
To stay grounded—metaphysically speaking, that is—while playing, White always removes his shoes. While it helps with pedal control, there are indeed some negative effects: “If you play a smaller place with grounding issues, you get electrocuted that much more if you’re not wearing shoes.”
The psychedelic brothers duo get hi-fi on Petunia—creating a swirling universe of expressionistic sound—but 6-stringer Andy White still won’t put on a pair of shoes.
“I get nervous if I have my shoes on when I am playing,” says Andy White, the guitar half of the psychedelic, krautrock-style, jam-centric duo Tonstartssbandht [pronounced: tone-starts-band]. “For some reason, playing with shoes on just feels weird.”
How weird? That’s hard to say, but playing barefoot has helped the guitarist figure out a few tricks and use it to his advantage. “I want to be able to know I have the option to do what I need to do on the fly or, at the very least, feel myself grounded,” he adds. “It all comes down to pedals at the end of the day. Even if it’s not tweaking them, but just activating them, or turning them off.”
A duality—part mystical, part practical—describes White’s musical ethos as well as the history and evolution of Tonstartssbandht, which he founded in 2008 with his older brother and drummer, Edwin. The duo’s most recent release, Petunia, marked a new phase in their development, as they eschewed fuzz and lo-fi sonics in favor of cleaner tones. Despite capturing live instrumental takes, the album is very much a studio creation. The brothers took advantage of the downtime afforded by Covid—holed up together in their hometown of Orlando—and experimented with gear, holding out for perfect takes, and even built an iso booth.
“It definitely felt alien,” White says. “It was very weird, and I’ve second-guessed myself a lot of the time. ‘Should it be taking this long? Should it sound so high fidelity? Are people going to hate us or think we sold out?’”
Tonstartssbandht - Pass Away (Official Video)
Relative to the rest of their work, Petunia sounds like it was captured with Steely Dan-like precision. Their previous effort, Sorcerer, was recorded under completely different circumstances that illustrate the brothers’ ability to embrace serendipity and circumstance. “Sorcerer was recorded at our old place, when Ed and I were both living in Brooklyn in a big, shared living and art space called Le Wallet, in Bushwick,” White says. “If you could build a vocal booth within a vocal booth, you would not be able to escape the noise, because the building was surrounded on three sides by the elevated M train. I didn’t mind sleeping there, but you would not be able to get a quiet take unless you timed it perfectly for when the M wasn’t running for five minutes or so. We knew we were working with the ambient noise of a train going by, or a roommate making dinner across the room who wants to shout or something. There was no avoiding that.”
The much more delicate sound of Petunia is a fresh entry to the band’s discography. The album opens with “Pass Away,” a dreamy, spacious, falsetto-laden jam that grows and grows, and yet never forgets it’s supposed to groove. White layers chord extensions over an ostinato bass figure that’s played with his thumb and—check it out—isn’t overdubbed. In fact, none of the guitar parts are. Even the hypnotic, uneven delays that complement the melodic, upper register double-stops on “What Has Happened” were recorded as one complete take. White was able to create a rich, detailed sonic image by carefully dialing in his amps, plus mixing.
“I’ve second-guessed myself a lot of the time. ‘Should it be taking this long? Should it sound so high fidelity? Are people going to hate us or think we sold out?’”
“I have trouble sometimes,” he says. “If I set up mics in a room and I think, ‘This sounds nice and heavy for a two-man band,’ when I listen back to the recording, I can be disappointed because it doesn’t quite capture how heavy it sounded. If I am left to my own devices to mix—like we were on our previous albums—it’s just a lot of trial and error with EQ in post. With Petunia, we had all the carefully recorded takes to work with, and that’s why we brought it to other people to mix. It took us long enough to figure out how to record it how we wanted to, and we didn’t want to fuck up what we worked on so hard by trying to mix it ourselves.” That also paid off by showcasing the haunting qualities within White’s voice, which spins warm melodies and charms in airy falsetto for most of the album, but can drop into a growling attack when it’s time to bare teeth.
White uses two solid-state Lab Series amps—he has both the L5 and L6 models—which he finds break up to his liking and cover a broad tonal range. The Lab Series is from Gibson’s Norlin era, the 1970 to 1986 period when the company was producing some of its wackiest products, including offbeat guitars like the Marauder and Corvus, and solid-state amps that featured, for the time, cutting-edge electronics designed by sister Norlin company Moog. You don’t see Lab Series amps around that often, and for White, they’re perfect. “Some guitar guys tell me they have a tube sound without the finicky-ness of tubes, and I’ve always found them to be very reliable. I try to get a nice boost-y heavy bass from the amps, and when it comes to recording it, it’s luck and trial and error.”
The brothers White: Edwin (left), drums, and Andy (right), guitar.
White runs the two amps simultaneously and bounces his signal between both—not a dry signal in one amp and wet in the other—creating a ping-pong effect and fattening the sound. You can hear that in action on Petunia, especially on songs like “All of My Children” and the aforementioned “What Has Happened,” where he also leans heavily on an Electro-Harmonix Super Pulsar.
“It uses a quarter-note tremolo really hard—like a strobe—and then one repeat 100 percent wet and dry delay on the dotted quarter,” White says. “I used to dial that in on the fly on a live show and it would take forever to get it exactly right tuning the tremolo ratio and getting the delay to hit it just at the right swing. Now I just adjust the Super Pulsar and tune it to make it exactly how I like, and then save it as a preset.”
Andy White's Gear
Seen here at Brooklyn’s Market Hotel, Andy White splits his Strat’s signal into two vintage Gibson Lab Series amps to achieve maximum tone density and psyched-out ping-pong effects.
Photo by Tod Seelie
Guitars
- Danelectro 12-SDC
- Early ’70s Gibson SG with Bigsby
- Fender American Elite Stratocaster
Amps
- Lab Series L5 2x12
- Lab Series L6 1x15 bass combo
Strings
- Ernie Ball Power Slinky (.011–.048, for 6-strings)
- Ernie Ball (.010 sets, for 12-string)
Effects
Boss TU-3 Chromatic Tuner
Boss GE-7 Graphic Equalizer
Boss OC-3 Super Octave
Electro-Harmonix Little Big Muff
Electro-Harmonix Super Pulsar
Electro-Harmonix Stereo Memory Man with Hazarai
DigiTech X-Series DigiDelay
Boss RV-6 Reverb
TC Helicon VoiceTone Create (for vocals only)
White’s recently developed pragmatic approach to gear applies to his guitars as well. He relies on three: an SG and a Danelectro 12-string that are tuned to D standard, plus a Strat tuned to a hybrid C# tuning of his own invention (C#–G#–C#–F#–G#–B), with its bridge stopped up with cork to disable the tremolo.
“I went to the local guitar guy in Orlando and had him set up my guitar in that C# tuning,” he says. “I can’t believe that I am 32 and I just figured out that may be a smart thing to do. It was very rewarding. I took three guitars on the road. I just couldn’t be bothered spending so much time tuning and retuning on stage, and it paid off. I think my brother really appreciated not sitting on the drums whistling to himself while I tuned in the middle of a live show.”
The guitarist fingerpicks with a raw style, using just his thumb and index finger, with his other fingers anchored to the pickguard. He plays with the flesh, or pads, of his fingers and doesn’t use his nails or fingerpicks.
TIDBIT: The White brothers made the best of the dearth of gigs incurred by the pandemic and took their time recording Petunia, creating the most high-fidelity and detailed recording in the band’s extensive discography
“I got into fingerpicking on an old nylon-string that was my first guitar,” he says. “I don’t remember a specific moment when I was like, ‘This is what I am going to do now,’ but I do remember that playing guitar for me was about using a pick—playing power chords or big open chords—and then one day I tried playing around with fingerpicking and realized I could use my thumb and index finger and that it wasn’t that hard. I started writing and fingerpicking as much as I could, and then I got into John Fahey and Davey Graham and that kind of British folk and blues fingerpicking. A few years later, when I was playing with my brother in Tonstartssbandht—our music, at first, was like noise and drone and vocal-looping based. Slowly but surely, and maybe it had to do with being able to express myself with tuning the amps correctly or finding the right guitar, fingerpicking became something we could comfortably do together. He could rip on the drums and I could fingerpick, and it wouldn’t sound too much like a hot mess. It was cohesive.”
Cohesion aptly describes the duo’s improvisations. They don’t jam in the soloist/accompaniment sense, but rather more in the group-focused style of ’70s-era krautrock bands like Can and Popol Vuh. “There are only two of us,” White says. “If only one of us is soloing, it’s going to sound pretty fucked up. We do our best to sound like a full band. If I am not playing chords and singing, I want to play leads like Michael Karoli. That feels funny—saying that Michael Karoli is my favorite guitarist—because you don’t listen to Can records for the guitars; you listen for the whole sound.”
“If only one of us is soloing, it’s going to sound pretty fucked up. We do our best to sound like a full band.”
Similarly, thanks to their combination of a practical, work-centric focus and just letting things happen, you listen to Tonstartssbandht for the whole sound. But the comparisons end there, because the members of Can, for the most part, usually wore shoes—you knew that was coming back—which, as White said, isn’t his M.O. He prefers the spiritual high and knob-twisting practicality of keeping his shoes off even if that does have its share of problems.
“It has come back to bite me,” he says. “If you play a smaller place with grounding issues, you get electrocuted that much more if you’re not wearing shoes. My dad has told me in the past, ‘Before you go on the road, go to Home Depot and get an insulated rubber mat to stand on in case you’re playing a place that has bad electricity. But as one is wont to do with their father, I hear his advice and think, ‘Shut up dad! That’s a stupid idea.’ But it’s actually quite a good idea. I should probably do it someday.”
“Falloff” by TONSTARTSSBANDHT live at Market Hotel, Brooklyn, NY, October 28, 2021
Witness the full effect of Andy White’s fingerpicked stereo sound in this vibe-y take of “Falloff,” from 2021’s Petunia.
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A sample page from the author’s analog log.
Seasonal changes are tough on your acoustic. Here’s how you can take better care of your prized instrument.
As you read this, spring is in bloom in most of the US, or maybe it has been for some time. I’m timing this column specifically to ask acoustic guitarists, in this season of increasing humidity and comfortable conditions, to prepare for what’s coming. It’s never too soon, and time flies. Before you know it, we’ll be back to the maintenance phase and you might be blowing up the phones of your local guitar shops, luthiers, and techs. I’m here to encourage a decidedly old-school approach to preventative guitar maintenance, and yes, it starts now.
Why, you ask? Well, as the lead luthier at Acoustic Music Works, I can tell you that in my nearly 15 years in this position, this was the worst winter ever for preventable repairs on acoustic guitars. Fret sprout, bridge lifts, top sink, soundboard cracks, back cracks, loose binding, general malaise… These hit us very hard in the winter that spanned 2024 and 2025. Am I complaining? On the one hand, no. This is part of how we make our money. On the other hand, yes! Repair schedules related to dryness and humidity issues can stretch into weeks and even months, and nobody wants to be without their favorite instruments for that amount of time. With a little thoughtfulness, however, you might get through next winter (and every one thereafter) without hefty repair bills or time apart from your musical companion.
Our preparation is going to start with an unlikely but very important guitar accessory: the humble notebook. Plain, lined, grid, day planner… it doesn’t matter. We all need to actively participate in our instrument maintenance, and in my experience, fancy apps that track humidity via Bluetooth breed a kind of laziness, a feeling of safety that might prevent us from actually physically looking in on conditions. Better we keep an analog, well, log, so that we know where things stand, and I suggest checking in daily.
“This was the worst winter ever for preventable repairs on acoustic guitars.”
Track your relative humidity, both in the case and in the room where your instruments mostly reside, but also take notes on your action height, top deflection (StewMac has some great tips for measuring this) and anything related to playability that you believe you can observe empirically.
Dryness is the root cause of most guitar issues that manifest in the fall and winter months. Symptoms of dryness include sharp fret ends, falling action and dead frets, sunken top around the sound hole, and cracks and bridge lifts. With your trusty notebook, you’ll get a feel for the sensitivity level of your instrument, and that knowledge is power!
A few other basic implements will not only assist you in your observations, but may also satisfy your need to buy guitar-related things (at least for a minute). Getting quick and comfortable with a fret rocker is a great skill to have, and is invaluable in diagnosing buzzes due to high frets or frets that have come unseated due to dryness. A well-calibrated relief gauge might seem luxurious, but it can prevent you from making unnecessary or extreme truss rod adjustments. A string action gauge, or even a simple machinist’s rule or set of feeler gauges, will help you keep track of your action. Get a three-pack of hygrometers so you can average their readings, rather than depending on one.
Lest we forget: A guitar can not only be too dry, it can also be too wet. By beginning your maintenance diligence in the spring/summer, you’ll also be able to tell if your instrument is the victim of a too-humid environment. The signs of over-humidification are subtle: Your action may rise from a puffed-up top, and in extreme cases, glue joints could begin to fail. In my experience, an over-humidified guitar will suffer from dulled tone, almost like a sock in the sound hole. If you’re sensing a lack of clarity in your guitar all of a sudden, start with new strings. If it persists, it might be due to over-humidification, and you may want to introduce a desiccant to the case for a time. The more lightly built your guitar is, the more sensitive it will be to seasonal changes.
By getting into these habits early, you’ll be empowered by knowing your instrument more intimately. You’ll understand when and why changes in tone and playability might have occurred, and you’ll hopefully save on repair bills year-round. Feel free to reach out with any questions. Who knows? I might just send you a notebook with an AMW sticker on the cover!
This wonky Zim-Gar was one of many guitars sold by importer Gar-Zim Musical Instruments, operated by Larry Zimmerman and his wife.
The 1960s were strange days indeed for import guitars, like this cleaver-friendly Zim-Gar electric.
Recently I started sharing my work office with a true gem of a guy … one of the nicest fellas I’ve ever come across. If you’ve been following my column here, you might remember my other work mate Dylan, who is always telling me about new, fad-type things (like hot Honey guitars) and trying to convince me to use AI more. (What can I say, he’s a millennial.) But Steve, on the other hand, is about 10 years my senior and is a native New Yorker—Brooklyn actually, from the Canarsie neighborhood. Steve is a retired teacher and spent many years teaching in the Brownsville area of Brooklyn, and man, he has some amazing stories.
Mostly we talk about music and sports (he’s exiled here among us Philadelphia sports fans) and he’s just endlessly interesting to me. He has a huge appetite and can eat a whole pizza. When he talks, he sounds like one of the Ramones and he still has an apartment in Rockaway Beach. We both love Seinfeld and, like George Costanza, Steve knows where all the great bathrooms are across New York City. Since he’s been added to my circle (and is such a mensch), I decided I should work him into a column.
So here’s the connection: Back in the day there were many American importers, dealers, and wholesalers. A lot of them were based in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles, but I only know of one guitar importer located in Brooklyn: Gar-Zim Musical Instruments. The company was run by Larry Zimmerman and his wife, and the couple had some success importing and selling Japanese guitars and drums. I used to see early Teisco imports with the Zim-Gar badge, which was the brand name of Gar-Zim. I’ve also seen Kawai guitars with the Zim-Gar label, but the Zimmerman’s seemed to sell cheaper and cheaper gear as the ’60s wore on, including the piece you see here.
“This build reminds me of the cutting boards I used to make in wood shop back in my high school days.”
The model name and factory origin of this guitar is a mystery to me, but this build reminds me of the cutting boards I used to make in wood shop back in my high school days. The guitar is just flat across the top and back, with absolutely no contouring or shaping. Its offset body is plywood with a thin veneer on the top and back. From a distance this guitar actually looks kind of nice, but up close you can see a rather crude and clunky instrument that offers little flexibility and playability. The non-adjustable bridge is off center, as is the tremolo. It was really hard to get this guitar playing well, but in the end it was worth it, because the pickups were the saving grace. Another example of gold-foils, these units sound strong and raw. The electronics consist of an on/off switch for each pickup and a volume and tone knob. The tuners are okay, and the headstock design is reminiscent of the Kay “dragon snout” shape of the mid to late ’60s, which is where I would place the birthdate of this one, probably circa 1966. Everything is just so goofy about this build—even the upper strap button is located on the back of the neck. It reminds me of that era when simple wood factories that were making furniture were tasked with building electric guitars, and they simply didn’t know what they were doing. So, you get oddities like this one.
Gar-Zim continued to sell guitars and other musical instruments through the 1970s and possibly into the ’80s. I once even saw a guitar with the label Lim-Gar, which is totally puzzling. I think there should’ve been a Stee-Gar designation for my new buddy Steve-o! Yes, good readers, with guitars and me, there are always just a few degrees of separation.
Dive into the ART Tube MP/C with PG contributor Tom Butwin. Experience how this classic tube-driven preamp and compressor can add warmth and clarity to your sound. From studio recordings to re-amping and live stage applications, this time-tested design packs a ton of features for an affordable price.
Art Tube Mp Project Series Tube Microphone/Instrument Preamp
Designed in Rochester NY and originally released in 1995, the Tube MP is celebrating its 30th anniversary in 2025.
The Tube MP/C is the most fully-featured member of the Tube MP family, designed for recording guitarists and bassists. It is a tube mic preamp and instrument DI with advanced features including an optical compressor/limiter and switchable line/instrument output levels for use as a re-amping device.
Guitarist Scott Metzger and his Lollar P-90-loaded Creston T-style onstage with LaMP, next to organist Ray Paczkowski.
The guitarist, who splits his time between the groove-driven jam band supergroup and Joe Russo’s Almost Dead, energizes the Tele vernacular on One of Us.
“Night after night playing next toDean Ween was really my foundation for learning what it means to be a lead guitarist, and how to do a gig, and the pacing of a gig, and a lot of things that I still consider really, really important lessons,” says guitarist Scott Metzger. He’s thinking back to his formative years in the small town of New Hope, Pennsylvania, about 40 miles north of Philadelphia and across the river from his hometown of Lambertville, New Jersey. It was there, on the intimate, low-ceilinged stage at eclectic musical outpost John & Peter’s, that the guitarist cut his teeth next to the Ween co-founder—real name Mickey Melchiondo—as a member of Chris Harford’s Band of Changes, which Metzger joined at just 17 years old.
“They treated me like a kid, man,” he continues. “They really put me through the paces. There was a lot of hazing, and there was some tough love on a lot of those nights.”
Metzger estimates he left it all on the John & Peter’s stage hundreds of times, forming an old-school style of musical apprenticeship that can be heard in his playing today, three decades later. In any of the improv-heavy settings where he tends to find himself—such as his collaborative trio, LaMP, with members of the Trey Anastasio Band, the transformative Grateful Dead tribute Joe Russo’s Almost Dead, or in freelance situations—Metzger takes the patient and complementary approach of someone playing the long game. He’s a supportive and colorful collaborator who, to make a baseball analogy, always seems to have a good read on the musical ball, equally adept as a finely attuned rhythm player or commanding lead voice. For that, he offers a lot of credit to those early days.
Guitarist Scott Metzger and his Lollar P-90-loaded Creston T-style onstage with LaMP, next to organist Ray Paczkowski.
Photo by Andrew Blackstein
“I kept my mouth shut and my eyes open,” Metzger explains, “and I learned what it takes to become a good, competent guitarist and what it means to have a distinct voice—Dean Ween has one of the most distinct lead guitar voices in rock ’n’ roll as far as I’m concerned. But not only that, also how to support a singer, and how to play a song, and when not to solo, which is just as important as knowing when to.”
Metzger remembers his early teen years, learning tunes by the Ramones—his first concert—and Jersey’s own Misfits, and getting turned ontoHendrix bootlegs and Boredoms records at New Hope’s Now and Then shop. Later, Melchiondo expanded his psychedelic worldview, hipping him to P-Funk— specificallyEddie Hazel’s guitar work—and theAllman Brothers.
Metzger at home in Brooklyn, surrounded by an inspiring array of gear and posters.
Photo by Andrew Blackstein
It wasn’t long until Metzger put all those early lessons to work on the road. At 19, he was playing with his experimental trio F-Hole at Princeton, New Jersey’s Small World coffee when Phish guitaristTrey Anastasio wandered in. “As soon as we get done playing,” Metzger recalls, “he makes a beeline to me and basically started interrogating me about who I was listening to and what I was into gear wise and what kind of guitarists I was into. What I didn't realize was that he was basically auditioning me in real time to be in his friend Tom Marshall's band, who writes all the lyrics for Phish and was putting together a band at the time.”
Metzger scored the gig with Marshall’s Amfibian, playing sold-out shows on the road and opening him up to a whole new musical world. “I wasn’t that familiar with Phish at all,” he points out. “But I knew I liked being up in front of all those people and being able to just play all night. I was really kind of a focal point of the band, and that was my introduction to what is now considered the jam band scene.”
Fast-forward to the present: Metzger is a formidable member of the jam scene. He’s led and collaborated on a host of projects, including WOLF!, with bassist Jon Shaw and drummer Taylor Floreth; the blazing country-swing trio Showdown Kids, with his wife, violinist Katie Jacoby, and guitarist Simon Kafka; and his resplendent, forward-thinking 2022 acoustic-focused solo record, Too Close to Reason. In 2013, he teamed up with his longtime pal drummer Joe Russo, along with guitarist Tom Hamilton Jr., bassist Dave Dreiwitz, and keyboardist Marco Benevento, in forming Joe Russo’s Almost Dead. Colloquially known as JRAD, the group, in a sea of reverence, treats the Grateful Dead’s songbook almost as if it’s an edition of the Real Book—the shorthand jazz-standards tome—cracking open the large catalog and infusing their own voices with every improv-heavy performance.
Scott Metzger’s Gear
Guitars
- Creston T-style
- Ronin Songbird
Amps
- Headstrong Verbrovibe 1x15
- Victoria 35210
Effects
- Bearfoot Putting Green Compressor
- Benson Germanium Fuzz
- Paul Cochrane Timmy overdrive
- Interstellar Audio Machines Octonaut Hyperdrive
- Analog Man-modded MXR Phase 90
- Ibanez Analog Delay
- Keeley 30ms Double Tracker
- Benson Delay
- Wilson Wah pedal
- Line 6 DL4
- Voodoo Lab power supply
Strings and Picks
- D’Addario NYXL .011s
- Dunlop Prime Tone 1.0 mm
Being a part of a Dead tribute act was never part of Metzger’s plan. In fact, he says he wasn’t all that familiar with the band’s catalog. “I wasn’t sure I was the right guy for the band,” he says. But with exploration and personal vocabulary so paramount in JRAD, Russo knew Metzger was the right guitarist for the job.
“You have to be willing to get in there and do your thing and make your mark unapologetically,” Metzger muses. “That's something that's made us stand out in a world of bands that are playing those songs.”
JRAD has developed a large, dedicated following, rising to the top of the Dead tribute scene. “The size of the audience that we have is mind blowing,” Metzger points out, “and the fact that the audiences are willing to go to the places musically with us that we take it, it almost feels like we're testing how much we can get away with a lot of the time.”
Metzger and LaMP bandmates Paczkowski and drummer Russ Lawton. “Those two guys are kind of celebrities up in Burlington,” he says, “so it's like doing a gig with the mayor or something.”
Photo by David Gray
These days, JRAD makes up about half of Metzger’s current gig commitments, and LaMP fills the other. The trio was formed one night in 2018 at Burlington, Vermont’s jam nexus Nectar’s, when the guitarist joined forces with keyboardist Ray Paczkowski and drummer Russ Lawton, both longtime members of Trey Anastasio’s solo band, who also work as the psych-funk duo Soul Monde. “Right off the bat, there was a chemistry that was going to work,” Metzger recalls. “Those two guys are kind of celebrities up in Burlington, so it’s like doing a gig with the mayor or something. The whole town came out to see us, the place was packed, and I think it was very clear to everybody there that night, including us, that it would be a crime not to do it again.”
LaMP builds on the long history of the organ-trio tradition, referencing ’60s ensembles helmed by Grant Green and George Benson, the Meters’ soulful funk, more modern jammers like Medeski, Martin & Wood—and most notably their late-night groove collabs with guitarist John Scofield—as well as thrill-seeking, forward-leaning groups like John Abercrombie’s Gateway Trio and Tony Williams’ Lifetime, all while embracing the spirit of rock ’n’ roll abandon. As unabashed and freewheeling as that might suggest, Metzger and company shoot for a tasteful sonic experience more than a barn-burning blast-off, and at the fore of the band’s sound is a shared improvisational language built upon close listening just as much as any influence. “The real thing that we’re focusing on,” Metzger shares, “is having a good feel, a group sound, and some catchy melodies. Those things are enough to carry the thing without having to worry about ripping some blazing solos every song.”
This year, LaMP released One of Us, the follow-up to their self-titled 2020 debut. It’s filled with live-off-the-floor energy, or as Metzger puts it, “fresh tension.” The mostly first and second takes heard on the record, with barely any overdubs, successfully capture the band’s collaborative heart, making One of Us a ferociously spirited listen from beginning to end. “I like records that are made really quickly on low budgets with the clock ticking,” Metzger conveys. “You can feel that a little bit on the record. It’s not too polished. It's like you can feel that it’s three guys in a room playing together.”
LaMP’s One of Uscaptures the band’s effervescence with a set of mostly live-off-the-floor first and second takes.
Throughout One of Us, Metzger showcases his deep fluency in the Telecaster vernacular. With his Creston T-style, a chambered all-black affair loaded with Lollar P-90s, he slings lyrical licks that offer nods to the masters of the form, all the way back to the first Tele virtuoso, Jimmy Bryant through aces Roy Buchanan, Danny Gatton, Jim Campilongo, and Steve Cropper’s deep pocket. (In JRAD, Metzger calls on a Ronin Songbird loaded with DeArmond gold-foils, but his vocab and approach remain much the same.)
Metzger’s take on the tradition is less virtuosic gunslinger than most of those maestros, instead favoring a more complementary approach with an ear toward supporting the group. To that end, he keeps his sound mostly on the cleaner end by reserving a load of potential sonic energy. “I crank the amp,” he says, pointing out he prefers to set his combo—either a Victoria 35210, a 2x10 Fender tweed Super copy, for LaMP, or a Headstrong Verbrovibe 1x15, a replica of a 1963 Fender Vibroverb, which he favors for JRAD—to 7 or 8 so it’s fully opened up. A self-described “minimalist pedal guy,” he keeps four punch-packing pedals—a Bearfoot Putting Green compressor, Benson Germanium Fuzz, Paul Cochrane Timmy, and an Interstellar Audio Machines Octonaut Hyperdrive—on at all times. As hairy as that may suggest, Metzger maintains clarity, he explains, by keeping his guitar volume set between just two and four. That means that when he wants, he’s just a crank of the volume knob away from a wide-open, full-throated sound.
YouTube It
LaMP deliver the knotty mid-tempo groove of “Jasper’s World” from One of Us from a concert in fall 2024 at Boston’s Wilbur Theater.
His approach to pedals says much about Metzger’s playing style in general. There’s always a load of possibility on reserve, and you can sense it. He’s not one to frequently lay sonic waste with a technical assault, but, rather, a massive map of potential musical avenues is perpetually close at hand, with his ear in the driver’s seat.
Listen to Metzger in just about any situation, whether as a bandleader, bandmember, or just sitting in, and there’s an obvious musical set of ethics in place—and it’s probably been in effect since his early days at John & Peter’s. The responsibilities are something like work hard, support others, be ready to deliver at all times, and, maybe above all, be yourself.
“I was told in no uncertain terms,” he recalls, “that the important thing about being a musician was to find your own thing. You’ve got to stand on your own feet. The ultimate goal that we’re all still working on is to sing our own song with our own voice.”