Rick Nielsen, Tom Petersson, and Robin Zander on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Bang, Zoom, Crazy… Hello, and … time travel?
It’s only three weeks until both the release of Cheap Trick’s 17th LP, Bang, Zoom, Crazy… Hello, and their April 8th induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. And yet when PG talks to the band’s guitarists—Rick Nielsen, bassist Tom Petersson, and singer Robin Zander—their most candid and intriguing thoughts come not in response to inquiries about the prestigious gala, nor to those about their first studio album in seven years. What really gets them going is our silly time-travel question.
It’s not so much that they don’t care about the Hall of Fame honors—how could they not? It’s just that Nielsen, Zander, and Petersson seem to view it all with a mixture of vicarious gratitude and bemusement: The ceremony is mere days away, and yet the Hall still hasn’t relayed any particulars—including which songs they will play—and for their part, the band seems mostly stoked about the fact that the honor acknowledges legions of stalwart fans who vied for their induction over the last 14 years.
The fact that one of the interview’s most revealing exchanges came after a quantum-physics hypothetical—of late, the most aggravating method of imbuing sci-fi movies with some sort of “twist”—has nothing to do with Nielsen and company being Star Trek dweebs and everything to do with what the melodic geniuses behind “Surrender,” “I Want You to Want Me,” and “Dream Police”(incidentally, the tracks they ended up playing in Brooklyn) have been going through behind the scenes.
For starters, although Nielsen’s son Daxx has been handling drum duties on the quartet’s relentless tours since 2010, Zander, Petersson, and the elder Nielsen have been embroiled in lawsuits with original drummer Bun E. Carlos for years. In early 2015 the case was finally settled on unusual terms that designate Carlos an official member of the band, though apart from the recent HoF performance, his actual musical involvement ended with 2009’s The Latest.
As with everything, the band’s wacky wit played into the revealing exchange, too. Say what you will, but as catchy as their tunes are, and as electrifying as their live shows continue to be, Cheap Trick would be nowhere without its glib, offbeat humor—the lion’s share of which is doled out in (checkerboard-patterned) spades by Rick Nielsen. From his logo-inscribed bowties and cardigans to his signature flipped-bill ball caps, goofy onstage persona, and head-turning collection of guitars—including 5-necked monstrosities and double-necked caricatures of himself in his trademark thumbs-up pose—Nielsen’s quirkiness has always been key to making the Midwest legends infinitely more than an energetic rock outfit that can pull off ballads.
Of course, the shtick would be tiresome and empty if Nielsen’s raw and melodic but not quite straightforward style didn’t combine with Zander’s instantly identifiable voice and the bristling thunder of Petersson’s 12-string basses to form a singular sound. Informed by early American rock ’n’ roll, British Invasion bands, glam, and even prog-rock outfits like Electric Light Orchestra, Cheap Trick has always been one of the few bands that can effortlessly traipse across the tightrope between sensitive fare that gets the girls swooning and blistering numbers that rage as hard as anything this side of metal.
And the same holds true for Bang, Zoom, Crazy… Hello. Comprising 11 tunes born from bits of band members’ riff repositories and Zander’s writing sessions with producer and “fifth band member” Julian Raymond, it is classic Cheap Trick in several senses. Album opener “Do You Believe Me?”—an old live-show favorite—begins with a swaggering octave motif, Zander’s impeccable howls, what may well be Petersson’s most rambunctious bass work ever, and a slippery, unhinged solo that consumes a third of the song’s total play time. Next up, “No Direction” features Beatles-inspired jangle and anthemic vocals of the sort that put the band on the map, and by track three, “When I Wake up Tomorrow”—which somehow manages to be melancholy, hopeful, and rocking—the quartet has laid to rest any question of whether they’ve still got it. An obvious act of catharsis, Bang pulses with energy and enthusiasm reminiscent of the band’s breakthrough album, 1978’s Live at Budokan.
First off, huge congratulations on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction.
Rick Nielsen: Oh well, thank you! I would have voted for us earlier, but y’know.
Robin Zander: I appreciate that, and our fans probably appreciate it more than I do. They deserve it, sticking up for Cheap Trick all these years—standing by us through our ups and downs. Something like this really solidifies why they stuck around.
Tom Petersson: They sort of hounded us with, “We’ve got to get you in the Hall of Fame!” They were voting and writing, and it really was nice.
Do you know which songs you’ll be playing at the ceremony?
Zander: No, that’s the weirdest thing. We can’t get a straight answer out of anybody over there—they dictate what songs they want you to play. It’s kinda weird, but there you go.
Nielsen: We’re just lucky our fans kept us relevant, and we’re lucky that we like what we do. The fact that we can record, the fact that we are still going—it’s all good news.
That’s as good a segue as any, so let’s jump into talking about the genesis of Bang, Zoom, Crazy… Hello.
Zander: About a year ago, we signed with Big Machine and had a meeting about how we should do it. Then we went home and started collecting our thoughts individually. I decided to go out and write with Julian Raymond, who I’ve been writing with since the ’80s. He’s not only like family, but he sort of became a fifth member of our group. I wrote the first seven songs with him, then we came back to Nashville and sat around the studio and wrote about seven more with Rick and Tom, bringing some old ideas and fresh ideas to the table. Then we thought maybe we’d do a cover tune and reach back in history and pick one we played in the ’70s before we made records, which was “The In Crowd.” Before you knew it, we had about 25 songs.
Nielsen: We have another album basically kind of ready. Well, not ready—because there’s no order and we haven’t made any final choices—but we have enough good songs that next time we go to put out a record, we’re not starting from scratch.
Got anything to add about the writing process this time around, Rick?
Nielsen: Some of the songs started out as just a guitar riff, some started out as complete songs. Some started out as an old idea that just needed to get fleshed out. It’s basically the way we’ve always done it. We don’t sit in a room and write together—we never did that. Sometimes we sit together and Robin will say, “Hey Rick, what do you think about a lyric for this?” I’ll say, “Well, I’d change this to this.” Some of the songs might not be my favorite ideas, but I’ll work hard on them to make them good.
YouTube It
Robin Zander, Rick Nielsen, Tom Petersson, and Bun E. Carlos perform “Surrender” at their 2016 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction. YouTube search term: 2016 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Cheap Trick After Speech Part 3
Cheap Trick live in 2012 (left to right): Rick Nielsen with a Hamer Standard and Fuchs Train-45 heads driving checkerboard-patterned Gibson cabs, Robin Zander with his signature Schecter 12-string driving Vox AC30s (at right), Daxx Nielsen, and Tom Petersson with a Waterstone 12-string bass driving a Hiwatt and a mountain of Oranges. Photo by Joe Russo
Sounds like pretty democratic clockwork.
Petersson: Oh yeah, it’s always been like that. We always travel with instruments and are thinking of stuff all the time, and then we get together and say, “What do you got? Okay, I’ve got this idea.” “Oh, that’s great—wait a minute, I love that bridge. That’ll fit in with something that I’ve got an idea for….” Now it’s nice with cell phones—you don’t have to have a cassette player with you all the time.
Nielsen: I’ve got a jillion of those [collected song ideas]—I’m a real hoarder. I’ve still got scraps of paper that I wrote on in junior high school. And I don’t say this as a joke—I go back and look at some of the stuff I have and think, “I should pursue that!” But I always have new ideas, so it’s really hard to get back to the old ones, even though they’re just as valid as anything.
Rick, how did you write out your ideas as a kid, and is it different from now?
Nielsen: I could write without an instrument. I know the twelve notes, so I could write a song—maybe not knowing the exact key, but I knew where the chords went. I started out as a drummer, so I used to know that instead of [counts] “one, two, three, four,” it’s “one-e-and-a, two-e-and-a…” so I could do the flow or rhythm of a lyric and know where to put stuff. That’s the way I’ve always written—probably something I wrote a month ago was the same way I wrote in high school.
Let’s talk about some specific tracks. “Heart on the Line” just rages with this palpable energy that rivals Live at Budokan.
Petersson: Yeah, we put that song together a long time ago, about ’87. It just never made it on a record. We were finally, like, “Screw this, let’s do it—that thing sounds great.”
Zander: The demo was recorded in Rockford [Illinois], and when Rick and I put it together it was Tom’s bass line that drove the song. The sound he got on that thing was unbelievable! We must have spent a whole day trying to reproduce that sound when we did the actual recording.
Nielsen: I just liked that it was simple rock, straight-ahead stuff. It’s got, like, three chords to it, but it was put together the right way.
“When I Wake up Tomorrow” manages to do what few ballads today do: It’s simple and catchy, but it feels authentically emotional—even forlorn—without being rendered overwrought by slick production.
Nielsen: Yeah, I think it’s a legit emotional kind of piece. The lyric to it is, like, “Will you be here when I wake up tomorrow?” Most songs the guy’s trying to get laid or whatever, but I think it’s a bit more cerebral—it sounds like [it could go in] a good episode of Ray Donovan. It’s like something you could base a TV show or movie on.
Zander: That was the first song Julian and I put together. Julian brought it in, and I took the chorus and turned it around—added a few of my nonsense lyrics. I was sort of trying to channel the Ziggy Stardust album, because it reminded me of that. It started out with this tension on the acoustic, which I played, but then when we brought it to the band it became this cool, dark, kind of “Cheap Trick does Ziggy Stardust” thing.
Which acoustic did you use for that, Robin?
Zander: It was a Gibson [Roy] Smeck. I’ve had it for a long time, years and years.It sounds fantastic. I used it during all of our shows when we did the Sgt. Pepper shows in Las Vegas [in 2007].
This sounds like a good time to talk about the rest of the gear for the album. Rick, you’re famous for your extensive collection of vintage guitars. Which ones did you use this time around?
Nielsen: A handful of stuff. I actually brought some of my old Hamers in—they made some great guitars for me. The checkerboard Hamer Standard is great. I’ve had that one since 1979, I think.
The same one that’s on the gatefold of Dream Police?
Nielsen: Yeah, that’s the same one. It’s kind of beat up, and instead of black and white it’s yellow and white. I have a great maple-necked Esquire that I used quite a bit, too.
The one you got from Jeff Beck?
Nielsen: No, that one sounds great and I have that in the studio too, but I also have a black one. They’re both good. Of course, I still use all my old Les Pauls. I think I used an SG or two. I use some Gretsch stuff for rhythm, a Gretsch Billy-Bo [Jupiter Thunderbird], and on some of the demos I probably used my Guild Merle Travis. Oh, I forgot one: Paul Hamer started making guitars again [under the H Guitars brand], and I had the original—I think it’s the prototype. He used, like, 400-year-old wood, and the headstock is tilted backwards—it almost looks like a lute. He’s making another one for me right now.
What about you, Tom?
Petersson: I mainly used my ’64 Thunderbird, Precision basses, and Hofners—because nothing sounds like a Hofner. It’s got that thick sound and that punchy, early-Beatles sound. And boy, if you need to get an upright sound and don’t want to have to play an upright, get a Hofner and you’re home free.
Is the Thunderbird pretty much stock?
Petersson: Yeah, it’s a ’64 reverse Thunderbird II, with just a single pickup. I only use the one pickup anyway—I never use the bridge pickup on those things.
YouTube It
The official music video for Bang, Zoom, Crazy… Hello’s new single “When I Wake up Tomorrow.”
What about the Precisions?
Petersson: I always recommend if anybody only had to have one bass, get a Precision. They are just fantastic. Simple. There’s no beating them. They’ve got low end and high end. They can sound nasty and they can sound soft, and they’re the most durable. In the early ’60s I got a ’56, which has the single-coil—I don’t bring that around too much because they’re kind of noisy and asking for trouble. The split pickup is the way to go. I’ve got a ’58 that I use a lot, and I’ve got a great ’65 with a flat, wide neck.
I also recently got my own Gretsch White Falcon signature 12-string bass.It’s mint green like the Double Anniversary, with darker green sides and back, and gold binding and hardware. It’s killer sharp.I’ve got three of them right now—two are prototypes, but they’re out of the Custom Shop.
The 12-string bass has been a big part of your sound for decades, but do you mind quickly relating how it came about?
Petersson: It started out when Rick and I were living in Philadelphia [during their time with Bun E. Carlos in the band Fuse] and I had the idea. We wanted to have a big sound with a small group. I had a Fender Electric XII and I found an octave box. My idea was to have the low end following what I played on the 12-string to create bass parts, but it didn’t follow at all—you’d have to play really slow, and if you did two notes at the same time the thing freaked out. I thought, “What if you had an instrument that was like a 12-string guitar with bass [octave] strings?” Paul Hamer was starting a guitar company, and I told him my idea. A couple of years later they ended up building me one, only they made me a 10-string instead because they didn’t think the 12-string would work. It had three Gs, three Ds, two As, and two Es. They figured I’d eventually decide I didn’t like it and take two strings off to have an 8-string, but I got my first one in 1977, when we were on tour with Kiss, and started playing it that night. I never looked back. They were, like, “Wow, you’re right—that sounds fantastic.” They finally got me a 12-string right after that when we did our third album, Heaven Tonight. It’s pictured on the inside sleeve.
Robin, you’ve primarily been a Tele, Rickenbacker, and 12-string guy over the years, right?
Zander: Right. Rick had a white Tele, and back in 1977 I traded him this weird-looking guitar, I think it was made by Olympic—we called it the Iranian banjo. I traded him for that white Tele, I think it was a ’53. The guitar at that time was worth about $1,000. About 30 years later he wanted the guitar back, so I gave it back to him for $1,000—albeit it was probably worth about 25 grand at that time. I’ve also still got my original Rickenbacker 450 6-string that I’ve played since 1978. I’ve got two of them actually—one is a single pickup [a 420], and the other is a double pickup [450]. One I believe is a ’59, and the other is a ’61. Right around 1992 or ’93, Tom sent me a picture of Johnny Ramone playing the same [double-pickup 450] guitar. I bought it for $350 at a pawnshop in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1978. That’s the guitar I used for the first solo in “Do You Believe Me?”
Rick Nielsen in 2006 with one of his 5-necked Hamers. This one includes a fretless neck (bottom), one with T-style pickups, one with a Kahler vibrato, one with humbuckers and a hardtail bridge, and one that’s a 12-string (top).
Photo by Neil Zlozower
Which amps did you all lean on for the new album?
Zander: I used a fairly new Vox AC30 and a Budda Superdrive 30.
Nielsen: I used the Fender Deluxe Reverbs that Paul Rivera made me in 1977, butI also used Marshall heads, some Hiwatt stuff, and some old Fenders. Sometimes something that sounds awful on its own or sounds great on its own doesn’t always sound awful or great in the studio. Sometimes the awful one sounds great and the great one doesn’t sound so hot. We experiment—every song is different.
Petersson: I use a lot of Orange gear—live, I typically use an AD50, a Rockerverb 50 MkII, and an AD200B Mk3. I also love Hiwatt. I travel with a Hiwatt 100 Lead head and one of those new Fender Bassman heads, the 300-watt ones.
Given the ups and downs Robin mentioned earlier, the new album is cause both to celebrate great new music and to reflect on what got you where you are today. Arguably it’s because, from the very beginning, the band had this uncanny ability to craft a singular style based largely on basic chords—kind of like AC/DC—but also paired with impeccable melodies and indomitable energy.
Nielsen: Being compared with AC/DC, the way you said it—can you write that down so I can use it?
Petersson: AC/DC is a good example. When they started out we heard “It’s a Long Way to the Top” and thought, “Wow, these guys have something about them.” They had that humor value, and Bon had that cool voice. He was a screamer, but it wasn’t an aggravating sound. We loved it. We probably did 100 shows with those guys. We flip-flopped—they’d headline one night and we’d headline the next. We were as heavy as AC/DC—I’ll argue that all day long. But on the other hand, we do ballads and other things, too.
Countless bands attempt that same simple-is-best approach but can’t generate similar magic. Why do you think it’s so elusive?
Zander: I think a lot of it is pure luck. You come into a situation where you go to your first rehearsal with a band. With me it was like, I knew these guys because we were from a small town and each guy had his own band. Tom played guitar in a band called the Bo Weevils. Rick played keyboards in a band called the Grim Reapers. Bun E. was in a band called the Pagans that had a Top 20 single with WLS radio in Chicago with a Beatles cover tune. But at that first rehearsal we did together, I knew that night that this was going to be something special—because we all sort of gelled immediately. You could tell by the looks on everybody’s faces. You can’t really design something like that. It’s very rare that you design it and it turns out to be magical. I think a lot of it has to do with the luck of the draw.
Petersson: Luck is such a big part of having success in the music business, no matter how good or bad you might be. If you placed money on whether any group or artist out there is going to make it or not, you’d make a fortune just betting that everyone wouldn’t.
But you’re being humble—because obviously there’s uniqueness, perseverance....
Petersson: Yes, we kept at it, but even that doesn’t ensure any kind of success. So many people are so good that it’s shocking—they just never got anywhere. Why? Luck and timing. The personalities have to be right, too—you have to get along at least somewhat musically and personally.
Okay, last question. If you could go back in time to the Live at Budokan era and give yourselves one piece of advice, what would it be?
Zander: Retain a music lawyer—someone who understands the business. Right off the bat, before you sign a management contract, a record deal, or even a demo deal. I always relied on management—I trusted everyone within and outside the band. I figured what’s good for everyone would be good for me, but that’s not true. Everyone around you has a different perspective. They want to protect themselves.You really need to have your own attorney, each member. It’s not that difficult—you don’t have to pay them until they actually do some work for you.
Petersson: My advice would be, “Don’t drink!” That’s the biggest one. If you can’t moderate, you’ve got a problem. People usually make their worst decisions under the influence of something like that.
Nielsen: My advice would be to buy more used guitars … and Apple stock at $8 [per share] … and, y’know, “practice!” My wife talks about the f-word—not your f-word, but “finish.” I have trouble finishing stuff, because I’m always jumping to the next thing. I wish I would work harder, even though I think I work pretty hard anyhow. When I’m home, I’m like anybody else: I’ve got to do all the dumb stuff—from changing light bulbs to getting gas for the lawnmower. That takes as much time as it does to sit down and work on a song. I should work on songs and figure out a way to not have garbage. And never get on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram to tell people what I had for breakfast.
YouTube It
Iconic footage of the blazing Live at Budokan concerts that launched Cheap Trick’s career in 1978.
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Made in collaboration with Gibson Custom, now with a rosewood fretboard and a new Vintage Gloss finish
Epiphone and Gibson™ Custom have once again teamed up to create the updated Inspired by Gibson Custom 1963 Firebird V Reissue With Maestro Vibrola – an authentic replica of the guitar designed by legendary automotive designer Ray Dietrich. When it was launched in 1963, the Firebird™ was Gibson’s first neck-through-body guitar, and it went on to be used by players in a wide range of genres, including blues legend Johnny Winter, Keith Richards and Brian Jones of The Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, and Phil Manzanera of Roxy Music, to name a few.
The updated Epiphone Inspired by Gibson Custom 1963 Firebird V with Maestro Vibrola delivers vintage Firebird specifications at an accessible price. The vintage-inspired features include a 9-ply neck-through- body made of mahogany and walnut with mahogany body wings to either side of the neck. This construction method results in the tuners, pickup, and bridge all being anchored into the same pieces of wood for exceptional resonance, sustain, and tonal transfer between them. The neck features a SlimTaper™ Rounded C profile with soft fretboard edges for a comfortable, played-in feel. The rosewood fretboard is adorned with mother-of-pearl trapezoid inlays and equipped with 22 medium jumbo frets. Even the side dot position markers are the same size as on vintage Firebirds and placed in historically accurate locations. Kluson® planetary geared “banjo” tuners anchor the strings at the headstock and further add to the historic Firebird look, while an Epiphone ABR-1 bridge and Maestro™ Vibrola™ with an engraved Epiphone logo hold things down at the other end. The electronics are also premium and include Gibson USA Firebird mini humbucker™ pickups with Alnico 5 magnets, CTS® potentiometers, Mallory™ capacitors, and a Switchcraft® 3-way pickup selector toggle switch and 1/4” output jack, giving this remarkable recreation not only the look but also the sound of a classic Firebird V. An Epiphone Inspired by Gibson Custom hardshell case is also included.Epiphone 1963 Firebird V Electric Guitar - Polaris White
63 Firebird V Maestro Vibrola Reissue, Polaris Wht1959 Les Paul Standard Reissue:
A 1959 vintage-style Les Paul Standard Reissue Inspired by Gibson Custom, now with a rosewood Fretboard
The 1959 Gibson Les Paul™ Standard is one of the world’s most coveted–and valuable–vintage guitars. It has been embraced by numerous famous players, including Peter Green, Kirk Hammett, and Joe Bonamassa. The 1959 Les Paul Standard is very similar to the 1960 model year that followed it, but with a few differences, most notably, a somewhat beefier 1959 Rounded Medium C neck profile that many players prefer over the thinner SlimTaper™ profile found on the 1960 Les Paul Standard models. Now, Epiphone is proud to introduce the Epiphone 1959 Les Paul Standard Reissue, a beautiful recreation of those rare 1959 Les Paul Standard models. Made in partnership with Gibson Custom, the Epiphone 1959 Les Paul Standard Reissue delivers vintage Les Paul looks and performance at an accessible price. All of the classic appointments the 1959 Les Paul Standard model is known and loved for are present here, including a one-piece mahogany neck with a long neck tenon for increased stability and sustain, an authentic 1959 Rounded Medium C neck profile, and a bound rosewood fretboard. It also features mother-of-pearl trapezoid fretboard inlays, an aged mother-of-pearl Epiphone headstock logo, and the words “Les Paul Model” silkscreened in gold on the Gibson-style “open book” headstock.
Even the side dot position markers are the same size as on vintage 1959 Les Paul Standard models and are placed in historically accurate locations. The genuine mahogany body features a carved maple cap that is topped with a beautiful AAA flamed maple veneer. The electronics are first class, with two USA Gibson Custombucker humbucking pickups with Alnico 3 magnets that are hand-wired to CTS® potentiometers, Black Beauty paper-in-oil capacitors, and a Switchcraft® pickup selector toggle switch and 1/4” output jack. The Vintage Gloss finish gives the guitar a vintage appearance without looking overly aged and is nicely complimented by the nickel hardware, including the Epiphone Deluxe “Single Ring” Keystone button tuners. A Brown hardshell case with Inspired by Gibson Custom graphics and a pink plush-lined interior is also included. This is the perfect Les Paul for players who love the vintage appeal of the classic 1959 Les Paul Standard, but don’t want to sell the house to afford one.
Epiphone 1959 Les Paul Standard Reissue Electric Guitar - Deep Cherry Sunburst
59 LP Std Reissue, Deep Chrry Sunburst1963 Firebird I Reissue:
Made in collaboration with Gibson Custom, now with a rosewood fretboard and a new Vintage Gloss finish
Epiphone and Gibson™ Custom have once again teamed up to create the updated Inspired by Gibson Custom 1963 Firebird™ V Reissue With Maestro Vibrola – an authentic replica of the guitar designed by legendary automotive designer Ray Dietrich. When it was launched in 1963, the Firebird™ was Gibson’s first neck-through-body guitar, and it went on to be used by players in a wide range of genres, including blues legend Johnny Winter, Keith Richards and Brian Jones of The Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, and Phil Manzanera of Roxy Music, to name a few.
The updated Epiphone Inspired by Gibson Custom 1963 Firebird V with Maestro Vibrola delivers vintage Firebird specifications at an accessible price. The vintage-inspired features include a 9-ply neck-through-body made of mahogany and walnut with mahogany body wings to either side of the neck. This construction method results in the tuners, pickup, and bridge all being anchored into the same pieces of wood for exceptional resonance, sustain, and tonal transfer between them. The neck features a SlimTaper™ Rounded C profile with soft fretboard edges for a comfortable, played-in feel. The rosewood fretboard is adorned with mother-of-pearl trapezoid inlays and equipped with 22 medium jumbo frets. Even the side dot position markers are the same size as on vintage Firebirds and placed in historically accurate locations. Kluson® planetary geared “banjo” tuners anchor the strings at the headstock and further add to the historic Firebird look, while an Epiphone ABR-1 bridge and Maestro™ Vibrola™ with an engraved Epiphone logo hold things down at the other end. The electronics are also premium and include Gibson USA Firebird mini humbucker™ pickups with Alnico 5 magnets, CTS® potentiometers, Mallory™ capacitors, and a Switchcraft® 3-way pickup selector toggle switch and 1/4” output jack, giving this remarkable recreation not only the look but also the sound of a classic Firebird V. An Epiphone Inspired by Gibson Custom hardshell case is also included.1957 Les Paul Goldtop Reissue:
An Inspired by Gibson Custom reissue of the classic humbucker-equipped ’57 Goldtop
1957 was the year that the Les Paul™, as most players think of it today, truly came into its own. It was the first full year that it had Patent Applied For humbucker™ pickups installed. The humbuckers, along with the ABR-1 Tune-O-Matic™ bridge and Stop Bar tailpiece that first appeared on a Les Paul with the introduction of the Les Paul Custom in late 1953 and on the Goldtop in late 1955, were defining features
that many players still prefer over the earlier models that had a wraparound bridge/tailpiece and P-90pickups and made the Les Paul into a true fire-breathing rock icon. Now, Epiphone, in collaboration with Gibson Custom, is very proud to introduce the 1957 Les Paul Goldtop Reissue, a stunningly authentic Inspired by Gibson Custom reissue of those early humbucker-equipped Les Paul Goldtops that delivers vintage Les Paul looks and performance at an accessible price. It has a genuine mahogany body with a carved, plain maple cap. It is finished in a new Vintage Gloss version of the classic Gold color that gives it a vintage appearance without looking overly aged. The one-piece genuine mahogany neck has a 50s Rounded Medium C profile and a long neck tenon for excellent stability and sustain. The bound rosewood fretboard is adorned with mother-of-pearl trapezoid inlays and equipped with 22 medium jumbo frets, just like the original models from 1957. It has an aged mother-of-pearl Epiphone logo and the words “Les Paul Model” silkscreened in gold on the Gibson-style “open book” headstock. Even the side dot position markers are the same size as on vintage 1957 Les Paul Standard models and are placed in historically accurate locations. The hardware is nickel-plated, including the ABR-1 Tune-O-Matic bridge, historical aluminum Stop Bar Tailpiece, and the Epiphone Deluxe “Single Ring” Keystone button tuners. The electronics are also first-class, with two USA Gibson Custombucker humbucking pickups with Alnico 3 magnets that are hand-wired to CTS® potentiometers, Bumblebee paper-in-oil capacitors, and a Switchcraft® pickup selector toggle switch and 1/4” output jack. A historic-inspired hardshell case with a Brown exterior and pink plush interior and Inspired by Gibson Custom Graphics is also included. The 1957 Les Paul Goldtop Reissue isn’t just a guitar; it’s a bridge to a symphony of possibilities, willing and ready to help you make your own mark on music history.
Epiphone 1957 Les Paul Goldtop Reissue Electric Guitar - Goldtop
57 LP Goldtop Reissue, Goldtop1960 Les Paul Standard Reissue:
A 1960 vintage-style Les Paul Reissue Inspired by Gibson Custom, now with a rosewood fretboard and new Vintage Gloss finish
The 1960 Gibson Les Paul™ Standard is one of the world’s most coveted vintage guitars. It has been embraced by such luminaries as Eric Clapton, Paul McCartney, and Joe Walsh. The 1960 Les Paul Standard is very similar to the famous 1959 model year that preceded it, but with a few changes, most notably, a thinner and faster-playing SlimTaper™ neck profile that many players prefer over the somewhat beefier 1959 Les Paul Standard neck profile. Now, Epiphone is proud to introduce the Epiphone 1960 Les Paul Standard Reissue, a beautiful recreation of those vintage 1960 Les Paul
Standard models. Made in partnership with Gibson Custom, the Epiphone Les Paul Standard 1960 Reissue delivers vintage Les Paul looks and performance at an accessible price. All of the classic appointments the 1960 Les Paul Standard model is known and loved for are present here, including a one-piece mahogany neck with a long neck tenon for increased stability and sustain, a comfortable, fast-playing SlimTaper™ profile, and a bound rosewood fretboard. It also features mother-of-pearl trapezoid fretboard inlays, an aged mother-of-pearl Epiphone headstock logo, and the words “Les Paul Model” silkscreened in gold on the Gibson-style “open book” headstock. Even the side dot position markers are the same size as on vintage 1960 Les Paul Standard models and are placed in historically accurate locations. The genuine mahogany body features a carved maple cap that is topped with a beautiful AAA flamed maple veneer. The electronics are equally impressive, with two USA Gibson Custombucker humbucking pickups with Alnico 3 magnets that are hand-wired to CTS® potentiometers, Bumblebee paper-in-oil capacitors, and a Switchcraft® pickup selector toggle switch and output jack. The Vintage Gloss finish gives the guitar a vintage appearance without looking overly aged and is nicely complimented by the nickel hardware, including the Epiphone Deluxe “Double Ring” Keystone button tuners. A brown hardshell case with Inspired by Gibson Custom graphics and a pink plush-lined interior is also included. This is the perfect Les Paul for players who love the vintage appeal of the classic 1959 Les Paul Standard but who want a more comfortable neck profile.Epiphone 1960 Les Paul Standard Reissue Electric Guitar - Washed Cherry Sunburst
59 LP Std Reissue, Washed Chrry SunburstEditorial Director Ted Drozdowski’s current favorite noisemakers.
Premier Guitar’s edit staff shares their favorite fuzz units and how and when they use them.
Premier Guitar’s editors use their favorite fuzz pedals in countless ways. At any point during our waking hours, one of us could be turned on, plugged in, and fuzzed out—chasing a Sabbath riff, tracking menacing drone ambience, fire-branding a solo break with a psychedelic blast, or something else altogether more deranged. As any PGreader knows, there are nearly infinite paths to these destinations and almost as many fuzz boxes to travel with. Germanium, silicon, 2-transistor, 4-transistor, 6-transistor, octave, multimode, modern, and caveman-stupid: Almost all of these fuzz types are represented among our own faves, which are presented here as inspiration, and launch pads for your own rocket rides to the Fuzz-o-sphere.
Ted Drozdowski - Editorial Director
My favorite is my Burns Buzz, a stomp custom-made for me by Gary Kibler of Big Knob Pedals. Gary specializes in recreations of old circuits, and this Burns Buzzaround-inspired box has four germanium NOS transistors and sounds beautifully gnarly. It improves on the original, which Robert Fripp favored in early King Crimson, by adding a volume control. I went a little stir-crazy acquiring fuzzes during Covid lockdown and now have an embarrassing amount. My other current darlings are a SoloDallas Orbiter (which balances fuzz with core-signal clarity), a Joe Gore Duh (a no-nonsense, 1-knob dirt shoveler), and my Big Knob Tone Blender MkII 66, which taught me how smooth and creamy fuzz can be with carefully calibrated settings. These pedals allow me to cover all of my favorite fuzz sounds from the past 60 years. I do have one more secret weapon fuzz that only travels to the studio: an original Maestro FZ-1 that I picked up used for about $20 in the early ’90s. It’s banged up but functional, takes two 9V batteries, and is righteously juicy.
Nick Millevoi - Senior Editor
The two greatest fuzzes I’ve ever played are a Pigdog Tone Bender build and a Paul Trombetta Bone Machine. Both experiences will stick with me for decades to come. But creations by those two masters of fuzz come with a price tag high enough to keep my time with those pedals fleeting.
Instead, my favorite fuzz is an inexpensive, mass-produced pedal that hasn’t left my board since I reviewed and subsequently purchased it in 2021: the Electro-Harmonix Ripped Speaker, designed to emulate the distorted tones on ’50s and ’60s records that were created with broken or misused gear.
Retro inspiration is not all it has to offer though. The rip knob, which controls transistor bias, is the star of the show, interacting with the fuzz level to deliver everything from a smooth, mild fuzz to sputtery mayhem that can evoke a faulty channel strip or old tube combo that’s been set ablaze. I prefer to crank the rip knob and feed it to a phaser and slapback analog delay, which gives me a bit-crushed-like gnarliness. Pull back on the rip or add a boost in front of the pedal, and it has a more organic but still gated sound, which, for me, can be just the thing to set my sound apart in a more traditional setting.
For a cool $116, the Ripped Speaker, which seems to fly under most fuzz freaks’ radars, might be the special something that complements the rest of your board or just a tone you turn to on occasion. Either way, it’s a great deal.
Luke Ottenhof - Assistant Editor
You could give me the most powerful-sounding fuzz in the world, but if it was in a stupid-looking enclosure, I don’t know if I’d give it a second look. This is just how we operate: Vision is the sense we privilege most, even in matters of audio.
Luckily, the most seismic, monstrous fuzz I’ve ever heard also happens to come in a beautiful package. The Mile End Effects Kollaps, built by Justin Cober in Montreal, measures an elephantine 7 3/8" x 4 5/8" x 1 1/2", and its MuTron-meets-’60s-Soviet aesthetic matches the sounds its guts produce. The Kollaps is modeled after the nasty Univox Super-Fuzz circuit, and carries a few of that pedal’s hallmarks, including its use of germanium diodes and midrange boost control. Cober added a switchable Baxandall active EQ circuit, with up to 12 dB of boost and cut to both low and high frequencies. Coupled with the mid-boost toggle, this gives the Kollaps a shockingly broad range of tonality to play with.With the mids off, the Kollaps is jagged and ruthless, a deafening turbojet of upper mids and chest-vibrating lows that yanks me toward the darker, less commercially successful corners of ’90s doom and noise rock. Kicking on the EQ circuit and boosting the lows turns it titanic. With the balance (volume) and expand (gain) controls maxed, the Kollaps starts to live up to its name, crumbling into a thick, overextended chaos in a way more polite fuzz circuits rarely do.
My favorite Kollaps sounds occur when the mids are engaged, for an articulate, deeply textured fuzz sound that retains your attack. Playing with your guitar’s volume knob, you can coax a range of EQ profiles and take advantage of the upper- and lower-octave content in the fuzz. With guitar volume lower, you can access some unbelievably emotive and sensitive sounds that still teeter on the edge of chaos and violence. It’s a rich, volatile circuit that gets as close as I’ve heard to a sound and physical feeling I’d call “planet-destroying.”
Charles Saufley - Gear Editor
My first fuzz, A Sovtek Big Muff, remains tied for first place among many favorites. The pedal’s most famous virtues—corpulence and sustain—are among the reasons I treasure it. But the way the Sovtek pairs with a Rickenbacker 330 and Fender Jaguar, which were once my two primary guitars for performance and recording, made it invaluable in various projects for a long time. Neither the Ricky nor the Jag are sustain machines, but the wailing mass of theBig Muff makes their focused voices an asset—inspiring tight, concise fuzz phrases, hooks, and riffs as well as articulate chords.
A silicon Fuzzrite clone built by good pal Jesse Trbovich (long-time member ofKurt Vile’s Violators) runs second place to the Sovtek in terms of tenure, and is a very different fuzz. It’s a piercing, hyper-buzzy thing, but a perfect match for a squishy 1960s Fender Bassman head and 2x12 I adore. Perversely, I sometimes couple it with a Death By Audio Thee Ffuzz Warr Overload or Wattson FY-6 Shin-Ei Super-Fuzz clone. These tandems create chaos and chance, but sing loud and melodiously too—at least when I’m not intentionally bathing in feedback. The Jext Telez Buzz Tone, a clone of the mid-’60s Selmer circuit, is often my go-to now. It’s a low-gain affair compared to the other fuzzes here, and I use it in its even-lower-gain (and vintage-correct) 3-volt setting. It’s pretty noisy, but it is thick, dynamic, detailed, raunchy, and plenty trashy when the occasion demands it. It’s also a very cool overdrive when you back off the gas.Jason Shadrick - Managing Editor
I rarely need fuzz in my everyday gigs, but it's one of the most fun effects to explore when I'm noodling around. At a NAMM show a few years ago I plugged into Mythos' Argo and as soon as I hit a note my eyes lit up. The sound of the fuzz wasn't unwieldy or hard to manage. It gave me the illusion of control while the octave was the magic dust on top. I knew right then I wasn't leaving the show without one. After I spent some time with it, I became enamored by how much more the Argo can do.
It's inspired by the Prescription Electronics C.O.B. (Clean Octave Blend), so the control set is similar. The octave is always present in the signal path, but you can dial it out with the blend knob. The fuzz and volume knobs are self explanatory, but dialing the fuzz and octave knobs all the way down gives you a killer boost pedal. I find my favorite settings are at the extremes of the fuzz and blend ranges. Typically, both are either all the way up or all the way down. Another great experiment is to turn the fuzz down and then pair it with a separate drive pedal. And in octave mode, Argo is one of those pedals that inspires you to head directly for the neck pickup and stay above the 12th fret.
Columnist Janek Gwizdala with heroes Dennis Chambers (left) and Mike Stern (right).
Keeping your gigging commitments can be tough, especially when faced with a call from a hero. But it’s always the right choice.
Saying “yes!” to everything early on has put me in a place now where I can say no to almost everything and still be okay. That wasn’t without its challenges. I’d like to share a story about a “yes” that would haunt me for years.
As bass players, we can, if we choose, quite easily find ourselves in a wide variety of situations without having to change much about our sound or our playing. If your time is good and you’re able to help those around you feel good and sound better, the telephone will pretty much always ring.
Playing jazz as an electric-bass player living in New York City from 2000 to 2010 was somewhat of a fool’s errand in terms of getting work. No one wanted electric bass, and bandleaders would go to the bottom of a list of 100 upright players before they would even think about calling you. Not only that, but I wasn’t even at the top of the electric list when I first moved there. Not even close. Anthony Jackson, Richard Bona, Will Lee, Tim Lefebvre, James Genus, Lincoln Goines, Mike Pope, John Benitez, Matthew Garrison—that’s a who’s who of the instrument when I first moved to town, and I was very much a freshman with almost no experience. Almost…
I’d been lucky enough to play extensively with Kenwood Dennard (Jaco’s drummer), and a little with Hiram Bullock (Jaco’s guitarist) before moving to NYC which helped create a little momentum, but only a VERY little.
This is where the story begins:
I’d sent Mike Stern a demo back in late ’97. He’d not only taken the time to listen to it but had called my parents’ house right after I moved to the U.S. to tell me he loved it and wanted to hang. I missed the call but eventually met him at a clinic he gave at Berklee.
Of course, I was buzzing about all of this. It helped me stay laser-focused on practice and on moving to NYC as soon as possible. I got the typical “look me up when you get to town” invitation from Stern and basically counted the seconds through the three semesters I stayed at Berklee until I could split town.
I arrived with a ton of confidence but zero gigs. And nothing happened overnight. It really took saying yes to literally everything I was offered just to keep a roof over my head. Through that process, I felt like I was getting further away from playing with my jazz heroes.
The early gigs were far from glamorous—long hours, terrible pay, and sometimes, after travel expenses, they cost me money to play.
“Whenever I have a single moment of doubt, I think about the time I had to say no to my heroes—the reasons I moved to America, the reason I do what I do.”
When Stern finally called, a few years into living in NYC, things started to move pretty quickly. I began playing a lot of gigs at the 55 Bar with him, and short road trips became a thing—a four-night stint at Arturo Sandoval’s new club in Miami, gigs in Chicago, Cleveland, and upstate New York, and then some international work, including a tour of Mexico and a trip to Brazil, if I remember right.
But the hardest phone call of my career came from Mike not long into my time touring with him. It went something like this:
“Hey man, what’s your scene in April? Lincoln can’t make a trip to the West Coast. It’s just one gig. Trio… with DENNIS CHAMBERS.”
Mike didn’t shout Dennis’ name, but that’s how I heard it. My all-time hero. Someone I’d been dreaming about playing with for over 15 years. And here’s the kicker: I had to say no.
I’d just committed to six weeks with Jojo Mayer’s band Nerve in Asia and Europe, and there was no way I could bail on him. And there was no way I could afford to ditch six weeks of work for a single gig with Mike. To say that haunted me for years is an understatement. I was destroyed that I had to turn it down.
The tour with Jojo was amazing—the posters hang in my studio as a reminder of those times to this day. And thankfully, I was able to go on some years later and play dozens of shows with Mike and Dennis all over the world—truly some of the highlights of my career.
I still think about that phone call, though. Whenever I have a single moment of doubt, I think about the time I had to say no to my heroes—the reasons I moved to America, the reason I do what I do. I get emotional writing and thinking about it even now. But I've learned to never have regrets and understand you just have to believe in the process and maintain the willpower to continue—no matter what.
On our season two finale, the country legend details his lead-guitar tricks on one of his biggest hits.
Get out the Kleenex, hankies, or whatever you use to wipe away your tears: It’s the last episode of this season of Shred With Shifty, a media event more consequential and profound than the finales of White Lotus and Severance combined. But there’ll be some tears of joy, too, because on this season two closer, Chris Shiflett talks with one of country music’s greatest players: Vince Gill.
Gill’s illustrious solo career speaks for itself, and he’s played with everyone from Reba McEntire and Patty Loveless to Ricky Skaggs and Dolly Parton. He even replaced Glenn Frey in the Eagles after Frey’s death in 2017. His singing prowess is matched by his grace and precision on the fretboard, skills which are on display on the melodic solo for “One More Last Chance.” He used the same blackguard 1953 Fender Telecaster that you see in this interview to record the lead, although he might not play the solo the exact way he did back in 1992.
Tune in to learn how Gill dialed his clean tone with a tip from Roy Nichols, why he loves early blackguard Telecasters and doesn’t love shredders, and why you never want to be the best player during a studio session.
If you’re able to help, here are some charities aimed at assisting musicians affected by the fires in L.A:
https://guitarcenterfoundation.org
https://www.cciarts.org/relief.html
https://www.musiciansfoundation.org
https://fireaidla.org
https://www.musicares.org
https://www.sweetrelief.org
Credits
Producer: Jason Shadrick
Executive Producers: Brady Sadler and Jake Brennan for Double Elvis
Engineering Support by Matt Tahaney and Matt Beaudion
Video Editor: Addison Sauvan
Graphic Design: Megan Pralle
Special thanks to Chris Peterson, Greg Nacron, and the entire Volume.com crew.