Tone Wizards: Interviews With Top Guitarists and Gear Gurus On the Quest for the Ultimate Sound

Fornadley

Chapter 1

Introduction

Why am I doing this?

The idea came to me in an instant; like a great hook for a song. A series of interviews with highly respected, top tier, guitarists alongside successful gear gurus that have invented and reinvented the tools these players use to craft their tones and signature sounds. I thought, This is the type of book I would love to read, but it does not exist. So after a day of contemplation, I made a commitment to myself to do the work and research necessary to make it a reality.

As I set forth on this quest, I applied the same patience, determination, and focus I have used to develop my skills as a guitarist. I have been playing guitar since I was 11 years old, and I am long past the Gladwell 10,000 hours. I have essentially dedicated my life to music composition, guitar craft, the pursuit of great tone, and a signature sound. I am a musician/guitarist first and an author second. Along with my hours of practice and performance, I have spent a great deal of time contemplating the concepts of tone and personal style. I assume there are others out there that have done the same, but certainly, this is a very niche area of interest.

Online forums and guitar magazines are the most common gathering spots for such discussions, but these can be hit or miss for valuable information and, at its worst, Internet forums can lead to misinformation. Many times when I read a magazine interview with one of my favorite guitarists, I am left wanting more since most topics are only briefly covered given the format. The interviews in this book were not constrained by the usual limits of a magazine article. They were not directed or influenced by corporate advertisements, product promotions, or sponsorships. My goal and approach was to provide a relaxed, honest, and non-pretentious discussion of the topics. Most questions go beyond the usual what type of pedal or amp do you use. My goal was to get at the process, perceptions, and experiences of the person.

Some concepts may be difficult to put into words, but these challenges are thought provoking for the interviewee and the reader. It is my attempt to get at the essence of tone and style, walking the line between the player developing his skills on the instrument while going through iterations of gear and experimenting to find that sound. Many times players work directly with gear gurus to achieve this vision. The interviews bring together a broad range of topics including soul, science, spirit, craft, experimentation, popular culture, wormholes, and serendipity. There is no right or wrong in artistic expression, but some clear traits and themes do emerge.

I hope that this book can serve as an important resource and preservation of institutional knowledge, part reference book and part self-discovery. Included are insights into the life journey of successful people on a similar path for achieving or contributing to the quest for peak artistic expression through the guitar. There is no shortage of amazing guitar players or electronics wizards in this world, but the people that reach any degree of notoriety, or God forbid actually make a living doing it, is a very short list. It is my hope that the insights that follow will help you on your own quest and provide you with inspiration and ideas for discovering and evolving your own tone and style.

Format and Approach

The focus of this book is on electric guitar players that draw broadly from rock, blues, jazz, and country. The players I have chosen to interview have achieved, in my opinion, consistently great tone and in many cases possess a style that is unique, recognizable, and often imitated. They all have strong capabilities as soloists. The gear gurus I selected are equally accomplished in their respective fields and not surprisingly most of them also play guitar. There is an organic aspect to this book in the sense that some of the people I interviewed connected me to others. This was an intentional approach since we are all connected in some way, and the book in itself documents a journey; my path in expanding my horizons, pushing my comfort zone, and meeting and interacting with people I respect and admire. The interviews are presented in the order in which they were conducted, starting in October 2013 and ending in March 2015.

If your favorite player is not represented here, that does not mean you cannot learn something to apply to your own music or craft. I had to put limits on how many people I interviewed so that this could remain an achievable goal. Aspiring gear creators and players will both benefit from the years of wisdom shared by the gear gurus. I learned just as much from them as I did from the players. I have kept the introduction to each person brief and have provided online links to where you can learn more about them and what they create, be it music or gear.

Part of the novelty of this book is reading different peoples’ responses to the same question. Observing the similarities and the differences in the answers is quite interesting. Of course, this is a snapshot in time. It is possible that if I asked the same person the same question a year from now, I might get a different answer. But in other cases, the answer has not changed since they were teenagers. Many times questions will get the interviewee rolling in a direction that reveals ideas or concepts that I had not thought to ask about. So there is an element of improvisation in here that is expected considering the crowd.

The interviews were recorded, transcribed, and then painstakingly edited by me. This was a lengthy process but worth the effort to create a great reading experience. Everyone interviewed had a chance to review and edit the final manuscript of their respective interviews, so the accuracy of their responses should be very high, unless they change their mind or opinion at a later time.

Musicians swear. I like to swear; maybe because it is an extreme form of auditory expression, like a loud amp or crash cymbal. Whatever the case, I did not remove profanity and I am sorry if the occasional profanity bothers you; deal with it. There are no pictures. There is plenty of eye candy on the web and in magazines, as well as the Tone Wizards website. I also encourage readers to explore the web sites listed with each interview.

If you have your own thoughts or opinions on the book’s topics that you would like to share, feel free to post them on the Tone Wizards forum online at:

www.GuitarToneWizards.com.

Chapter 2

Tone and Style

Life is a journey, not a destination.

—Ralph Waldo Emerson or ?

When I looked up this quote to confirm whom it was credited to, I learned that there is evidence that Ralph Waldo Emerson was not the first person to utter these words of wisdom. In fact, he may have never actually said these exact words. As time passes, the truth melts into collective memories. This reminds me of the debates we read about on who was the first guitar player to tap on the guitar or who was the first to record a distorted guitar…And so is the life of many electric guitarists in search of their own sound and style.

What is Tone?

Tone is an ambiguous word that means different things to different people depending on the context. My first stereo system had a tone knob. I guess if you turn it up, you get more tone, right? Most electric guitars have a tone knob, but players quickly learn that turning it to 10 does not guarantee awesome tone. To label a sound as having a great tone is tricky because it is highly subjective. Yet in the world of electric guitar players, there tends to be general consensus around certain acceptable or desired tones for each genre. But we are all individuals with slight differences in how we hear things. Some of it is genetic, some is learned, and some could be the result of hearing loss due to years of playing at loud volumes.

The physics of a vibrating string tells us that the fundamental frequency (the primary note you strike) is really only one of many pitches that the string is producing. The parts of the string vibrating at frequencies higher than the fundamental are called overtones. The overtones vibrating in whole number multiples of the fundamental are called harmonics. The more overtones a sound has, the fuller the sound is. The tone a player creates is at least partially due to his ability to bring out these overtones along with the fundamental. Engineers can use science to graph a sound signal on test equipment, but that only tells part of the story. In the end, it is probably better to provide an example, but that is not straight forward either. For many of us, most of our references for great tone come from listening to recordings, but we each have different listening devices and environments. My listening device is different from yours and even if it were the same, we would be listening in different rooms. Ironically, the iPod introduced a very homogenous, albeit mediocre, listening environment since most users never replace the ear buds they get with the device. Where you listen, at what volume level, and which format you use (LP, CD, MP3, etc.), all contribute to the listening experience.

And then there is the long chain of variables a guitar sound travels before it is ever heard on record. The player, pick/fingers, instrument shape and material, strings, pickups, wiring, cable, pedals, more cable, amp (pre-amp, power amp), speaker(s), speaker cabinet, microphone, cable, pre-amp/EQ, AD converters, post processing during mixing, mastering, DA converters, and out to a compressed format into listening device in an unknown listening environment.

Ultimately, tone is in the hands. You will read this over and over again in the interviews. Yet it would be hard to imagine Jimi Hendrix achieving his place in history as a guitarist without his basic signal chain: Strat into a Fuzz Face and a cranked Marshall. Where is that line between a player’s raw abilities and the gear that they choose to use? A great player that does not focus on all the elements may never reach their full potential. The most prominent music artists of any era often employ and leverage the technologies of the day, from Les Paul multi-tracking to modern pop singers using Auto-Tune. Technology influences and helps shape the sounds and tones we hear, but that doesn’t guarantee that current technology sounds better than technology from a past era. Words often fail us when describing things like emotions, art, and music. Accepting this, the simplest definition I found was tone is the audible characteristics of a player’s sound.

The Identifiable Signature Style

What about players with a recognizable style or sound? Even on a cheap listening device, a signature style or fingerprint can be recognized. Many are able to have the tone in their hands, but very few develop a unique recognizable style. What are the elements of an identifiable signature style? Is it what they play or how they play it? And recognizable to whom: the general public or only guitar geeks?

Most people can tell the difference between red and white wine, less, if you blindfold them. A small subset of this group can tell the difference between a merlot and a cabernet. Still fewer can distinguish between different vintages and brands of the same type. Maybe at this level, the average person would just describe them as a bit different. In blind taste tests, some may actually prefer a cheaper wine to one that is more expensive. It all comes down to a matter of personal taste. To take it one step further: how many people would still drink wine if it did not get you buzzed? We associate the taste with a feeling. These analogies work for me because I love to drink wine and I love great guitar playing. There are some real similarities if you think about it. The good news is people can learn to develop and refine their taste for wine and guitar styles. For musician’s tastes and styles evolve and are shaped by the music they have heard growing up. Every musical era is marked by some similar characteristics, which are influenced by the zeitgeist and everything that came before them. So there is a continuum of recognizable musical styles. As you read these interviews, I think it is important to keep in mind that some or most of what guitarists (and guitar enthusiasts) debate and belabor over is most likely lost on the general public. Their attention is on the song as a whole, not the guitar tone or style, and they like it or they don’t.

What can a player do to actually work towards having a unique signature style? There certainly have been and will be unknown players with great identifiable styles that just don’t break through. With the Internet, is it getting harder or easier to get recognized? Some players just get it early on, for others it takes time. What about craft vs. raw talent? Many have put in thousands of hours, but how can that time be best spent so that you can achieve a cut above? With so many things competing for a person’s time and attention, what is the future for the guitar? What will be the guitar’s role in future music styles? Will improvisation ever be embraced in popular music? Is the tone-obsessed virtuoso the last of a dying breed? What will take its place? These are some of the questions and thoughts inside my head that I hope these interviews can shed some light on.

Chapter 3

Carl Verheyen

I have known Carl for over 15 years and have always been impressed by his playing and tone. Carl was the first person I talked to about my idea for this book. He thought it was a great concept and agreed to be my first interview. Carl’s musical experience is broad and deep from being a first call studio musician and solo artist, to being a member of the classic rock group Supertramp. He is incredibly proficient and authentic in multiple styles and has amassed years of tone and guitar wisdom.

www.carlverheyen.com

At what point in your learning did you begin to understand the importance of tone, the quality of the sound you were creating?

Carl: The turning point for me was when I realized how much better I played when I really liked the sound. I had a teacher who said, Forget the first 20 years, you won’t be able to really play the guitar until you’ve been at it for 20 years. So that would have been well into my 20s when I began to concentrate on the sound my hands were making, but I was thinking about my guitar, pedals, and amp tone well before that.

What does that say about players like Hendrix who died before playing for 20 years or players that made a stylistic mark before 20 years of playing?

Carl: Jimi Hendrix and Duane Allman died tragically early. But in their brief time on earth, they probably put in the equivalent hours of a 20-year span. That drive, coupled with a natural gift, is what gave them the stylistic individuality and chops. There is no substitute for experience.

Did you stumble on to the importance of tone or were you mentored by another; any early memories on this?

Carl: Some of the recordings I grew up with like Axis Bold as Love, by Hendrix, Crosscut Saw on King of the Blues Guitar by Albert King, Super Session by Mike Bloomfield and Wheels of Fire by Cream began to register on my sonic brain as a late teenager. I thought Dickey Betts had a great tone, too. I remember seeing the Allman Bros live in a small theater and they weren’t in the PA system, so you could hear the tone right from his 4X12 cab. Pretty sweet!

When you were first learning whose tone did you like the best?

Carl: I became aware of Clapton’s tone on While My Guitar Gently Weeps and his awesome feel on the studio version of Spoonful from Fresh Cream, so EC was definitely first.

Can you share examples of songs that you thought had a great tone or a live concert you remember?

Carl: Some albums that are pinnacles of tone for me are We’ll Be Together Again by Pat Martino, Van Halen, the first one from 1978, Texas Flood by Stevie Ray Vaughn, Ah Via Musicom by Eric Johnson, and Guitar Shop by Jeff Beck. A few concerts come to mind, too, like Pink Floyd and a David Gilmour solo show I saw in Italy a few years ago. If I had to pick three desert island tunes for tone they would probably be Crossroads by Cream, Voodoo Chile by Jimi (long version without the wah-wah), and World of Trouble by Eric Johnson.

What quality of these tones got your attention?

Carl: The warmth and lack of scratchy high end.

When you were first learning, did you separate the tone from the actual playing?

Carl: Probably not, because the total of the two is what makes a great performance or recording. But for me, I don’t care how great the guy plays, if his tone is not there it’s hard to listen to.

A year or two later did this taste evolve or did that original beacon of tone remain constant?

Carl: It’s been pretty constant throughout the years, but my ability to get a decent tone has definitely evolved.

Accepting the fact that perfect tone is a process and not a destination, were you conscious of when you developed your own sound? If so, how closely is this related to the tone?

Carl: Yes, I think I was, but the process goes on, both live and in the studio. If I find a better sounding instrument, pedal, amp, cable, tube, or even pick, I’ll buy it!

How long had you been playing at that point?

Carl: Probably around 15 years.

What has this path been like for you, any sidetracks or missteps you made along the way? Carl: Definitely had a few sidetracks! In the ’80s, we all went to the rack systems here in LA. I remember Buzz Feiten coming to a show I was playing in Hollywood and telling me about a guy that made a system using programmable effects loops. That was Bob Bradshaw and I was his second or third customer. This was around 1982 and his gear sounded and worked great. My racks grew until I was using a 16-space effects rack coupled to a huge amp rack and a custom MIDI controller. But by around 1989, I began to realize that we were listening to the chorus, reverb, and delay effects and not the guitar tone. The all-important marriage of wood and tubes was practically out of the equation. It was at that moment that I realized my ’61 Strat through a Princeton Reverb amp sounded better than $65K worth of rack gear. Bob is still around designing awesome touring rigs for amp switching, line level effects and pedals. From experience, I need to know and understand my signal path completely when I am out on the road.

How is tone related to style and how does it influence your compositions?

Carl: There are many different tones needed for different styles of music. My latest CD has a gospel-style tune called Spirit of Julia. For this song, I used a ’66 ES-335 through a ’66 Marshall JTM 45 Plexi head and basket weave Marshall 4x12. I actually wrote the song with that secret weapon in mind. I imagined it and heard it in my head during the writing process, which took place backstage on a tour, far away from my arsenal of gear; so tone can dictate the writing in a big way!

How are phrasing and tone related? For example, a player who only alt picks without grace notes, pull offs, etc. versus a player that relies on left-hand hammer-ons and pull offs.

Carl: Legato style players and heavy tappers rely on a far more saturated distortion sound than alternate pickers. Players like Allan Holdsworth have incorporated a beautiful tone into their picking style, but not everyone is that successful at it.

Do you practice or compose with a clean or dirty sound?

Carl: I use both about equally.

In what ways do the left and right hands contribute to great tone?

Carl: Clarity and intensity are dictated by the right hand. I practice my chops (speed playing) totally clean. Distortion is way too forgiving. That’s why when I hear a shredder at one of the local music schools; I stick my head in the practice room and say, Let me hear that lick with a clean tone. Nine times out of ten, it sounds like mush when they try to play it clean. The left hand has all the ability to shape your tone with vibrato, bending, and the way you massage a note after you’ve sounded it. Both hands work together to make a sound no other human can make.

Does one hand have more of an influence on tone?

Carl: No. With the right hand, pick velocity and travel distance are all very personal. I use a very small, heavy pick. I prefer minimal plastic in my hand. With the left hand, you have finger finesse, sustaining the vibrating string and muting. All four fingers should be able to do at least four or five different types of vibrato and bending. I can bend a whole step with my first finger on the top three strings, and I believe action height is more important to a good tone than string gauge. This contributes more to sustaining the note and your ability to manipulate the ringing tones.

Can you discuss getting both hands to work together to achieve the perfect note or phrase? Carl: Guitar has the unique disadvantage of the fact that it takes two hands to make a note sound, much unlike the keyboard; therefore, it’s a much more personal instrument. How many keyboard players can you identify with one note? For me, it’s about 5 or 6, but on the guitar, there are probably 50 or 60. The secret is this: when you practice, listen to the sound your hands are making.

What other elements of your body or being contribute to your tone?

Carl: I believe your on-stage stance contributes a small amount, as well as your breathing and level of relaxation. If you put a lot of energy into tapping your foot, you can’t be loose and free in your playing, and the tone will suffer.

Is it more difficult to create or maintain great tone when playing fast?

Carl: Not if you practice building up speed while listening to your fingers. Look at yourself in the mirror while playing to see if your pick angle changes. Maintaining the same command at all tempos takes a while, but it’s really worth it.

When you do studio work or play in support of another artist, do you consciously dial back your stylistic stamp, how so?

Carl: In a perfect world, my style fits into any kind of music. But sometimes I need to separate the solo artist career from the well listened craftsman career. I am a huge fan of music and somewhat of a guitar history buff, and I enjoy emulating other styles and other players.

How important is the gear in creating your tone?

Carl: Very important.

If you could keep just one guitar and one amp, what would they be and why?

Carl: A Fender Stratocaster, or a well-built copy of one, and a Fender Princeton Reverb amp. I can do most of what I do with a Strat and get plenty of tones. And I believe the blackface Princeton Reverb amp is the ground zero electric guitar sound, perfectly voiced for the sonic range of single coil or humbucking pickups.

With amps do you focus on the amp head alone or do you find that the cabinet and speaker selection is just as important?

Carl: Both are important, and it’s astounding how much a speaker cabinet can change the sound of an amp.

Are tubes still essential?

Carl: Hell, yeah!

Do you have opinions or experience with amp modeling?

Carl: I do have a little experience with modeling, and I try to avoid it for the most part.

Do you have a preference for single coil or humbucker pickups?

Carl: I believe single coil pickups give me a more identifiable, personal tone because I have to jump through more hoops to achieve it. But that being said, I love humbuckers, too.

Do you have any thoughts on scale length or fret type and the effect on vibrato?

Carl: My vibrato is noticeably better on a Gibson scale neck, so I use that as a benchmark for achieving the same depth of vibrato on my Fenders.

Do you have any opinions on wood type and combinations on guitars?

Carl: I’ve heard great tones from alder, swamp ash, and even pine. My main objective in choosing an instrument is weight. I don’t like heavy guitars; they don’t sound good and it’s harder to control the tones. Without that interaction of strings and wood vibration, the tone really suffers.

Can you sound like you on any guitar?

Carl: Yes, if it’s a good instrument.

If you could keep only one pedal on your board, what would it be?

Carl: I have got to have reverb and delay to play clean guitar, so assuming the amp has reverb, a delay pedal sure helps to inspire me.

What are some often overlooked elements in achieving great tone?

Carl: As I previously mentioned, action height has more to do with tone than string gauge. Cables make a difference, too. I once went through about 20 high-end cables to determine which ones sounded better with my clean tones and which ones sounded better with my dirty sounds. Afterward, I made a snake, so that all the selected cables went to the right places. I noticed quite an improvement in my tones.

Has technology, along with the emergence of so many great boutique makers, helped or hindered the processes of achieving great and individualized tone? There are only so many hours in the day. It seems that time spent researching and learning new gear takes time away from working with what you already have and actual productive time on your instrument.

Carl: The good stuff always makes its way to the top of the heap. I think we’re in the golden age of amplifier building right now, so it’s definitely a helpful situation, this current infatuation of tube technology and guitar sounds.

Do you have a method for finding, creating the sweet spot for your sound on stage?

Carl: I like to hear my guitar in the room, so I’m definitely not standing in front of my cab on a big stage. I move around until I can find the love-tone. I’ve recently begun using a product made in Austria called Deeflexx, which is a plexi-glass speaker deflector that spreads your sound around the stage evenly.

Do you ever have volume issues; too much volume or not enough?

Carl: Always! I play with many loud drummers and hearing myself out in front of the cymbals is always an issue. I also use attenuators on my distortion amps.

Do you have guitar in your monitors?

Carl: I never have guitar in the floor monitors, but usually always in my in-ears. That’s unfortunate because it’s tough to get a good distortion sound in the in-ears. For solo, I usually go to the front of the stage and pull one earpiece out. One of the greatest thrills in the world is playing in a huge arena to 18,000 people and hearing your guitar in the mains.

How do you maintain consistent tone between venues?

Carl: The only trouble I have is outdoor venues. Those are always a bit harder to negotiate. All you can do is trust the soundman and hope your sense of on-stage volume is balanced with the band.

How does the tone you have on a particular night affect your playing?

Carl: When it’s right, you play so much better! It really has a huge effect, although the fans may not realize it when you’re struggling with the sound.

Do you have any methods or processes for adapting to the dynamics of performing on stage so that you are playing as good as you know you can play?

Carl: Many years ago, Larry Carlton came to hear me play and, of course, it would have to be on a night when I was having tonal issues. When I asked him for advice on such a night, he said, Just get into the musical part of the performance and don’t second guess what you just played. I try to make that happen whenever it’s a little rough out there.

With the difficulty of traveling with amps on airplanes, how has that changed your approach to achieving your live tone when you travel by air? Is it a crapshoot on the amps that the venue provides or rents?

Carl: I keep a full live rig in Europe and one in California. But on the occasion when we have to do fly dates, I have found the most consistent rentable amps out there are Fenders. I get two Classic Twin reissues and use both channels on each amp for my A/B setup, then augment my pedal board with a few more delays and stereo splitters, but it can be a crapshoot.

How often do you change elements in your live rig?

Carl: Not too often, but if I find a better way to do it, I will make a change.

Are you constantly trying out different gear?

Carl: Yes. I get a lot of stuff sent to me, and it’s always fun to hear what new developments are coming along in the world of guitar sound.

Do you take into consideration the other instruments in the band you are playing with in adjusting your stage tone, since the killer sound may not be happening when the rest of the band starts to play?

Carl: This is especially true with reverb and delay effects. I get a gorgeous tone at home and then when I hear it in the band, I can’t believe how wet I made the sound. Once the band is cranking, I always scale those effects back. Another interesting thing is a pedal I use occasionally called the Zen Drive. It always sounds scratchy during sound check, but once the band starts to play, it sounds great. It’s a mystery.

When you play live with another guitar player, do you actively carve out different tones?

Carl: Always. Even to the point of selecting a completely different instrument. And that goes for recording, too.

Do you use your live rig in the studio?

Carl: Rarely. I think I’ve only recorded with it twice. But I do use pieces of it on occasion, like amp heads and speaker cabs, but rarely the effects.

How do you go about selecting guitar amp combinations?

Carl: I own at least 45 guitar amps, so I have a philosophy about stacking the harmonics properties of different output tube configurations. For instance, the EL-34s are going to provide a different harmonic content than the 6L6 tubes or the EL-84s. Over the years, I’ve found some secret weapon combinations that stack up beautifully in a track.

Can you describe your process of getting great tones in the studio; translating a great sound out of your amp to a great sound coming through the studio monitors?

Carl: I use an engineer, someone who has put the time in behind the board to get the sound out in the room coming through the speakers. A good engineer will go out there while you’re playing and walk around until he hears that ideal spot in the room to place a second mic. When he finds it and deals with any phase issues due to the distance between the close mic’d cab and the sweet spot in the room, I’m ready to go.

How iterative is it? When do you say enough is enough we can work with that?

Carl: Never! A good engineer knows that when he gets it right the guitarist will light up!

Do you like to track more than one amp on a single part?

Carl: If it needs to be doubled, I will use two different amps most of the time. But if that part is not the big guitar in the track, or the tone I like to call Frank Sinatra, then I’ll double track a part with two small amps. You can hear that approach on the chorus of my song Take One Step. I doubled the bass line using a tweed Deluxe and an SG on one side and a Gibson Falcon amp and a Les Paul on the other. But for the solo, I got a huge room sound with a 50-watt Plexi Marshall, a 4X12 cab, and a different Les Paul. This tone was definitely Frank in the track.

Do you like to approach each song individually tone wise?

Carl: Always. And I like working on a record project with a large palette of options.

Are you hands-on from a sound engineer perspective or do you rely on an engineer to handle the details for getting great sounding recorded tones?

Carl: My goal is to be the best guitar player I can be, so I rely on an engineer with the same standards and aspirations. I’m not very good behind the board; I’d much rather hire an expert.

Do you have any methods or processes for transcending the studio setting and producing a great inspired take?

Carl: I’m very comfortable in the studio, so it’s not really an issue for me. But I have found that recording guitar solos is much easier in the control room, so an amp head with good speaker cable running out to the studio room through a pass-through is my favorite way to work.

How do you maintain objectivity on knowing when you have captured a great take or one that captures what you hear in your head?

Carl: That’s a tough one. Even though I have an idea of what I’m going for, sometimes what I just played, although not exactly what I had in mind, is better. Unless it’s horrible, I’ll let the band members, producer, or engineer decide for me.

Do you have a preference for standing or sitting? Does this affect your approach or tone?

Carl: I’m comfortable either way. My pick angle stays the same regardless.

Do you find it easier to track with delay and reverb?

Carl: Definitely

Do you prefer to track with headphones or in front of studio monitors?

Carl: Monitors. But sometimes the immediacy of headphones is better for tracking extremely syncopated rhythm parts.

Can you be happy with a part where the playing is great, but the tone is not totally happening?

Carl: No. The tone has got to be there.

Where do you like to record?

Carl: Sunset Sound, Sound Factory, Village Recorder, and Capitol. These are the best in the world as far as I’m concerned.

Can you discuss your over dub process?

Carl: On my own records, I take the basic tracks home and work out sounds and ideas before going in to the studio. I write them down in a notebook so I have specific combinations to try when I get there, so as to avoid wasting time.

Is one great sound guitar track enough? Any examples?

Carl: I have many examples over the years of tracks with just one guitar sound. On the new Mustang Run CD, there is a song called Spirit of Julia where I used a Gibson ES-335 from start to finish. I may have added a Stratocaster here and there for a few bars, but the illusion is one guitar top to bottom; same tone is there. But in that case, the guitar is like a lead vocal. My song In the Stream from Take One Step is a ’58 Strat in one live take all the way down, top to bottom. On the other side, I have a song on the Take One Step CD called Bells of April. There are probably 25 guitars on that track. I also recorded a song called Partington Cove Suite with Eddie Kramer engineering. We layered around 26 guitars on that one for my Solo Guitar Improvisations CD.

Can you teach / coach someone to achieve great tone?

Carl: No, but you can reference recordings and hope they listen to the sound their hands make in contrast to a classic track.

How much of great tone is subjective or a reflection of trends?

Carl: Very true. Guitars today sound nothing like they did in the ‘80s.

Do tones become dated or does the playing become dated?

Carl: Tones may become dated, but then a tone can evolve into a period piece of sorts. Like surf music. It has a unique guitar sound that on the one hand is very dated, but on the other hand, it’s as hip as can be in the right context.

Do you have any advice for avoiding tones that will be dated?

Carl: Go for honest, real sounding tones, as opposed to super hyped tones that will be dated in two years. I believe some of the sampled tones of today will follow that trend.

Do you think the pursuit of tone will evolve?

Carl: There will always be tone freaks, players with great hands and ears that will keep it going. We’re only in the infancy of the electric guitar right now.

How does your approach to achieving a great electric tone translate to acoustic?

Carl: It’s a completely different animal, but one that I work hard on. Hand strength takes time to build up, so for a tour of solo concerts, I start practicing two weeks in front of the opening night. I run the entire set each day until I get in tune with the instrument. I have many acoustics for recording: Martins for that sweet bluegrass sound, Gibsons for rock strumming, small body guitars for soloing, and old Robert Johnson style acoustic Gibsons for playing the blues.

Do you have any parting advice for other guitar players on their tone quest?

Carl: Find a record that you really enjoy from a sonic perspective and try to emulate that sound with your own gear. If you can’t do it, buy the stuff that will git ‘er done!

What other players do you feel would have something to say on the topics we discussed today?

Carl: Eric Johnson, Mike Landau, Robben Ford, John Jorgenson, Brent Mason, Jeff Beck and Joe Bonamassa.

Chapter 4

Pete Thorn

I first discovered Pete’s great playing and tone on the Internet. His success is a testament to the power and possibilities of the Internet age. Pete has a modern musical career where he juggles various musical endeavors: solo artist, sideman and hired gun, gear demo guru, and YouTube personality. As a self-proclaimed guitar nerd and a modern tastemaker in the gear world, Pete is a perfect fit for this book. If you have not seen any of his videos, I recommend you take the time and check out his YouTube channel. Pete answered my Tone Wizard questions while on tour.

www.peterthorn.com

www.youtube.com/user/sinasl1

Facebook.com/guitarnerd

At what point in your learning did you begin to understand the importance of tone, the quality of the sound you were creating?

Pete: Pretty early on. I started around 1980-81. I was fascinated by the electric guitar and how it worked. I took apart my first guitar, a Strat copy, and re-assembled it not too long after getting it. I was always interested in the individual parts and what made the guitar tick, so to speak. And with amps and effects, I was the same way, always fascinated by the variables, the tubes, speakers, etc. There were some amazing things happening with electric guitar tone at the time, you had bands like The Police and Rush using chorus, flange, delay, and other effects to create amazing textures. And there was Eddie Van Halen, with his hot rod homemade guitar, and dimed 100-watt Marshall, and the tone was just unreal. So that was all a big influence on me, I always thought the sounds and the tones were integral to the music being created! You couldn’t have the music of Rush or Van Halen or U2, for example, without the guitar tones exactly as they were on those classic recordings. The tones are a part of the music.

Did you stumble on this, mentored by another, heard a recording of your playing, any early memories?

Pete: Well, my earliest teachers had great tones. My teacher Brian Hughes, who I took lessons from when I was 13-16 years old, he played an old 70s Strat that was modded with EMGs, as I remember. He had a cool tone with that guitar. He used to play in rock cover bands but was also a jazz guitarist, and he could cover a lot of ground on that guitar. My old friend Alan Vermue was also an influence, he played in a band on the Canada club circuit and he was a gear nut. He had those 80s Seymour Duncan Convertible heads, and he’d run them into old Marshall or Hiwatt cabs and get a stellar tone. He was even doing a wet/dry/wet rig back then in the 80s, pretty forward thinking! So I was always into the tones from early on. Like I said before, I didn’t separate the tone from the music, I thought of it as an integral part of the music.

When you were first learning, whose tone did you like the best?

Pete: I loved Van Halen. His early tone was just so raw and ballsy. I liked his tone later on, too, it was the 80s, and chorusing or some pitch detune for stereo was all the rage, and Ed’s post-1984 tone featured plenty of that. Later on the modulation thing we all got into using became like eating too much dessert or something; too much of a good thing (lol). But Ed’s tone was just the quintessential rock guitar tone, to me. I dug the humbucker into Marshall thing in general, like AC/DC, Free, all the English metal bands like Priest and Iron Maiden; I loved all that stuff. But I also loved the tones of bands like The Pretenders, U2, The Fixx, and The Police, the sounds you’d hear on the radio every day. Stevie Ray Vaughan was an influence as well.

Can you share examples of songs that you thought had a great tone; your three desert island tunes for tone?

Pete: For number one, I’d pick Mean Street by Van Halen. The open G chord he hits in bar two of the intro is unbelievable, the tone explodes, Marshall Nirvana! I’ve actually listened to that one chord over and over on repeat. It’s just incredibly ballsy and complex sounding. For number two, I’d say Lenny by SRV. It’s just pure and beautiful Strat into Fender amp perfection. It has everything we like about the Strat. There’s the neck pickup warmth and clarity, the bridge pickup bite, the dynamics. The third would be the Edge’s tone on Bullet The Blue Sky. The sound at 3:20, where he’s playing the simple slide stuff, it’s just so riveting. It’s not complex, but it’s perfect. The AC30 combined with Edge’s great simple less-is-more style and note choices. I love when he slowly starts to raise the pitch with the slide, so it pulls out of tune. It creates an amazing tension. Once again, the tone is part of the music. I think Edge alludes to this in the movie It Might Get Loud, where he demonstrates how important the guitar sounds are to inspiring the parts he comes up with. That Vox chime and breakup, the natural tube compression, the penetrating treble and mids that somehow still manage to be smooth. An AC30 in the right hands is a beautiful thing. I could have easily picked Fat Bottomed Girls or Tie Your Mother Down. There are lots of other great AC30 tones.

A year or two later, did this taste evolve or did that original beacon of tone remain constant?

Pete: I think I grew up in an era of incredible creativity when it comes to the guitar, so that basis has remained fundamental for me. The music of the 70s, 80s, and to a large degree the 90s, shaped my idea of good tone, having said that, there’s some incredible stuff out there these days. Look at the tones Matt Bellamy from Muse gets. He’s amazing, forward thinking, and innovative.

Accepting the fact that perfect tone is a process and not a destination. Were you conscious of when you developed your own sound? If so, how closely is this related to the tone?

Pete: I don’t know if I’ve settled on a sound, it’s still a work in progress. I like many different tones. And in my work as a guitarist, I need everything from clean to searing overdrive. Not to over-simplify, but I do think there are four main tones, I call them base tones, as in a tonal basis to build off of. I consider Fender clean, Vox semi-dirt, Marshall crunch, and gainy lead guitar (think modded Marshall, Mesa, Soldano) to be the four base tones food groups. I try and achieve these with my signature Suhr amp, the PT100. I think I can get really close to ideals of all four tones out of this amp.

What has this path been like for you, any sidetracks or missteps you made along the way?

Pete: Yes, for sure. In the late 80s, I got a great amp, the Mesa Caliber 50. Kind of an oddball amp for Mesa, a 4 EL84 amp, and it ran the power section real hard. It had a great tone, a killer lead guitar sound. Well, about a month after I got it, one of the power tubes went bad, and the amp started to sound funny. I decided to trade it on a Mesa pre-amp and a big powerful Mesa all-tube power amp. Everyone was using racks, so I jumped on the rack bandwagon. That stuff sounded okay, but that original Caliber 50-amp was about 40 watts with a unique tone, it sounded great. I should have kept it. Some other regrets are selling an original 1954 Les Paul Gold Top, and my 1959 Gibson J50. If you have a vintage Gibson or Fender and it’s not a dog, DON’T SELL IT!! You’ll regret it.

How is tone related to style and how does it influence your compositions?

Pete: Well, just look at your favorite guitarists and their guitars of choice, as an example, and you can see how certain tones that come out of certain gear works for certain styles. The Strat with single coils works great for guitar styles that require clarity and punch and that stringy thing: funk, R&B, Texas blues. Strats work great with fuzzes as well, think Hendrix, Gilmour, Billy Corgan. Les Pauls and other humbucker guitars work great for heavier, more mid-centric tones, pretty much any heavy rock or hard rock is a good example. So if I pick up my ‘64 Strat and plug it into a semi-clean amp to do some writing, the tone of that guitar and amp will probably not inspire me toward doing some heavy rock riffing. But a Les Paul into a Marshall-type amp will usually inspire some heavier riffs.

How are phrasing and tone related?

Pete: In order to sound good doing lots of hammers and pulls, you need some gain and/or compression, whereas, with alternate picking, too much gain and compression will smear the attack of the pick. I guess it’s all just a balance. Most guitarists will not strictly do all hammers and pulls, or all alternate or sweep picking. It’s usually a combination of those techniques, I’d say.

Do you practice or compose with a clean or dirty sound?

Pete: Both, it depends on what I’m in the mood for.

In what ways do the left and right hands contribute to great tone?

Pete: Your hands are a huge factor, along with the way you pick and attack the strings. A guitarist who plays primarily with their fingers as opposed to a pick can get an incredible range of tone. Look at Jeff Beck or Mark Knopfler. And the left hand is a major factor, too, with vibrato and bending. No two players do it exactly the same. To me, vibrato is like your signature voice on the instrument. The left hand is also very important for muting unused strings as well, I can’t stress that enough.

Does one hand have more of an influence on tone?

Pete: No.

Can a pick produce as great a tone as the naked finger?

Pete: Both pick and finger techniques produce great tone, and it’s up to the individual player what techniques they want to develop. I will say, I think there is more variety when using fingers. But it’s impossible to do some things that you can do with a pick with fingers only and vice versa.

What other elements of your body or being contribute to your tone?

Pete: Just staying relaxed, loose, and breathing normally contribute for sure. Pay attention to your breathing when you are playing complex phrases; you might be surprised. You might find yourself holding your breath. If you can just concentrate on breathing normally, your playing will flow much more naturally. If a phrase is aggressive or quite rhythmic, standing up when playing it, so you can get your body into it, is helpful. If I’m in the studio tracking a busy, rhythmically funky part, for example, I’ll stand up and perform the part as if I was onstage. It will usually give the part more soul and character.

Is it more difficult to create or maintain great tone when playing fast?

Pete: Not really. Playing fast and clean is just a matter of practice. Using a metronome or drum machine and practicing things slowly and cleanly is key.

When you do studio work, or play in support of another artist, do you consciously dial back your stylistic stamp, how so?

Pete: I might not employ certain techniques if they just don’t make sense with the music. I guess I do tone it down, solo-wise. I’ll tend to probably play a bit flashier on my own songs. I try to play for the song. Tonally, I’ll definitely pick the right rig for the gig. The right amp and guitar for a Melissa Etheridge song might not work for playing Chris Cornell’s heavier material, as an example.

One of my first exposures to your playing was through your presentation and amazing performance of Van Halen’s Eruption (See Pete’s YouTube channel). As you state in the video, the key is in the nuances: attach, swing, and feel that comes from you and your fingers. How do you turn this off and on? Is there a way to articulate how a player can achieve the equivalent of a voice impersonator, but with a guitar? Does having the ability to do this leave a permanent stamp of the voice