There’s a definite, almost tangible, musical force that surrounds Prince. When musicians are offered a chance to pass through the Purple One’s sphere of influence, rarely do they say no—even Miles Davis had a late-night jam inside Paisley Park Studios (Prince’s $10 million-dollar recording compound located in Chanhassen, Minnesota). In late 2012, Prince asked drummer Hannah Ford Welton to help recruit a guitarist for a rock-oriented project he was putting together. As Welton was cruising YouTube she came across Toronto guitarist Donna Grantis and her fusion trio play Billy Cobham’s “Stratus,” a tune that was already in Prince’s live show. At the time, Grantis was making her name as a forward-thinking, jazz-inspired rocker in the clubs with her eponymous group. Once Prince saw the video he invited her to Paisley for a jam. The chemistry was immediate. “Within a week I had booked a one-way ticket to Minneapolis,” remembers Grantis.
In the 18 months since that fateful jam, 3rdEyeGirl—the trio of Grantis, Welton, and bassist Ida Nielsen—have become a powerful and funky rock ’n’ roll outfit. Without the behemoth of the New Power Generation’s 11-piece horn section, the group is more nimble, explosive, and so incredibly full of energy, it’s hard to believe it’s just a quartet. “Because we are so small, just the four of us, there’s a lot of room for improvisation. We can really stretch things out,” mentions Grantis. PLECTRUMELECTRUM, the group’s first full-length album shows off the bombastic playing of Welton, the hard-driving bass lines of Nielsen, and of course the adventurous and inventive playing of Grantis. This alone would make for a formidable trio, but with Prince’s Hendrixian, wah-fueled explorations, the result sounds like Jimi fronting Led Zeppelin with a James Brown swagger.
Grantis gives Premier Guitar a glimpse of life inside Paisley Park, explains her love for vintage Traynor amps, and shares guitar tips from Prince himself.
The album is finally out. Was this something you started working on as soon as you joined the group?
It was one of those things where when we started recording the album, we didn’t realize what we were doing. We just set up to rehearse and everything was miked. Recording is just part of our day-to-day existence. It wasn’t until we started hearing the songs with vocals that we thought there was something bigger being planned. Out of everything we recorded, Prince asked us to find 12 songs that we thought went together really well. I’m sure Prince had a master plan, but when we were recording we thought we were just cutting takes.
Absolutely. The really cool thing was that it was recorded live with all of us in one room playing together. We just had to nail takes that we would keep. If one person made a mistake it was like we all made a mistake.
With a musician as iconic as Prince, it’s nearly impossible not to be aware of his music. Was he a formidable influence on you growing up?
He was a huge influence on me. Before I got the call for this gig people would ask me, “If you could play with anyone, who would it be?” My answer was always Prince. About a year before I went to Paisley I actually saw him play in Toronto and then one of the infamous after-show jam sessions. Playing with him is literally a dream come true.
After more than a year of recording and some touring, is there a fair amount of music that didn’t make the album and was put into the vault?
[Laughs]. Yeah, the vault is real!
Can you describe what it’s like at Paisley Park from a musician’s standpoint?
It’s the ultimate creative space. Every day we go in to the huge soundstage. It’s like a live music venue. Sometimes we open up on the weekends on short notice and invite people in to have dance parties, listen to new music, or even have breakfast. We played a show once called The Breakfast Experience. It was in support of Prince's single, “Breakfast Can Wait” and we performed in our pajamas at four in the morning to a packed room. Everyone was in pajamas and pancakes were served—it was pretty crazy. There are a number of recording studios. Of course, there’s a lot of purple. There’s a ping-pong room. That’s usually where we unwind. Prince and Ida go at it. Since the first day we all arrived, our ping-pong skills have greatly improved.
"Because there's so much ground to cover sonically, and tonally, I needed to have all the essentials in front of me," describes Grantis about her pedalboard.
How structured are the rehearsals?
Every day we have new things to work on and new goals to accomplish. Sometimes it’s working on new arrangements or lifting songs, putting a setlist together, recording, or jamming out on different grooves. It’s amazing to be able to do that together every day for hours on end.
When Prince brings in a song, is it a completed demo or just a few riffs?
Most of the time it would be jams that we would learn really quickly. He would come in, show us something, or maybe give me a chord progression. Prince really left a lot of room for us to contribute to the arrangement, to decide on our tone, how we would play things, or what inversions to use. Sometimes we would just record songs without playing them all the way through. He would just queue things on the spot. That really kept us on our toes. We would jam on parts for a while to really lock in the feel. Other times he's giving me directions like “Use the wah on this.” And then I just take it from there.
Donna Grantis' Gear
Guitars
PRS CE 22 “Elektra”
PRS S2 Mira
PRS 513
PRS Starla with Bigsby
PRS SE Angelus
Effects
Boss RC-30 Loop Station
Line 6 DL-4
MXR M159 Stereo Tremolo
MXR Micro Amp
Boss BD-2 Blues Driver
Fulltone OCD
Ibanez TS9 Tube Screamer (modded)
Fulltone Octafuzz
Foxrox Octron
Electro-Harmonix Micro Q-Tron
TC Electronic Hall of Fame Reverb
TC Electronic Flashback Delay
TC Electronic Vortex Flanger
Boss BF-3 Flanger
Ibanez DML20 Modulation Delay III
Fairfield Circuitry Randy’s Revenge
Boss TU-2 Tuner
Fulltone Deja Vibe MDV-2
Jim Dunlop Eddie Van Halen Signature Wah
Ernie Ball volume pedal
Amps
Early ’70s Traynor YBA-1 (modded by Pat Furlan)
Strings and Picks
D’Addario .010–.046
Steve Clayton Delrin .73 picks
EBow
It seems like there's this line between an extremely tight arrangement and a free-form jam.
He’s a master bandleader and we’ve really learned how to communicate onstage. We always keep our eyes on him. He could break things down at any time, queue solos at anytime, stretch out sections—anything can happen. Yeah, the other really cool thing is that he wrote the songs on PLECTRUMELECTRUM specifically for us and with us in mind knowing our styles and musical personalities.
The band also went out on a few tours of small club shows. How important was that in developing these songs?
I think in terms of playing live it just really solidified the vibe of the band and the energy we put behind those tunes. We actually recorded the songs before playing them live. During the tours we only played a couple of songs from the album. The rest of the material went all the way back to Prince’s first album. The interesting thing is that all of those songs were arranged for the four-piece band. That was really cool because a lot of the songs have horns and arrangements with keys and synth sounds. We had to take those songs and figure out how to make them sound massive with only four people.
What guitar did you use on the album?
I used “Elektra” on the entire album, which is a PRS CE 22. That’s been my main guitar since I was a teenager. Plus, it’s purple—so I guess it was meant to be.
You cover an amazing amount of sonic space with all the different tones in your live show. I imagine your pedalboard is pretty sizeable.
I have a massive pedalboard that Craig Pattison built me specifically for this gig. One of my techs calls it the starship. It’s three pedalboards, all connected together. Something like 20 pedals. Because the group is only the four of us, there’s so much ground to cover sonically, and tonally. I wanted to have all the essentials right in front of me.
What pedal, or combination of pedals, do you use for your lead tone?
I actually use a lot of different combinations and when thinking about the solos on the album, I wanted them all to be slightly different, tone-wise. For example, there’s a song called “AINTTURNINROUND,” and there’s a part where the guitars are feeding back and the lyric is “What you are listening to now is an ultrasound of Donna’s brain.” I stepped on almost everything. That was probably an Octa-Fuzz mixed with an OCD and a TC Electronic Flashback Delay with a Vortex Flanger and a Line 6 stereo delay—at minimum. For something like “ANOTHERLOVE” that was pretty much straight OCD plus wah with a little bit of the Flashback Delay. For “WHITECAPS” I wanted to get a warmer tone so I used reverb with an Ibanez Tube Screamer that was modded for me.
Rehearsals with Prince can be pretty intense. “Sometimes we are given a list of six songs to learn for
the next day. Or learn them by dinner!," mentions Grantis.
What was the mod?
A guy from Toronto named Pat Furlan did it. I’ve worked with him a lot to mod my amps as well. I was looking for added warmth, a greater range of attack, and longer sustain. Basically, I would describe to him a sound, and then he would work his magic until we got to the right place. On the album, I played through vintage Traynor amps from the ’70s that were handmodded by Pat. We went through the process and he knew who my influences were and what kind of sound I liked. He modded the amp for me and after we went back and forth a few times, we landed on the right tone.
What’s a typical day at Paisley Park like for you?
We go in and play all day, break for dinner, and then go back in and play either late into the night or early into the morning. We’re always working on new songs—it's become just part of the process. Over the past year and a half it’s a lot easier for me to learn songs quickly and remember them. I lost track of how many songs we’ve learned.
Do you chart them out?
I chart them out and we usually make our individual charts but we lift by ear for our parts. Then I bring those to rehearsal and then the arrangement will get changed or really picked apart. Then I make notes and really try to commit it to memory at that point. Sometimes we are given a list of six songs to learn for the next day. Or learn them by dinner! I find that charts can be really helpful as a starting point. There’s always a period of internalizing music and that just comes from playing it and listening to it a ton.
YouTube It
During 3RDEYEGIRL’s quasi-undercover tour of the U.K., the group often opened the show with a reimagining of Prince’s classic, “Let’s Go Crazy.” Donna Grantis takes a ripping solo at 4:18.
Is there a particular song on the album you feel especially connected to?
“PLECTRUMELECTRUM” is really special. It’s a song that I wrote that Prince rearranged. It’s an instrumental and everyone’s musical voice and personality really shines through. Hannah has some wicked drum fills, there’s this heavy bass groove, and Prince and I both solo. It was a real honor to have Prince arrange a song I wrote. I definitely have special memories about every song. One in particular is “ANOTHERLOVE.” That was a song that we were recording at a three- or four-in-the-morning jam. Prince has a way of really pulling out the best in everyone. I really thought I would have to spend some time working out something for that since it’s a giant solo in a Prince song, but he wanted to record it right on the spot. Prince and I are trading fours, and as a guitar player, that’s so much fun.
Have you picked up any gear tips from Prince?
He can play any guitar through any amp and make it sound incredible, but I think one of the sounds I really like is how he uses a flanger pedal. There's a lot of room for feedback and really cool sounds. Other than the melodic side of things and note choices, I’ve also really learned a lot from him on how to create soundscapes to end tunes or between phrases or before hitting a solo.
I’ve learned so much from him about when to play and when not to play. Plus, how to make every note count and play everything with conviction. I’ve learned a ton about funk and rhythm guitar. I’ve put together a “funklopedia” of all the funk lines and riffs I’ve learned from him. It’s so incredibly tight and precise and there’s such a special way of approaching that type of playing in terms of the attack and rhythms, but loose at the same time. Hearing Prince, Hannah, and Ida play still blows my mind. I just love where things are at right now.
Duane Denison of the Jesus Lizard, EGC Chessie in hands, coaxing some nasty tones from his Hiwatt.
The Jesus Lizard’s sixth album, Blue, served as the band’s final statement from the frontlines of noisy rock for the next 26 years. By the time of their dissolution in 1999, they’d earned a reputation for extreme performances chock full of hard-hitting, machine-like grooves delivered by bassist David Wm. Sims and, at their conclusion, drummer Mac McNeilly, at times aided and at other times punctured by the frontline of guitarist Duane Denison’s incisive, dissonant riffing, and presided over by the cantankerous howl of vocalist David Yow. In the years since, performative, thrilling bands such as Pissed Jeans, METZ, and Idles have built upon the Lizard’s musical foundation.
Denison has kept himself plenty busy over the last couple decades, forming the avant-rock supergroup Tomahawk—with vocalist Mike Patton, bassist Trevor Dunn (both from Mr. Bungle), and drummer John Stanier of Helmet—and alongside various other projects including Th’ Legendary Shack Shakers and Hank Williams III. The Jesus Lizard eventually reunited, but until now have only celebrated their catalog, never releasing new jams.
The Jesus Lizard, from left: bassist David Wm. Sims, singer David Yow, drummer Mac McNeilly, and guitarist Duane Denison.
Photo by Joshua Black Wilkins
Back in 2018, Denison, hanging in a hotel room with Yow, played a riff on his unplugged electric guitar that caught the singer’s ear. That song, called “West Side,” will remain unreleased for now, but Denison explains: “He said, ‘Wow, that’s really good. What is that?’ And I said, ‘It’s just some new thing. Why don’t we do an album?’” From those unassuming beginnings, the Jesus Lizard’s creative juices started flowing.
So, how does a band—especially one who so indelibly captured the ineffable energy of live rock performance—prepare to get a new record together 26 years after their last? Back in their earlier days, the members all lived together in a band house, collectively tending to the creative fire when inspiration struck. All these years later, they reside in different cities, so their process requires sending files back and forth and only meeting up for occasional demo sessions over the course of “three or four years.”
“When the time comes to get more in performance mode, I have a practice space. I go there by myself and crank it up. I turn that amp up and turn the metronome up and play loud.” —Duane Denison
the Jesus Lizard "Alexis Feels Sick"
Distance creates an obstacle to striking while the proverbial iron is hot, but Denison has a method to keep things energized: “Practice loud.” The guitarist professes the importance of practice, in general, and especially with a metronome. “We keep very detailed records of what the beats per minute of these songs are,” he explains. “To me, the way to do it is to run it to a Bluetooth speaker and crank it, and then crank your amp. I play a little at home, but when the time comes to get more in performance mode, I have a practice space. I go there by myself and crank it up. I turn that amp up and turn the metronome up and play loud.”
It’s a proven solution. On Rack—recorded at Patrick Carney’s Audio Eagle studio with producer Paul Allen—the band sound as vigorous as ever, proving they’ve not only remained in step with their younger selves, but they may have surpassed it with faders cranked. “Duane’s approach, both as a guitarist and writer, has an angular and menacing fingerprint that is his own unique style,” explains Allen. “The conviction in his playing that he is known for from his recordings in the ’80s and ’90s is still 100-percent intact and still driving full throttle today.”
“I try to be really, really precise,” he says. “I think we all do when it comes to the basic tracks, especially the rhythm parts. The band has always been this machine-like thing.” Together, they build a tension with Yow’s careening voice. “The vocals tend to be all over the place—in and out of tune, in and out of time,” he points out. “You’ve got this very free thing moving around in the foreground, and then you’ve got this very precise, detailed band playing behind it. That’s why it works.”
Before Rack, the Jesus Lizard hadn’t released a new record since 1998’s Blue.
Denison’s guitar also serves as the foreground foil to Yow’s unhinged raving, as on “Alexis Feels Sick,” where they form a demented harmony, or on the midnight creep of “What If,” where his vibrato-laden melodies bolster the singer’s unsettled, maniacal display. As precise as his riffs might be, his playing doesn’t stay strictly on the grid. On the slow, skulking “Armistice Day,” his percussive chording goes off the rails, giving way to a solo that slices that groove like a chef’s knife through warm butter as he reorganizes rock ’n’ roll histrionics into his own cut-up vocabulary.
“During recording sessions, his first solo takes are usually what we decide to keep,” explains Allen. “Listen to Duane’s guitar solos on Jack White’s ‘Morning, Noon, and Night,’ Tomahawk’s ‘Fatback,’ and ‘Grind’ off Rack. There’s a common ‘contained chaos’ thread among them that sounds like a harmonic Rubik’s cube that could only be solved by Duane.”
“Duane’s approach, both as a guitarist and writer, has an angular and menacing fingerprint that is his own unique style.” —Rack producer Paul Allen
To encapsulate just the right amount of intensity, “I don’t over practice everything,” the guitarist says. Instead, once he’s created a part, “I set it aside and don’t wear it out.” On Rack, it’s obvious not a single kilowatt of musical energy was lost in the rehearsal process.
Denison issues his noisy masterclass with assertive, overdriven tones supporting his dissonant voicings like barbed wire on top of an electric fence. The occasional application of slapback delay adds a threatening aura to his exacting riffage. His tones were just as carefully crafted as the parts he plays, and he relied mostly on his signature Electrical Guitar Company Chessie for the sessions, though a Fender Uptown Strat also appears, as well as a Taylor T5Z, which he chose for its “cleaner, hyper-articulated sound” on “Swan the Dog.” Though he’s been spotted at recent Jesus Lizard shows with a brand-new Powers Electric—he points out he played a demo model and says, “I just couldn’t let go of it,” so he ordered his own—that wasn’t until tracking was complete.
Duane Denison's Gear
Denison wields his Powers Electric at the Blue Room in Nashville last June.
Photo by Doug Coombe
Guitars
- Electrical Guitar Company Chessie
- Fender Uptown Strat
- Taylor T5Z
- Gibson ES-135
- Powers Electric
Amps
- Hiwatt Little J
- Hiwatt 2x12 cab with Fane F75 speakers
- Fender Super-Sonic combo
- Early ’60s Fender Bassman
- Marshall 1987X Plexi Reissue
- Victory Super Sheriff head
- Blackstar HT Stage 60—2 combos in stereo with Celestion Neo Creamback speakers and Mullard tubes
Effects
- Line 6 Helix
- Mantic Flex Pro
- TC Electronic G-Force
- Menatone Red Snapper
Strings and Picks
- Stringjoy Orbiters .0105 and .011 sets
- Dunlop celluloid white medium
- Sun Studios yellow picks
He ran through various amps—Marshalls, a Fender Bassman, two Fender Super-Sonic combos, and a Hiwatt Little J—at Audio Eagle. Live, if he’s not on backline gear, you’ll catch him mostly using 60-watt Blackstar HT Stage 60s loaded with Celestion Neo Creambacks. And while some boxes were stomped, he got most of his effects from a Line 6 Helix. “All of those sounds [in the Helix] are modeled on analog sounds, and you can tweak them endlessly,” he explains. “It’s just so practical and easy.”
The tools have only changed slightly since the band’s earlier days, when he favored Travis Beans and Hiwatts. Though he’s started to prefer higher gain sounds, Allen points out that “his guitar sound has always had teeth with a slightly bright sheen, and still does.”
“Honestly, I don’t think my tone has changed much over the past 30-something years,” Denison says. “I tend to favor a brighter, sharper sound with articulation. Someone sent me a video I had never seen of myself playing in the ’80s. I had a band called Cargo Cult in Austin, Texas. What struck me about it is it didn’t sound terribly different than what I sound like right now as far as the guitar sound and the approach. I don’t know what that tells you—I’m consistent?”
YouTube It
The Jesus Lizard take off at Nashville’s Blue Room this past June with “Hide & Seek” from Rack.
Phat Machine
The Phat Machine
The Phat Machine is designed to deliver the tone and responsiveness of a vintage germanium fuzz with improved temperature stability with no weird powering issues. Loaded with both a germanium and a silicon transistor, the Phat Machine offers the warmth and cleanup of a germanium fuzz but with the bite of a silicon pedal. It utilizes classic Volume and Fuzz control knobs, as well as a four-position Thickness control to dial-in any guitar and amp combo. Also included is a Bias trim pot and a Kill switch that allows battery lovers to shut off the battery without pulling the input cord.
Silk Worm Deluxe Overdrive
The Silk Worm Deluxe -- along with its standard Volume/Gain/Tone controls -- has a Bottom trim pot to dial in "just the right amount of thud with no mud at all: it’s felt more than heard." It also offers a Studio/Stage diode switch that allows you to select three levels of compression.
Both pedals offer the following features:
- 9-volt operation via standard DC external supply or internal battery compartment
- True bypass switching with LED indicator
- Pedalboard-friendly top mount jacks
- Rugged, tour-ready construction and super durable powder coated finish
- Made in the USA
Static Effectors’ Street Series pedals carry a street price of $149 each. They are available at select retailers and can also be purchased directly from the Static Effectors online store at www.staticeffectors.com.
Galloup’s Plek tech Adam Winarski preps a Yamaha acoustic for the machine.
Presently, many certified guitar-repair specialists possess the expertise required to deliver an instrument that both sounds and plays wonderfully. The standards set by manufacturers and distributors have significantly risen, safeguarded by rigorous quality protocols to guarantee the best possible acoustic experience for customers. Additionally, lutherie training has raised the bar for critical processes, and one of the most tricky is fretwork.
Traditional fretwork once involved manual labor, with technicians utilizing sandbags or similar supports to steady the neck as they straightened it with a truss rod during the filing process. A notable advancement in this field came in the mid 1970s when Don Teeter, an author and repair expert, imposed a new method: fixing the guitar body to the bench and using blocks to maintain the neck in a playing position. This refinement was one of many in the continued quest to produce superior instruments by standardized methods.
An example of the Plek’s readings from an acoustic guitar.
Photo courtesy of Galloup Guitars
In the late 1970s, another pivotal innovation was introduced by Dan Erlewine. He created an advanced fret jig with a specialized body-holding system and neck supports, adding another layer of precision to the repair process. During my collaboration with Dan in 1985, we developed a rotating neck jig that counterbalanced the forces of gravity, keeping the instrument in its playing orientation while adjusting the neck supports. This step represented a significant leap in establishing control and standardization of fretwork procedures in our industry. By 1986, our approach had evolved into a freestanding workstation coupled with a sophisticated hold-down mechanism and enhanced neck supports, culminating in increased accuracy, efficiency, and consistency. Over the decades, the Erlewine/Galloup rotating neck jig has become a benchmark in numerous shops, enhancing fretwork performance.
"This step represented a significant leap in establishing control and standardization of fretwork procedures in our industry."
By the 1990s, automated and computerized technologies permeated the guitar manufacturing and repair sectors. Initially applied by import companies in the mass production of guitars, the technology, although expediting processes, did not immediately achieve high execution standards. However, the tech dramatically improved over time, with computer-driven systems eventually transforming the industry. Contemporary automated production utilizing such advancements meets exceedingly high standards of precision. Some bespoke guitar manufacturers, such as Steve Andersen, were pioneers in adopting these methods, but it was companies like Taylor that established them in the modern era.
Inevitably, the progression of technology extended beyond the mere production of parts. Around 1995, German engineer Gerd Anke envisioned the integration of computer-assisted technology into enhancing instrument playability, giving rise to Plek technology, which uses computers to precisely measure and analyze the various components of a guitar, like neck relief, fret height, nut and bridge specs, and more. Nashville guitar-repair tech Joe Glaser was among the first to recognize the machine’s value, followed by San Francisco luthier Gary Brawer. When Heritage Guitar Inc. invested in a Plek machine, the guitar industry could no longer disregard the significance of this innovation.
“The machine’s scanning data confirmed that there was one nature of an ideal fret plane, done by hand or machine, and unsurprisingly, it conformed exactly to what physics predicts, not personal mojo.”
In the spring of 2022, Galloup Guitars obtained its first Plek machine. Promptly, our technician Adam Winarski paved the way for the Plek’s integration in our shop. Now, it’s a rarity for an instrument to leave our shop without having undergone Plek analysis and machining. Impressed by the results of our integration, we created “Intro to Plek” as a course for all students enrolled at the Galloup School of Lutherie, offering our students a practical introduction to this technology. We furthered this educational initiative with a comprehensive one-week intensive “Plek Certification Training Course” for both students and the public. This advanced Plek course serves those seeking to boost their knowledge base and employability in this high-precision field.
Plek is rapidly becoming an industry standard for major manufacturers and smaller shops alike. However, this does not mean that those without access to this technology cannot execute proficient fretwork. Personally, I continue to use my Erlewine/Galloup neck jig—not only out of nostalgia, but also because it remains an excellent method for delivering accurate and reliable guitars. Still, it’s undeniable that the process of fretting, fret dressing, and analytics of fretted instruments has undergone significant transformation, resulting in better sounding—and playing—guitars. And ultimately, that’s what it’s all about.