Efficient, economical, and exacting are the key features that allow these pop-rockersā finely-tuned setups to pump out buoyant ballads and bangers.
āāStumbled into guitarā is a good way of putting our start with the instrument. [Spencer Stewart] and I formed the band in 2015 and thatās when I got my first electric guitar,ā admits The Band CAMINOās vocalist and guitarist Jeffery Jordan.
That sort of sideways T-bone collision into guitardom allows this pop-minded duo to avoid typical tonal tropes like worrying about tubes versus modeling, or imports versus custom. Their focus was and continues to be translating their danceable melodies into guitar-driven rompers and producing the best live show possible.
āWe definitely enjoyed a pedalboard-and-amp-era of the band, but the tech has come so far and weāre able to eliminate so much room for error and potential inconsistencies, allowing for a freer performance,ā adds Jordan.
As we quickly found out in our Rundown with Jordan and Stewart, the bandās approach favors execution over exhibitionism.
In mid-September, just before the band commenced their headlining Screaming in the Dark tour, in support of the just-released The Dark album, co-frontmen and dueling guitarists Jeffery Jordan and Spencer Stewart invited PGās Chris Kies to rehearsal for a gear talk. The main chauffeurs of CAMINO explained how grabbing guitar later in life allowed them to avoid a lot of gear gossip and find tonal solutions that enrich their performances. Plus, they both discuss the stable of studs from Fender, Gibson, and Epiphone that give bounce and beauty to their merging of indie-rock and electropop.Brought to you by D'Addario XPND.
A Flashy Fender
Jeffery Jordanās first electric was a Strat. Heās long enjoyed the Fender side of things, and one of his main rides for the upcoming tour would be this MIM Fender Telecaster. Two things to note on this T would be its glow-in-the-dark paint job and the addition of the EverTune bridge, making this not only an onstage stunner but a locked-damn hammer always ready to smash. Both Jordan and Stewart exclusively use DāAddario NYXL1052 Light Top/Heavy Bottom strings (.010ā.052) on their electrics. Theyāre normally in standard tuning, but they do explore open-D for a few songs.
Backup Blaster
This Fender Jim Root Jazzmaster joins the party if the Tele canāt dance. It comes stock with a set of EMG 60/81 pickups, but Jordan swapped in a couple of Lace Sensors. The bridge is the gold version that offers a classic ā50s Style single-coil sound while the neck Lace is a silver model giving Jordan a fat, ā70s single-coil sound with increased output and more midrange. Again, an EverTune bridge has been added for tuning stability.
Bold Bird
For the first time, Jordan will be hitting the road with a Gibson. Three songs are allocated to this regal raptorāa Custom Shop Firebird Custom, decked out with a mahogany body laced with multi-ply binding, elegant gold hardware, and a set of 498T/490R humbuckers.
Booming Bell
The subtler side of The Band CAMINO is handled by this Gibson J-45 Standard finished in a smoldering tobacco burst. It runs through their Neural DSP Quad Cortex thanks to the included L.R. Baggs VTC electronics.
Dancing in the Dark
Spencer Stewart joined the electric guitar cult in 2015 when forming the Band CAMINO with Jeffery Jordan. He started the bandās existence with a Strat before being seduced by a Gibson Lzzy Hale Explorer. Ever since heās been cruising and bruising with ābuckers, but one of his current main rides revs and roars with Fishman Fluence pickups. He prefers to record with these guitars because the Fluences are so dynamic and versatile. Originally finished in a stealth black, Stewart jazzed them up with glow-in-the-dark paint and blacklight speckles that make them both dazzle onstage. The red one takes lead, while the blue one hangs in the second position.
High Flyer
Any songs in open-D are reserved for Stewartās Firebird Studio ā70s Tribute, still rocking its stock mini-humbuckers. He loves its tone and the added bonus of it being a light-feathered bird.
Stolen Upgrades
During a quick stop at a morning radio show in L.A., the band left their acoustics in the rental vehicle. When they returned from the brief session, the unattended acoustics were gone. Stewart lost an Epiphone Masterbilt and Jordan was out a Fender flattop. Before an in-store performance and album signing at Nashvilleās beloved Grimeyās, Gibson offered Stewart a chance to check out this Gibson Hummingbird Studio Rosewood. Needless to say, heās not giving it back nor letting it out of his sight.
The Same But Not
A recent venture into a Nashville Guitar Center yielded a dĆ©jĆ vu moment when Stewart saw this Epiphone Masterbuilt DR-500RNSāvery similar to the aforementioned looted acoustic. He took it as a sign, and plunked down the plastic to be reconnected with an old friend.
Clean Business
With less than 10 years under their belt as electric guitarists and growing up with tech, Jeffery and Spencer donāt have a lot of the mental pitfalls more veteran players fall into when thinking about live guitar tones. For these two, itās all about the precision, practicality, and polished sounds they can achieve for a maximum performance that connects directly with the audience. The one-stop solution for those needs is this rolling buffet that starts with Neural DSP Quad Cortex units. Every moment of their show is programmed in these tablet-sized titans. The other hardware in their rack includes Shure PSM 1000s (in-ear monitors), Shure P10T-G10 Dual Wireless Transmitters, Shure ULXD4D Dual Channel Digital Wireless Receivers, Radial Gold Digger 4 Channel Mic Selectors, Sennheiser AC3200-II Active High Power Broadband antennas, Focusrite RedNet A16R MkII 16x16 Analog Dante Interfaces, Ferrofish A32 Pro Dante Multi-Format Converters, Midas XL48 Preamps, and Universal Audio Apollo X6 Thunderbolt Interfaces. This setup can either pilot a moon mission or make for a smooth, flawless rock show.
Robi Johns has played a role in Gibsonās acoustic operation since 1990, when he left teaching and running a music store to become the locationās in-house musician.
The Gibson acoustic divisionās head dreamer studied with Christopher Parkening, toured, played, taught, and has collaborated with many artists on signature models in his three-decade career.
Bozeman is known as the Sweet Pea City, a reference to the prolific flower that put this colorful Montana burgh on the map in the early 1900s. But most of us know it as the home of the Gibson Acoustic Craftory, where the brand makes guitars ranging from historic models like the L-00, J-45, Hummingbird, Dove, and J-200 to signature guitars for Jerry Cantrell, Orianthi, and Kebā Moā to the companyās budget-priced Generation Collection, which offers updates on Gibsonās slope-, broad-shouldered, and cutaway models, all with sound ports. Turns out the regionās stable, dry climate is good for building guitars as well as raising blossoms.
When Robi Johns arrived at Gibsonās Bozeman location in 1990, āit was a small cinder block building. It was relatively crowded, dusty, and noisy, but safe, and we had this little office area with one fax machineāthe key communication tool back in the day. Now, Iām sitting in an office thatās quiet, clean, and well-lit. We have meeting areas and beautiful showroom and event areas. And the plant is spacious and quiet in most areas, and certainly very clean and very modern.ā
How modern and spacious? Gibson unveiled an expansion at the facility in November, more than doubling its size from 21,000 to 48,000 square feet, updating and enlarging the machine shop, the Custom Shop, and overall guitar-building space. Itās a testament to both the durability of Gibsonās long-established models as well as the success of new instruments like the Generation Collection.
āWe put the very lightest, thinnest neck on it possibleāwe couldnāt go any thinner, quite frankly. Itās thin as a Les Paul from the 1960s.ā
Johnsā title is senior product development manager, Gibson acoustics, but heās also one of the Craftoryās key guitar designers and an accomplished player. As a young man, he studied with classical-guitar virtuoso Christopher Parkening and became an adjunct professor in classical guitar at Montana State University, also in Bozeman. In addition to the aforementioned guitarists, heās designed instruments for Sheryl Crow (a signature Southern Jumbo Supreme), Jackson Brown (a 10-year process that culminated in the Model 1 that bears Brownās name), Slash, and Eric Church, among many others.
āIf I had to summarize the qualities that each player desires,ā he says of the artists heās created instruments for, ānumber one is tone of the acoustic guitar, because that reflects the sound of the music that artist makes, and inspires them. They are looking for a response from the instrumentāresponse and tone affects how youāre playing and causes a different emotional state. They are also searching for a certain look or design that reflects their persona and helps define how they look on stage. Itās a symbiotic relationship between the artist and model.ā
A J-45 Deluxe Rosewood guitar gets its neck set with one of the companyās trademark dovetail neck-to-body joints.
Johnsā latest signature project is a collaboration for Americana/country darling Brandi Carlile, for release this year. āBrandi loves 1940s small-body LG-2s, so about three years ago she came to us and said, āWould you build me one of these ... like the one I use normally, but, you know, new?ā So, I had the honor of designing a historic-based LG-2 for her that she fell in love with. Recently, she asked us to do a model for her, so I was able to take the qualities of her LG-2 and put them into a guitar that would be suitable for consumers. In other words, we made it so it wasnāt so expensive to build, like her original, but I was able to include the sound and the feel of what she loved. I had to please the artist and people who love our guitars with the new Brandi Carlile LG-2 Custom.ā
Johns was also involved in the creation of the Generation Collection, a new line of five acousticsāthe G-Writer, the G-Bird, the G-45, G-200, and G-00āinspired by legacy designs but updated with sound ports and alternative neck woods, like utile (an African hardwood), and slim neck profiles, among other features. The idea was to create a fleet priced between $999 and $1,999 streetāmore easily affordable instruments targeted at less experienced players. For Johns, the project was both a strategic and a design challenge.
āThe acoustic guitar is more introverted, and the electric guitar is more for an extroverted experience.ā
āWe thought about this for a couple years,ā says Johns. āāWhat do new guitarists, that arenāt necessarily Gibson fans, want?ā So, we gave them a guitar at a lower price point, relative to our other guitars, that is really easy to play. We put the very lightest, thinnest neck on it possibleāwe couldnāt go any thinner, quite frankly. Itās thin as a Les Paul from the 1960s. And we flattened out the fretboards so you can bend notes really easily. We also include all of the benefits of how we build guitars: a dovetail neck-to-body joint, a radius top or curved top with curved bracing, and a very light lacquer finish. We took the best of Gibson construction features and put them in this lower-price-point instrument.ā
The Generation Collection are also the first Gibsons to feature a sound port, which the company calls a āPlayer Port,ā following boutique builders and Taylor, Breedlove, and other well-respected acoustic guitar makers into this terrain.
āResponse and tone affects how youāre playing and causes a different emotional state.ā
Hereās an upper-deck view of the finishing area in Gibsonās Acoustic Craftory.
Besides its lovely climbing flowers and the Gibson Craftory, Bozeman is also known as a railroad town. A modest freight yard is nestled in its center, and thereās even an old beanery where railroad workers for the Northern Pacific grabbed a bite during that lineās heyday. Johns also comes from a place famous for the railsāAltoona, Pennsylvania. āItās a very blue-collar coal mining and railroad town, so that kind of forced me into loving the expressive arts, in contrast. I became a lover of painting and music, so that led me into going to music school. I got a couple of degrees in guitar performance, and later became a recording artist, and I had interest in many diverse musical styles. I practiced, practiced, practiced the guitar, every day, to the Nth degree. So, Iāve spent all my life on a guitar.ā
Johns was teaching and running a music store in Bozeman when he was invited to Gibson. āThe president of this division called me up and said, āWe need an artist here. We have everything but a real musician.ā So, I became the sales and marketing director for acoustic guitars in 1990 and have been here ever since. I had a lot to learn. Gibson was such a big brand, and initially, I was going all over the world promoting the guitars and helping with the marketing and sales of them. And then, I started working here with the best luthiers in the music industry, so thatās how it morphed into my work with designing guitars.ā
An SJ-200 reaches the final stage of its building processāa meticulous setup.
Johnsā creative patch was interrupted, gravely, in 2012, when he suffered a hemorrhagic stroke. āI was told I was not going to live, I was not going to walk again, I was not going to use my arm again,ā he recounts. āThat is not what I decided was my fate. I had this strong wish to continue to use all that Iāve learned in my lifeās experienceāto contribute to what I love in music and arts and particularly the guitar. That kept me going and drove me to take on all these therapies. I still do therapy every day, because I want that quality of life back, and Iām enjoying doing what Iām doing with Gibson. Itās stopped me from being a player for a period of time, but it did not stop me from being a dreamer, or that I get to dream these guitars up with the artists and the great builders here.ā Johns is working to reclaim his former playing prowess with the help of his current favorite guitars: a Gibson ES-175, which he praises for its acoustic-like toneāāI was a fan of Steve Howe in the ā70sāāand an acoustic Gibson Songwriter, along with a nylon-string instrument custom-built in Madrid.
If fate hadnāt lured Johns into the guitar life, he thinks that perhaps he might have chased his creative pursuits into film. āSometimes I feel like a movie director,ā he says. āI work with an artist and he or she creates a plot, and I get to direct the movieāanalogous to designing the guitar, the most joyous part of my work. This is not just patronizing my own company, but I love Gibson. I get to work with the most absolutely brilliant people, highly skilled and inspiring, which nurtures me as a human being. Iām not playing guitar and being a performer anymore, but, metaphorically, Iām still reaching people all over the worldānot with my music, but with the guitars that we build. And that fulfills me. That really is true.ā
Some of the world''s finest artists have recorded on this classic acoustic from Gibson. It features some of the first renditions of guitar production found in today''s market.
The J-45 featured this month has features common to others produced in 1964. It has an adjustable bridge (introduced in 1956), large frets (1959), a cherry sunburst finish (1962), and mahogany back and sides with a spruce top (standard since the end of WWII). The red tint of the cherry sunburst has faded to an almost golden color, which is common on J-45s made from ā64 to ā66.
The slim, comfortable neck of this example has the somewhat rare and interesting feature called a āstinger.ā The back of the headstock is painted black to hide a flaw in the wood. The black paint ends in an attractive point at the bottom of the headstock while rest of the neck continues on in the usual see-through cherry.
The smooth sounds of a J-45 can be heard on recordings made by Buddy Holly, Donovan and Bob Dylan. More detailed information can be found in the book Gibsonās Fabulous Flat-Top Guitars by Eldon Whitford, David Vinopal and Dan Erlewine.
Dave''s Guitar Shop
Daves Rogerās Collection Is tended to by Laun Braithwaite & Tim Mullally
All photos credit Tim Mullally
Daveās Collection is on dispay at:
Dave''s Guitar Shop
1227 Third Street South
La Crosse, WI 54601
608-785-7704
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