to impart upon young aspiring guitarists trying to make it into the music industry today?
NL: Jeez, that’s a rough one; it’s a little bit of a complex answer. Thanks to technology you don’t need a record label, you can make music inexpensively and share it on a website, develop a little fanbase on your own even if it’s just open-mic nights at a coffee club. It’s such a complex field now and there’s so much information that I would advise people, even if they think they’re going to be a professional musician for life, to stay in school, go to college and take some music courses and engineering courses. You have to find a way to just cover your bases and maybe be able to make a living as you pursue your dream then if your dream becomes so big that financially it can support you then you can give up your day job if you will. Even just to have the tools that if you are a singer, if you learn how to engineer a little bit or video or whatever, if an opportunity comes up to help out some people and it might turn into a job and might lead you to another group of people. Just don’t burn all of your bridges. It was a simpler time when I came up and I got very lucky because I burned all my bridges. There were a lot of ups and downs and some pretty bad downs at that, but it worked out for me in the end. I guess the main thing would be to stay in school, keep learning and don’t sign any long-term bad record deals [laughs].
CR: I have to say on a personal not that I have been a tremendous fan of yours for years and I’d just like to thank you for speaking with me today; it has been a real honor.
NL: Well thank you so much. As you can imagine I would never have been so greedy when I was seventeen and hit the road that forty-four years later that I would be fairly alive and well and healthy, getting better at what I’m doing and playing in a band of this caliber. I’ve been very blessed and grateful because although I’ve worked very hard at it, I’ve been very lucky too.
Monday, 15 October 2012
Most of the guitarists on this site purchased their instruments from a shop or a friend, and their guitars come equipped with a brand name, Gibson or Fender. For this installment, we are going to explore a very special instrument that was handmade by its owner. The guitarist, Brian May of Queen, and the instrument, his "Red Special".
Brian May was sixteen years old when he decided he wanted to build his own electric guitar due to the fact that a good old Fender or Gibson was a bit out of his price range. So in August, 1963 he approached his father about the idea who was quite a handyman as May would remember. "My dad made everything, he made our TV when there was no TV around in the neighborhood. He was a genius!" The younger May designed the guitar himself, and as he has stated, I designed an instrument from scratch, with the intention that it would have a capability beyond anything that was out there, more tunable, with a greater range of pitches and sounds, with a better tremolo, and with a capability of feeding back through the air in a "good" way - i.e. in a self-sustaining mode."
The two men gathered up some wood from an 18th century oak fireplace mantle that a mutual friend of theirs had disassembled and was getting rid of, then set about to make the instrument. The wood itself was of fine quality however in while May was hand-shaping the neck, he was to discover two wormholes buried within. After the neck was shaped it was then fitted with a truss rod, and outfitted with an oak fret-board and twenty-four frets. Brian then outfitted it with hand-made mother of pearl inlays that he had salvaged from some buttons; these were placed with two dots at 7th and 19th fret and three at 12th and 24th.
The body was a semi-hollow construction, with a block of oak wood running down the center and a mahogany sheet on the top and back to give the instrument the appearance of a solid-body. As he has stated, May was trying to acheive a guitar with more feedback and a hollow-bodied design would definitely help accommodate that. "Previously (ironically) electric guitars had been designed NOT to feed back, but in the hands of Jeff Beck, Pete Townshend and Jimi Hendrix, they were forced to! My Dad had the technical knowledge and skills to make the dream come true. May then bound the body with white shelf edging. Overall, the guitar weighs around eight pounds.
When it comes to electronics, the guitar is outfitted with three Burns Tri-Sonic pickups that May himself rewound so that they were reverse wound/reverse polarity; a sort of Peter Green effect. He then wax-potted them in Araldite epoxy in order to reduce microphonic feedback. Brian then equipped the guitar with a Master Volume control, Master Tone, On/Off Switch for each pickup, In/Out of Phase Switch for each pickup.
The bridge of the instrument was a custom design and featured a tremolo unit that was made from hardened-steel knife-edge shaped into a V and two motorbike valve springs to counter the string tension. To reduce friction, the bridge was completed with rollers to allow the strings to return perfectly in tune after using the tremolo arm. The arm of the tremolo unit came from a bicycle saddlebag holder with a plastic knitting needle tip.
Overall, the creation of this guitar took May and his father two years to complete, and was done in all in spare time and using only hand-tools and bits the duo could find. It's amazing to think that such an iconic instrument was cobbled together from a fireplace mantle, old motorcycle parts, and bits and bobs that the two men could find. The end result cannot be denied however, and May has used the guitar almost exclusively as his main instrument of choice throughout his entire career, in Queen and out.
May refers to the instrument as his "Old Lady" and it has never left his side, nor is it conceivable that it ever will.
The two men gathered up some wood from an 18th century oak fireplace mantle that a mutual friend of theirs had disassembled and was getting rid of, then set about to make the instrument. The wood itself was of fine quality however in while May was hand-shaping the neck, he was to discover two wormholes buried within. After the neck was shaped it was then fitted with a truss rod, and outfitted with an oak fret-board and twenty-four frets. Brian then outfitted it with hand-made mother of pearl inlays that he had salvaged from some buttons; these were placed with two dots at 7th and 19th fret and three at 12th and 24th.
When it comes to electronics, the guitar is outfitted with three Burns Tri-Sonic pickups that May himself rewound so that they were reverse wound/reverse polarity; a sort of Peter Green effect. He then wax-potted them in Araldite epoxy in order to reduce microphonic feedback. Brian then equipped the guitar with a Master Volume control, Master Tone, On/Off Switch for each pickup, In/Out of Phase Switch for each pickup.
Overall, the creation of this guitar took May and his father two years to complete, and was done in all in spare time and using only hand-tools and bits the duo could find. It's amazing to think that such an iconic instrument was cobbled together from a fireplace mantle, old motorcycle parts, and bits and bobs that the two men could find. The end result cannot be denied however, and May has used the guitar almost exclusively as his main instrument of choice throughout his entire career, in Queen and out.
May refers to the instrument as his "Old Lady" and it has never left his side, nor is it conceivable that it ever will.
Tuesday, 9 October 2012
In the 1980's the guitar scene was dominate by Jacksons and Kramer style guitars. Sharp angles, day-glo paint jobs, and Floyd-Rose tremolo systems. It seemed like the classic Gibson and Fender had gone the way of the dinosaur. Then out of the shadows a band emerged that took the world by storm, shattering records and selling millions in the process. The lead guitarist of this group was a fellow by the name of Slash, and his chosen guitar was the much maligned Les Paul.
Despite his protestations to the contrary, "I didn't fucking reintroduce the Les Paul," he would exclaim. The "Cat in the Hat", Saul Hudson, better known to millions around the world as Slash, did just that. Prior to Guns and Roses releasing their seminal album Appetite for Destruction in 1987, the guitar world was dominated by Japanese-made models in the hands of Metal style players clad in spandex, and reeking of hairspray. Slash and his band changed all of that. They re-introduced the world to the sonic capabilities of the original rock instruments and sparked a revolution not only in the chosen instrument for individual guitar players, but also in the vintage market. Suddenly the passe Les Paul or Stratocaster was cool again, and prices for original older models skyrocketed.
In his autobiography, Slash relates the tale of how he acquired the now iconic guitar:
"On our very last day at Rumbo [while recording Appetite for Destruction], Alan came into the control room and laid a guitar case on the small couch behind the soundboard. The little cubby where the couch fit was lit by one overhead light, which perfectly spotlighted the guitar as Alan [Niven, Guns and Roses Manager] opened the case. 'I picked this up from a local guy in Redondo Beach,' he said. 'He makes them by hand. Try it out.' It looked good: it was an amazing flame-top 1959 Les Paul replica with no pick guard, and two Seymour Duncan pickups. I felt it out and I liked it, but I didn’t get to plug it in until I arrived for my first session at Take 1....The moment I plugged in my new guitar I thought it sounded pretty good."
The guitar was originally built by luthier Kris Derrig in 1986 and was meant to be a replica of the so called "holy grail of electric guitars" the 1959 Gibson Les Paul Standard. Alan Niven saw the instrument in the window of an L.A. area guitar shop called MusicWorks. Niven explained to proprietor Jim Foot that he was looking for a new guitar for his young protege, and Foot suggested the custom built model hanging in front. Niven took the guitar and never looked back; he later mailed Foot a check for the instrument.
The guitarist would speak of what made the guitar such a unique instrument in an interview with Gibson prior to the release of his signature series run of replicas the company put out of the guitar, "The little details that make the Appetite for Destruction guitar unique is, at the time it was very unique that it had Alnico II Pro Seymour Duncan Pickups in it. I never paid any attention to the capacitors or the hardware that came with the guitar, but it just had a really unique sound and sort of became my signature sound...It turns out in duplicating this guitar that the nut was important, the pickups were obviously important, the capacitors were important, the wood was important. All things considered, with the original one, it just had a unique tone to itself."
In terms of electronics the guitar was equipped with Seymour Duncan Alnico II Pro pickups in zebra bobbin pattern (the sticker on bottom of bridge pickup reads "APH1BJ" and the sticker on bottom of neck pickup reads "APH1NJ", indicating that both pickups were wound by Maricela Juaraz), and Sprague Orange Drop capacitors (.022 +- 5% 600 DC), 500k Dimarzio potentiometers (pot codes date to 1984).
In a harrowing experience on the road, the guitar was actually almost ripped right from Slash's hands while Guns and Roses were playing a gig, "I almost lost it during an early tour." Slash remembers, "It was stolen from me once in the crowd. I was being an idiot, leaning over the audience and getting pulled in, and some guy just grabbed it. I freaked once I realized it was off my person - that I'd completely lost control over it. But our security guys went out and caught the guy before he left the building. That's happened a couple of times."
Reflecting on the guitar in his autobiography, Slash would say, "That guitar has been with me ever since. It became my only guitar for a while, and has become my mainstay in the studio ever since. It has sounded different on every record I’ve done, but it is the same exact guitar."
Ultimately, Slash would hang up his famed "Appetite" Les Paul around 1989 as he was to remember, "If memory serves, it was around this time that I finally retired to storage the guitar that I’d used on Appetite and the “Welcome to the Jungle” video, my Les Paul replica (and the backup for it that I’d bought). I abuse my guitars when I play live, and by this point it was severely banged up after all of that touring."
When one looks back on the whole affair, there is almost a touch of irony in the idea that a knockoff version of the maligned at the time Gibson Les Paul would go on to have such a deep impact in re-igniting interest in the brand. Of all the artists that have ever played a Gibson instrument, perhaps none are more associated with the company than Slash. It all started when he worked up an appetite for something old and something new.
In his autobiography, Slash relates the tale of how he acquired the now iconic guitar:
"On our very last day at Rumbo [while recording Appetite for Destruction], Alan came into the control room and laid a guitar case on the small couch behind the soundboard. The little cubby where the couch fit was lit by one overhead light, which perfectly spotlighted the guitar as Alan [Niven, Guns and Roses Manager] opened the case. 'I picked this up from a local guy in Redondo Beach,' he said. 'He makes them by hand. Try it out.' It looked good: it was an amazing flame-top 1959 Les Paul replica with no pick guard, and two Seymour Duncan pickups. I felt it out and I liked it, but I didn’t get to plug it in until I arrived for my first session at Take 1....The moment I plugged in my new guitar I thought it sounded pretty good."
The guitar was originally built by luthier Kris Derrig in 1986 and was meant to be a replica of the so called "holy grail of electric guitars" the 1959 Gibson Les Paul Standard. Alan Niven saw the instrument in the window of an L.A. area guitar shop called MusicWorks. Niven explained to proprietor Jim Foot that he was looking for a new guitar for his young protege, and Foot suggested the custom built model hanging in front. Niven took the guitar and never looked back; he later mailed Foot a check for the instrument.
In terms of electronics the guitar was equipped with Seymour Duncan Alnico II Pro pickups in zebra bobbin pattern (the sticker on bottom of bridge pickup reads "APH1BJ" and the sticker on bottom of neck pickup reads "APH1NJ", indicating that both pickups were wound by Maricela Juaraz), and Sprague Orange Drop capacitors (.022 +- 5% 600 DC), 500k Dimarzio potentiometers (pot codes date to 1984).
In a harrowing experience on the road, the guitar was actually almost ripped right from Slash's hands while Guns and Roses were playing a gig, "I almost lost it during an early tour." Slash remembers, "It was stolen from me once in the crowd. I was being an idiot, leaning over the audience and getting pulled in, and some guy just grabbed it. I freaked once I realized it was off my person - that I'd completely lost control over it. But our security guys went out and caught the guy before he left the building. That's happened a couple of times."
Reflecting on the guitar in his autobiography, Slash would say, "That guitar has been with me ever since. It became my only guitar for a while, and has become my mainstay in the studio ever since. It has sounded different on every record I’ve done, but it is the same exact guitar."
Ultimately, Slash would hang up his famed "Appetite" Les Paul around 1989 as he was to remember, "If memory serves, it was around this time that I finally retired to storage the guitar that I’d used on Appetite and the “Welcome to the Jungle” video, my Les Paul replica (and the backup for it that I’d bought). I abuse my guitars when I play live, and by this point it was severely banged up after all of that touring."
Sunday, 7 October 2012
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| Roger Mayer |
Roger Mayer is truly a legend. He has worked with such music icons as Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Beck, Bob Marley, Jimmy Page, Stevie Wonder and The Isley Brothers. His innovations in the field of guitar pedals and studio recording equipment have made a mark on music that cannot be denied nor disputed. From his first treble booster, to his innovative fuzz boxes, from the world-renowned Octavia pedal to his custom Wah’s, Mayer has continuously pushed the envelope in both innovation and quality. Recently I had the opportunity to interview Mr. Mayer about his life, his career, the people he’s work with, the products he’s invented and produced and his thoughts on creativity and the future of recording and guitar gear technology.
IA: When did you first discover your passion for working with electronics?
RM: Quite early in life really maybe fourteen or so, something like that. Back then we started obviously going to school and some people were into radios; ham radio I suppose it would be called, not necessarily twenty-seven megahertz stuff.
IA: You grew up around Epsom, England in the same neighborhoods with Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck and you knew both men, what were they like back then?
RM: Well, Jimmy Page and I have the same birthday, Jimmy is two years older than me though so when I was about fifteen, he’d be about seventeen. Basically, I met these guys because they used to play around locally in the local music venues around where I lived, of which there were quite a few; that’s how we met. I had an interest even then around fifteen in changing the sound of the guitar and so forth and that’s how we began. They used to play in local youth clubs, church halls…real grassroots type of stuff.
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| Jeff Beck & Jimmy Page while in The Yardbirds |
IA: What was it like growing up in the time of the British Blues boom?
RM: All I can possibly say is back then, and you’re talking 1962, ’63, ’64, my sister used to go to art school you see, and I got to see the early performances and emergence of The Rolling Stones in early ’63 and ’64. I would go to the gigs with my sister. Back then was the beginning of the English love for American music, people used to borrow and get together and play records the records they had; they were very hard to come by. I used to go by Jimmy [Page’s] house, or he’d come round mine, and he’d be playing me American records. It really was this love of playing the American music that basically fueled the beginning of The Stones, The Yardbirds, and all kinds of people. We were very aware of the good emerging American guitar players who played on many of these hit records, people like Scotty Moore, James Burton, Chris Gallup from Gene Vincent, Johnny Burnett. The thing that kind of sticks in my mind was that we were always listening to the sound of them and would say, “Wow, that sounds great!”
IA: What was the first guitar pedal that you built?
RM: The first one I built was a treble booster, which I think Jeff Beck used it, and a few other people used it. I don’t know if it became the Rangemaster Treble Booster, but it looks very very similar to the one I built. I also built a foot pedal back then that went from side to side that did a tone control; not a Wah pedal. The only pedal that altered the tone back then when you were playing was the DeArmond pedal that was both a volume and a tone that went up and down and side to side. The first pedal I really built though was a fuzz pedal.
IA: Right, didn’t Jimmy Page come to you with a Gibson Maestro Fuzz Box and ask you to modify it?
RM: No, I never saw a Gibson Maestro first of all. I’ve never had one in my hands, in fact, to date; I’ve never had one in my hand [laughs]. We listened to the sound of it you see, on the early Ventures records. I think they had a record out called “The 2,000 Pound Bee” and it seemed like an interesting sound. The problem with the early Maestro fuzz tones were I guess quite percussive in nature; they didn’t have a lot of sustain. So I built, when I was working with the Admiralty, a version of a germanium fuzz box loosely based on the Maestro. It gave more sustain and it had a richer sound. That became quite popular amongst the session players around London.
IA: Big Jim Sullivan, Jimmy Page…
RM: Big Jim Sullivan used it on a couple of Proby records. The Nashville Teens had one, Jimmy Page had one, Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich, I think Ritchie Blackmore. There wasn’t that many, I didn’t really make that many of they, only for the session guys and a few bands.
IA: Around this time you were making all these guitar pedals you were also working for the Admiralty, what was it like working there?
RM: [The Admiralty] was my main job. After school I went to work for The Royal Naval Scientific Service and started off as an Assistant Experimental Officer. Basically, you went to work at the laboratory then they sent you to university as well or special courses. It was the government’s way of taking people, not bypassing university, but putting them through their own special courses and having the practical experiences in the laboratory.
IA: How difficult was it to divide your time between working for the Admiralty and making guitar pedals?
RM: Not a problem at all, they encouraged you to have hobbies. If you were interested in electronics you could play around and do what you wanted to do and use the equipment. They were quite accommodating of people who were interested in electronics. Plus, you were encouraged and trained to think in a, not an abstract way but…put it this way, a problem wasn’t considered a problem.
CR: How did you first meet Jimi Hendrix and how did you become involved with him professionally?
RM: I saw Jimi on television, Ready, Steady Go or something like that, and I thought, “Wow, this is a really great guitar player.” Then I happened to find out that he played with a bunch of American artists obviously Wilson Pickett, Little Richard…all kinds of stuff and I said, “Wow, I gotta see this guy!” So I went down to the club where he was playing and got to see the performance and after the performance I just went up to him and said, “I really obviously like the way you play and I know Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck and I’ve been helping them with their guitar sound and I’ve got some new interesting stuff that you might like to hear.” So Jimi says, “Yeah sounds great. Why don’t you come along to this gig and bring one of your latest devices along.”
A few weeks later we went to Chislehurst Caves with Jimi and I showed him one of the first ever evolutions of the Octavia, or the Ocatavio as we called it then. Anyway, that was the beginning and Jimi said, “Wow, that was a great sound.” So I said, “Well look, that’s not the final version Jimi, but there is never a final version, we can always make improvements.” He said, “Well I’m doing my second record in a couple of weeks, why don’t you come along to this gig in Hounslow, the Ricky-Tick Club in Hounslow, and after the gig we’re going to go back to Olympic Studios.” I said, “Great, sounds cool.”
So I went along to the gig, and during the gig the ceiling was very low and Jimi put the headstock of his guitar through the ceiling at the height of the performance in one of his moves when he wasn’t thinking. Anyway, it went through the ceiling tiles and it bent the bloody tuning machine heads, so that guitar was screwed! Then we all drove to Olympic Studios after the gig and Noel, Noel Redding, had to go back to his flat and pick up a Telecaster. Then Jimi did the solos for two records, one was “Fire” and the other one was “Purple Haze” and as they say after that the rest is history [laughs].
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| The Jimi Hendrix Experience (Mayer is on the Far Left) |
IA: How much freedom did Jimi allow you in the studio to work your magic as it were?
RM: I worked for Jimi as a friend, in other words I would sit with a box while he played, adjust it with the amplifier until we thought the sound was right then I would go back into the control room, have a listen. Anyway, it sounded good in the control room because many times in the studio it might not necessarily translate in the control room or else we might have to make some adjustments to the amplifier. Then I might hang out with Jimi while he did the solo right next to him in the studio. There was always total freedom to explore the unknown. We used to describe the tone colors as tone colors, and knowing what the song was about, and really what the song was about or what Jimi was trying to say, that obviously helps you get the tone.
IA: After you worked in the studio on Axis: Bold as Love you went on a tour of America with Jimi in 1968. What was it like working on the road with Jimi versus in the studio?
RM: There’s no comparison to playing live and recording, Jimi and I discussed that. We knew that a live performance involved interacting with the audience, showmanship, this and that and it would be absolutely foolish to try and recreate the sound that was on the record while you’re playing live. We just concentrated the best we could to get the best possible sound each night from the varying circumstances we were playing in. From a technical aspect obviously when your playing live, you haven’t really got much control over your sound, you’re going to inherit the natural acoustics of the venue or the auditorium your playing in. Therefore, that in itself casts a tone parameter from which you can’t deviate because if the room has a particular resonance or a particular sound, you gotta live with it, ya know? To be successful, you actually have to change the song which makes it a challenge but at the same time it’s going to make it more interesting because it’s going to be more interesting everyday. That was the one thing about Jimi, he never played the same thing twice. Jimi’s attitude was, if you have to remember the solo, it wasn’t worth remembering.
IA: How harrowing was that tour for you personally?
RM: It’s not harrowing as insomuch, ya know, I think it’s been written by other people that particular tour, the way it was organized was one of the most grueling tours around. The amount of miles we covered and the distances between gigs and criss-crossing America was ludicrous. There are high points of it, but at the same time, it's always the travelling you see? Back then, we didn’t travel with many people, there was the road manager, the roadie, myself and the band so we’re only talking about five people. Every night if we got five or seven guitars for Jimi, depending upon how many he destroyed, Jimi and I had to take care of the guitars, change all the strings and take a handful of them up onstage. Back then, of course the equipment wasn’t very reliable, it was like a nightmare keeping it going.
IA: How much did the fact that Jimi Hendrix played left-handed and the strings he used were important component of his unique sound. How important were they?
RM: The point with a guitar is, you’ve got a piece of wood and you’ve got a string haven’t you? Now to me, the most important part of a guitar is the wood. Without the wood, the string isn’t going to vibrate. The next thing down the line is the strings; the pickups and the rest of it come way way down the list. The pickups, they’re not that important because say for instance, Jimi played a guitar that had laminated neck with rosewood or maple, that’s gonna sound a lot different than a solid maple neck; really different ya know? If the body is maple it will sound different, if it is ash it will sound different.
The point is, when it comes down to the strings, we used pure nickel strings that were rolled as well, which means as opposed to a string that’s completely round-wound and not rolled, it feels smoother to the touch. So, a 38 [gauge string] using pure nickel that’s been rolled is probably equivalent to a 40 or 42; there isn’t a direct comparison. For the style Jimi played he tended to not like a not to heavy bass string. So the actual range of strings was crafted – chosen by Jimi not me – to portray to tonality and suit his style of playing. Jimi, didn’t really, when you watched him play, he uses a kind of rolling wrist motion and hits the strings differently. Jimi couldn’t have played what he played using 46’s; it just couldn’t happen. So the 38 and 32 low strings, which were pure nickel, have a nice warm tone and they’re funky and you could also slap the strings and it also enables you to bend the low strings easily. You can put a tremolo on the low string, which you can’t do on a fat string very easily.
IA: Just to go back in time a bit, how did you think up the Octavia pedal, and how did you put it into practice?
RM: Well the idea for the Octavia pedal came about when I was working for the government. We were using all kinds of techniques in the vibration acoustical analysis of sounds obviously to identify them and process them. Basically, sound, as it travels and gets reflected, has to obey the laws of nature. So the idea came from…when you look at a waveform and a waveform gets reflected and comes back to you and once it gets reflected it has a different series of harmonics; you’re not hearing a direct sound. You actually never hear a direct sound in the natural world; it’s all a combination of reflections. So that’s what I did, I introduced what was really an electronic mirror into the circuitry and that doubled the number of positive peaks you would normally get. That was the idea of frequency doubling, you’re hearing more positive peaks than you would normally. A lot of people who copy our stuff, they fail to realize that it’s not just simply say, full wave rectifying, we were using the non-linearities in the semi-conductor itself to further enhance the harmonics. It becomes a lot more complicated than you think to generate a series of harmonics that sound alien but natural [laughs].
IA: Now, how did you meet Bob Marley, and what was it like working with Bob?
RM: What happened was…I had just finished making a record with Junior Marvin and we finished it up in London. Junior had been playing with quite a few people in London at the time and when we just about finished the record in England, then they signed him up for The Wailers. So now the guy I had just finished the album with, and I was playing on the album and wrote some of the song, he got signed to Bob. At the time, around ’76, I was also doing all of the Isley Brothers stuff and had done three other albums with Stevie Wonder and all kinds of people and was involved in the New York record scene.
So when Junior joined Bob Marley and The Wailers, within about two or three weeks, Junior said Bob wants to meet you just before the One Love Concerts, so I said, “Oh, that sounds great.” So I flew down to Jamaica and met him and I was curious so I said to Bob, “What do you want me to make you, what interests you?” He said, “Well, I love Jimi Hendrix, I love the sound of Jimi Hendrix.” I said, “That’s cool. Well, you’ve got Junior playing for you he’s a good guitar player.” He said, “Well, I want to sound international.” So I said, “Ahhhh, good answer.” He realized that you could only go so far sounding a bit raggedity, ya know?
So I listened to the band and went round and rebuilt every bloody guitar they had because they were all over the place. So I said, first thing let’s re-build the guitars, make sure they’re all in tune, and all the fretboards are perfect because you can’t use an effect until the guitar is perfect. So that’s what I did, and after I did the work, everyone came back after the concert and all the guys said they had never hear Bob Marley sound that good. Then they went on to record Exodusand I helped with some of the solos and the overdubbing on that. So then what happened was after Exodus, the band suddenly sounded international [laughs].
IA: You did some modification work to Bob’s famous Gibson Les Paul Special, what did you do?
RM: Bob’s guitar first came to me after the One Love Concert and as it went on, nobody else touched the guitar except for me. If anything that had to be done they’d fly it to me, then fly it back again. Then Bob asked, “Can you design something for the guitar Roger without changing the guitar that makes it one of a kind, that makes it unique?” That’s when I came up with the different scratch plates which was done in brushed hardened alaminium and the switch plate just to give it a completely different look to anything else, because that’s what Bob wanted. Then of course Gibson went and copied it and never paid me anything! [Laughs]; Story of my life. That’s what I did to that guitar, and obviously completely re-wired it inside.
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| Bob Marley's Les Paul |
IA: What sort of re-wiring did you do?
RM: Nothing special, just to make sure with the guitar being in Jamaica you have to change the petentiometers quite regularly. You obviously have to use the best capacitors and make sure the thing isn’t getting salt corrosion in it or anything. I changed the machine heads at the top, the Gibson ones weren’t that brilliant, sort of a version of the Kluson, which is pretty crap, and so we put some German Schallers in it. I basically kept the next straight, filed the frets down and keep them profiled correctly.
IA: Why do you think there is such a huge amount of preference with guitarists for analog equipment versus digital?
RM: The fact of the matter is when it actually comes to processing the sound; my belief is that the signal comes out of the guitar in an analog form and an analog signal contains more information than any form of a digital signal because there is virtually an infinite sampling frequency if you want to look at it that way. You can’t take a guitar and then put it into digital, process it, put it back into analog, then put it into another amplifier; it sounds horrible. A multi-effect, it might sound okay in a pub, in your bedroom or something like that, okay that’s convenient, there’s a lot of features on them, but for real quality, no…it doesn’t stand out.
In digital, what happens in the digital domain is that the actual level of the signal, the loud parts of the signal get the most resolution, by definition, because that’s how the signal is analyzed. You get twenty-four bits for the loudest part, then you come down to the softest part and the bits drop off. Visually speaking, that would be like the person in a movie scene is perfectly in focus and the background is out of focus and that’s what you hear in digital. That’s the same thing with digital echo, digital echo sounds okay until the signal begins to decay and that’s when it falls apart.
IA: I’m just curious, you worked for Olympic Studios in 1969 and you made a lot of equipment for them. Their recording console is world-renowned for it’s quality, what made that desk so special?
RM: I think you got two things, you obviously got the room, and you’ve got a combination of a good input transformer, good microphones, and a Class-A signal chain. I use today a very similar configuration that was used at Olympic in a lot of my equipment. It wasn’t a configuration that wasn’t just unique to Olympic, it was just a configuration of an amplifier, but Class A…they don’t call it Class A for nothing [laughs]. It’s very natural sounding it sounds good.
IA: What products are you currently working on, or are out now that you are excited about?
RM: Well, we make limiters that were used by all the recording studios in New York called the RM-58. We put those out to some pretty good players around the world they’ve been pretty successful, and now we’re coming out with a special stereo studio version which will be out pretty soon. It’s going to have the old sound, all Class A once again, front to finish is Class A; should be out in the next six months or so. The other thing is we improved our Vision Wah and we have a new version out called the Bel Air Wah. I’m very happy with the curves and the adjustment we did on that. Ergonomically, it’s not like a Crybaby, it’s not gonna hurt your knee. It’s easy to use. We’re probably going more into the direction of professional recording equipment. There’s so much cheap Chinese gear out there right now, and I think the consumers are getting a bum deal.
IA: What do you envision in regards to professional recording gear?
RM: Well, we’re doing our limiters; we’ll probably do some our pattern of equalizers that I made. We might do a microphone pre-amplifier; I don't know how much demand there is for it. It might be kind of oversubscribed in other words, if you offer up too much technology, see the home recorder in many instances doesn’t have the ability of using the top gear because he doesn’t have the acoustics of the room or he hasn’t grown up in a recording studio. Years ago for people to actually attempt to record, they’d have to actually be around a recording studio and be given some guidance. There is so much misinformation out there it’s a bit ridiculous isn’t it?
IA: Do you think in many ways technology can be an enemy to creativity?
RM: Absolutely yes. It would be like this, if you had the same pencil and paper as Picasso and you tell me you can draw. Just because you have the same equipment doesn't mean you can draw. When we were recording with Jimi [Hendrix] we were more concerned in the recording process with how we feel. Jimi didn’t know what he was going to play, but we did know that we had to have all the bases covered to make it happen. Life isn’t computerized, and there are certain things you can program. You can’t program feel and you can’t program talent.
When multi-track came along, I mean, Axis: Bold as Love was recorded four-track/eight-track as were the other albums as that was state of the art, but once they started going to twenty-four, it just postponed that evil moment when you had to mix the record. People would sit around and say, “we don’t have to do that today”, so there’s no sense of excitement or urgency. That’s what you’ve got nowadays. A lot of artists today record and they can’t even sing the song all the way through.
IA: So what would you say to all those players that want to emulate Jimi Hendrix, Bob Marley or Jimmy Page?
RM: I’d say to all those people, listen to their music, don’t try to copy it, but try to understand the spirit of the music. You have no idea of what they felt or how many years of their life it took to get to that point in time. You cannot put the feeling down. You can’t bottle the feeling.
IA: Do you think you’ll ever be satisfied? Do you think you’ll ever get to a place where with your work where you say to yourself, “This is it?”
RM: No, no, no and the reason for that is we’re dealing with human beings and human beings are a very curious race of people. They are always setting new standards.
IA: Mr. Mayer, thank you so much for taking the time to speak with us, it was a real pleasure.
RM: Thank you. Just enjoy the music mate, that’s what it’s all about.
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