When Larry Carlton graciously invited Premier Guitar to visit his Nashville studio, we jumped at the chance. He played guitar, told stories, and pretty much proved he’s the coolest person any of us will ever meet.
Guitars
“I’m not a collector,” Carlton explains, “I just have a few guitars I like to play.” For someone who has tracked as many sessions as Carlton, three Gibsons, two Fenders, and two Valley Arts 6-strings might seem like a modest number, but each one is very special.
The belle of the ball is Carlton’s #1, a 1969 Gibson ES-335 he purchased new in ’69. This is the guitar that earned him the “Mr. 335” moniker. It has seen a few changes over time, including Schaller tuners, a graphite nut, a KTS titanium bridge, and several re-fret jobs.
A fan gave Carlton his second ES-335, which is a 1968 model. Its pickups were swapped out for a matched pair of 1961 Gibson PAFs.
Next in the Gibson family is a stock 1955 Les Paul Special in TV yellow.
Carlton covers the Fender sound with his 1954 Fender Telecaster and his 1962 Fender Stratocaster. Both are completely stock and utterly beautiful.
The only modern-ish guitars are a custom Valley Arts T-style and a Valley Arts small body acoustic. The latter resembles a Martin 000, but features a different soundboard bracing pattern.
Amps
For all those epic Steely Dan sessions, Carlton simply plugged his ’69 ES-335 straight into his ’50s-era tweed Fender Deluxe. This amp still sounds amazing, though these days he doesn’t use it very often.
Brandon Montgomery of Bludotone makes Carlton’s current workhorse amps. Onstage, Carlton uses a Bludo-Drive 100/50 plugged into a 1x12 Bludotone closed-back cab that sports an Electro-Voice EVM12L speaker and has two cylindrical baffles for harmonic tuning.He keeps identical amps in Europe and Japan for touring. In the studio, Carlton uses the lower-watt Bludo-Drive 50/25.
Effects
Carlton has two main pedalboards, both built by his long-time friend and guitar tech, Rick Wheeler. (You might remember Wheeler from PG’s Robben Ford Rig Rundown.) Carlton’s fly-date ’board starts with a Korg Pitchblack tuner. His signal then travels to a modified Sho-Bud volume pedal followed by a Dunlop 95Q Cry Baby wah.Next the signal goes to a Tanabe Zenkudo Overdrive, a Visual Sound Liquid Chorus, a TC Electronics Hall of Fame Reverb, and finally ends with a Providence Chrono Delay.
Carlton’s larger pedalboard works in conjunction with three rack units (below)—a Roland SDE-1000 digital delay, a TC Electronic TC 1210, and a Lexicon MX400 that Carlton uses for reverb. The board starts with two Hilton volume pedals—one for electric and one for acoustic—each of which has an output to send a signal to the Korg DTR-2000 tuner (top). The lead from the electric volume pedal then runs into a Dunlop 95Q Cry Baby wah and to Carlton’s amp. The pedalboard also has a chorus on/off switch (for the TC 1210), a tap-tempo trigger (for the Roland), an A/B switch to select electric or acoustic guitar, and a channel switcher for Carlton’s Bludotone amp.
The Bludotone is miked and that mic signal runs to Carlton's rack effects. But before the dry amp signal hits the rack, it’s also sent to the front-of-house. The rack has reverb, delay, and chorus options (specific details in a moment), and that too runs to the front-of-house, as well as to a small monitor mixer that feeds Carlton’s stage monitors. By splitting his pre- and post-rack signals, Carlton and the FOH can independently control the ratio of wet-to-dry sound as one might in a recording studio.
Guitars
Amps
After being retired from use for some time, Santana’s original, snakeskin-covered 100-watt Mesa/Boogie is back onstage with the master. Santana also plays through a pair of Dumble Overdrive Reverbs and a pair of Bludotone Universal Tone heads—one of which is a prototype. The amps drive a pair of paisley-covered PRS 4x12 cabs. One cab is loaded with four Celestion Vintage 30s, the other sports two Celestion Vintage 30s and two Celestion G12-65s.
Effects
Guitarist Mark Tremonti is a dyed-in-the-wool amp nerd. Plus, he isn’t afraid to step away from the boutique side of things and use more affordable (and available) amps in his backline. His guitar foil in Alter Bridge, Myles Kennedy, also talks about which effects he keeps on his board.
Mark Tremonti’s Top 5 Amps
Fender ’65 Twin Reverb Reissue
I’ve never actually played an original, to be honest. Ever since I started touring, I needed that clean tone. I bought a Fender Twin, and I’ve never been able to replace it. I’ve tried Matchless, Roland, and AC30s, but every time I just go back to the Twin. It’s got that super-high chimey sound. Since I use my fingers a lot, I like my clean sound to be really bright. It’s totally stock. There’s just something about that open-back 2x12 combo that I’m really used to.
Mesa/Boogie Triple and Dual Rectifier
I first tried a Triple Rectifier when I worked for a couple of months at a guitar shop in Tallahassee called Main Street Music. They were the high-end amp dealer in town. Mesas really shine in the live setting. You can’t really get them up to the volume they need to be in a guitar store. There’s no amp I’ve played that gets that chunky, crisp rhythm sound. The first Mesa I had was a Dual Rectifier. I have four or five of them, and they are still my favorite tonally, but I use the Triple Rectifiers live for more headroom.
Bludotone Bludo-Drive
My favorite Bludotone is the “’70s circuit Dumble-style” amp. It’s that on-the-edge, expressive, upper-midrange sound. It sounds like it’s about to blow. Some of my favorite tones I’ve ever found on YouTube come from that circuit. Brandon from Bludotone does a really nice version of it. The ’70s circuit is a rawer, edgier sound than my Dumble. The Dumble has a much smoother sound. I have Bludotones that emulate that, but I like the ’70s circuit just for that unique tone. I have four Bludotones at home, and I sometimes get on the phone with Brandon for hours to talk amps. Every time we talk, we try to come up with a new project. I’m talking with him now about doing a 1x12 combo with a built in Loop-a-Lator.
Cornford Ritchie Kotzen RK100
They loaned me one, just to get used to it, and I liked it a lot. The one that I eventually got was so much better sounding than the one that they loaned me. It’s just one of those special amps. The RK100 is another amp where you can twist the knobs any way you want, and it’s going to sound great. It sounds so rich, and it does rhythm and lead equally well. It’s hard to find amps that do that. The only amp that I’ve seen that can do that as well as the Cornford is the new PRS Archon. Most of the rhythm and lead stuff on the new Alter Bridge record and my solo album was recorded with the RK100.
Dumble Overdrive Special
I’ve had it for a couple years now, and it’s everything it’s cracked up to be. You can buy one for $100K, but it’s hard to find one for a reasonable price, so I got lucky. I use each amp for a specific reason. With the Dumble, I don’t switch channels—I just set it one way and play. I don’t need a clean, dirty, and lead tone out of each amp when I’m in the studio.
The first time I ever played one was when I was doing a show with Paul Reed Smith at NAMM. He had about eight amps onstage, and I saw the Dumble and immediately plugged in. It sounds good wherever it’s set. It has this magic to it. It’s very expressive and sensitive to your pick attack, and every note just sings. It has that blooming sound. My Dumble is #281, so it’s relatively recent—probably made in the last five years.
I would never take it on the road. The funny thing is, I haven’t really featured it on the studio albums too much. The stuff we do is more aggressive, though I think I used it a little bit mixed in with my lead tone on the latest Alter Bridge album. I just took in three or four of my favorite amps and left it up to the producer to mix and match tones. It’s on some of the more subtle stuff, like “Bleed it Dry.”
I think my favorite tone video that I’ve seen online is from a 1979 Dumble called “Low Tuned Slide.” It’s just amazing. [Click here to watch the video.]
Myles Kennedy’s Top 5 Effects
Fulltone Clyde Wah
I'm a huge fan of Fulltone pedals. A friend of mine turned my on to the Clyde back in 1997. I've used this pedal religiously since the day I bought it. It sounds amazing. It’s built like a tank. And it’s held up without any problems for 16 years.
Line 6 MM4
This is my main pedal for modulation effects. It replicates an arsenal of chorus, phaser, and tremolo effects very nicely. I've used the tri-chorus setting on a number of tracks I've recorded with the Mayfield Four and Alter Bridge.
Fulltone Ultimate Octave
This is the effect I used on the intro lead to “Before Tomorrow Comes.” It's an extremely versatile distortion/fuzz with an octave-up switch. It’s a great effect to kick on when you want to push your lead tone into extreme territory.
MXR GT-OD
This is the pedal I used for my leads with Alter Bridge on AB III and Fortress. The perfect balance of sustain and clarity without changing the tone of the amp.
Fulltone DejáVibe
I used this pedal to replicate the effect I used on my “Blackbird” solo. If you dig the Robin Trower or Jimi Hendrix Uni-Vibe sound, I can't recommend this pedal enough.
