
Why accoutrements and substance more than high-price gear.
I played a one-off festival recently where I had to schlep my own gear so I traveled light: just a few pedals, one guitar and a little thirty watt combo that pretty much lives in the trunk of my car. The guitarist for one of the other acts, looking at my rig like he was staring at a fresh turd on the stage, asked me about the rig I use on NBC''s "Nashville Star" show. I gave him the basic run down: an old Shure wireless, an array of stomp boxes, a Peavey Classic 50 and a Peavey XXX in stereo. He said, "I thought those were just endorsement props and you had some boutique rig hidden in back of the stage."
An important side note: this guy, clearly overcompensating for some of his shortcomings, had an amp that was worth way more than my car. Like many of those guys, he was condescending and, like most of those guys, did not sound particularly good. His tone sounded thin and lacked definition. This dupe with more dollars than sense exemplifies the brainwashing of our modern culture; an age fueled by commercialism that makes people think it''s perfectly reasonable to spend $90 on a t-shirt and $300 on jeans so you can look like Kurt Cobain in his ragged, thrift-store glory. Some copywriter on Madison Avenue dictates this guy''s sense of self worth and makes desire feel like need.
"If some musicologist the lots of time on his hands and maybe a government grant to finance his research looked at the history of recording guitars, the historian could probably make a strong argument that more great songs were tracked with mid level gear than the top shelf offerings of the day."
Praying for Tone?
The message is Orwellian: to be unique you must conform, to be free you must enslave yourself to trends, to stand out you must join the crowd. One''s social standing rests on one''s accoutrements, not substance. Eventually, the truth will come to light and people will learn that one cannot buy one''s way into enlightenment, heaven, great tone or better musicianship. We can waste a lot of time, energy and money on these dead ends when we should spend that time playing. Let''s stop allowing the whole over-priced vintage and boutique nonsense to fuel our collective insecurities.
It is time to put aside your pointless fears and Rise against the insanity. Band with me brothers and sisters and play that affordable consumer gear with pride. I like the fact that the rigs I use to make my living could be purchased by any kid with a paper route and some patience. I''m not saying you can''t hear the difference between high dollar and cheap. If you test all amps, Ampeg to Z, the Z will probably sound better when a good player does the Pepsi challenge. But does it warrant a 100% price difference? I doubt it.
Here are a few examples:
- Every Zep gig, Jimmy Page put down his beautiful '59 Les Paul and picked up his dog of a Silvertone and it sounded great in his hands.
- Ten years ago, Keith Urban and The Ranch opened for an act I was playing for at some festival. I got off the bus and heard this amazing tone coming from the stage, I ran to the wing and stood ten feet from his rig, shocked to find that killer tone emanating out of a few cheap stomp boxes and some little solid state Peavey. Since then I''ve been on several festivals where Keith closed the show. He now has literally twenty grand in gear on the stage and it sounds amazing, just like it did ten years ago.
- I played mandolin on a session last year while Ray Flack held down the guitar end. I had a killer Weber Big Sky which is an amazing instrument and it did sound great. Ray had that great old Tele of his (which he let me play a bit and it felt like driving a 63 Ford truck with major alignment issues); it sounded great and had amazing vibe but it was hard to play. Ray plugged, sans pedals, straight into some weird Gibson amp that looked like it actually predated anything cool. In spite of any gear limitations, Ray sounded just like Ray Flack. It was great. He only had a few tones available but that''s all you need when you are a legend.
- A friend of mine, Pat Seavers, plays steel with The Everly Brothers who employ Albert Lee on guitar. Reportedly, Albert plays his Music Man signature straight into whatever sorry-ass backline amp happens to be there. Pat said that Albert''s guitar has a terrible set up -- high action, out of strobe, and a train wreck when Pat tried to play it -- but with Albert, it''s a one man orchestra.
- I caught Eric Johnson doing an in-store at the old Tower Records in Nashville. I stood to his left about five feet away. His rig: two Fender Blues Juniors and about four stompboxes. He sounded just like Eric Johnson. When I later found a Blues Junior at a pawn shop going for $85, I immediately bought it in honor of EJ.
These little stories prove the maxim: a poor craftsman blames his tools. Regrettably, I''ve left evidence of my own questionable craftsmanship at some gigs and on recordings. However, those occasional ugly notes were all me, not my gear. Because I became a father at a very young age, the realities of supporting a family on a musician''s sporadic income conditioned me to avoid spending more money than need be.
The good news is that you do not have to spend a lot to sound great. In today''s instrument market there is a gigantic disparity in prices. There are some amazing bargains out there, some of the bigger companies have great affordable gear.
"The thrifty can also find some amazing hand-made boutique amps and pedals that a true craftsman/genius created that are actually affordable and have an esoteric cache, (Homebrew Electronics, Valvetrain Amps are a few examples). Or you can literally spend $10,000 on something that may sound a little better."
Black Kettle?
If you looked at my gear room you would quickly brand me as a hypocrite. Guilty as charged. I have some amazing gear -- some wildly expensive, some moderately expensive, some affordable, and some cheapo crappo. I love it all and use every bit of it all the time. However, I got by with a bare minimum for a very long time; this probably made me a better player. I'm certain it made me more discerning about what''s truly great and what''s hype.
The moral: stop worrying about what people say you need and use your ears instead of your wallet. Make the most of what you have -- don''t covet what you can''t afford. If you sound terrible on a Squire plugged into a few pawnshop pedals and a Peavey Bandit, you will not be great with a Paul Read Smith plugged into a BadCat. Conversely, if you can tweak a good tone out of a beginner rig, you will be set for life in any situation.
[Updated 9/15/21]
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The country virtuoso closes out this season of Wong Notes with a fascinating, career-spanning interview.
Weāve saved one of the best for last: Brad Paisley.The celebrated shredder and seasoned fisherman joins host Cory Wong for one of this seasonās most interesting episodes. Paisley talks his earliest guitar-playing influences, which came from his grandfatherās love of country music, and his first days in Nashvilleāas a student at Belmont University, studying the music industry.
The behind-the-curtain knowledge he picked up at Belmont made him a good match for industry suits trying to force bad contracts on him.
Wong and Paisley swap notes on fishing and a mutual love of PhishāPaisley envies the jam-band scene, which he thinks has more leeway in live contexts than country. And with a new signature FenderĀ Telecaster hitting the market in a rare blue paisley finish, Paisley discusses his iconic namesake patternāwhich some might describe as āhippie pukeāāand its surprising origin with Elvisā guitarist James Burton.
Plus, hear how Paisley assembled his rig over the years, the state of shredding on mainstream radio, when it might be good to hallucinogenic drugs in a set, and the only negative thing about country-music audiences.
Tom Bedell in the Relic Music acoustic room, holding a custom Seed to Song Parlor with a stunning ocean sinker redwood top and milagro Brazilian rosewood back and sides.
As head of Breedlove and Bedell Guitars, heās championed sustainability and environmental causesāand he wants to tell you about it.
As the owner of the Breedlove and Bedell guitar companies, Tom Bedell has been a passionate advocate for sustainable practices in acoustic guitar manufacturing. Listening to him talk, itās clear that the preservation of the Earthās forests are just as important to Bedell as the sound of his guitars. Youāll know just how big of a statement that is if youāve ever had the opportunity to spend time with one of his excellently crafted high-end acoustics, which are among the finest youāll find. Over the course of his career, Bedell has championed the use of alternative tonewoods and traveled the world to get a firsthand look at his wood sources and their harvesting practices. When you buy a Bedell, you can rest assured that no clear-cut woods were used.
A born storyteller, Bedell doesnāt keep his passion to himself. On Friday, May 12, at New Jersey boutique guitar outpost Relic Music, Bedell shared some of the stories heās collected during his life and travels as part of a three-city clinic trip. At Relicāand stops at Crossroads Guitar and Art in Gilbertsville, Pennsylvania, and Chuck Levinās Washington Music Center in Wheaton, Marylandāhe discussed his guitars and what makes them so special, why sustainability is such an important cause, and how heās putting it into practice.
Before his talk, we sat in Relicās cozy, plush acoustic room, surrounded by a host of high-end instruments. We took a look at a few of the storeās house-specād Bedell parlors while we chatted.
āThe story of this guitar is the story of the world,ā Bedell explained to me, holding a Seed to Song Parlor. He painted a picture of a milagro tree growing on a hillside in northeastern Brazil some 500 years ago, deprived of water and growing in stressful conditions during its early life. That tree was eventually harvested, and in the 1950s, it was shipped to Spain by a company that specialized in church ornaments. They recognized this unique specimen and set it aside until it was imported to the U.S. and reached Oregon. Now, it makes the back and sides of this unique guitar.
A Bedell Fireside Parlor with a buckskin redwood top and cocobolo back and sides.
As for the ocean sinker redwood top, āIām gonna make up the story,ā Bedell said, as he approximated the life cycle of the tree, which floated in the ocean, soaking up minerals for years and years, and washed ashore on northern Oregonās Manzanita Beach. The two woods were paired and built into a small run of exquisitely outfitted guitars using the Bedell/Breedlove Sound Optimization processāin which the building team fine-tunes each instrumentās voice by hand-shaping individual braces to target resonant frequencies using acoustic analysisāand Bedell and his team fell in love.
Playing it while we spoke, I was smitten by this guitarās warm, responsive tone and even articulation and attack across the fretboard; it strikes a perfect tonal balance between a tight low-end and bright top, with a wide dynamic range that made it sympathetic to anything I offered. And as I swapped guitars, whether picking up a Fireside Parlor with a buckskin redwood top and cocobolo back and sides or one with an Adirondack spruce top and Brazilian rosewood back and sides, the character and the elements of each instrument changed, but that perfect balance remained. Each of these acousticsāand of any Bedell Iāve had the pleasure to playādelivers their own experiential thumbprint.
Rosette and inlay detail on an Adirondack spruce top.
Ultimately, thatās what brought Bedell out to the East Coast on this short tour. āWe have a totally different philosophy about how we approach guitar-building,ā Bedell effused. āThere are a lot of individuals who build maybe 12 guitars a year, who do some of the things that we do, but thereās nobody on a production level.ā And he wants to spread that gospel.
āWe want to reach people who really want something special,ā he continued, pointing out that for the Bedell line, the company specifically wants to work with shops like Relic and the other stores heās visited, āwho have a clientele that says I want the best guitar I can possibly have, and they carry enough variety that we can give them that.ā
A Fireside Parlor with a Western red cedar top and Brazilian rosewood back and sides.
A beautifully realized mashup of two iconic guitars.
Reader: Ward Powell
Hometown: Ontario, Canada
Guitar: ES-339 Junior
Iāve always liked unusual guitars. I think it started when I got my first guitar way back in 1976. I bought a '73 Telecaster Deluxe for $200 with money I saved from delivering newspapers.
I really got serious about playing in 1978, the same year the first Van Halen album was released. Eddie Van Halen was a huge influence on me, including how he built and modded guitars. Inspired by Eddie, I basically butchered that Tele. But keep in mind, there was once a time when every vintage guitar was just a used guitarāI still have that Tele, by the way.
I never lost that spirit of wanting guitars that were unique, and have built and modded a few dozen guitars since. When I started G.A.S.-ing simultaneously for a Les Paul Junior and a Casino, I came up with this concept. I found an Epiphone ES-339 locally at a great price. It already had upgraded CTS pots, Kluson tuners, and the frets had been PLEKād. It even came with a hardshell case. It was cheap because it was a right-handed guitar that had been converted to left handed and all the controls had been moved to the opposite side, so it had five additional holes in the top.
Fortunately, I found a Duesenberg wraparound bridge that used the same post spacing as a Tune-o-matic. I used plug cutters to cut plugs out of baltic birch plywood to fill the 12 holes in the laminated top. I also reshaped the old-style Epiphone headstock. Then, I sanded off the original finish, taped the fretboard, and sprayed the finish using cans of nitro lacquer from Oxford Guitar Supply. Lots of wet sanding and buffing later, the finish was done.
I installed threaded insert bushings for the bridge, so it will never pull out. The pickup is a Mojotone Quiet Coil P-90 and I fabricated a shim from a DIY mold and tinted epoxy to raise the P-90 up closer to the strings. The shim also covers the original humbucker opening. I cut a pickguard out of a blank and heated it slightly to bend it to follow the curvature of the top.
All in all, I'm pretty happy how it turned out! It plays great and sounds even better. And I have something that is unique: an ES-339 Junior.
ENGL, renowned for its high-performance amplifiers, proudly introduces the EP635 Fireball IR Pedal, a revolutionary 2-channel preamp pedal designed to deliver the legendary Fireball tone in a compact and feature-rich format.
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SPECS:
- Input 1/4ā (6,35mm) Jack
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- 9V DC / 300mA (center negativ) / power supply, sold separately
- USB C