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This adventure started out innocently enough. I had always wanted a Gibson 12-string with a Cherry Sunburst finish. I had cruised eBay for months, looking for the best combination of color, condition and the dubious option of an adjustable bridge. I found a nice pin bridge model, but the owner wanted $2500 for it and wouldn’t budge on the price. A price guide said maybe $2200 at the top-end and an inquiry to a well known authority on vintage guitars said that the value was, in fact, diminishing annually on vintage Gibson 12-strings. This gave me cause for concern, but I persevered.
Finally I came across a trapeze tailpiece model that had literally been under a guy’s bed for 35 years. The color was primo and the guitar had no major issues except for the dreaded, original adjustable bridge. I had read the book Gibson’s Fabulous Flat-Top Guitars by Eldon Whitford, David Vinopal and Dan Erlewine; in the section on the B-45 12-string they go into detail about how the early-sixties pin bridge models had the light top bracing of the late-fifties designs. This lighter bracing allowed for more top “flutter,” providing more projection and tone, but with the dainty bracing came the problem of structural instability. Most of the early pin bridge models selfdestructed, especially when tuned to standard pitch. They alluded to a few hardcore fans who had converted trapeze tailpiece models to the pin bridge versions – this was possible because the interior bracing was still the same as Gibson’s previous pin bridge model.
Not to be dissuaded from a Cherry Sunburst 12-string, I made a deal with “Jimmy the sound guy,” with each of us agreeing to drive 400 miles and meet in the middle in Saint Louis, Missouri to do the deal – $1500 for his rare Gibson B-45 12-string.
Not surprisingly, the sound of a guitar played over a cell phone is not a good representation of the actual box. After six hours of driving, when Jimmy proudly pulled the little jewel out of its case, my eyes lit up. Unfortunately, after the first strum, my heart sank. I had never heard such a pathetic sounding guitar in my life – a cigar box with strings stretched across it would have had better tone! But Jimmy drove four hours and I drove six and the darned thing was pretty. I had some experience in voicing the bracing under guitar tops, as I had put a solid bone saddle on my 1967 J-45 with good results. So reluctantly, with a good-sport-smile on my face and a sense of dread in my heart, I headed home with possibly the worst sounding guitar I had ever heard, much less purchased.
After arriving home, I called my friend and fellow luthier, Greg Krochman at Classic Axe in Nashville to regroup and appraise my situation. He advised me that if he were repairing the guitar he would make a pin bridge and add a “Bridge Doctor.” The JLD Bridge Doctor is made in Roswell, New Mexico, by my new best friend Don Kendall. It is essentially a threaded dowel through a wooden base that has two contact points under the bridge of a guitar; one contact point is under the saddle and the other is screwed into the underside of the ebony or rosewood bridge top and covered with a pearl dot or wooden plug. Once in place the dowel is threaded up against the block at the bottom inside of the guitar.
When Don learned of my plight, he was more than helpful. We tossed ideas back and forth and he sent me a Bridge Doctor which unfortunately didn’t fit under the cluster of 12 bridge pins. I must say his design has merit and is simple and easy to apply in most situations.
If my guitar hadn’t produced a promising “thump” on the top when I hit it with the side of my thumb, I likely would have just given up and sold it. It wasn’t until my friend Mark Hanna said, “You are the only hope this guitar will ever have,” that I became determined to save it.
Preparations
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The next step was to make a new bridge out of rosewood. Since I had decided to keep the adjustable bridge option, I needed a template for the exact shape and measurement of the adjustable bridge saddle, too. For this template I turned to an old friend: Silly Putty. After removing the adjustable ebony saddle, I placed the Silly Putty inside the hole and pressed down, working it into the hole [Photo 3]. After carefully removing the putty I could measure the length and width of the cavity.
I then went in search of a large piece of solid bone for the saddle. After making a trip to my local butcher, I returned home with my trophy. I carefully boiled the bone in salt water, then baked it in the oven at 350 degrees for the better part of an hour. Unfortunately the inner and outer layer of bone separated while cooling, so I called my buddy Greg at Classic Axe again and gave him my needed dimensions. He then sent me the biggest piece he had, along with some laminated material to fill in the inner curve.
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At this point in my adventure I began considering the following conundrum: do I restore the guitar to original condition or do I alter the rascal from its original, poorly designed specifications? I can still imagine some worker at Gibson going to his superior and saying, “You know, if we just altered the top bracing a little and added a little more to the bridge plate, we might be able to still use the pin bridge and make a better sounding instrument.” In my imaginary scenario I can hear the supervisor reply, “We don’t do it that way. We’ve had so many warranty repairs for that pin bridge that my boss wants it done this way.” Not working for Gibson four decades ago, I press onward.
Bridgeplay
I then enlarged my X-ray photo of the guitar’s top so that the image of the bridge measured exactly 7 1/2” from side to side. I made three 16”×20” prints, varying the contrast and exposure between them. When dry, I had an exact, 1:1 ratio photo of the top with the bracing structure revealed. This trick needs to be done with black and white film and an enlarger so you can tweak the enlargement proportions. In case you’re wondering, I’ve been a professional photographer since the seventies. I’m the guy who took Clapton’s photo in the Tulsa Jail, but I called Dick Sims’ mom to get him sprung (perhaps another story for another time).
I positioned my new-old-stock Gibson pin bridge over the photo of the existing bridge and determined that I would need an additional bridge plate underneath to both strengthen my new bridge and allow for a base for the new bridge pins to snuggle into. I started with a corrugated cardboard template cut out with a razor blade and carefully shaped it to fit between the existing bridge plate and the cross braces underneath. After staring at the mahogany bridge placed on top of the photo of the old bridge, I determined that I needed to add two small additional braces going top to bottom underneath the ends of the bridge saddle and joining the existing lateral cross-brace under the top. I remembered the words of my friend, the late Stewart Mossman, “Nothing is stronger in top bracing than the triangle.” I gazed with delight at how I had created three additional triangles under the top at the end of the bridge with the addition of my two braces glued to the lateral brace. I imagined my luthier friend from Kalamazoo up in heaven giving me a big “OK” with his right hand.
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Afterwards I began cutting out my new bridge blank by hand with a hacksaw and a coping saw. Mechanical saws move too fast for this delicate process, although it took many hours to hand-file and sand the new rosewood bridge to shape, plus another four hours to fit the new bone saddle into not only the new bridge base but the old one as well, in case I reinstall the adjustable ebony saddle at a later date. Luthier Don Teter once told me to dig out the bridge adjustment nuts in the top and take out the old bridge plate; since the bridge adjustment nuts in this instrument were sunk slightly below the top, I decided against both courses of action and chose to leave the nuts in place and keep the existing bridge pad. I cut a solid piece of maple for an extension of the bridge pad underneath to match my cardboard template and saved the bridge adjustment nuts in case I needed them in the future.
I began volleying ideas back and forth with Don Kendall of Bridge Doctor fame. I had returned my Bridge Doctor after deciding it wouldn’t work under the cluster of 12 bridge pins [Photo 5]. Initially, I thought of making my own modified Bridge Doctor with two dowels going down to the guitar’s butt and a suspension strap at the end of the dowels to keep the pressure transferred to the endblock inside the guitar. This seemed to work, but I had to carefully countersink the “all-thread” into the outer edge of my new bridge without coming through the top, since I had determined that the feng shui of the bridge would be unbalanced if I had inlaid rosewood or pearl dots over the new bolts. I thought about the same bolts going through my soon-to-be-added spruce top braces for additional strength and then began thinking about what this would do to the flutter capacity of the top.
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I eventually felt like the above mentioned screw-it-down method would stiffen the top in a critical area of the bridge, giving me some reservations. I also had second thoughts about trying to countersink the all-thread under my new bridge and into the top at just the right point, and again into my “Double Bridge Doctor” at just the right point. I shaped my bridge plate and two new braces while pondering this Bridge Doctor point, and then arranged the new plate, braces and bridge [Photo 6]. I then glued the new bridge plate under the top after much sanding and re-fitting inside the soundhole. I wanted the plane to be uniform so that when I glued my braces in place they would fit snugly. I used 5 Minute Epoxy for this process so I could hold the pieces in place until they set, negating the need for clamps.
This was make-or-break time. The old bridge had to come off and the new one had to go on. For this process I elected to go to another local repairman, Steve Hickerson at Tulsa Guitar and Electronics. He had a special malleable heat iron used to slowly heat the old bridge from side to side while gently wedging a piece of wood under it.
It was finally time to put my new bridge on the top. I began by reinstalling the old adjustable bridge saddle, which just happened to line up my new bridge. Once the new bridge was in place, I outlined the contour of the new footprint with a sharp scribe. A Q-tip and some acetone helped to soften the finish under the new bridge pattern; I then scraped the old lacquer off with a small chisel [Photo 7]. This took about an hour and a half.
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The next day I began fitting the bridge pins into their new digs. I found that I needed a larger hole that would allow my pins to seat with the strings in place. My #7 drill bit was a touch small, but the next size up was too big. I went to my local hardware shop and discovered that I needed a special drill bit – they had it stashed upstairs, as it was evidently not for regular public use. The new drill bit proved to be perfect and I was able to fit all the pins and strings in place. For the first time I was able to hear the new guitar. It opened up, sounding 30-40 percent louder and richer.
Compensations
It was time to tackle the last obstacle of the project; the bone bridge needed to be compensated so all of the strings would stay tuned in unison as it is played up the fretboard, to the 12th fret and hopefully beyond.
For this step, the bone saddle was put in place and the strings were tensioned one at a time. I decided to use a trick from Don Teter’s book; a round toothpick is inserted under the string at the middle of the bridge and the string is brought to pitch. Then the octave harmonic is plucked above the 12th fret and compared with the fretted 12th fret pitch. If the fretted note is sharper than the harmonic the toothpick is moved back toward the butt or bottom of the instrument slowly and the harmonic is again compared with the sound from the fretted 12th fret. Once the pitches are the same, a line is scribed with a sharp pencil lead on either side of the toothpick. Once this process has been completed for all the strings, the bridge is colored in dark with the pencil to differentiate which areas are to be filed and which are left alone. A red dot was placed to the right of my intonation line, just in case the line was accidentally filed off. A set of fine jeweler’s files works well for this process [Photo 9].
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Another peculiar problem I encountered with this 12-string was that the string heights need to vary from string to string both at the bridge and at the nut. At the bridge you want all strings to have the same approximate height so they can be strummed equally. In order to do this you need to sink the bigger strings – the E, A, D and G – farther into the bridge so that the tops of the strings are uniform with the tops of the matching octave strings. At the bridge, the big strings are sunk down into the saddle more than their octave mates, but at the nut the opposite is true – the smaller strings need to be sunk down to the approximate bottom of the bigger strings next to them so they hit the first fret at the same time when pushed down. That means 24 height adjustments, each taking six to twelve filing and testing excursions.
For cutting the nut, I alternated between the side of my fine jeweler’s file and a broken piece of a jeweler’s saw with masking tape for a handle. Be sure you point the slope of your string trough down towards the end of the headstock, so your point of contact is highest at the front, or fingerboard side of the nut. Without this slope, your strings will sound thuddy. It’s the same for the bridge; be sure to slope the bridge back toward the pin holes, so the string passes your compensation at the highest peak and goes down from there on both sides of the peak. This will insure that you have a lively sound to your strings, not mud.
Cosmetology
We’re almost done, but two cosmetic concerns need to be addressed: the three holes in the butt of the guitar from the tailpiece screws and the indentation on the top from the tailpiece.
For the tailpiece indentation I used an old trick for wood swelling my dad taught me years ago. Place a large drop of water in a wood dent, making sure that the surface is level. Also be sure to have your close-up glasses on and a steady hand. Heat up a soldering iron and steady the iron at the top of the water drop you placed in the indented trough. The water will sizzle, but continue holding the iron steady – don’t lower it into the drop or you can burn the top. It will stop sizzling when the swelling is completed. Remove the iron and wipe the surface with a paper towel. Repeat this procedure across the length of the indentation. If there is still an indent, get some Sherwin-Williams nitrocellulose lacquer and drop-fill the trough, waiting a day or two between applications.
When your level has risen above the top of the surrounding surface, stop and wait a week before sanding it down, as it can continue to shrink. Mask off the top next to your drop-fill and wet sand with 320 grit paper. Slowly sand and wipe the fill using a light bulb reflection to inspect your progress after every three or four sanding swipes. When you are about there, go to 400 paper and do the same thing, then 600, 1000, 1500 and finally 2000 grit paper before removing your masking tape.
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The final visual detail is filling the screw holes. Mahogany doesn’t come in toothpick sizes since it tends to splinter and fall apart in small pieces, so a tedious plan B is required. First cut some small slivers of mahogany into tiny squares and glue them to the cut-off end of a toothpick with Super Glue [Photo 16]. Once it has set up, the entire mahogany plug is soaked in Super Glue to form a bonding agent in the wood and keep it from splintering when shaped in the next step – have some Super Glue remover handy for this part.
Once the mahogany plugs are dry, a Dremel tool with a small, circular, fine-grained surface wheel was used. I placed the Dremel in its router holder and clamped it to a workbench, then used a rheostat to slow down the speed of the Dremel, slowly spinning the toothpicks and grinding them in either circular or oval profiles while comparing them to the holes needing to be filled [inset photo]. Leave the plugs slightly too large and gently tap them into place – I used the chuck side of a drill bit to drive the plugs in with a small hammer. Be sure to send the plug in far enough so that it’s flush with the original wood under the finish, and try to have the grain in the plug going in the same direction as the original wood [Photo 10].
Once the plug is installed, turn the guitar on end, add a drop of Super Glue into the hole and let it set for a few hours. I like to tape the guitar to the table with masking tape and put a piece of carpet under the headstock on the floor. Use aniline dye mixed with some lacquer thinner to match the color of the finish. If you have trouble finding aniline dye powder, try International Luthier Supply in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Try to achieve your color in the lower layers, then when dry, drop-fill the clear over the top. Again, get the little bump above the surface and wait a week to complete your sanding and polishing.
A New Sound
Although I had added enough extra bracing and a bridge plate to do what I considered an adequate job, I was still determined to stabilize the bridge, à la the Bridge Doctor. If you think about anything long enough before you start, a solution will usually present itself. It eventually occurred to me that I already had two bridge nuts ready, willing and able to accept some matching all-threads from top or bottom. All-thread is just that, a 20” threaded rod with no head, generally cut to the desired length. A plan was then hatched to make my own version of the Bridge Doctor. I returned to the hardware store and procured some nuts, lock-nuts and washers for my allthread, and two nylon bushings or washers to inlay inside my spruce span. I also picked up two square 6/32” nuts for inlaying into my spruce span so I could adjust my allthread inlaid dowel.
It took care of my structural problems and bridge pull, and for that I give it high marks. As for the tone of the guitar, the sustain is markedly improved and the midrange is enhanced and louder. But as I suspected, the top flutter is inhibited to some extent, so bass response is slightly diminished – perhaps just 10-12 percent, but enough to be audible.
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I should note that after a month of string tension, my epoxied bridge rose up. I slowly removed the bridge with heat again and used a lightbulb at close proximity to soften the epoxy, which I then scraped off and sanded. I re-sanded my top and re-glued the bridge using Franklin Titebond. I clamped the bridge in three places, continuously wiping off the weeping glue with a damp paper towel. I am happy to report that the bridge now holds firm and sounds even better.
This guitar is certainly happier now that it can be used for performing again. When compared side-byside to a new Martin D-28 12-string, the old Gibson is louder, has better bottom- end and more richness – something that left me rather surprised. The sheer age of this instrument must make up for the traditional shortcomings of a mahogany guitar – perhaps because these ribboned Brazillian mahogany bodies started with 20-year-old wood, they may have some extraordinary tonal mojo.
Would I recommend performing this conversion on any mid-sixties Gibson B-45 12? It was way too much work but ultimately the guitar was worth it. This guitar – previously banished to a closet because of its disappointing sound – now sings.
| John Southern is a professional photographer, musician and luthier from Tulsa, Oklahoma. You can reach John at johnsguitarshop@aol.com. |
Welcome back to Stomp School. This month, we’ll conclude our “Stompbox Classics” series with the biggest, baddest, funkiest envelope filter of all-time – the Mu-Tron III. Debuting in 1972, Musitronic’s Mu-Tron III was the first stand-alone effects device of its kind, literally defining an entirely new category of effects and setting the standard for every envelope filter and auto-wah that was to follow – a standard many believe has yet to be matched. The Musitronics Corporation of Rosemont, New Jersey was formed in 1972 in an attempt to salvage an aborted synthesizer project. The groundbreaking Mu-Tron III was the result. The unit was designed by Musitronics engineer and co-founder, Mike Beigel, using technology he had developed while designing a synthesizer for Guild Guitars. After Guild President Alfred Dronge was killed in a plane crash in 1970, the company made the decision to shut down their electronic division to focus strictly on guitars, abruptly pulling the plug on the Beigel’s synthesizer. When the Guild deal fell through, Beigel teamed up with Guild’s former chief engineer, Aaron Newman, to form Musitronics.
Newman approached Mike Beigel with the idea of developing a product based on the synthesizer project. So Beigel began working on the idea of making a product to generate synthesizer-like sounds without actually using a synthesizer. Extracting elements from one of his Guild prototypes called the Timbre Generator, Beigel came up with the Mu-Tron III, the first stand-alone envelope-controlled filter that could be used for any number of electric instruments. Beigel said he chose the envelope-controlled filter over other synthesizer elements, such as ring modulation, because it sounded more musical; it was a more general effect that would lend itself to a variety of applications, and it was easy to use.
The Mu-Tron III was an instant success, earning endorsements from jazz/fusion guitarist Larry Coryell, as well as Stevie Wonder, who used it on his Clavinet for the song “Higher Ground.” The pedal found favor with an eclectic variety of musicians playing in many diverse genres. Bootsy Collins used the Mu-Tron III on his bass with Parliament/ Funkadelic and Jerry Garcia made the Mu- Tron III part of his signature lead guitar sound with the Grateful Dead.
Inevitably, there were imitations and variations from nearly every other effects manufacturer, but none of them seemed to measure up to the mighty Mu-Tron in terms of features, versatility or sheer sonic superiority. Part of the reason lay in the fact that Beigel was successfully granted a patent for the circuitry of the Mu-Tron III. There were envelope filters and auto-wahs of all types, but to get the sound of the Mu-Tron, you had to get the Mu-Tron. Musitronics did license the Mu-Tron III circuitry to a few different companies in the seventies – the Univox Funky Filter and Monacor Effectmatic are notable examples of the Mu- Tron in disguise.
The original Mu-Tron III ran on 18V, using two 9V batteries; this gave it a wider dynamic range and more headroom. There was also the optional PS-1 power supply, with later versions featuring built-in AC power supplies. The Mu-Tron III also used opto-isolators to control the filter, which was novel for the time. This same method would also be used for the Mu-Tron Phasor II and Bi-Phase. The state variable filter in the Mu- Tron III allowed for low-pass, bandpass, and high-pass filter response, which could be triggered from low to high or vice versa. When ARP Instruments bought Musitronics in ‘79, they made the Mu-Tron line for about a year before going out of business, and the Mu-Tron III was no more. With the advent of the stompbox revival of the nineties, the Mu-Tron III became one of the big-ticket items for collectors and players alike. There was a reissue of sorts – the Mu-Tron III+ -- but inventor Mike Beigel says this is not an authorized version and the circuit is not exactly the same. Beigel did lend his expertise to Electro-Harmonix, creating an update of his original design, the Electro-Harmonix Q-Tron. The entire line of Mu-Tron effects has maintained a stellar reputation for superior sounds as well as rugged durability and great build quality, which is why they continue to command big bucks on the vintage market.
Well, that’s it for now. Hope you all enjoyed “Stompbox Classics.” Check in with us again next month to start your summer semester of Stomp School. Until then, keep on stompin’!
Tom Hughes
(a.k.a. Analog Tom) is the owner and proprietor of For Musicians Only (formusiciansonly.com) and author of Analog Man’s Guide To Vintage Effects. For Musicians Only is also the home of the FMO Gear Shop. Questions or comments about this article can be sent to: stompschool@formusiciansonly.com
Analog Man
(analogman.com) is one of the largest boutique effects manufacturers and retailers in the business, established by “Analog” Mike Piera in 1993. Mike can be reached at AnalogMike@aol.com
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Marcus Eaton plays the acoustic, but not like you might expect. He rapidly shifts between frantic fingerpicking and strumming, clean acoustic sounds and swirling, looped effects. His music fits firmly in the post-modern musical relativism that has become the norm among a new generation of musicians – viewing genre distinctions not as absolutes but as starting points – ushered in by a vanguard of established players like Dave Matthews and Michael Franti. That unique outlook on music has led Marcus Eaton to where he is today, mixing seemingly disparate sounds – rock, pop, reggae, jazz, flamenco and folk – into a cohesive whole on his latest full-length release, Story of Now. But it would be a mistake to assume that Marcus has developed his eclectic musical tastes solely from listening to his peers. He has been surrounded with music as long as he can remember, growing up the son of songwriter Steve Eaton and the grandson of opera singers. That upbringing has given him the tools for success in the world of independent music, the most important being a sense of tenacity. Despite the dissolution of his early band, Marcus Eaton and the Lobby, and a series of management problems, Marcus has been consistently able to turn setbacks into gigs. At the relatively young age of 28, he’s already had the chance to share the stage with artists like Dr. John, Rodrigo y Gabriela, Derek Trucks and Nils Lofgren.
We had a chance to speak with Marcus following a series of shows on the East Coast, including a stop at Philadelphia’s World Café Live venue.
What was your first experience with music?
My first experience with music was with my dad; he was a musician. I grew up in a rural section of Idaho, a town called Pocatello in the Eastern part of the state. My dad had a studio and my brother and I used to hang around there. He had all of the instruments down there – a bass, a nice Fender Strat, his acoustic guitar and an upright piano. We used to hang out downstairs and listen to him record.
Is that what he did for a living?
Yeah, he was a songwriter. He wrote one of the last hit songs the Carpenters had, a love song called “All You Get From Love is a Love Song.” He also wrote a song for Art Garfunkel on his Breakaway album [“Rag Doll”], and Glen Campbell recorded the same song.
So music and the songwriting were literally in your blood. Definitely. His parents were opera singers, so we had a lot of music in the family. Our grandmother used to teach us piano lessons – I wish that I had paid a little more attention to that, but I was really more interested in playing the guitar.
When did the guitar take for you?
I first took interest in it when I was about eight years old. I was playing my dad’s guitar, which was this old Guild F40, a really interesting guitar – it’s kind of like a minijumbo. That guitar has been around since before I can remember. I started playing with that but it was way too big for me to hold, so my parents got me this little tiny student model for Christmas – I think it was a nylon string, and I was just so enamored with it. That’s been the story ever since, really.
As you were growing as a musician, who influenced you?
Well, obviously my dad was one of my first influences. He played a lot of different types of music, but it was all rhythmically based stuff. He was really a percussive guitarist. But we grew up in this tiny little town, and he had a lot of friends come through the studio. These guys would come through and I would just learn stuff from them.
Are there any names you could drop?
When I got a little older, this guy named Billy McLaughlin came through town – he was a protégé of Michael Hedges. I saw him play and I was just blown away – he was doing two-handed tapping and I remember thinking it was the coolest thing I had ever seen. I was already playing at a decent level, in terms of my age, and I just started pursuing that kind of guitar playing at that point; that still influences my playing.
Listening to your playing, you notice a uniquely modern style that floats between lead and rhythm – it’s very fluid. Did watching all of those different players help mold your technique?
I think it’s just an amalgamation, the result of listening to all kinds of stuff – at that point, I was listening to Billy McLaughlin and starting to get into flamenco guitar. You know how it is as a musician – if you really pay attention to what people are doing, you’ll pick things up here and there. Luckily I was able to see a lot of my dad’s friends play and see the stuff they were doing. And as a young player, I just started putting two and two together.
I was also influenced, without really even knowing it, by Stevie Ray Vaughan’s Brotherhood album. I listened to that for a long time and then rediscovered it later.
What about his playing influenced you as an acoustic player?
His rhythm playing – I mean, you just can’t argue with his rhythm playing. A lot of people think of Stevie Ray Vaughan as a great lead player, but for me, his rhythm is what takes the cake. And then when I was about 14, I got turned onto the Dave Matthews Band, and again, that rhythm just really intrigued me. It was something I was hitting upon with my own playing at the time.
I was listening to Dave Matthews and I really paid attention to the guitar parts. I eventually realized that Tim Reynolds played a lot of the guitar parts on his albums. He is this incredible guitarist that I’ve since had the chance to play and tour with.
So how did you get a chance to play with him?
I went down to Utah when I was 20 with my girlfriend at the time to see a Tim Reynolds show. But I couldn’t get into the show because I wasn’t of drinking age – if you’ve ever been to Utah, you’ll know the drinking laws are a little draconian. So I was standing outside and saw Tim get out of his bus with his road crew. This one guy in particular got out of the car and I thought, “This guy is from a different planet.” We’re good friends now, so we can laugh about it, but his name was Fluffy.
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Yeah, and he’s got these purple camo pants and gold and silver bracelets covering his entire right arm. He had hair down to his butt, tied back and a beard. And then Tim got out, and he is like five feet tall, a little guy, and I was thinking, “Holy shit, these guys just stepped off Mars.”
So I talk to Fluffy, because I’m thinking he might have some pull. He tried really, really hard, but still couldn’t get me into the show. So I got his information and said, “I’m a musician and I’d like to send you some of my stuff.” Long story short, we just kept in touch over the next couple of years. By 2003, my band, Marcus Eaton and the Lobby was taking off, and we had been touring the Northwest. Tim was coming through Boise, Idaho and we got on the show as the opener. We’ve done a lot of touring together since then – I believe we’ve played 26 different places with Tim over the past two years.
What have you been able to pick up from watching Tim play?
He’s just one of those people that can do anything. He’s so fluid, and what inspires me about his playing is that he can get up and there’s no question about what he’s doing. I don’t know if that makes sense, but sometimes guitarists can get frazzled by bad monitors or the crowd or their sound, if it’s not right. You would never know that with Tim – he just gets up there and plays.
It’s probably an oversimplification, but Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds both fall under that jam band umbrella. Do you like that kind of association? How do you relate to it as a musician?
I relate to it in terms of musicianship. I think that Dave Matthews and all of these guys are really unique musicians because they’re inspired by so many different types of music and they’re able to incorporate that into their own sound. Being around my dad and listening to all of these different types of music has shown me that you can mix various styles and still have it be your own. So I relate to the jam bands in terms of the music, but I kind of shy away from jamming for too long.
I have a three piece and for the past three years I’ve just been doing looping. The looping really helps me lock my song ideas down because I have to stick with certain things. I have to stick to rhythm and cover all of the different parts by myself. So that’s helped me to not be too self-indulgent, you know? As long as it’s musical I’m down with it – as long as the song is going somewhere. Once you start getting out into the 20-minute range, it starts losing some of that excitement.
Your blending of various genres and sounds really comes through in your latest release, Story of Now. It’s a very ambitious album, and I’m wondering how you approached writing it. How do you boil things down when there are so many sounds to choose from?
The song choice was fairly difficult because I have a lot of material. I think it stems from when I was working with the Lobby, because I was having a great time, in terms of writing.
One of my main influences is Victor Wooten. One of the first tours I got to do with my band was with Victor for three dates. We just got to watch his show – it was incredible and anyone who’s met Victor will tell you that he’s the nicest guy on the planet. That was a really inspirational time and I was writing a lot. Having those kinds of experiences with those types of music really makes you push yourself and become more ambitious.
It definitely shows in the tracks. For example, “Standing Still” has this kind of tripping, rhythmic intro – it’s not necessarily something you’d expect to hear on an acoustic album. Can you tell us about how that song came about?
“Standing Still” is based around a drum loop, something I came up with after my brother turned me onto Reason. It’s based on these cool delay patterns – dotted quarters – and, like you said, it’s supposed to sound trippy.
I think a lot of players might be afraid of mixing two distinct sounds like a rhythmic drum loop and an acoustic. What do those loops do for you?
You know, I think it just adds something – it’s cool to have two different elements like that. I like to have an electronic element coupled with something really organic, like my acoustic. It makes for a cool juxtaposition and an interesting sound. The delay parts are really what make the song take off, and you’ve got a really transcendent wah part in there, too.
If my research serves me correctly, Story of Now has really been an independent effort on your part – there’s no label behind it?
There’s no label behind it. It’s all been an independent process. I had a label deal before but it just didn’t work out.
Why was that?
Well, the long and short of it was that [Marcus Eaton and the Lobby] got signed, and we released an album and nothing ever happened with it. There was no push behind it, it wasn’t advertised well, and it never made it onto the radio.
Was that album The Day the World Awoke?
Yeah. And that was really difficult for us, because not only did we have really high hopes for it, but we also really lacked the team and the firepower to keep the momentum going. And that’s really what it takes. You’ve gotta get that momentum happening and you’ve got to hit it on every front. We just really didn’t have the right management; they could have guided us a lot better. Now I don’t even have access to that album.
You know, I loved those songs. We approached that album from a jam band perspective and got a lot of comparisons to Dave Matthews Band. But we just weren’t developed enough into our own thing to take off anyway, so I’m actually happy how it worked out, because it allowed me to develop my own sound. I just wasn’t a good enough musician at the time to understand what I wanted.
When exactly did Marcus Eaton and the Lobby come together?
We started playing in 2001 and at the time there was quite the local scene in Boise – we were pulling 1000 people at every show we did. It’s remarkable to look back at that, because that’s tough to do. You gotta be doing some serious stuff to do that – you really have to hit at the right time too, because when people are ready for something, they’re ready.
So we recorded an independent album and got signed in 2002. The president of the label wanted to release this independent album we had done, but we wanted to re-record it because the quality wasn''t there -- we had recorded it locally. So they agreed and we went down to L.A. to record, and our very first major label recording experience was that our master tapes got stolen by our manager. We had two managers and they had a falling out right in the middle of the week-long recording process. One of the guys said, "Well, I''m taking the master tapes with me." We paid him the $2700 we owed him, but he wouldn''t give the master tapes back. So, we had to re-record the album again and that was our very first experience in the wonderful world of the music business. But we worked our asses off on that, and after the band released the album, we had an amazing run of shows. We opened for Bob Dylan.
That’s a big gig – what was it like?
We opened for him to a crowd of 5,000, but the funny thing was that we had no interaction with him or anyone in his band. I remember that we showed up for soundcheck and I went over to this road guy and said, “Hey man, do you know where I can plug my pedalboard in?” And he replied, “No, I don’t fucking know where you can plug your shit in! Why don’t you ask the stage manager?” And that was, again, my first taste of the big time.
We played a really great show and everyone enjoyed it. But when we got off stage, they were like, “Okay, guys, put your stuff down! Put everything down!” So we put it down, of course, and they said, “We’ve got an artist coming out. Just stay right there! Don’t move!”
It’s like the president walking through.
Yeah, and here comes Bob walking out. As soon as he was on stage they were like, “Okay, you can finish loading up your gear now.” It’s apparently very serious stuff [laughs].
So what eventually happened to the Lobby?
Well, we kept revisiting the same areas a lot and eventually the band just got burned out. I think some of the members lost faith in the project – that sense of, “Why aren’t we rock stars yet?” It takes a lot of hard work and I think people can become really disillusioned once they’re “signed.” That was in early 2004; shortly after I started doing my solo thing.
Is life as a solo independent musician tough?
Yeah, it’s difficult, but now I feel really confident; I feel like we have a really great team. It’s slow going of course, but I think I’m doing really well. I mean, I look at other musicians who are signed, people who have had lots of radio play, and they’re struggling too. So there’s no one thing that can propel you into super-stardom – that’s not even what I’m looking for. I’m just looking to be successful with my music and to play for as many people on a nightly basis as possible. You have to keep pushing forward and be really creative in marketing yourself.
Hasn’t the internet changed the equation for independent musicians anyway? You can connect with fans anywhere. How has it changed your approach to things?
It’s great because it gives me capabilities we should have had back in the day. In 2001-2002, the internet really started cooking; MySpace was still in its formative stages. The truth is that we could have really kept in contact with the fans much better – that’s really what we needed to do back in the beginning. People were just starting to come up with their own email addresses – it sounds funny to say now, but it’s true. People were just starting to say things like, “It’s such and such at hotmail.com.” Now you’re crazy if you don’t have a computer and the internet 24 hours a day.
So it’s great for keeping in touch with fans, but it’s not a cure-all. You’ve got to get back to their region often enough, you really have to make the fans a priority, you have to get in touch, you’ve got to be in the right places at the right times. You’ve got to have a team behind you and that’s what we’re working on.
Could you tell us about some of the guitars you’ve been using lately?
One is the Veillette 12-string baritone, which I discovered while I was playing with Tim Reynolds. I was looking for a 12-string but I wanted something different, with different tonal options. At first I thought I would just transpose songs onto it, but once I started playing it, it sounded so different and ethereal that it inspired me in a completely different way. I use it mostly with the band – you can hear it on tracks like “Disposable.”
What other acoustics are you slinging?
I’m using Baden Guitars, mostly their Astyle. I use a number of different wood combinations – the mahogany model for recording, the rosewood for solo stuff and their maple model for band gigs.
What do you like about those? I really like the intonation on the Badens, plus they have a great cutaway, which is essential for me. They also have the new Eclipse Aura pickup from Fishman. They’re so powerful and they do a great job of driving my effects. Most acoustic guitarists are using electric effects, after all, and the Fishman system just gives your signal a little more power.
I would guess that you’re probably pushing your signal through more effects than the average acoustic player. What kinds of pedals are in your rig?
Right now I have the Boss Loop Station, the RC-20. I use a Line 6 Echo Park Delay, which has some really great sounds. I have an old DD5 Digital Delay from Boss, as well as their Pitch Shifter, which I use for doing bass loops when I’m playing solo. I also have a custom switching box, which is a stereo A/B switch that enables me to send my loops in stereo back to the soundman – once he has them, he can turn it up or down and effect it, which is really cool. At the end of my effects loop I use Radial direct boxes. Having high quality direct boxes at the end of the chain helps keep the EQ the way that I like it.
I also have a volume pedal on my board at all times. I’ve been experimenting with different brands, as they keep getting messed up, in terms of the volume pots. Most recently I’ve been using a Goodrich, which is actually designed for pedal steel. I’ve also used models from Ernie Ball and Boss – the Boss pedal is actually really nice because it’s tiny and it’s light, and I’ve been flying everywhere lately. The last pedal in my rig is a Tech 21 Killer Wail wah. They’re not making them anymore, but they’re badass for acoustic.
What makes it perfect for the acoustic?
The pedal has three settings – high, extended and deep. The high setting moves the wah to the high-end; it’s almost like a funky envelope filter. The deep setting, which is actually a low-pass filter, works well with the acoustic, because it picks up and tracks things a lot better.
I should also mention that I’ve been doing a bit of beta testing for Fishman’s acoustic effects, like the AFX line. It’s very cool stuff – I got to help tweak the pedals, which was really fun, and I’ve been using the AFX Delay live. The delay in particular is awesome because you can actually loop on it. If you have it running right, you can tap in your tempo and run loops in stereo.
What’s great is that there is so much stuff you can do by combining effects – dotted quarter delays and things like that. It’s actually becoming a lot of work for me. I’m going to have to get some sort of system worked out where I can memorize my delay settings, just to keep things moving along when I’m in-between songs with the band.
We’ve been touching on looping a lot throughout this interview, and you’ve mentioned that you have the Boss Loop Station on your board. How did you first discover the technique and what does it enable you to do?
When the Boss pedal first came out, I attended this tiny clinic with Victor Wooten. I saw Victor loop something and I had always, even in my first band in high school, wished for an easy way to record myself and play over the top. Lo and behold, someone obviously thought of that long before I did. When it came out, I just had to have it. At first it became the best practice tool on the planet, because instead of having to play with somebody else, you could lay down chords and figure out how you were going to approach your solos. It gives you a huge advantage as a musician, just in terms of being able to practice effectively. So that was really my first exposure to the idea.
When the Lobby was playing, I would lay down rhythm parts because my rhythm is so strong most of the time and my guitar is EQ’ed pretty powerfully, so if I drop out of a song it’s pretty noticeable. I used it at first to create more of a rhythmic feel, like there was a fourth musician in the band. When I started doing the solo thing I began looping all sorts of stuff, like percussion parts on the guitar – hitting the pickup and using the guitar as a percussive instrument. I learned some bass techniques from Victor Wooten that almost sound like drum and bass stuff.
Can you explain those “powerful EQ” settings further?
Generally speaking, in acoustics a lot of the power lies in the midrange, but that’s also the frequency range that’s most likely to feedback at high volumes. 99 percent of the time I’m not playing with an amplifier – I usually run direct into the board – and when you add delay to an acoustic guitar, that also tends to create feedback.
So I usually hand the power over to my soundman and he EQs a lot of the lowend and midrange. We don’t EQ anything out – we actually add, if anything. We accentuate the midrange because, rhythmically, that’s where it really pops. And that’s why I’m playing the acoustic.
Sometimes I hear people mixing acoustic guitars with a lot of high-end, so you can hear the slap of the pick against the strings, but that’s really all you can hear. I use really big chords, as many notes as I can and lots of stereo effects, so it’s important that you can hear everything. That’s why we tend to accentuate with EQ instead of take away.
Do you own any other acoustics? Are there any specific guitars you would love to get your hands on? Oh, I would love to have a Martin dreadnought. I have a Taylor that I played for years that has become a really great guitar. I played it so much that I had to have it refretted, and I only bought it in 1999. I had a Guild Peregrine for a while, and I’m also starting to get back into the electric.
Are we going to be reading about Marcus Eaton’s switch to the electric anytime soon? You did have a fleeting encounter with Bob Dylan, after all.
I love the acoustic – I love it for its percussive qualities. I mean, the electric is a blast, it’s a lot of fun to play, but they’re about different things. With the acoustic you’re always pushing the rhythm and telling the song where to go. Electric guitar is all about sustain; you can kind of lay back and just hit a chord here and there and let it sustain.
Do you play with a pick or more of a fingerstyle technique?
I kind of float between both, actually. I change my techniques all of the time. A lot of the time I’m holding the pick with my right hand between my pinky and my ring finger. So I’ll be playing with three fingers, and then I’m able to grab the pick. A lot of times I’m holding it in my mouth when I’m doing the Latin stuff, when I’m playing on my fingertips – it’s back and forth a lot. The 12-string baritone is almost all fingerstyle; there are so many strings on there that if you play with a pick you get lost.
What’s in the future for you?
Really just getting my music to more people and improving upon it. I want to learn from other musicians and guitarists – guys like Pat Metheny, John Scofield, Victor Wooten and Béla Fleck. And I’m not locked into guitarists either; there are so many drummers and pianists I’d love to work with, because they’re all inspirational in different ways. So, really, what’s next is just pushing this as far as it can possibly go.
| Marcus’ Gearbox When Marcus plugs in, here’s what he’s looping on.
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| Click below to listen to some of Marcus Eaton''s latest tracks. | ||
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Marcus Eaton
marcuseaton.com