For my column this month, I decided to ask the fine folks at the web forum thegearpage.net to come up with some questions regarding being a “Working Guitarist” that they’d like answered. I’ve picked my favorites and answered them to the best of my ability. If you have a question you’d like answered, leave it in the comments section and watch for the answer in a future column!
It would be interesting to hear how you feel appearance, style, clothes, fitness, etc., play into auditions with pro acts. It's a topic much discussed here but not many touring pros have stepped up to give an opinion. – Ulysses
I feel that it’s definitely important to think about your appearance when heading to an audition. It boils down to this: If you are auditioning for Nine Inch Nails, and you show up looking ready to play with Kenny Chesney, well, you are sort of shooting yourself in the foot. This goes for your guitars, amps, and effects as well. I don’t think Melissa Etheridge would dig it one bit if I showed up with this axe:
Just use common sense and you’ll be fine, but definitely put some thought into what you wear and bring to an audition! It’s showbiz, after all...
I'd love to see "the guitarist's perspective on programming drums," or some insight into how you're getting that bitchin' rhythm section happening for all the stellar demos. – Higher Landrons
Thanks! “Higher Landrons” is referring to the gear demos on my YouTube page.
First off, there are a ton of great drum plug-in instruments available today to use with your DAW of choice. Some popular ones include Addictive Drums, BFD, EZDrummer, and Drumkit From Hell. I use Steven Slate Drums, which were recommended to me by Steve Stevens. Steven Slate Drums is a collection of samples that uses Kontakt Player from Native Instruments as a drum sample plug-in. Essentially you use Kontakt Player to choose what Steven Slate samples you’d like to use as a drum kit. There are vintage drums that sound like what you’d hear on Led Zeppelin records, modern drums that sound more like Metallica, and everything in between. Within Kontakt Player you can mix and extensively alter the selected drum samples. You can pan the individual drums, add EQ or distortion, blend in room mics for each drum, etc. Basically you can do everything you’d do to a traditional mic’d drum kit, and more. I used the Steven Slate Drums extensively on my album Guitar Nerd, and I’m really happy with the results!
Certainly the sounds are important, but equally important is developing good drum programming skills. It helps to “think like a drummer.” For example, if a drummer is playing a straight beat and does a drum fill, they probably can’t keep playing the hi-hat during the fill. So don’t program a hi-hat pattern at the same time as a fill! But drummers do sometimes play the hat with their left foot while moving through a fill. So maybe program an open and closed left foot hat thing—you get the idea. Pick some of your favorite drum grooves and practice by programming them into your DAW. Finally, I like to use a Waves plug-in version of the classic Urei 1176 compressor on the stereo drum bus, with a 4:1 ratio, slow attack, and fast release... get 3-6 db of compression happening. Now you’re rocking!
How about how a touring/gigging rock guitarist takes care of his ears? – Shallbe
+1 on this. How often do you end up using in-ear monitors live, and how did you make that transition? When you don't use them, how do you make sure you've got a good mix & good tone, w/out frying your ears? – jbd3
Well, to tell you the truth, I gave myself tinnitus in my left ear using IEMs. You have to be very, very careful—I’d recommend only using IEMs with the built-in limiters that most of the receiver packs have in them. These usually limit at 100db or so, and will protect you from loud volume spikes or accidentally turning up the volume on your pack onstage. IEM volume can be very deceiving, and you can hurt yourself easily!
I use a wedge whenever I can—I just prefer it, for a few reasons. I can hear my amp naturally that way, and I can hear the audience, which I like. I feel like I play better—I’m less timid. With IEMs, when the guitar is right there in my ears it makes me more aware of every little error or inconsistency, and I’m really picky about my mix, so I find myself asking for more of this, less of that... all night long. And it’s not the monitor guy’s fault—I’m just really nuts about in-ear mixes. If one little thing is off, it can really throw me. I was in the middle of a Melissa Etheridge tour, and one night I just asked the monitor guy, John, to give me some drums and some of Melissa’s guitar and vocal in the sidefill. I wore no IEMs that night, and I didn’t even have a wedge! And I had a blast playing, so I finished the tour like that!
I do think IEMs are great in some respects. They can really save a singer from pushing too hard, and if you are doing lots of big multi-band festivals and you don’t get soundchecks, you can walk onstage and be pretty certain everything will sound just like the last show. You can also run all over the stage and hear yourself perfectly. When I use IEMs, I use the UE7s from Ultimate Ears.
I do recommend everyone go out and get custom-molded earplugs made, they are fantastic and I carry a pair everywhere. I use them at concerts, festivals, and anywhere that I go where there is loud sound, basically. I have a pair with both 9db and 15db attenuators that I can swap out.
Lastly, with the advent of really good amp attenuators, there’s really no need for loud stage volume anymore. Get a good attenuator and get your stage volume under control, and all will be well!
I'd like some insight into your solo CD—your writing habits, workflow, how you did the production, recording, engineering, mastering, etc. . – Scott Petersen
Thanks for asking about my record, Scott! It really started out with me wanting to be able to record very basic stuff at home. Around 2004 I got a Mac laptop, Logic Pro, and a small Presonus interface. I then invested in a UA 6176 mic pre/compressor and a few mics. I quickly discovered I could get some great recorded guitar tones at home. I started writing and recording songs just for fun, when I wasn’t on tour. Maybe I’d have a riff, or I’d pull up a simple drumbeat and start jamming and that’d lead to a riff or two. I’m very haphazard about the way I record. For instance, on the song “10th Street,” that track existed as a verse and B section for about five years—I could never figure out where to go with it. Eventually I opened up the session one day and sort of wrote another section and tacked it on to what I did five years earlier! It worked, and I finished the tune. But I had to play a last verse, and I had to try and match the tone I’d recorded five years earlier on the first verse, and of course I hadn’t documented what I’d done... you get the idea.
So I’d say my writing habits and workflow were incredibly inconsistent. I went through spurts where I’d get a track or two done in a few days, then I’d have to leave on tour for a few months and nothing would get done. But in the end, I finished, so I guess that’s what matters! I did all the engineering, and I mixed seven songs as well. Bob Clearmountain mixed the other three (thanks Bob!) and Ross Nyberg mastered the album up in Seattle.
Make sure to leave your questions below and watch next month for more answers!
Pete Thorn is a Los Angeles-based guitarist, currently touring with Melissa Etheridge. His solo album Guitar Nerd will be out in early 2011.You can read more about his career and music at peterthorn.com.
Gibson originally launched the EB-6 model with the intention of serving consumers looking for a “tic-tac” bass sound.
The Gibson EB-6 was announced in 1959 and came into the world in 1960, not with a dual-horn body but with that of an elegant ES-335. They looked stately, with a thin, semi-hollow body, f-holes, and a sunburst finish. Our pick for this Vintage Vault column is one such first-year model, in about as original condition as you’re able to find today. “Why?” you may be asking. Well, read on....
When the EB-6 was introduced, the Bass VI was still a glimmer in Leo Fender’s eye. The real competition were the Danelectro 6-string basses that seemed to have popped up out of nowhere and were suddenly being used on lots of hit records by the likes of Elvis, Patsy Cline, and other household names. Danos like the UB-2 (introduced in ’56), the Longhorn 4623 (’58), and the Shorthorn 3612 (’58) were the earliest attempts any company made at a 6-string bass in this style: not quite a standard electric bass, not quite a guitar, nor, for that matter, quite like a baritone guitar.
The only change this vintage EB-6 features is a replacement set of Kluson tuners.
Photo by Ken Lapworth
Gibson, Fender, and others during this era would in fact call these basses “baritone guitars,” to add to our confusion today. But these vintage “baritones” were all tuned one octave below a standard guitar, with scale lengths around 30", while most modern baritones are tuned B-to-B or A-to-A and have scale lengths between 26" and 30".)
At the time, those Danelectros were instrumental to what was called the “tic-tac” bass sound of Nashville records produced by Chet Atkins, or the “click-bass” tones made out west by producer Lee Hazlewood. Gibson wanted something for this market, and the EB-6 was born.
“When the EB-6 was introduced, the Bass VI was still a glimmer in Leo Fender’s eye.”
The 30.5" scale 1960 EB-6 has a single humbucking pickup, a volume knob, a tone knob, and a small, push-button “Tone Selector Switch” that engages a treble circuit for an instant tic-tac sound. (Without engaging that switch, you get a bass-heavy tone so deep that cowboy chords will sound like a muddy mess.)
The EB-6, for better or for worse, did not unseat the Danelectros, and a November 1959 price list from Gibson hints at why: The EB-6 retailed for $340, compared to Dano price tags that ranged from $85 to $150. Only a few dozen EB-6 basses were shipped in 1960, and only 67 total are known to have been built before Gibson changed the shape to the SG style in 1962.
Most players who come across an EB-6 today think it was a response to the Fender Bass VI, but the former actually beat the latter to the market by a full year.
Photo by Ken Lapworth
It’s sad that so few were built. Sure, it was a high-end model made to achieve the novelty tic-tac sound of cheaper instruments, but in its full-voiced glory, the EB-6 has a huge potential of tones. It would sound great in our contemporary guitar era where more players are exploring baritone ranges, and where so many people got back into the Bass VI after seeing the Beatles play one in the 2021 documentary, Get Back.
It’s sadder, still, how many original-era EB-6s have been parted out in the decades since. Remember earlier when I wrote that our Vintage Vaultpick was about as original as you could find? That’s because the model’s single humbucker is a PAF, its Kluson tuners are double-line, and its knobs are identical to those on Les Paul ’Bursts. So as people repaired broken ’Bursts, converted other LPs to ’Bursts, or otherwise sought to give other Gibsons a “Golden Era” sound and look ... they often stripped these forgotten EB-6 basses for parts.
This original EB-6 is up for sale now from Reverb seller Emerald City Guitars for a $16,950 asking price at the time of writing. The only thing that isn’t original about it is a replacement set of Kluson tuners, not because its originals were stolen but just to help preserve them. (They will be included in the case.)
With so few surviving 335-style EB-6 basses, Reverb doesn’t have a ton of sales data to compare prices to. Ten years ago, a lucky buyer found a nearly original 1960 EB-6 for about $7,000. But Emerald City’s $16,950 asking price is closer to more recent examples and asking prices.
Sources: Prices on Gibson Instruments, November 1, 1959, Tony Bacon’s “Danelectro’s UB-2 and the Early Days of 6-String Basses” Reverb News article, Gruhn’s Guide to Vintage Guitars, Tom Wheeler’s American Guitars: An Illustrated History, Reverb listings and Price Guide sales data.
Billy Gibbons is an undisputable guitar force whose feel, tone, and all-around vibe make him the highest level of hero. But that’s not to say he hasn’t made some odd choices in his career, like when ZZ Top re-recorded parts of their classic albums for CD release. And fans will argue which era of the band’s career is best. Some of us love drum machines and synths and others don’t, but we all love Billy.
This episode is sponsored by Magnatone
Originally released in the 1980s, the Victory has long been a cult favorite among guitarists for its distinctive double cutaway design and excellent upper-fret access. These new models feature flexible electronics, enhanced body contours, improved weight and balance, and an Explorer headstock shape.
A Cult Classic Made Modern
The new Victory features refined body contours, improved weight and balance, and an updated headstock shape based on the popular Gibson Explorer.
Effortless Playing
With a fast-playing SlimTaper neck profile and ebony fretboard with a compound radius, the Victory delivers low action without fret buzz everywhere on the fretboard.
Flexible Electronics
The two 80s Tribute humbucker pickups are wired to push/pull master volume and tone controls for coil splitting and inner/outer coil selection when the coils are split.
For more information, please visit gibson.com.
Gibson Victory Figured Top Electric Guitar - Iguana Burst
