The rockabilly icon struts onstage with a trio of Gretsch 6120s, a pair of early ’60s Fender Bassmans, and a silky Roland 301 Chorus-Echo.
Two-time Grammy Award-winning rockabilly hero Brian Setzer recently played a sold-out show at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium in support of his new solo album, The Devil Always Collects. Tyler Sweet, who has teched for Setzer for 17 years, took PG’s John Bohlinger through the rig that rocked this town, and just about every other town in the world over Setzer’s 40 years of twanging and sanging.
Brought to you by D'Addario XSRR Strings.
With his recognizable arsenal of plucky semi-hollows, Setzer has probably done more for the Gretsch brand than any other player in the last half-century. On this tour, Setzer brought out some old friends, like this 1959 Gretsch G6120 with gold hardware, rebuilt and restored by TV Jones. Jones treated it to a total overhaul, including a neck reset, a refret with a new radius, new inlays in the upper register, fresh binding side dots on the bass side and lacquer on the neck, a new bridge, reversed toggle switches, and an upgraded Wilkinson Delrin nut—plus, he removed the zero and fret-fill behind the nut. Like all of Setzer’s guitars, this supercharged swing machine stays strung with D’Addario EXL 110s (.010-.046), which Setzer strikes with medium celluloid picks.
In a 2014 interview with Setzer, PG featured had a sidebar with guitar guru TV Jones who detailed what he did to Brian’s guitars and how he created his signature pickup: “TV Jones mastermind Tom Jones—who’s been rehabilitating old pickups and winding new ones for Brian Setzer for 20+ years—explains the process behind the Stray Cat’s new signature pickups.
“It’s my job to ensure that all of Brian’s guitars play and sound the absolute best they can possibly be,” says Jones, who debuted the pickups at the March 2014 Musikmesse gear show in Frankfurt, Germany. “A few years back, I found that a few of Brian’s new Hot Rod signature guitars—which were sent to me by Gretsch to set up for his upcoming tours—sounded slightly brighter acoustically. So I decided to design a new pickup to bring out the best in these guitars—higher fidelity on top, with a slight punch in the bottom end—by using sonically unmatched coils and custom steel-alloy pole screws. The results were beyond my expectations.”
Jones also reworked this 1960 Gretsch G6120, which bears nickel hardware. He scraped a new shape in the neck, then refinished the lacquered neck and face cap. Like his work on the ’59, Jones also removed the zero fret and filled behind the nut (another Wilkoloid Delrin), manipulated the pickups, replaced the fretboard binding and inlays with side dots, fit a new bridge, turned around the toggle switches, and gave it a refret and new conical fretboard radius.
For a more modern accent, Setzer plays his 2004 Gretsch G6120T-HR Brian Setzer Signature Hot Rod in magenta sparkle. This guitar is all stock.
Setzer tours with two blonde Bassmans—one from 1962 and the other from ’63, but both with a 6G6-B circuit. They run into matching Bassman 2x12 cabs, which run 12" Oxford speakers. Setzer usually uses one amp and has the other as a backup, but has been known to run both when it makes sense for the venue.
Setzer has a Boss TR-2 Tremolo in his line for the occasional tremolo, and brings as many as six of the stompboxes on the road with him, just in case. Ditto his Roland 301 Chorus-Echos, which range between 1983 and 1986. The units are old and fragile, so in case one taps out, there’s another to take its place. Setzer wires his set up with Mogami cables, with Amphenol silent ends.
With nearly 50 years of gigs under her belt, twang queen Rosie Flores talks about recording with Rockabilly legend Janis Martin, why her car is her favorite workspace, and how she gets gristly tones with super-light strings.
Photo by Didier Chevalier
“Make me sound like I’m a big, fat, sweaty guitar-player guy,” rockabilly filly Rosie Flores says at the beginning of our interview at her filled-to-capacity show at New York City’s famed Mercury Lounge. “Don’t think about my gender. I’ve said from the beginning, whatever you do, don’t think, ‘This is Rosie, I have to make her guitar sound sweet.’”
And she’s right—there’s no need to be gentle. Flores, 62, kicks major ass whenever she takes the stage, as she proved on that chilly November evening. Halfway through the show, tequila in hand, she brought up special guests Earl Slick and mega-producer Mark Hudson (Clapton, Aerosmith, Ozzy Osbourne) and held the pompadoured and tattooed crowd captive with a take-no- prisoners onslaught of rabble-rousing guitar work: Slick’s low E minor pentatonic triplets were answered in a blink of an eye by doppelgänger lines an octave higher, and Hudson’s vocal flourishes were matched by Flores’s kinetic double-stop bends and Bigsby-bent trills. And three weeks before that, she was throwing down equally greasy mayhem with Motörhead’s Lemmy Kilmister and blues sensation Joe Bonamassa, as she duck-walked across the stage at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame tribute to Chuck Berry.
Flores got hooked on guitar at age 6 when her brother taught her standard E, A, and D chords. At 16, she started her first band, and a big flashpoint occurred around 1979, when she discovered Janis Martin—one of the few women who’d worked in country and rockabilly in the 1950s. (Martin’s onstage dance moves even earned her the “Female Elvis” nickname.)
“I’d been doing country and rock, and to me rockabilly had kind of married the two genres. I was excited by the energy and the look of rockabilly, so I switched over,” says Flores. In 1995, Flores reached out to Martin, who had long since retired from music, to appear on her album Rockabilly Filly. In 2007, Flores coproduced The Blanco Sessions with Martin, recording 11 tracks in two days. Tragically, Martin died four months after the album was completed. Her passing made it virtually impossible to find an interested label for the record, so after exhausting all the possibilities, Flores set up an extensive Kickstarter campaign. Five years and $16,571 later, The Blanco Sessions was finally released in October 2012.
But Flores didn’t just spend the past five years Kickstarting. Her 11th album, Working Girl’s Guitar, was released the same month, and it showcases her talents in the guitar, vocals, and production departments—a first for Flores. We caught up with the tireless Texan to get the scoop on the album, her gear, and the trials and tribulations of her life as a road warrior.
What inspired your move to take on so
many duties with your latest album?
I’ve coproduced all my records through the
years. I’m in the studio for every second of it,
all the way down to the mastering process, so
I’ve learned how to make records and I know
what needs to be done from the production
end of things. I felt like I didn’t really need anybody’s
help on this one. I knew exactly what to
do—especially after I produced Janis’ record.
I’ve also learned how it is that I like to be
spoken to as an artist—what somebody might
say that might set me off and what somebody
might say that makes me feel more relaxed.
What kinds of things has a producer said
that set you off?
One thing I got early on was, “You need to
go listen to Barbra Streisand.” I was like,
“What?” That was when I was 21, at my
first recording session in Los Angeles. Also,
something like, “Gosh, maybe you better go
home and learn that part. I’m used to working
with really good guitar players.”
Someone actually said that to you?
Yeah, somebody actually said that to me once
and it’s, like, “Thanks a lot.” Everything that
happens to you in life, you take it and you
account it. You go, “Note to self: Never say
that to anybody when you’re producing” or,
“Note to self: Never take shit from anyone.”
Rosie Flores goes for a huge bend at the 13th fret of her James Trussart SteeltopCaster, which is equipped with a TV Jones neck pickup and a Bigsby vibrato. Photo by James Via Photography
And what might someone say to
encourage you?
If someone wants to say something to
encourage the way I’m sounding or playing,
they’re, like, “Whoa, that was amaaazzing.”
When somebody compliments you, you’re,
like, “Really? Cool!” And it makes you want
to go back and do more. As a producer, it’s
your role to get the artist to produce something
great. It’s, like, “What can you tell
somebody to get them to shine?” It’s about
showing people how to believe in themselves.
Y’know, I started teaching guitar when I was younger, and I learned how to encourage young players. I would make a really big deal out of just anything that they would start to get. Like, when my brother said to me, “Whoa—you got that really fast,” that egged me on when I first learned how to play.
“Surf Demon #5” is a catchy and fun
instrumental. Have you done much
instrumental work in the past?
No, it’s always been tied in with songs.
There was a guy in Germany who asked
me to play on his record, and I only played
guitar on the record. In fact, I was the
only guitarist on the record. A band called
Norrin Radd, which is an alter ego of the
Silver Surfer.
At the end of that tune, you have the
guitar feeding back and hovering near the
major 3rd of the final minor chord. Was
that done to evoke a particular vibe?
I just wanted to create tension. It was built
off an A minor chord, and I bent the note
with the Bigsby. I also used some overdrive
and a lot of tremolo from the amp. I
wanted to make it kind of scary sounding
and wicked. I told [the engineer], “Make
me sound like you would make Brian Setzer
sound—don’t think of me as being any
different.” We had a fun time talking about
guitar tones before we started. I’m a guitar
geek. I love the Hellecasters, old Chet
Akins, Jeff Beck and the Yardbirds.
Do you feel your lead playing is sometimes
overlooked?
Yeah, kind of, which is one of the reasons
why I wanted to make sure I was the only
guitar player on this new record. A lot of
times people hear my songs on Sirius radio
and they’re, like, “That’s a really cool song.
I really like the voice,” but they don’t put
it together that I’m playing guitar on it as
well. And, actually, throughout the years I
have hired a lot of other great guitar players—like Albert Lee, Duane Jarvis, and
Pete Anderson. I’ve had great guitar players
working with me because I’m a fan of great
guitar playing.
While your lead playing is flashy at times,
you always balance things so that it never
takes over the song.
Thanks. I take pride in trying to treat
each song like what it’s uniquely calling
for. I’m also a vocalist, so I try not to
overplay—I try to make room for the
vocals. A lot of guitar players don’t really
think about that. They just want to play
every note they know and be flashy. I
think it’s important to hold back. I’ve
been taught to play that way by people
like Greg Leisz, who has backed me for
years. I learned things like how to do
fills when someone is singing, and when
it’s time to kick butt, then you go for it.
How did you first get into Janis
Martin?
I was really getting into rockabilly, and
I was at a show in San Francisco watching
a band called Levi and the Rockats.
I was talking to a girl standing next to
me, and she asked, “What songs do
you do—do you cover any old classics?”
I said, “Yeah, I do some Eddie
Cochran, Wanda Jackson, and some
Annette Brothers.” She said, “That’s
cool. Do you do any Janis Martin?” I
said, “Who?” And she said, “If you don’t
know Janis Martin, you don’t know anything
about rockabilly,” then she walked
away. So I went and bought her record
and became a fan from that day on.
Did the inspiration for covering Janis’
hit “Drugstore Rock ’n Roll” on
Working Girl’s Guitar come about
after working on The Blanco Sessions?
Yeah, because this album is about showing
every era of music that I’ve been involved
with. I’ve got stuff that sounds like Tom
Petty all the way back to Elvis, surf music,
and everything in between.
Flores onstage with Earl Slick at the Mercury
Lounge. Photo by Michael Polito
A good number of your song choices—like “Love Must Have Passed Me By” and
“While My Guitar Gently Weeps”—have
a feeling of longing and sadness.
Well, first of all, there’s a lot of truth in
the lyrics of that song for me, because I’ve
never been married and I’ve had a hard time
keeping relationships because I’ve been basically
a road doggie since I was 18 years old.
I have been in love, but it never seems to
work out for me, and the lyrics of that song
really spoke to me. There was also a double
reason to do it, because I was a Bobby Vee
fan when I was young—I loved his records.
And I was working with his son [bassist,
Bobby Vee]—he’s the bass player that’s on
the [new] record—and he said, “In case
you’re looking for material, I’m going to
send you some of my dad’s songs.” That was
the one that stood out to me. It was nice to
play those pretty guitar lines with really clear
and bell-like tones. As a player, it spoke to
me—the melancholy part and the sadness. It
actually brought the engineer to tears.
What made you decide to do an acoustic
arrangement of ““While My Guitar
Gently Weeps”?
I didn’t plan on a totally acoustic treatment
of it, but I was sitting in my car—I keep
an acoustic in there so I can jam along with
my recordings or whatever I’m doing—and
that’s how I came up with the idea. I took
it into the studio that day, and the engineer
was like, “Wow, that’s really working.” I
listened back and said, “That sounds good.
Let’s go with that.” I’m playing two different
acoustic guitars—an old Martin [for
rhythm], and I did the lead tracks on an
Art & Lutherie acoustic.
So your car is sort of a makeshift
practice space.
It’s like my little studio sometimes. I’m in
there and I’m working—nobody’s going to
bother me, and the phone’s not going to
ring. Sometimes I like to go and listen to
mixes in my car, because I like the way it
sounds in there. I can hear really well inside
my car, because the speakers are great and
I’m in a nice, confined area. I do a lot of
my song learning in the car in my driveway.
Do you keep a recorder there to capture
ideas you might have, too?
No, I don’t need to record there. That’s
just where I practice—singing and playing
guitar parts. If I want to work on vocal
harmonies, I can do so as I’m driving. If
I want to record something, I’ll go into
my office and use GarageBand.
How do you get such a strong attack
without sounding heavy handed?
I’m not heavy handed, and I don’t break
strings unless I leave them on there for a
month—and it’s usually a high .008 that
I break. I think part of that is because I
have four acrylic nails on my right hand
and I use them right at the end of my fingers,
as picks. I also use a medium pick.
So when you play the faster rockabilly
stuff, do you use a pick or your nails?
I’m grabbing the strings with my right-hand
nails. I stroke down with the pick
and then I flip up with the middle and
index fingers [sings rhythm-guitar figure].
And sometimes I’ll use my index finger
to pluck up on the string and get it to
go boing. I use that finger a lot. You can
tell because the fingernail polish is all
worn out on that finger.
How do you get such a thick tone
using .008s?
I try not to play really hard. I use .008s
on top and .038s on the bottom. One
of my biggest influences is this guy
Jimmy Wilsey, who used to play with
Chris Isaak. I love the way he bent his
notes. Of course, I also listened to Jeff
Beck, Albert Lee, and Billy Gibbons, and I
know that those guys used light strings—Billy Gibbons uses a .007 on top and his
tone is so fat. It’s all in the way that you
set your overdrive and your amp tones.
You really don’t need to play that hard to
get that tone. If you play with grace and
finesse, you don’t have to dig in there to
get a hard rock sound. A lot of guys are
like, “Oh, I gotta use .012s on top. I don’t
know how you play this.” I’m like, “Don’t
play my guitar, please—you’re going to
break my strings!” [Laughs.]
Rosie Flores' Gear
Guitars
2011 James Trussart SteeltopCaster,
2011 Gretsch Tennessee Rose,
Gretsch G5135 Electromatic Corvette reissue,
Gibson ’60s reissue Les Paul,
Gretsch White Penguin with gold Bigsby,
1984 Fender ’60s Tele reissue,
2009 Gibson 1960 Les Paul reissue,
Martin acoustic,
Art & Lutherie parlor acoustic,
Taylor 612 acoustic
Amps
Fender 1965 Deluxe Reverb reissue,
Fender Blues Junior,
’50s Fender Princeton
Effects
Durham Electronics Sex Drive,
Cris Burns Audio Overdrive,
Boss DM-2 delay
Strings, Picks, and Accessories
Ernie Ball Extra Slinky .008–.038 strings,
Fender medium picks,
Elixir Nanoweb acoustic strings
(“As light as I can find”),
Monster cable
Tell us about your guitars.
I’m now using a Trussart SteeltopCaster—the back is wooden. I was playing a regular
’60s reissue Tele that I had gotten from
when Los Lobos went over to the Fender
factory in the ’80s.
How did you get the bright-yet-warm
clean sound on “Yeah Yeah”?
I used an old ’50s Fender Princeton on
that. It’s got its own tremolo in it. I also
used an old Boss delay from the ’80s.
When you started out, there were almost
no guitar-playing women on the scene.
How did that strike you?
It was 1966 and I was really excited, because
I had never heard of any other female playing
lead-guitar rock music in a band. I didn’t
know what the future held, I just knew that
I loved doing it. My father took us down
to the music store and said, “If you guys
really want to do this, I’ll help you.” And he
signed for, like, $5,000 worth of gear.
Wow—that’s a lot of money even now.
That was a lot of money back then, and my
dad was a postal clerk. He said, “You better
start working, because your payment is $80
a month.” We became professionals because
we had to pay the bill off.
YouTube It
to see and hear Rosie Flores (aka “the Rockabilly Filly”) whipping
up a storm, check out the following clips on Youtube.com.
Earl Slick and producer/
vocalist Mark Hudson join
Flores onstage at NYC’s
Mercury Lounge for a twangtastic
jam.
On this live version of the title
track from her latest release,
Flores whips out wicked rapid-
fi re licks beginning at 4:32,
and then follows them up with
some SRV-esque phrasing to
close out the number.
Flores pays homage to rockabilly
legend Janis Martin
with a cover of her jukeboxjumpin’
hit “Drugstore Rock
’n Roll” at NYC’s Rodeo Bar.
A few Americana-influenced blues licks that you will be able to get under your fingers quickly and use on the next Tuesday night blues jam.
Chops: Advanced Beginner
Theory: Intermediate
Lesson Overview:
• Learn how to play faux
open-G licks by retuning
only one string.
• Play a Texas shuffle à la
Stevie Ray Vaughan.
• Master the elements of
a “train beat.”
I am a big roots-rock guy. To me, roots rock is a mix of blues, rock, country, honky tonk, and a ton of attitude. There are lots of open chords and strings ringing all over the place, plus a few spilled beers. In this month’s lesson, we’re going to look at a few Americana-influenced blues licks that you will be able to get under your fingers quickly and use on the next Tuesday night blues jam.
Two of my favorite players in this genre are David Grissom and Eddy Shaver. For Grissom, I’d suggest Joe Ely’s Live at Liberty Lunch and any of his solo records. He is a master of this style. Unfortunately, Eddy Shaver (Billy Joe Shaver’s son) passed away in 2000, but not without leaving us some great recordings. I highly suggest Billy’s Unshaven: Live at Smith’s Olde Bar. Man, that guy could play and what a tone.
The lick in Fig. 1 uses a neat tuning trick I picked up from ZZ Top’s “Jesus Just Left Chicago.” We’re in the key of G, which is a great key for open strings because the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th strings are a G chord. Note: To get a full low G that has some ring to it, I’ve lowered the 5th string down to G. This makes this lick a breeze to play and emphasizes all those open strings. Dropped-G tuning offers some of the benefits of full open G tuning, yet soloing is much easier because your top four strings stay in standard tuning.
You can hear a bit more influence from the Rev. Billy Gibbons in Fig. 2. This is a funky, rootsy lick in A that uses a cool little bend. This lick is like mixing ZZ Top’s “La Grange” with the bridge of Zep’s “Black Dog.” Play the A chord by barring the 4th and 3rd strings, so your pinky can grab the C at the 5th fret and give it a slight bend. Don’t bend it too much—just keep it cool and bluesy. That’s the “La Grange” part. We alternate the low notes at the end of each two-measure phrase between an F# and a G, just like Page does on “Black Dog.” I always loved that.
This next lick in Fig. 3 is literally the “root” of rock ’n’ roll. You can find traces of this lick from Muddy Waters and Hubert Sumlin to Jonny Lang and Warren Haynes. It has swagger and attitude, and it grooves hard. Also, it has inspired a ton of tunes, most notably would be Hendrix’s “Voodoo Chile (Slight Return).” As a result, I teach this to all of my students. It’s important to sit into the groove right on this one and the bend/pulloff combo can be a bit challenging. If all you do for the next few days is perfect this lick, you’ll have done yourself a great favor.
I am such a sucker for the shuffle feel in Fig. 4—not to mention the sound of those big ringing open chords combined with a little bluesy riff. This one plays up that great sound of mixing the scale’s lowered 3 and natural 3. An important element to getting this to sound right is not to play too softly. Really smack the crap out of the strings. Also, don’t gain out your amp too much— you want to keep the clarity of the chords.
We could easily devote a whole column to Stevie Ray Vaughan’s rhythm style, but you can get a good idea of the feel he typically uses on tunes such as “Pride and Joy” and “Cold Shot” in Fig. 5. Basically it goes between E and A while adding some of that classic Texas shuffle. When first trying to play this, I stumbled on a happy mistake: Over-barring with your 1st finger on the A chord lets you catch the F# on the 2nd fret. Whoa! This not only sounds cool because you form an A6 chord, it also makes the riff easier to play. Your picking hand plays a huge part in this lick by constantly swinging the eighth-notes and muting the strings. Not sure what I mean? Just watch almost any video of SRV and all will be clear.
No roots lesson would be complete without a good train beat. I love this feel, but soloing over it really kicks your butt because the tempo demands some ripping. Fig. 6 is basically just an A chord, but the hard part is keeping the low A pumping on beats 1 and 3. I also use hybrid picking on this, so my pick plays the low A and my middle and ring fingers pluck the 3rd and 2nd strings, respectively. Not easy, but super cool.
I hope you enjoyed some of these roosty blues licks. They’re a big part of my playing and hopefully they’ll open a few doors for you.
Jeff McErlain is a New York City-based guitar player, producer, songwriter, and educator. He performs regularly in NYC and abroad with his trio and blues band. Jeff has a number of instructional DVDs available at TrueFire.com, and he is a featured instructor for the National Guitar Workshop. Jeff's latest CD I'm Tired is available on iTunes or at jeffmcerlain.com.