Queens of the Stone Age frontman and guitarist Josh Homme performing at the 2013 Lollapalooza festival in Chicago, IL. Photo by Chris Kies.
Admit it: If you’re a serious enough player to be a voracious Premier Guitar reader, there’s a good chance you’re sometimes insufferable to the rest of humanity when it comes to music.
Too many of us can’t listen to anything without ripping apart A) the “awful” guitar playing, B) the fact that guitar isn’t the main attraction (or, god forbid, there isn’t any guitar—the horror!), C) the “god-awful” tones, or D) all of the above.
If you catch yourself using that mental No. 2 pencil to fill in the “all of the above” bubble a lot, your own music might well be insufferable, too—at least if you care about originality and finding your own voice.
Your only hope might be to find a way to tear up that mental checklist and be okay with music that pushes you in new directions, regardless of instrumentation. If that makes you think I’m a pathetic excuse for a guitar nut, then you’re insufferable and you miss the point: Letting your good-guitar-playing checklist go frees your inhibitions and opens your own music to limitless cool possibilities.
This will be a big step for those of you who are ready to crucify me right now. But if you want to give this idea a whirl, maybe try an intermediate step: Go back and listen with new ears to popular bands or guitarists you’ve previously dismissed for any or all of the above reasons. Some of it might still be crap, but if you do it right you might see ways you’ve kind of been a blockhead in the past. I know I have. Here are five “lame” players to start with.
Josh Homme. Longtime fans of Queens of the Stone Age will balk at this one, because Homme’s been a stoner-rock hero for nearly 30 years. But a lot of players say he sucks or is overrated because he doesn’t give a flying cuss about traditional sounds or shredding like a mofo. His voice and guitar tones can take some getting used to, but give “ … Like Clockwork” a listen and you’ll see how he can create a beautifully sad solo even with a buzzy, skwonky, mid-heavy tone.
Thom Yorke. Radiohead is routinely dismissed as pretentious tripe with shite guitar playing by macho guitarists. And if the band does get any 6-string respect, it’s usually for Jonny Greenwood and Ed O’Brien. But Yorke is the band mastermind, and his quirky playing—often on a kind of crappy-sounding nylon-string—is inimitable and off-kilter in a way that’ll school you. Check out 2007’s “Jigsaw Falling Into Place” for proof.
Annie Clark. Clark, aka St. Vincent, has been covered everywhere from Pitchfork to Rolling Stone and NPR for years, so naturally she’s a prime target for cranky guitarists bemoaning the death of “good” playing. And being a Berklee dropout and agent provocateur of compositional and tonal weirdness only seals her pariah status. But put down your shred-o-meter for a sec, open your mind, and check out stuff like “Birth in Reverse,” and you’ll understand why her lovely vocals and busted-synth tones, fuzzy chord stabs, and lo-fi funk hammer-ons have made her a sensation.
Roland Orzabal (and Phil Palmer). Come on, am I really citing the frontman and lo-profile studio guitarist from ’80s New Wave band Tears for Fears? You bet your peg-legged Girbaud jeans I am. It’s unclear who played exactly which guitar parts on TFF’s ’82 debut, but even today songs like “Change” are a master class on humanizing electronic tunes. Its mix of drum machines, eerie synths, real marimba, rock-solid bass guitar, and 6-strings that veer from angular, slapback-treated twangs to a stilted, robotically funky anti-solo are key to the track’s success as an authentic but modern mood piece.
Gibson originally launched the EB-6 model with the intention of serving consumers looking for a “tic-tac” bass sound.
The Gibson EB-6 was announced in 1959 and came into the world in 1960, not with a dual-horn body but with that of an elegant ES-335. They looked stately, with a thin, semi-hollow body, f-holes, and a sunburst finish. Our pick for this Vintage Vault column is one such first-year model, in about as original condition as you’re able to find today. “Why?” you may be asking. Well, read on....
When the EB-6 was introduced, the Bass VI was still a glimmer in Leo Fender’s eye. The real competition were the Danelectro 6-string basses that seemed to have popped up out of nowhere and were suddenly being used on lots of hit records by the likes of Elvis, Patsy Cline, and other household names. Danos like the UB-2 (introduced in ’56), the Longhorn 4623 (’58), and the Shorthorn 3612 (’58) were the earliest attempts any company made at a 6-string bass in this style: not quite a standard electric bass, not quite a guitar, nor, for that matter, quite like a baritone guitar.
The only change this vintage EB-6 features is a replacement set of Kluson tuners.
Photo by Ken Lapworth
Gibson, Fender, and others during this era would in fact call these basses “baritone guitars,” to add to our confusion today. But these vintage “baritones” were all tuned one octave below a standard guitar, with scale lengths around 30", while most modern baritones are tuned B-to-B or A-to-A and have scale lengths between 26" and 30".)
At the time, those Danelectros were instrumental to what was called the “tic-tac” bass sound of Nashville records produced by Chet Atkins, or the “click-bass” tones made out west by producer Lee Hazlewood. Gibson wanted something for this market, and the EB-6 was born.
“When the EB-6 was introduced, the Bass VI was still a glimmer in Leo Fender’s eye.”
The 30.5" scale 1960 EB-6 has a single humbucking pickup, a volume knob, a tone knob, and a small, push-button “Tone Selector Switch” that engages a treble circuit for an instant tic-tac sound. (Without engaging that switch, you get a bass-heavy tone so deep that cowboy chords will sound like a muddy mess.)
The EB-6, for better or for worse, did not unseat the Danelectros, and a November 1959 price list from Gibson hints at why: The EB-6 retailed for $340, compared to Dano price tags that ranged from $85 to $150. Only a few dozen EB-6 basses were shipped in 1960, and only 67 total are known to have been built before Gibson changed the shape to the SG style in 1962.
Most players who come across an EB-6 today think it was a response to the Fender Bass VI, but the former actually beat the latter to the market by a full year.
Photo by Ken Lapworth
It’s sad that so few were built. Sure, it was a high-end model made to achieve the novelty tic-tac sound of cheaper instruments, but in its full-voiced glory, the EB-6 has a huge potential of tones. It would sound great in our contemporary guitar era where more players are exploring baritone ranges, and where so many people got back into the Bass VI after seeing the Beatles play one in the 2021 documentary, Get Back.
It’s sadder, still, how many original-era EB-6s have been parted out in the decades since. Remember earlier when I wrote that our Vintage Vaultpick was about as original as you could find? That’s because the model’s single humbucker is a PAF, its Kluson tuners are double-line, and its knobs are identical to those on Les Paul ’Bursts. So as people repaired broken ’Bursts, converted other LPs to ’Bursts, or otherwise sought to give other Gibsons a “Golden Era” sound and look ... they often stripped these forgotten EB-6 basses for parts.
This original EB-6 is up for sale now from Reverb seller Emerald City Guitars for a $16,950 asking price at the time of writing. The only thing that isn’t original about it is a replacement set of Kluson tuners, not because its originals were stolen but just to help preserve them. (They will be included in the case.)
With so few surviving 335-style EB-6 basses, Reverb doesn’t have a ton of sales data to compare prices to. Ten years ago, a lucky buyer found a nearly original 1960 EB-6 for about $7,000. But Emerald City’s $16,950 asking price is closer to more recent examples and asking prices.
Sources: Prices on Gibson Instruments, November 1, 1959, Tony Bacon’s “Danelectro’s UB-2 and the Early Days of 6-String Basses” Reverb News article, Gruhn’s Guide to Vintage Guitars, Tom Wheeler’s American Guitars: An Illustrated History, Reverb listings and Price Guide sales data.
Billy Gibbons is an undisputable guitar force whose feel, tone, and all-around vibe make him the highest level of hero. But that’s not to say he hasn’t made some odd choices in his career, like when ZZ Top re-recorded parts of their classic albums for CD release. And fans will argue which era of the band’s career is best. Some of us love drum machines and synths and others don’t, but we all love Billy.
This episode is sponsored by Magnatone
Originally released in the 1980s, the Victory has long been a cult favorite among guitarists for its distinctive double cutaway design and excellent upper-fret access. These new models feature flexible electronics, enhanced body contours, improved weight and balance, and an Explorer headstock shape.
A Cult Classic Made Modern
The new Victory features refined body contours, improved weight and balance, and an updated headstock shape based on the popular Gibson Explorer.
Effortless Playing
With a fast-playing SlimTaper neck profile and ebony fretboard with a compound radius, the Victory delivers low action without fret buzz everywhere on the fretboard.
Flexible Electronics
The two 80s Tribute humbucker pickups are wired to push/pull master volume and tone controls for coil splitting and inner/outer coil selection when the coils are split.
For more information, please visit gibson.com.
Gibson Victory Figured Top Electric Guitar - Iguana Burst
