Matt Sweeney doesn’t want to dazzle you with rock guitar. That’s boring. That’s lazy. At least to him. He wants to mesmerize you.
“Really, that’s the point of music: to get people’s minds off of whatever and to hypnotize them a little bit,” Sweeney told PG in 2021. After beginning hisSuperwolves collaboration with Will Oldham, “that’s when I thought, ‘Cool, I did the thing that I wanted to do. I can fingerpick now and I can play with a really great singer who is working in an idiom that I hadn’t worked in before.’
“I started playing with Will and that gave me the opportunity to keep developing the way that I was playing, because it went well with his singing. After a couple of years, that led to Will suggesting that we write songs together.”
The audible opiate that Sweeney provides has also cast his spell over the works of Rick Rubin, Johnny Cash, Neil Diamond, Adele, Cat Power, Run the Jewels, Chavez, John Legend, Zwan (collaboration with Billy Corgan), Tinariwen, “Cowboy” Jack Clement, Billy Gibbons, and Margo Price. And with every episode of hypnosis comes a trance-breaking snapback. Providing that rhythmic recoil is Sweeney’s current foil, Emmett Kelly. Both have worked with Oldham, but until now—in the current Superwolves line-up—never together.
Kelly steps into the fold with an indie and outsiders Rolodex filled with names like Ty Segall, Angel Olson, Azita, Cairo Gang, Mikal Cronin, The C.I.A., Earth Girl Helen Brown, Magic Trick, Doug Paisley, and Joan of Arc. Sweeney sums up their guitar-nership with his typical, sly-and-dry snark: “What’s important about the way me and Emmett play together is that we never talk about it [laughs]. It’s true! He’s like the best guitar player. He’s a master at making everything sound better. We’ve both worked together—but mostly separately—with our singer Will Oldham, and it was his suggestion that we should all go out together [without bass and drums] because it should be good. But really, we’ve never had to talk about it, and we just play. It’s been a lot of fun.”
So, when PG’s Chris Kies recently connected with Sweeney and Kelly, they were providing a guitar backdrop for a headlining set fronted by Bonnie “Prince” Billy Oldham at Nashville’s Mercy Lounge, supporting Sweeney and Billy’s 2021 release, Superwolves. While the conversation with both does cover their spartan setups, the meat of the message is how gear is a tool for storytelling, humility, and liberation. Oh … but Kelly does reveal a Japanese gem that takes a guitar signal and reanimates it into anime speech-like phrases!
Brought to you by D’Addario XS Electric Strings.
The Lone Wolf
Matt Sweeney is a simple man. He tours with just one guitar: the above 1976 Gibson ES-335TD. He’s favored flatwound strings (La Bella Jazz Flats or D’Addario ECG25 Chromes gauged .012–.052) for nearly two decades. And he’s dropped the pick for nearly as long. Sweeney had an interesting take on fingerstyle playing with flats in an interview with PG in 2021: “I don’t know any other way to get a tone other than from your amp and fingers. Otherwise, you’re not getting your tone; you’re processing your tone. That’s another thing that fingerpicking brought out: Your right hand is your mouth. That’s what’s making the sound come out. But again, speaking of tone, we seem to largely agree that the guitar recordings everybody freaks out about are usually from before the ’60s. They’re using flatwound strings, they’re not using pedals, and it sounds really great.”
Silver-Panel Stunner
“I recommend the shit out of these Fender recreations,” concedes gear novice Sweeney. “It [the above Fender ’68 Custom Deluxe Reverb] sounds good out of the box and I frequently use its reverb and tremolo.”
Planning for Pedals
Sweeney told PG “I love pedals. Pedals are really cool, and they’re fun,” he says. “But I established the way I sound without relying on pedals at all.” And then Josh Homme (Queens of the Stone Age and Eagles of Death Metal) dropped some science. “He pointed out, ‘Get any kind of pedal that will make the sound wave a little different.’ Pedals that put things out of phase and make it poke out a little bit are cool.” Well, Sweeney’s current economical, waveform-changing pedalboard includes a couple of EarthQuaker Devices (Grand Orbiter Phase Machine —“I love using phaser because people hate it”—and Dispatch Master delay & reverb), a Blackstrap Eletrik Company Greenleaf (based on the 1960s John Hornby Skewes Zonk Machine fuzz), and a Crowther Audio Hotcake. A Voodoo Lab Pedal Power ISO-5 gives everything life.
Not Your Dad’s Tele, but Donahue’s Tele
Emmett Kelly’s only touring companion is this 1990s Fender (MIJ) Jerry Donahue Signature Telecaster that’s based on an early ’60s model—aside from the ’50s V neck profile, per Jerry’s specs.
“I never liked a Tele until I found this one, and now I love it completely,” gushes Kelly. “To the point that I’m actually in the process of modding my Strat to be electronically identical to this guitar.”
It’s stock, including a unique pickup pairing (an alnico Tele in the bridge and an alnico Stratocaster in the neck) and versatile 5-way switching. (Learn more about the wiring and how to implement it into your T-style with this helpful Mod Garage guide.) Kelly uses various brands of strings (.011s) and plucks the Tele with Herco thumbpicks.
A Stompbox Platter
Kelly normally plays in more aggressive, louder bands, but for this gig the stock Fender ’68 Custom Deluxe Reverb is the perfect platform for unveiling crisp clean tones and a terrace for the tone twisting goodies on his board.
Speak of the Devil
“I like to have movement. I like to have things morphing, constantly have things imaging,” says Kelly. The pedal party starts with the always-on (albeit, subtly slow) MXR Phase 90. Next is his favorite pedal—the Crowther Audio Double Hotcake. (“It’s the clearest distortion and I love that I can get notes to be saturated and crystal clear.”) Following that is a trio of Fredric Effects: a Nouveau Super Unpleasant Companion (a combined Shin-Ei FY-2 and FY-6 Superfuzz clone), a Verzerrer (a recreation of East Germany’s only distortion effect, the Bohm Trickverzerrer), and a Regent 150 preamp (a revamped reproduction of a 1970s East German preamp that peels out the EQ circuit from the Vermona Regent 150K amplifier). The Boss TR-2 Tremolo is there when he backs up opener (and Nashville production icon) Dave Ferguson, who actually provided Kelly with the pedal. Possibly the most bizzaro pedal the Rig Rundown has encountered is this Korg Miku Stomp that employs 11 lyric patterns that basically turn your guitar (or anything, as Kelly elaborates in the video on his own exploration with the effect) into a teenage-girl Japanese anime character. You have to hear it to believe, so tune in! And lastly, Kelly turns everything on with the MXR M238 ISO-Brick.
Vintage V58JDAB Jerry Donahue — Read our review here.
Donahue was one of the three founding members of the Hellecasters, which also included John Jorgenson and PG columnist Will Ray. There's a reason why the great Danny Gatton called Donahue "the string-bending king of the planet." If you haven't heard Donahue's jaw-dropping bends and behind-the-nut stretches, check out some of his YouTube videos and prepare to be amazed. Using only his fingers, he could make his Tele sound like a pedal-steel guitar.
Essential background and history.
Donahue was one of the three founding members of the Hellecasters, which also included John Jorgenson and PG columnist Will Ray. There's a reason why the great Danny Gatton called Donahue "the string-bending king of the planet." If you haven't heard Donahue's jaw-dropping bends and behind-the-nut stretches, check out some of his YouTube videos and prepare to be amazed. Using only his fingers, he could make his Tele sound like a pedal-steel guitar.
A prominent figure in the late-'60s and early-'70s British folk-rock scene, Donahue played and recorded with Fotheringay and Fairport Convention, and later formed a group called the Gathering, which included his daughter Kristina Donahue and former members of Jethro Tull, Lindisfarne, Pentangle, and Steeleye Span.
Donahue is a Tele player to the bone, and during his outstanding career he's been involved in several signature guitar projects, beginning in 1991 with the Fender JD Telecaster. This was available in several versions from the Fender Custom Shop, as well as a more affordable MIJ version. A souped-up Telecaster, the JD featured a Stratocaster neck pickup located closer to the bridge than usual, a 5-way pickup selector switch, and special wiring. The model has been out of production since 1999 and is a collector's item today.
In 2004, Donahue began working with G&L on a new signature guitar called the ASAT JD-5, but this never made it into regular production. Only a few of these seem to exist—some estimate fewer than 20.
His next signature guitar, the Peavey Omniac JD, debuted in 2005. It had a Tele-like shape, custom wiring, and a 5-way pickup selector switch, but this time sported two custom Seymour Duncan pickups (more about these in a moment). The Omniac JD went out of production in 2009.
In 2010, Donahue started working on his next signature model 6-string with the John Hornby Skewes company in England, called JHS for short. One of the JHS labels is Fret-King, and Donahue's guitar is called the Fret-King JDD (which stands for Jerry Donahue/Seymour Duncan). Part of the Fret-King Artist series and still in production, the JDD was designed by Trev Wilkinson and features wiring similar to the Peavey Omniac. JHS also offers a budget version, called the Reissued V58JDAB Jerry Donahue, as part of their Vintage line.
These guitars all have a Telecaster-inspired dual-pickup layout, a 5-way switch, and standard master volume and master tone controls. The concept behind each of Donahue's models is to retain the classic Telecaster bridge tone, while adding Strat- and Tele-like dual-pickup combinations, as well as both a timeless Strat neck pickup sound and a jazzy "archtop" tone.
With this "JD mod," our goal is to incorporate Stratocaster tones into a Telecaster. This is the opposite of what we explored with the "Riptide" wiring—a mod that coaxes Telecaster tones from a Stratocaster. Loyal Mod Garage readers may also recall that we previously discussed several ways to implant Stratocaster tones into a Telecaster in "The Strat-o-Tele Crossover." But, as we'll see, the JD mod is unique and definitely worth exploring because it may be the ultimate jack-of-all trades guitar wiring.
For starters, let's talk about the pickups used in both the Omniac and JDD. Each model sports pickups made by Donahue's buddy, Seymour Duncan. The story goes that another one of Donahue's friends wound him a Stratocaster pickup for the neck position of his stock Telecaster. Donahue really liked it—especially when he combined the new neck pickup with the Tele bridge pickup. At Donahue's request, Seymour analyzed the new pickup and discovered Donahue's friend had incorporated a resistor in the middle of the pickup's winding before finishing the other half. Based on this construction, Seymour developed two pickups that are still available. If you're planning to build your own version of a JD Telecaster, this is your ticket to get it as close as possible to his signature models. These are the Duncan APS-2JD neck and APTL-3JD bridge pickups.
The concept behind each of Donahue's models is to retain the classic Telecaster bridge tone, while adding Strat- and Tele-like dual-pickup combinations, as well as both a timeless Strat neck pickup sound and a jazzy "archtop" tone.
The sounds.
Here—excerpted from Donahue's own words—is a description of the tones delivered by the 5-way switch, starting with the Stratocaster's "neck only" setting and working toward the bridge:
- Position 1: The rich and sparkling neck position of a traditional Stratocaster, resulting in that unmistakable vintage single-coil sound that echoes the soaring, majestic blues tones of the '60s and '70s.
- Position 2: The neck pickup with a special capacitor engaged. This yields a tone ordinarily associated with an archtop jazz guitar. Add overdrive to capture that classic late-'60s "woman tone."
- Position 3: The neck and bridge pickups in a custom parallel wiring. This produces an enhanced, contemporary version of a Telecaster's traditional middle-position tone.
- Position 4: Combines both pickups with a capacitor and resistor to create a controlled degree of reversed phase. This offers a Stratocaster's popular "in-between quack tone."
- Position 5: The solo bridge pickup with the gutsy lead sound of the very best '50s Telecasters.
Shopping list.
Here's what you'll need to make your own version of the JD Telecaster:
- The two pickups mentioned above, although alternatively you can use standard Telecaster bridge and Stratocaster neck pickups. If you choose the latter option, you'll need to enlarge the neck pickup cavity to accommodate a Strat neck pickup.
- A 5-way "super switch" pickup selector. But remember: There's not much room inside a Telecaster's electronics compartment, so double-check that the model you choose will fit. We've covered the basics of this switch before ["Introducing Fender's 5-Way Super Switch," September 2011, and "Exploring Fender's 5-Way Super Switch," October 2011].
- A treble-bleed network with a 1000 pF cap and a 150k resistor in parallel. To learn more about this, check out "Deep Diving into Treble-Bleed Networks" from March 2019.
- A 0.022 µF tone cap of your choice for the tone control.
- Two 250k pots for volume and tone controls.
- Three caps with the following values: 3300 pF, 2200 pF, and 0.01µF. Again, there's not much space inside the Tele's control cavity, so choose the physically smallest film caps you can get. The caps' voltage rating doesn't play a role in this game.
- Two 6.2k metal film resistors; 0.25 watt or less is perfect.
If you're a Mod Garage regular, you'll spot familiar themes in this circuit because we've investigated these tricks before—namely, adding caps in-line with a pickup ["The Stratocaster 'Jazz Switch' Mod," November 2011] and half out-of-phase wiring ["The Bill Lawrence 5-way Telecaster Circuit," October 2015]. But here's the twist: Now everything comes together in one wiring!
Okay, let's translate Donahue's sonic description of the wiring into bare technical facts:
- Position 1: Solo neck pickup (like standard Telecaster wiring).
- Position 2: Neck pickup with additional 3300 pF cap to ground.
- Position 3: Neck + bridge pickup in parallel with additional 2200 pF cap to ground.
- Position 4: Neck + bridge pickup in parallel, half out-of-phase.
- Position 5: Solo bridge pickup (like standard Telecaster wiring).
Now we're ready to dive into the circuit. For visual clarity, we'll start with the volume pot's treble bleed-network (Image 1).
Image 2 shows the rest of the circuit with all the other components.
That's it, folks! In a future column, we'll revisit this wiring and add some mods that make it even more flexible. Meanwhile, next month we'll return to our ongoing DIY relic project, so stay tuned. Until then ... keep on modding!
Review Demo - Vintage Guitars Jerry Donahue Signature V58
Watch John Bohlinger demo the various tones unlocked by Donahue's versatile 5-way setup.
[Updated 7/27/21]
Built Like a Plank
The V58JDAB is built around an unbound American alder body (the JD Duncan’s alder body has a bound ash top) with an Ash Blonde finish. The finish on the solid, hefty plank is evenly applied, though there were a few very tiny particles trapped in the finish on the top. A single-ply white pickguard adds a classic ’50s touch.
The guitar features a bolt-on, one-piece hard maple neck/fretboard with perfectly inlayed black dot position markers and a vintage-style 7 1/4" radius. The neck itself feels quite comfortable, although it doesn’t sit entirely flush with the body, and the nut is seated slightly askew. The 22 medium frets were nicely dressed, cleanly installed, and felt good to the touch except for a few sharpish edges.
The guitar’s setup and intonation were reasonably good, but both could have benefitted from a little finessing. That said, the relatively low action easily accommodated aggressive string bending without fretting out, and fret buzz was minimal overall. On these counts the Vintage delivers when it matters.
The Wilkinson Deluxe WJ55S tuners and WTB bridge are very solidly built, stable, and perform well. The volume control is quiet in operation, but goes from silence to “on” rather abruptly, and the lack of a gradual linear taper may let down players that like pinky swells and volume dynamics. The tone control is more effective, but touches the mounting plate when turned. In general, the Vintage delivers in terms of playability, but there is room for improvements in quality at the detail level.
Ratings
Pros:
Versatile, with very good (if somewhat non-traditional) sounds. Plays well and stays in tune.
Cons:
Requires some adjustments to perform optimally. Workmanship would benefit from greater attention to detail.
Tones:
Ease of Use:
Build/Design:
Value:
Street:
$499
Vintage V58JDAB
fretking-vintage.com
Select Grades
The 5-position pickup selector is at the heart of the V58JDAB’s impressive tonal versatility. Position 1 engages a Wilkinson WJTDn Alnico II single-coil, which, interestingly, is intended to provide the sound of a ’60s/’70s Stratocaster neck pickup. It’s certainly in the ballpark, and by any standard sounds quite good—with the requisite spank and a pleasing balance of warm roundness and sparkly highs. It fared best with clean and moderately overdriven amp settings.
Position 2 gets you the same pickup, but adds extra capacitance to the circuit with the aim of emulating both fatback jazz guitars and Eric Clapton’s late-’60s Cream tones. A Gibson L-5 or ES-335 it is not, but the lack-of-woodiness factor notwithstanding, the tone is surprisingly humbucker-like and sounded good on all amp settings from clean to high-gain.
Position 3 combines the neck pickup with a Wilkinson WJTDb Alnico II single-coil bridge pickup in parallel to achieve—surprise—the sound of a Telecaster with its 3-position switch in the middle position. It delivers the same full-range chunkiness you’d hear from a good Telecaster with both pickups engaged.
Position 4 also combines both pickups, but inserts a capacitor and a resistor in reversed phase in the circuit. It is designed to emulate the tone of a Stratocaster with its 3-position selector in the in-between, out-of-phase position, and it yields a thinned-out but edgy sound that’s great for cutting through dense mixes.
Position 5 gives you the bridge pickup alone. This pickup sounds really good on pretty much any amp setting, yet it lacks some of that characteristic edge and bite you might hear from a standard Telecaster. It’s also slightly quieter than the neck pickup.
The VerdictAt $499, the Vintage V58JDAB is a lot of guitar for the money. Sure, it may need some tweaking and not all aspects of the workmanship are immaculate, but when it comes to the truly important stuff—like playability, versatility, and, especially, tasty tones—it delivers. And all these broadened sonic options make the Vintage considerably more than just another inexpensive T-style axe.
Watch the Review Demo: