Armed with a handful of road-tested tunes, a go-for-broke attitude, and a new level of chemistry, newgrass’ most progressive guitarist makes a statement with Maybe Believe.
There is an informal battle between tradition and innovation in nearly every genre of music. Over the last decade or so, bluegrass and Americana have developed more of an independent streak with acts like the Punch Brothers, the Infamous Stringdusters, and the Jon Stickley Trio. Each of these acts combines tradition with innovation in their own way, but don’t sacrifice the integrity of their genre. Stickley’s trio with violinist Lyndsay Pruett and drummer Patrick Armitage is not a traditional bluegrass group by any means. Many times when they show up to festivals, Armitage is the only drummer on the bill. However, they are just nimble and ambitious enough to navigate EDM-style breakbeats as effortlessly as the old timey standard “Blackberry Blossom.”
Stickley grew up in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, with a punk rock heart and a bluegrass soul. The bustling college town offered Stickley the prism he needed to make these somewhat disparate musical worlds come together. He was drawn towards the immediacy and fierceness that populated the town’s indie-rock scene. “I loved bands like Superchunk, Archers of Loaf, and Spatula,” says Stickley. “They were such off-the-wall bands compared to anything I had ever heard. It was out of tune, wonky, but technical and artsy while being catchy and melodic in a weird, off-kilter way.”
The chops Stickley demonstrates on the new Maybe Believe, his trio’s second studio album produced by Dave King of the Bad Plus, might suggest he spent much of his formative years hanging out picking at bluegrass festivals, but the truth is that he was rather late to the genre’s bandwagon. “I remember the first MerleFest I went to, I saw a young Chris Thile. That kind of blew my mind,” Stickley says. At the time, Stickley was taking lessons with a local guitar guru named Hawksi Pope. Through those lessons, he got more into acoustic music and started to play open mics around town with his brother, Jeff, and banjo player Andy Thorn, who has since gone on to play with many jamgrass groups, including Leftover Salmon. “The warm spirit of the bluegrass music scene really attracted me. The summer after high school, I was just obsessed.”
Naturally, the punk rock side of Stickley had to make amends with his newfound love for bluegrass. The Stickley brothers and Thorn then formed Crawdad PA, a bluegrass group that saw Jon move to mandolin. “That was my first bluegrass band,” says Stickley. “We didn’t know too many bluegrass songs, so we just started playing this Dead Milkmen song, ‘Dean’s Dream’ for fun.” The “wrong genre” approach that Stickley stumbled into has become somewhat of a cornerstone of his style. Although his group is well versed in the standard repertoire of old-time bluegrass, they don’t let those perceptions limit their creativity.
In 2012, after serving time in several regional bluegrass groups, Stickley felt it was time to move out on his own. “I needed something to do,” says Stickley. “[Leaving the band Town Mountain] forced me into that role.” Originally, the Jon Stickley Band consisted of a more traditional bluegrass lineup, but thanks to a last-minute call for a gig, the trio concept was born. “I couldn’t get a bass player, but I could get a fiddle player. My roommate Ryan Oslance was a drummer, so that was the first time I ever did a drums/violin/guitar trio.”
It was through Lyndsay Pruett that Stickley connected with the trio’s current drummer, Patrick Armitage. The group had been asked to open some shows for the Infamous Stringdusters in Colorado, and Stickley was in a pinch. “I called him up while I was on tour with Woody Pines. I had never met him or heard him play at all,” laughs Stickley. Once Stickley returned to North Carolina, he had a few rehearsals with the group and off they went. “He was kinda in the same position, just looking for a gig. As soon as we decided, ‘Hey, let’s do this,’ he was in.” We caught up with Stickley right before another leg of the group’s seemingly endless tour to discuss his approach to composition, the pros of playing a relic’d guitar, and just exactly how an Aphex Twin song landed on the new album.
It seems like there’s a thread of mixing up styles and genres throughout your last few records.
You’re exactly right. When I started early on, it was a very unconscious thing. It wasn’t until I started the trio and started to rely more on my own songwriting—basically just needing material and thinking, “Ok, what kind of song should we do now?” That got me thinking back to what’s always drawn me to music. How can I tie some of those elements in? I would start thinking about different rhythms, drumbeats, and chord progressions, that maybe wouldn’t be typically bluegrass-y. Maybe like punk or emo. And then you start to notice the similarities and you go, “Oh, this has the same chords as ‘Wagon Wheel.’”
You’ve tipped your hat to Tony Rice a few times throughout your career with tunes like “Rice Dream” and “Stickey Rice.” When did he become an influence on your playing?
It happened right after high school. I think that’s a time when your brain can really latch onto things. What really drew me in was the first David Grisman Quintet album. Andy had it, and I was learning mandolin at the time. The sound of that album and the lead track, “E.M.D,” is such an important recording. Everything about it is so deep in so many ways and was a total game changer. That’s ground zero for me, as far as new acoustic music. One of the first places I looked to try and learn some bluegrass licks was Tony Rice’s playing on the Grisman albums. Then I learned some Tony Rice bluegrass solos with tab. If you’ve got the muscle memory of certain licks down you can fit those in a lot of different places. Over time, I’ve really come to love the style, taste, and general vibe that Tony Rice has. They stand apart in this completely different world to me from almost everything I’ve ever heard.
The trio is really the first group where you’ve planted your musical flag.
You’re right. I’ve never really thought about it like that. The first solo gigs that I started doing were just a bluegrass band where I played guitar and sang. Then I would usually get bass, mandolin, and banjo or fiddle. I had a couple of original tunes that I had written. On my first solo album, Lions, I had written a handful of instrumentals. My good friend Ryan Oslance, who was living with me at the time and a great drummer, had a crazy, progressive, avant-garde, jazz-rock duo in Asheville called Ahleuchatistas. He was also playing some gigs with me and [banjo player and singer] Shannon Whitworth every now and then. We were just jamming one day and I had put together a bar gig.
Stickley’s modest pedalboard allows him to create lush, layered soundscapes with the TC Electronic Ditto, groovy basslines with the MicroPOG, and get super trippy with the Boss DD-3 Digital Delay.
Was that the lineup for the first trio album?
Well, we had started playing shows with Ryan and then he went to Europe with this other band and kinda stayed indefinitely. I had already booked the studio time to do the album and I wasn’t that upset with it because it was such an early thing. We got Mike Ashworth, who is the drummer in the Steep Canyon Rangers now. He was just a guy I knew in town and he came and played drums on the first trio record [2012’s JS3]. He’s got a super-chill, unique style that really adds a lot to that record.
What was the transition between him and Patrick?
Mike never really joined the band. We were asked to go to Colorado and play a run of gigs opening for the Infamous Stringdusters, and Ryan wasn’t available for some reason, so I asked Lyndsey in a pinch about who we should get. She had just played a gig with Patrick. I was like, “It just needs to work for this tour. Let’s see how it goes.” We only had to learn eight or nine tunes. It went well and we love Pat.
These last two albums seem really connected. You used the same studio, producer, and engineer. However, in a promo video you described the experiences as being very different. Why is that?
I’d say the main thing was that Lost at Last was the first album we’d ever done with Patrick. We started tracking the morning after we met [producer] Dave King for the first time. Patrick had known him, but we’d never met him. It was also the first time we tried to recreate what we did live in the studio. The first trio album was more of an acoustic-picking record with drums. There were very minimal effects and we hadn’t been doing the “bass” thing yet, with the pedals. It was a big figuring-out process in a lot of ways, with different personalities and all. Also, we were just trying to think through if we should play it all live or just track it. When we went in for this album two years later, there was a very intimate connection between the band members, a really strong connection with Dave King, and of course [engineer] Julian Dryer’s familiarity with recording and mixing us. It was night and day. We walked in and did first takes on five songs.
These songs had been road tested a bit, right?
Yeah. That’s the other major difference. We purposely started writing music about a year out from when we were recording this record. A lot of those songs got to grow and develop. There was also some loose sketches of tunes that we wanted to work up in the studio. We wanted to collaborate and develop those ideas once we got into the studio with Dave because we wanted him to have a strong hand in the arrangements.
So there was probably an extra layer of trust with him at this point.
Exactly. I was kind of intimidated by him when he came in, of course, but that went away fast. He is an enormous personality, but I tell you what, I love that guy. He is one of the most kind, humble, good-energied, youthful-spirited dudes ever. He has this Yoda-type personality that’s so wise and grounded and wide open and hilarious. You don’t even get that from his Rational Funk [instructional drum] videos. We grew to love him and he’s a big fan of the band and actually likes us. Going into this one with that relationship with Dave was so much fun.
Maybe Believe was recorded at Echo Mountain Recording with the same crew that was on the group’s previous album, Lost at Last. Left to right: Stickley, violinist Lyndsay Pruett, engineer Julian Dryer, producer Dave King, and drummer Patrick Armitage. Photo by Ken Voltz
The fact that you brought in a drummer to help the drums fit in makes total sense.
I think we wanted the drums to be more of an element. Not just guitar and violin playing along to a groove, even though Patrick is a groove-oriented drummer. We wanted it to be more dynamic and make sure the drums have as much of a presence and personality of the other two instruments. One of the things I love so much about Pat is that he keeps the foundation so strong.
On “Jewels,” your touch with harmonics is so spot-on. How did you develop that technique?
That’s a sound that I really like to make when I’m just noodling around. I don’t do as much of the Lenny Breau-style of harmonics. The natural harmonics at the 5th, 7th, and 12th frets can be played louder because you can pick it really hard with your right hand and just mute with your left hand. I focus on those spots. You can make a nice pentatonic melody with those. Once I figured out how to fret notes around that, I focused more on that technique.
Jon Stickley’s Gear
Guitars
• 1956 Martin D-18
Amps
• Vintage Supro
Effects
• Electro-Harmonix MicroPOG
• Boss DD-3 Digital Delay
• Electro-Harmonix Holy Grail Nano
• TC Electronic Ditto Looper
• Boss TU-2 Chromatic Tuner
Strings and Picks
• D’Addario EJ17 (.013–.056)
• BlueChip picks
• L.R. Baggs Venue DI
“Jewels” is such a delicate song and an unexpected choice for an opener.
It wasn’t the original plan, but it made sense once I started to work on the track listing. Dave came up with the idea of opening with that. It’s the most chill song on Lost at Last and I just wasn’t ready for that yet. It’s funny, if you listen to a lot of Bad Plus albums, they often start with a very slow, calm song and then go into something faster. “Jewels” was planned as an interlude between two songs, but when the track list took shape, I heard it more as a short, calming opener that could draw you in a little bit.
“Playpeople” evokes the classic sound of the trio with danceable beats, big riffs, and plenty of fiddle. How did you craft that arrangement?
That is one of those tunes where there are a few different parts done a few different ways—a few different times. That’s another one I wrote based on the drumbeat, and I got the idea for that beat from the new Blink-182 record. It was one of those amazing Travis Barker beats, and the opening drone bassline reminded me of “She” from Green Day’s Dookie. It’s kind of a tribute to that. It also demonstrated the next step in the trio and the next step in my writing, where I’m thinking more about the arrangement while I’m making the demo. They listen to it and we get together and come up with a working arrangement, which usually takes us two or three hours. Everyone really has a hand in the song even though I usually come up with the basic melody and idea.
So there’s no real chart writing? Is it all done aurally?
Definitely. I did recently get a whiteboard and some markers that we used to make our little diagram of the song when we rehearse. Other than that, we just do it by ear. A lot of times I use the mandolin to come up with the idea of a potential fiddle part. I just like to do as much work ahead of time as possible. Sometimes Lyndsey will play that exact thing and other times it’s completely different.
Did you use your old Martin on the album?
I did. It’s a ’56 D-18 and it’s getting pretty worn. I’m working on finding a replacement so I don’t have to bring it on the road all the time.
With another vintage Martin?
No. I want something that I don’t have to worry about as much. There’s a company in Hillsboro, North Carolina, called Pre-War Guitars and they are making relic’d copies of pre-war Martins. One of the other things they do is make a replica. I’m entertaining the idea of making a replica of my ’56. They look amazing and you can pick the level of relic’ing. Maybe some people would get upset about it for some reason, but I think it’s awesome. To me, looks matter. I don’t want a crystal-clean white Adirondack spruce top on my guitar. Traveling with those guitars is scary.
What is your pedal situation like?
We cut the record with only our “bass” pedals. I’ve got the [Electro-Harmonix] MicroPOG, and Lyndsay uses the POG2. The POG2 is cool for her because she can drop it down two octaves and get this enormous bass sound from this tiny, little high-pitched violin. The Micro is good for me because it’s very simple and just drops me down an octave. That’s really the effect that we lean on the most. Live, all I have other than that is a Boss Digital Delay, [Electro-Harmonix] Holy Grail Reverb, and a [TC Electronic] Ditto Looper. I don’t use the Ditto for any in-time looping, but I use it to make soundscape transitions between songs. We used just the studio’s reverb on the album and then a real Echoplex for some of the crazy stuff.
What amps did you use in the studio?
I was using a vintage Supro and Lyndsay plugged into a cranked Hiwatt half stack. She also uses the [Electro-Harmonix] Soul Food overdrive and loves it. I’m thinking about getting one, too. I used to use the overdrive out of my amp and it sounded horrible. That Soul Food is so smooth and warm. I can’t remember what we used for Lost at Last, but she didn’t use the Hiwatt. I might have used the same Supro amp. It was cool walking into that amp room and hearing her wail through that Hiwatt. When we recorded, we sent out three signals: stereo mics on the instruments in the room, a direct line, and a line from the amp. For each tune, we had three sounds and we would lean a little heavier on different ones for different songs.
“Jerusalem Ridge” sounds like the album’s traditional bluegrass homage.
We were, very intentionally, looking for a traditional bluegrass homage. Lyndsey was the one who thought “Jerusalem Ridge” would be cool. I thought if it resonated with her, then it sounds good to me. I’ve never loved the song that much, but I thought in the long form it would give us a chance to arrange it and make it exciting and new. It’s got a little bit of that death-metal shred vibe, too.
The Aphex Twin song, “Avril 14th,” was a complete surprise.
In a way, it’s maybe a small little tribute to Dave King, because they [the Bad Plus] did that Aphex tune, “Flim.” That’s always been one of my favorite Bad Plus covers. This might sound a little contrived, but we were looking for a cross-genre cover that we could do to maybe bring in some more ears and connect to an element of music that we all listen to that is not very bluegrass.
Was “Cecil” another song that started from the groove?
That was one of the very loosely arranged ideas that we came into the studio with. The drums on the album are completely different and reworked from the demo. It was more of like a techno-dance beat instead of this sludgy half-time thing. Dave King said it sounded like a bar mitzvah soundtrack from My Big Fat Greek Wedding or something. He didn’t say it in a cutting way, but he said we should switch it up. Dave suggested playing this Bad Brains-style, insanely fast punk beat over it. He actually came in and played the beat with Lyndsay and I and that was extremely fun. Then Patrick got back in there and tried it, but that type of beat is something that he would never do. He’s not a punk drummer. Then Dave came in and suggested something slower in a more John Bonham style, and Pat jumped all over that.
Do you write on the road or do you need to devote specific time to writing?
I would love to do a writing retreat someday, where you go on a vacation in a cabin. But I just can’t seem to get away to do that—yet. For me, songs don’t just pop out of my head. It’s like little homework assignments for me. I will go away into a room on tour and use my iPad because it’s so simple. You can see why kids love it so much. You just touch things with your finger and it works. I don’t have to type keys and the technology doesn’t interfere with the process as much.
Are you just using GarageBand for demos?
Yeah, just GarageBand. I make tracks and demos based on little audio notes from my phone. I make notes on my phone when I have ideas and then, when I have the space to sit down and try to write a song, I’ll go back and listen to those clips. You know that song, “Mt. Sandia Swing?” We were in Albuquerque and we just hiked Mt. Sandia and Julianne [Stickley, Jon’s wife] was like, “Jon, you need to write a song and y’all need to practice it and learn it today.” I went into the room and started to go through the audio files and that song was based on a drumbeat that I had recorded Patrick playing at soundcheck. Of course, I had forgotten about it, but I found it on my phone. I recreated that beat with the fingerstyle drum set in GarageBand and just started jamming out to it.
It’s interesting, because it’s not really a “swing” tune.
Right, but it does have that cymbal thing, though. That’s why I love that beat so much: because it’s so weird and cool. It’s like this death-metal-meets-swing thing.
Almost like bluegrass blast beats.
Dave King said that song sounded like the Violent Femmes playing jazz. It was a first take and it just had this wild energy. We didn’t get a chance to really overthink what we were going to play on that. I didn’t need to put a Charlie Parker lick in there.
YouTube It
In this hour-long set from the Kennedy Center in August 2016, Stickley’s trio hits all the bases: uptempo dance beats, intricate guitar/violin melodies, and plenty of newgrass soul.
This Japan-made Guyatone brings back memories of hitchin’ rides around the U.S.
This oddball vintage Guyatone has a streak of Jack Kerouac’s adventurous, thumbing spirit.
The other day, I saw something I hadn’t noticed in quite some time. Driving home from work, I saw an interesting-looking fellow hitchhiking. When I was a kid, “hitchers” seemed much more common, but, then again, the world didn’t seem as dangerous as today. Heck, I can remember hitching to my uncle’s cabin in Bradford, Pennsylvania—home of Zippo lighters—and riding almost 200 miles while I sat in a spare tire in the open bed of a pickup truck! Yes, safety wasn’t a big concern for kids back in the day.
So, as I’m prone to do, I started digging around hitchhiking culture and stories. Surprisingly, there are organized groups that embrace the hitching life, but the practice remains on the fringe in the U.S. Back in the 1950s, writer Jack Kerouac wrote the novel On the Road, which celebrated hitchhiking and exposed readers to the thrill of maverick travel. Heck, even Mike Dugan (the guitarist in all my videos) hitched his way to California in the 1960s. But seeing that fellow on the side of the road also sparked another image in my brain: Yep, it always comes back to guitars.
Let me present to you a guitar that’s ready to go hitching: the Guyatone LG-180T, hailing from 1966. The “thumbs-up” headstock and the big “thumb” on the upper bout always made me think of thumbing a ride, and I bought and sold this guitar so long ago that I had forgotten about it, until I saw that hitchhiking dude. Guyatone was an interesting Japanese company because they were primarily an electronics company, and most of their guitars had their wooden parts produced by other factories. In the case of the LG-180T, the bodies were made by Yamaha in Hamamatsu, Japan. At that time, Yamaha was arguably making the finest Japanese guitars, and the wood on this Guyatone model is outstanding. We don’t often see Guyatone-branded guitars here in the U.S., but a lot of players recognize the early ’60s label Kent—a brand name used by an American importer for Guyatone guitars.
With a bit of imagination, the LG-180T’s “thumbs up” headstock seems to be looking for a roadside ride.
Kent guitars were extremely popular from the early ’60s until around 1966. The U.S. importer B&J fed the American need for electric guitars with several nice Kent models, but when the Guyatone contract ended, so did most of the Kent guitars. After that, Guyatone primarily sold guitars in Japan, so this example is a rare model in the U.S.
“Unless you are a master at guitar setups, this would be a difficult player.”
This headstock is either the ugliest or the coolest of the Guyatone designs. I can’t decide which. I will say, no other Japanese guitar company ever put out anything like this. You have to give the Guyatone designers a thumbs up for trying to stand out in the crowd! Guyatone decided to forgo an adjustable truss rod in this model, opting instead for a light alloy non-adjustable core to reinforce the neck. Speaking of the neck, this instrument features the most odd-feeling neck. It’s very thin but has a deep shoulder (if that makes any sense). Totally strange!
Another strange feature is the bridge, which offers very little adjustment because of the three large saddles, which sort of rock back and forth with the tremolo. It’s a shame because these pickups sound great! They’re very crisp and have plenty of zing, but unless you are a master at guitar set-ups, this would be a difficult player.
This could be why the LG-180T only appeared in the 1966 and 1967 catalogs. After that, it disappeared along with all the other Yamaha-made Guyatone electrics. By 1969, Guyatone had gone bankrupt for the first time, and thus ended guitar production for a few decades. At least we were blessed with some wacky guitar designs we can marvel at while remembering the days when you could play in the back end of an explosive 1973 AMC Gremlin while your mom raced around town. Two thumbs up for surviving our childhoods! PG
Fifteen watts that sits in a unique tone space and offers modern signal routing options.
A distinct alternative to the most popular 1x10 combos. Muscular and thick for a 1x10 at many settings. Pairs easily with single-coils and humbuckers. Cool looks.
Tone stack could be more rangeful.
$999
Supro Montauk
supro.com
When you imagine an ideal creative space, what do you see? A loft? A barn? A cabin far from distraction? Reveling in such visions is inspiration and a beautiful escape. Reality for most of us, though, is different. We’re lucky to have a corner in the kitchen or a converted closet to make music in. Still, there’s a romance and sense of possibility in these modest spaces, and the 15-watt, 1x10, all-tubeSupro Montauk is an amplifier well suited to this kind of place. It enlivens cramped corners with its classy, colorful appearance. It’s compact. It’s also potent enough to sound and respond like a bigger amp in a small room.
The Montauk works in tight quarters for reasons other than size, though—with three pre-power-section outputs that can route dry signal, all-wet signal from the amp’s spring reverb, or a mixture of both to a DAW or power amplifier.
Different Stripes and Spacious Places
Vintage Supro amps are modestly lovely things. The China-made Montauk doesn’t adhere toold Supro style motifs in the strictest sense. Its white skunk stripe is more commonly seen on black Supro combos from the late 1950s, while the blue “rhino hide” vinyl evokes Supros from the following decade. But the Montauk’s handsome looks make a cramped corner look a lot less dour. It looks pretty cool on a stage, too, but the Montauk attribute most likely to please performing guitarists is the small size (17.75" x 16.5" x 7.5") and light weight (29 pounds), which, if you tote your guitar in a gig bag and keep your other stuff to a minimum, facilitates magical one-trip load ins.
Keen-eyed Supro-spotters noting the Montauk’s weight and dimensions might spy the similarities to another 1x10 Supro combo,the Amulet. A casual comparison of the two amps might suggest that the Montauk is, more-or-less, an Amulet without tremolo and power scaling. They share the same tube complement, including a relatively uncommon 1x6L6 power section. But while the Montauk lacks the Amulet’s tremolo, the Montauk’s spring reverb features level and dwell controls rather than the Amulet’s single reverb-level knob.
“High reverb levels and low dwell settings evoke a small, reflective room with metallic overtones from the spring sprinkled on top—leaving ghostly ambience in the wake of strong, defined transient tones.”
If you use reverb a lot and in varying levels of intensity, you’ll appreciate the extra flexibility. High reverb levels and low dwell settings evoke a small, reflective room with metallic overtones from the spring sprinkled on top—leaving ghostly ambience in the wake of strong, defined transient tones. There are many shades of this subtle texture to explore, and it’s a great sound and solution for those who find the spring reverbs in Fender amps (which feature no dwell control) an all-or-nothing proposition. For those who like to get deep in the pipeline, though, the dwell offers room to roam. Mixing high level and dwell settings blunts the amp’s touch sensitivity a bit, and at 15 watts you trade headroom for natural compression, compounding the fogginess of these aggressive settings. A Twin Reverb it ain’t. But there is texture aplenty to play with.
A Long, Wide Strand
Admirably, the Montauk speaks in many voices when paired with a guitar alone. The EQ sits most naturally and alive with treble and bass in the noon-to-2-o’clock region, and a slight midrange lean adds welcome punch. Even the amp’s trebliest realms afford you a lot of expressive headroom if you have enough range and sensitivity in your guitar volume and tone pots. Interactions between the gain and master output controls yield scads of different tone color, too. Generally, I preferred high gain settings, which add a firecracker edge to maximum guitar volume settings and preserve touch and pick response at attenuated guitar volume and tone levels.
If working with the Montauk in this fashion feels natural, you’ll need very few pedals. But it’s a good fit for many effects. A Fuzz Face sounded nasty without collapsing into spitty junk, and the Klon-ish Electro-Harmonix Soul Food added muscle and character in its clean-boost guise and at grittier gain levels. There’s plenty of headroom for exploring nuance and complexity in delays and modulations. It also pairs happily with a wide range of guitars and pickups: Every time I thought a Telecaster was a perfect fit, I’d plug in an SG with PAFs and drift away in Mick Taylor/Stones bliss.
The Verdict
Because the gain, master, tone, and reverb controls are fairly interactive, it took me a minute to suss out the Montauk’s best and sweetest tones. But by the time I was through with this review, I found many sweet spots that fill the spaces between Vox and Fender templates. There’s also raunch in abundance when you turn it up. It’s tempting to view the Montauk as a competitor to the Fender Princeton and Vox AC15. At a thousand bucks, it’s $400 dollars less than the Mexico-made Princeton ’68 Custom and $170 more than the AC15, also made in China. In purely tone terms, though, it represents a real alternative to those stalwarts. I’d be more than happy to see one in a backline, provided I wasn’t trying to rise above a Geezer Butler/Bill Ward rhythm section. And with its capacity for routing to other amps and recording consoles in many intriguing configurations, it succeeds in being a genuinely interesting combination of vintage style and sound and home-studio utility—all without adding a single digital or solid-state component to the mix.
Watch the official video documenting the sold-out event at House of Blues in Anaheim. Join Paul Reed Smith and special guests as they toast to quality and excellence in guitar craftsmanship.
PRS Guitars today released the official video documenting the full night of performances at their 40th Anniversary celebration, held January 24th in conjunction with the 2025 NAMM (The National Association of Music Merchants) Show. The sold-out, private event took place at House of Blues in Anaheim, California and featured performances by PRS artists Randy Bowland, Curt Chambers, David Grissom, Jon Jourdan, Howard Leese, Mark Lettieri Group, Herman Li, John Mayer, Orianthi, Tim Pierce, Noah Robertson, Shantaia, Philip Sayce, and Dany Villarreal, along with Paul Reed Smith and his Eightlock band.
“What a night! Big thanks to everyone who came out to support us: retailers, distributors, vendors, content creators, industry friends, and especially the artists. I loved every second. We are so pleased to share the whole night now on this video,” said Paul Reed Smith, Founder & Managing General Partner of PRS Guitars. “I couldn’t be more proud to still be here 40 years later.”
With nearly 1,400 of the who’s who in the musical instrument industry in attendance, the night ended with a thoughtful toast from PRS Signature Artist John Mayer, who reflected on 40 years of PRS Guitars and the quality that sets the brand apart. “The guitars are great. You can’t last 40 years if the guitars aren’t great,” said Mayer. “Many of you started hearing about PRS the same way I did, which is you would talk about PRS and someone would say ‘They’re too nice.’ What’s too nice for a guitar? What, you want that special vibe that only tuning every song can give you on stage? You want that grit just like your heroes … bad intonation? The product is incredible.”
Be sure to locate your sample library where it can be quickly referenced on your DAW.
Improve your recordings using your own samples. Bryan Clark, house producer at Nashville’s Blackbird Studio, tells you how to take the final steps in building your own sample library.
Mastering the sample import process in your chosen DAW can significantly enhance your creativity and streamline your workflow. With a clear understanding of the tools and techniques available, you will be better equipped to bring your musical ideas to life and make your productions stand out.
This month, we finish up a three-part series on creating your own sample libraries. In this final installment, I’m going to give you the basic ways to import your samples into various popular DAWs. Each one has its unique workflow and user interface, but the fundamental process remains very similar. This Dojo guide will cover how to import samples into Ableton Live, LUNA, Logic Pro, Pro Tools, and Studio One.
Ableton Live
Steps to Import Samples
Drag and Drop: Simply locate the sample file in your computer’s file explorer, then drag and drop it directly into an audio track in the session or arrangement view.
Browser Window: Use Ableton’s built-in browser (on the left-hand side). Navigate to the sample’s location on your hard drive, then drag it into the workspace.
Create a Simpler or Sampler Instrument: Drag the sample into a MIDI track with Simpler or Sampler loaded. This allows you to trigger the sample using MIDI notes.
Tips: Use the warp feature for time-stretching and syncing samples to your project’s tempo.
Organize your samples into collections using the “Add Folder” option in the browser.
LUNA
Steps to Import Samples
Drag and Drop: Drag the sample from your file explorer directly into the timeline. Then hold the CTRL key down, click on the end of the loop, and drag it to the length it needs to be.
Browser/Workspace: Use the media browser to navigate to your sample’s location on your hard drive. Drag it into an audio track in your session.
Audio Track Import: Right-click on an empty area in the timeline or a track and select “Import Audio” to locate and add your sample.
Tips: Use LUNA’s built-in varispeed capabilities to match your sample to the session’s tempo.Logic Pro
Steps to Import Samples
Drag and Drop: Drag the sample from the Finder directly into an audio track in the workspace.
File Browser: Use the file browser (accessible via the media sidebar or “F” key) to locate and drag samples into the timeline.
Quick Sampler: Drag your sample onto a MIDI track with the Quick Sampler plugin loaded. This lets you play the sample chromatically.
Tips: Use Logic’s flex time feature to sync samples to your project’s tempo. Organize samples into Logic’s library for quick access.Pro Tools
Steps to Import Samples
Import Audio Dialog: Go to File > Import > Audio; then locate your sample and click “Convert” or “Add” to bring it into the session.
Drag and Drop: Drag the sample directly from your file explorer into an audio track.
Workspace Browser: Use the workspace (accessible via Window > New Workspace) to locate your sample. Drag it into your session.
Tips: Use the elastic audio feature for tempo matching and pitch adjustments.
Place your samples into playlists for efficient access during editing.
Studio One
Steps to Import Samples
Drag and Drop: Drag your sample directly from your file explorer into the timeline or browser.
Browser: Open Studio One’s browser (on the right-hand side), navigate to the folder containing your sample, and drag it into your project.
Sampler Track: Drag the sample onto a MIDI track, and use the Sample One sampler for additional manipulation.
Tips: Enable the “Stretch Audio Files to Song Tempo” option in the browser for automatic tempo synchronization. Create sample folders within Studio One’s browser for quick access.General Best Practices
Regardless of the DAW you use, it is important to maintain a smooth and efficient workflow. Organize your sample library with clear folder names and categories to make locating files easy (see last month’s installment for detailed strategies). Where possible, learn DAW-specific shortcuts for importing and editing samples to save time. Always check if your DAW offers a feature to sync the sample’s tempo to your project to ensure seamless integration. Finally, regularly back up your sample collection to avoid losing important audio files and preserve your creative assets! Seriously. Do it now.
Next month, we’re off to “console” land and I’ll be investigating console emulations (hype or not?), summing bus processors, and more to give you a more “studio” sound. Until then, blessings and namaste.