Facing a mandatory shelter-in ordinance to limit the spread of COVID-19, PG enacted a hybrid approach to filming and producing Rig Rundowns. This is the seventh video in that format, and we stand behind the final product.
In this episode, we catch up with longtime Brooklyn musical fixture Eric Krasno who has co-founded funky jam outfits Lettuce and Soulive, played bass and guitar with Tedeschi Trucks Band and Phil Lesh and Friends, and has written/produced with diverse artists like Justin Timberlake, Talib Kweli, Norah Jones, and 50 Cent. He recently made the transcontinental trek to relocate in SoCal providing him more collaborative opportunities and a residence with a full studio space. The guitarist, bassist, producer, and now podcaster, welcomes PG’s Chris Kies into his new recording dojo for a fascinating chat covering his path from guitarist to producer to singer/songwriter, explaining the development of his signature Ibanez, detailing how singers influence his playing style, and admitting he produces others tougher than himself.
Long before becoming a signature artist, Eric Krasno has been plucking and bending strings on Ibanez guitars for years. He was mostly associated with semi-hollows in the form of AS100s and hollowbody George Benson models. After a few years of working with R&D and then road testing the guitars, the above model is Eric’s signature Ibanez EKM100 that’s made in Japan and can be loaded with the company’s Super 58 humbuckers or DiMarzio PAF 36th Anniversary humbuckers. Its beefy neck matches the one found on a ES-335 that was gifted to him by former bandmate Derek Trucks. For strings, this one (and similar semi-hollows) take D’Addario NYXL .011–.049s. (Ibanez does have offer a Chinese-made model that has different tonewoods and is stock with the Super 58s. We reviewed that model in 2015.)
Here is the aforementioned Gibson Custom Shop Historic Collection 1959 ES-335 Dot reissue in vintage sunburst that was given to him from Derek Trucks and used to create Krasno’s fat neck profile on his Ibanez sigs.
Above is a George Benson signature hollowbody that takes La Bella Jazz Flats Custom Medium (.012–.052).
You often would find Krasno loving up on a PRS Vela for years, but he’s gone back to his single-coil roots with the Silver Sky to embrace his inner rocker that was sparked by Hendrix. To compensate for the longer scale, he goes with D’Addario NYXL .010–.046 strings.
This 1973 Fender P that boogied with the Tedeschi Trucks Band and countless recordings hasn’t had new strings in over 20 years.
Krasno scored this 1961 Gibson EB-2 in a Florida pawnshop and later found out that it was originally owned and used by the Champs, who are most famous for igniting dance parties with the hypnotic thump in “Tequila.”
Eric’s favorite acoustic right now is this Rockbridge OO. The 14-fret flattop has a dead, darker, warm tone because it’s built with mahogany top, back, and sides.
A big plus to making cross-country move was the ability to plug into his tube amps without booking a rehearsal space. A fave that he’s been bonding with at his new home studio this Supro Statesman. On top of the 5881-powered head is the Universal Audio OX that captures real tube amp tones via a direct signal and then allows someone to quickly swap between various speaker sizes, cabinets, and even microphones through the box’s proprietary modeling tech. While still in Brooklyn, Krasno saw this as invaluable, and while he now has the room and ability to crank up, he still loves the flexibility it gives him when wearing the producer’s hat.
Hands down, this is Eric’s favorite amp—an Alessandro-modded 1965 Fender Super Reverb. He scooped this gem during a Tedeschi Trucks Band run at NYC’s Beacon Theater when famed amp tech George Alessandro brought a few Supers for he and Trucks to check out, and Krasno couldn’t leave it behind.
This is Krasno’s big-boy board that sees the stage during full tours and studio sessions. It starts with the Dunlop GCB95F Cry Baby Classic, then the Analog Man Envelope Filter, and an MXR Super Badass Variac Fuzz into the Supro Drive. Next you have the Boss TU-2 Chromatic Tuner feeding the Boss TR-2 into a Pigtronix Echolution 2 Filter Pro, and finally the chain ends with a Source Audio True Spring Reverb. The DVP4 Mini Volume controls the Pigtronix pedal and he typically uses the God-Vibe chorus/vibrato unit, but it was catching radio stations, so he unplugged it for the interview.
When he was hitting one of the five boroughs or catching a fly-in gig, this is his travel board that is loaded with mini monsters including four MXR micros (Sugar Drive, Classic 108 Fuzz, Phase 95, Carbon Copy), a Mooer Trelicopter, and an Electro-Harmonix Holy Grail.
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Chris Kies has degrees in Journalism and History from the University of Iowa and has been with PG dating back to his days as an intern in 2007. He's now the multimedia manager maintaining the website and social media accounts, coordinating Rig Rundown shoots (also hosting and/or filming them) and occasionally writing an artist feature. Other than that, he spends time with his pitbull and enjoys non-guitar-related hobbies. Follow him on Instagram & Twitter.
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