When it comes to jazz virtuoso Julian Lage, you’d be hard-pressed to find an electric guitarist who uses less gear. “Any time I’ve [used too much equipment], there’s an awkwardness where I’m still grappling with the fact that I play here,” he says, gesturing to his guitar, then gesturing to his amp, “but the sound comes out there.” He continues, “It sounds like a joke, but it’s been a struggle for me. Any time there’s layers or filters or anything, I feel dissociated.” Of course, Lage’s rig, which buoys his clean, no-frills tone, makes sense for a musician like himself—whose playing often comes across fluidly, and as gently as his personality.
For Lage, that fluidity stems from his conception of music as a language. “I think that the way people speak is often more unfettered,” Lage told Premier Guitar in 2021. “There might not be an obvious correlation between the way people speak in a lecture and the notes on the guitar. But it's just a little stretch of the imagination to see that those are pitches, those are rhythms, those are phrases."
On View with a Room, Lage’s second release on the hallowed Blue Note Records, he’s offering a fresh, bold continuation of the conversation he’s created over the years. The album features his latest ensemble, made up of himself, bassist Jorge Roeder, and drummer Dave King—but this time, he’s added the legendary Bill Frisell. Together, the musicians help to expand Lage’s body of work with performances of 10 of his original compositions.
While on tour for the album, Lage invited PG’s John Bohlinger to the soundcheck before his show at Brooklyn Bowl inn Nashville to share his insights into why he likes a straightforward rig and “honest” tone. In the interview, Lage elaborates on his three main guitars (his Nachocaster, Collings signature, and ’55 Les Paul), explains why he prefers low volume on his amps, and offers a remarkably brief tour of his pedalboard.
Brought to you by D’Addario XS Strings.
Not Your Caster
As a bit of an anomaly in the world of jazz guitarists, Lage prefers Telecasters. His number one T-style is his Nachoguitars 1657 “Nachocaster”—a saffron-colored guitar equipped with an Ellisonic P-90-size neck pickup and Fatpups Blackguard bridge pickup, built by Spanish luthier Nacho Baños. However, Lage states that he never changes from the neck position. The Ellisonic pickup, which was created by Ron Ellis for Lage’s other primary instrument, the Collings Julian Lage 470 JL, captures the clarity and acoustic-like feel of vintage single-coils. The guitar is strung with D’Addario Flatwound Electric ECG24 Chromes (.011-.050) with a .020 unwound G string. Lage also uses Tortex .88 mm picks.
Lage’s Signature
The Collings 470 JL signature was built as a collaboration between Lage and Collings. It features a solid Honduran mahogany body with a laminated maple top, Ellisonic pickups, and a Bigsby B3 tailpiece. He shares that the Bigsby was added mainly for weight, as the guitar was 5 lbs. before its addition and 6 lbs. after. “That gets you right to this place where the fundamental is still there, and you have this brilliant overtone,” says Lage, who adds that much like the bridge pickup on the Nachocaster, he doesn’t touch the Bigsby. He strings this guitar with .011-.049 D’Addario flatwounds. “Honestly, I think it’s more of a rock machine than anything,” he adds.
1955 Lester
Lage’s 1955 Les Paul goldtop was a gift from Spinal Tap’s Christopher Guest, and sports Les Paul's signature. “I feel very much like a steward of it,” Lage says of the guitar. “I’m learning how to play it constantly. It’s so luxurious. Anything’s possible, so it really comes down to what do you hear, what do you want to play, what’s the voice of the music … and this guitar will be 8,000 percent there for you.”
Les Paul's handwritten message to Christopher Guest.
It’s Magic!
Lage is a longtime fan of low-watt, vintage Fender amps, in the past having remained ardently loyal to his Fender Tweed Champ, until it became impractical to bring it everywhere. On this tour, he’s playing a Magic Amps Vibro Deluxe, reminiscent of a 1964 Fender Deluxe Reverb. He plugs into the normal channel and sets his volume to 3, treble to 2, and bass to 2. As he describes, “This one has this miraculous thing where it feels like it’s being pushed at a lower volume. It’s not terribly interesting, but it is what I do.”
Julian Lage’s Pedalboard
Lage’s stripped-down pedalboard includes a Strymon Flint Tremolo & Reverb (just for reverb), a Shin-ei B1G 1 Preamp Gain Boost, and a Sonic Research ST-300 Mini Stomp Box Strobe Tuner.
Let’s take a dive into the swirling, shimmering waters of modulation and investigate the evolution of chorus, flanging, and phasing. It’s no exaggeration to suggest that nearly every electric-guitar-based album of the past 40 years—and every hearty pedalboard—features one or more of these classic effects. Their development is integral to the soundtrack of our lives. In charting their history, I’ll cover a mix of classic pedals, vintage studio units, and elusive rarities, giving examples of their use in recorded music.
I’ve had a lifelong fascination with vintage and unusual recording gear and effects, and my company, Soundgas.com, specializes in supplying them. So effects are definitely my bag and I could fill this magazine just writing about vintage phaser pedals. But such passions tend to be personal, so inevitably there will be omissions in this article that, for some readers, are glaring, and for that I apologize.
As a certified delay freak, it’s perhaps odd that my favorite of the three modulation effects, phasing, involves no delay at all. And my favorite chorus pedal happens to be a flanger. And my favorite flanger is the Tape Phase Simulator. Confused? Read on.
Modulation Demystified
What’s modulation? A source signal is modified by another signal, which, in phasing, chorus, and flanging, is a wave created by an oscillator. Chorus and flanging use a modulated delayed signal mixed back in with the source (or dry) signal. The main difference between the two is that chorus requires a longer delay than flanging. Phasing requires no delay: A series of evenly spaced frequency notches are slowly swept across the frequency bandwidth, resulting in phase cancellation. Flanging uses 1 to 5 ms of delay and swept harmonically spaced frequency notches that create deeper phase cancellations. Chorus is very similar to flanging, but uses 5 to 25 ms of delay time to create a thickening or doubling effect, and is often used to shape or widen a stereo image.The Hammond Organ Company was a pioneer in modulation, as they also were in the classic spring reverbs I covered in “Lords of the Springs” in the June 2018 issue. And the first electronic modulation effect was Hammond’s legendary Scanner Vibrato, which debuted in the mid 1930s. This was an electromechanical device that created a rich, distinctive chorus and vibrato effect. In 2015, Analog Outfitters resurrected this device as their Scanner, which was reviewed in PG’s January 2016 issue. That review includes an audio sample where you can hear the Scanner in action, and you can see a demonstration on YouTube, under the search term “Analog Outfitters The Scanner Vibrato & Reverb Effect Demo.”
All You Need Is Flange
If you take two tape machines or turntables and simultaneously play the same recording on each while manually slightly reducing the speed of one of them, you get flanging. Flanging got its name because you achieve this effect by pressing on the rim, or flange, of the tape reel. Or the term was coined by John Lennon—in response to a nonsense explanation of automatic double tracking (ADT) by George Martin. Whichever version you prefer, the technique predates the Beatles by at least a decade, and possibly two. Les Paul used acetate discs as far back as 1945 to achieve the effect, and David S. Gold and Stan Ross, the owners of Hollywood’s famed Gold Star Recording Studio, claim to have released the first commercial recording to feature flanging, “The Big Hurt,” by Toni Fisher, in 1959.Abbey Road engineer Ken Townsend invented ADT in 1966, when John Lennon became tired of recording double-tracked vocals. A second tape machine, previously used as a delay, was varispeeded by an oscillator to mimic the subtle pitch variations of a separate performance. The creative possibilities of this process were not missed by the Fab Four, and Revolver features many examples, although the most famous, Lennon’s vocal on “Tomorrow Never Knows,” is not ADT but an actual doubled recording. The following year, Glyn Johns engineered the Small Faces at Olympic Studios and created one of the most distinctive examples of ’60s flanging: the single “Itchycoo Park.” After that, and, of course, the Beatles’ “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds,” the studio gloves were off and tape flanging was all over classic ’70s recordings, from David Bowie’s “Station to Station” to Queen’s “Killer Queen” to the Eagles’ “Life in the Fast Lane.”
The Shin-ei Uni-Vibe was a descendent of the company’s Honey Psychedelic Machine and Jax Vibra Chorus—and Soviet propaganda radio transmissions.
Phasers Set to Stun
The first phaser devices came from the Far East, thanks to the propaganda transmissions of Radio Moscow interfering with Japanese medium-wave radio.According to Shin-ei designer Fumio Mieda, the powerful signals bounced off the ionosphere, which varies in height, to create “changes in pitch, phase, and amplitude.” That inspired him to build the circuit that first appeared in the company’s Honey Psychedelic Machine and Jax Vibra Chorus. The latter became better known as the Uni-Vibe. Listen to “Machine Gun” by Jimi Hendrix on the live Band of Gypsys to hear the unmistakable sound of the Uni-Vibe at work.
In 1971, a young Tom Oberheim, the designer of many classic pedals and synthesizers, created the first phaser pedal for Gibson/Maestro: the 3-speed Maestro PS-1 Phase Shifter. The sound of Leslie speaker cabinets intrigued him, and he designed the PS-1 as a more compact option. It went on to sell 60,000 units and became very widely used by guitarists and keyboard players, and heralded the rise of the compact pedal phaser. John Paul Jones used a PS-1 live with Led Zeppelin on “No Quarter,” although the keyboard effect on the original recording was achieved by running the signal through an EMS VCS3 synthesizer. Three years after Oberheim’s PS-1, two of the most influential phaser pedals were introduced: the Electro-Harmonix Small Stone and the MXR Phase 90. Both have had many iterations over the years, and their enduring sonic appeal is a testament to their superb design.
The many flavors of Small Stone include the originals by Electro-Harmonix, with the rare treadle model (upper left) and their more contemporary counterparts, as well as versions made under license by Russia’s Sovtek.
Totally Stoned
I’ve owned a great many incarnations of the David Cockerell-designed Small Stone and still have several early examples from which I would not be parted. They just have that sound. Cockerell was also the designer of the famed EMS Synthi Hi-Fli, which I wrote about in PG’s July 2018 issue in “Monster Mutilators: Vintage Guitar Synth Pedals.” That cumbersome device was a key part of David Gilmour’s mid-’70s recordings with Pink Floyd.When you want the sound of a Small Stone, nothing else comes close, save for the clones several modern boutique pedal makers have been inspired to build. I could write a whole article on the Small Stone alone: from its gestation amongst the circuitry of the EMS Synthi Hi-Fli to the very early Electro-Harmonix versions, through the Sovtek years to today’s Nano.
There can be drawbacks with vintage Stones, from volume drops to noise, and there’s always the potential that used ones have been messed with, but it’s rarely something beyond the wit of a competent tech. I believe a good Small Stone is an essential ingredient in any serious audio arsenal, whether it’s for the studio or on a pedalboard.
While I’ve been less impressed with some later vintage versions of the Bad Stone variant, I have a very early example that is quite stunning, as is the rare treadle version. You can hear the Small Stone everywhere, from Jean Michel Jarre’s Oxygène to Radiohead’s OK Computer.
In addition to the ubiquitous Phase 90—used by David Gilmour, Jimmy Page, Eddie Van Halen, and many others—MXR also created the Phase 45 and Phase 100, which have more subtle sonic profiles.
Orange Juice
The MXR Phase 90 is a sonic giant in a minuscule enclosure. It was introduced in 1974 and quickly found favor with the era’s biggest guitarists, including David Gilmour, Jimmy Page, and Eddie Van Halen. Gilmour adopted his after employing the Uni-Vibe for the Wish You Were Here sessions. Page used a Phase 90 live with Led Zeppelin. And Eddie? “Eruption.”The early script-logo Phase 90s are more sought by collectors, and the very earliest, housed in ultra-lightweight aluminum “Bud Box” enclosures, are the ultimate in desirability. I’ve had many Phase 90s over the years, and there is little difference between script and block logo pedals of similar vintage, aside from the paintwork. But once I found a “Bud Box” version, my search ended. It sounds simply stunning. MXR also produced the Phase 45 and Phase 100, and both are excellent.
The Gerd Schulte Audio Elektronik Compact Phasing ‘A’ is known as the “krautrock phaser,” but guitarists can find a more relatable use of the device in “Catch the Rainbow” on the 1975 debut album by Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow.