Guitarist Nick Lee handles the instrument like a Porsche 911 hugs the road. The German sports car is as equally deft at carving through the Big Sur coastline as it is accelerating out of corners and showing its top-end, straightaway velocity. Similarly, in just two Moon Tooth albums (2016's Chromaparagon and 2019's Crux), Lee has flexed the same versatility. In a single song (much like the 911 rips through a lap of the Monaco Grand Prix), he'll nimbly navigate a clean, precise, fingerpicked melody reminiscent of Chet Atkins before dropping the hammer and flying down the fretboard like Pantera's Dimebag Darrell or Mastodon's Brent Hinds.
While the band thrives in light-and-dark juxtapositions, their true colors and ambitions reach for the disparate musical extremes.
"The phrase we've been using is 'aggressive progressive,' but that's really just because saying you're in a rock 'n' roll band doesn't quite get the point across these days," says Nick Lee when he spoke with PG in 2016. "We're not trying to be a prog band, really. We totally get that there's an element of prog in what we do, but to me we're just a rock band in the purest sense of that term—we just happen to push the envelope of what we can do musically and push each other to do crazier shit."
After wrapping guitars for the band's forthcoming album, guitarist Nick Lee virtually invited PG's Chris Kies into Moon Tooth drummer Ray Marte's Westfall Recording studio based in Farmingdale, New York.
In this episode, Lee (also in Riot) showcases a duo of dazzling Vigiers (plus a stalwart Les Paul Standard), details his "most important volume knob," tries to explain "peanut butter" tone, and demos core sounds that involve mid-focused drives, celestial repeats, and polyphonic pitch shifters.
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Vigier G.V. Rock "Chromaparagon Swirl"
Lee grew up playing Les Pauls and has felt most at home with a two-humbucker setup. A few years ago, he borrowed one of his friend JD Scully's LP-style Vigier G.V. Rock models for nearly two years and couldn't put it down.
"Aside from playing great, it has everything I love about a Les Paul," says Lee. "But the biggest talking point is probably the bolt-on neck that features 90 percent maple and 10 percent carbon fiber that removes the need for a truss rod, and it doesn't move once I get the saddles properly intonated. I've taken it from a trailer in Austin in July to an air-conditioned club and it needs no attention. Same thing with international flights. The Vigier allows me to be pragmatic about touring life but also perform at a high level onstage."
The only change he's made to this G.V. Rock is swapping out the stock Amber humbuckers for DiMarzio Dominions. Lamb of God guitarist Mark Morton and producer Machine (aka Gene Freeman) both suggested he try Morton's signature humbuckers. Lee made the change and hasn't looked back.
Now about the colors. Moon Tooth's first album Chromaparagon featured a vibrant wolf design highlighted in blue, red, black, white, and yellow. To celebrate the release, Vigier worked up a G.V. Rock model with a striking "Chromaswirl" finish that was accomplished with a dip-and-twist technique.
Most of Moon Tooth's material starts tuned down a whole step and for that material Lee employs a custom set of Ernie Ball Slinkys (.011–.014–.020–.032–.044–.056). He wraps the strings around the bridge when putting them on to reduce breaks and so he can bend the note behind the bridge like you'd bend a note on a Tele above the nut.
Other tunings this guitar sees is drop C and open C (C–G–C–E–G–C) that was inspired by the Allman Brothers' "Little Martha" and can be heard on Moon Tooth songs "Igneous" and "Offered Blood."
Vigier G.V. Rock
Here is the first Vigier G.V. Rock that Lee's friend DJ Scully loaned to him a few years ago. Clearly, Nick isn't letting it go anytime soon.
It's still stock aside from taking out the stock Amber humbuckers for the Mark Morton signature DiMarzio Dominions.
Vigier Excalibur Ultra Blues
This is Lee's Vigier Excalibur Ultra Blues. It's his newest guitar and first-ever Strat-style instrument he's owned. It's loaded with DiMarzios—Virtual PAF humbucker, Area 58 (middle), and Chopper (neck). This guitar is for the heavier songs in lower tunings like drop A.
1990 Gibson Les Paul Standard
This 1990 Gibson Les Paul Standard is the guitar Lee grew up playing. The neck pickup is still original, but the bridge had some shorting issues, so he put in a Seymour Duncan SH-5 Custom and has been rocking it ever since.
2005 Fender Aerodyne Telecaster
After the aforementioned Les Paul, this 2005 Fender Aerodyne Telecaster is Lee's oldest instrument he currently owns. He doesn't play it live much rather reserving it for teaching students or writing new material.
Nick Lee's Amps
If you've seen Moon Tooth in the flesh, you've seen and felt the 1976 Hiwatt DR103. To accommodate his bandmates and sound techs, Lee took out two tubes and runs the DR103 at 50 watts reducing its volume and headroom (The change also corrected some fuse issues, too). He jumps the channels engaging both inputs creating a fuller, thicker, chunkier sound.
Just before COVID's dark cloud descended, Lee scored the Marshall JCM800 from his Riot bandmate Mike Flyntz. Both heads are featured prominently on the forthcoming Moon Tooth album and for future tours Lee wants to try for a stereo setup using both amps.
"The most important volume knob I've ever bought," jokes Lee when describing the Fryette PS-2 Power Station (top) that allows Lee to push the Hiwatt as hard as he wants without drawing the stink eye from the venue or bandmates.
For the Rundown, Lee ran the Hiwatt through a Krank Revolution 4x12 that has a pair of original speakers and a pair of Eminence Wizards.
Nick Lee's Pedalboard
To cover Moon Tooth's maniacal musical moods, Nick Lee enlists a healthy heaping of tone twisters. Time-based stomps include Empress Echosystem, DigiTech DigiDelay, Electro-Harmonix Holy Grail, and MXR Carbon Copy. Modulation and pitch-shifting is handled by the EHX Superego & Pitch Fork, MXR Phase 90, EarthQuaker Devices Spatial Delivery, and a DigiTech Whammy Ricochet. Gain and drive are supplied by the Wampler Ego, J. Rockett Archer, and Friedman BE-OD Deluxe. The utility components of his board include an Ernie Ball VP Jr Volume Pedal, a Boss TU-2 Chromatic Tuner, and a Mammoth Electronics 3 Lace Looper.
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Onstage, Tommy Emmanuel executes a move that is not from the playbook of his hero, Chet Atkins.
“My biggest decision every day on tour is, ‘What do I want to start with? How do I want to come out of the gate?’” Emmanuel explains to me over a video call. “A good opener has to have everything. It has to be full of surprise, it has to have lots of good ideas, lots of light and shade, and then, hit it again,” he says, illustrating each phrase with his hands and ending with a punch.“You lift off straightaway with the first song, you get airborne, you start reaching, and then it’s time to level out and take people on a journey.”
In May 2023, Emmanuel played two shows at the Sydney Opera House, the best performances from which have been combined on his new release, Live at the Sydney Opera House. The venue’s Concert Hall, which has a capacity of 2,679, is a familiar room for Emmanuel, but I think at this point in his career he wouldn’t bring a setlist if he was playing Wembley Stadium. On the recording, Emmanuel’s mind-blowingly dexterous chops, distinctive attack and flair, and knack for culturally resonant compositions are on full display. His opening song for the shows? An original, “Countrywide,” with a segue into Chet Atkins’ “El Vaquero.”
“When I was going to high school in the ’60s, I heard ‘El Vaquero’ on Chet Atkins’ record, [1964’s My Favorite Guitars],” Emmanuel shares. “And when I wrote ‘Countrywide’ in around ’76 or ’77, I suddenly realized, ‘Ah! It’s a bit like “El Vaquero!”’ So I then worked out ‘El Vaquero’ as a solo piece, because it wasn’t recorded like that [by Atkins originally].
“The co-writer of ‘El Vaquero’ is Wayne Moss, who’s a famous Nashville session guy who played ‘da da da’ [sings the guitar riff from Roy Orbison’s ‘Pretty Woman’]. And he played on a lot of Chet’s records as a rhythm guy. So once when I played ‘El Vaquero’ live, Wayne Moss came up to me and said, ‘You know, you did my part and Chet’s at the same time. That’s not fair!’” Emmanuel says, laughing.
Atkins is the reason Emmanuel got into performing. His mother had been teaching him rhythm guitar for a couple years when he heard Atkins on the radio and, at 6, was able to immediately mimic his fingerpicking technique. His father recognized Emmanuel’s prodigious talent and got him on the road that year, which kicked off his professional career. He says, “By the time I was 6, I was already sleep-deprived, working too hard, and being forced to be educated. Because all I was interested in was playing music.”
Emmanuel talks about Atkins as if the way he viewed him as a boy hasn’t changed. The title Atkins bestowed upon him, C.G.P. (Certified Guitar Player), appears on Emmanuel’s album covers, in his record label (C.G.P. Sounds), and is inlaid at the 12th fret on his Maton Custom Shop TE Personal signature acoustic. (Atkins named only five guitarists C.G.P.s. The others are John Knowles, Steve Wariner, Jerry Reed, and Atkins himself.) For Emmanuel, even today most roads lead to Atkins.
When I ask Emmanuel about his approach to arranging for solo acoustic guitar, he says, “It was really hit home for me by my hero, Chet Atkins, when I read an interview with him a long time ago and he said, ‘Make your arrangement interesting.’ And I thought, ‘Wow!’ Because I was so keen to be true to the composer and play the song as everyone knows it. But then again, I’m recreating it like everyone else has, and I might as well get in line with the rest of them and jump off the cliff into nowhere. So it struck me: ‘How can I make my arrangements interesting?’ Well, make them full of surprises.”
When Emmanuel was invited to contribute to 2015’s Burt Bacharach: This Guitar’s in Love with You, featuring acoustic-guitar tributes to Bacharach’s classic compositions by various artists, Emmanuel expresses that nobody wanted to take “(They Long to Be) Close to You,” due to its “syrupy” nature. But for Emmanuel, this presented an entertaining challenge.
He explains, “I thought, ‘Okay, how can I reboot “Close to You?’ So even the most jaded listener will say, ‘Holy fuck—I didn’t expect that! Wow, I really like that; that is a good melody!’ So I found a good key to play the song in, which allowed me to get some open notes that sustain while I move the chords. Then what I did is, in every phrase, I made the chord unresolve, then resolve.
Tommy Emmanuel's Gear
“I’m writing music for the film that’s in my head,” Emmanuel says. “So, I don’t think, ‘I’m just the guitar,’ ever.”
Photo by Simone Cecchetti
Guitars
- Three Maton Custom Shop TE Personals, each with an AP5 PRO pickup system
Amps
- Udo Roesner Da Capo 75
Effects
- AER Pocket Tools preamp
Strings & Picks
- Martin TE Signature Phosphor Bronze (.012–.054)
- Martin SP strings
- Ernie Ball Paradigm strings
- D’Andrea Pro Plec 1.5 mm
- Dunlop medium thumbpicks
“And then to really put the nail in the coffin, at the end, ‘Close to you’ [sings melody]. I finished on a major 9 chord which had that note in it, but it wasn’t the key the song was in, which is a typical Stevie Wonder trick. All the tricks I know, the wonderful ideas that I’ve stolen, are from Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Lionel Richie, James Taylor, Carole King, Neil Diamond. All of the people who wrote really incredibly great pop songs and R&B music—I stole every idea I could, and I tried to make my little two-and-a -half minutes as interesting and entertaining as possible. Because entertainment equals: Surprise me.”
I share with Emmanuel that the performances on Live at the Sydney Opera House, which include his popular “Beatles Medley,” reminded me of another possible arrangement trick. In Harpo Marx’s autobiography, Harpo Speaks, I preface, Marx writes of a lesson he learned as a performer—to “answer the audience’s questions.” (Emmanuel says he’s a big fan of the book and read it in the early ’70s.) That happened for me while listening to the medley, when, after sampling melodies from “She’s a Woman” and “Please Please Me,” Emmanuel suddenly lands on “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.”
I say, “I’m waiting for something that hits more recognizably to me, and when ‘While My Guitar’ comes in, that’s like answering my question.”
“It’s also Paul and John, Paul and John, George,” Emmanuel replies. “You think, ‘That’s great, that’s great pop music,’ then, ‘Wow! Look at the depth of this.’”
Often Emmanuel’s flights on his acoustic guitar are seemingly superhuman—as well as supremely entertaining.
Photo by Ekaterina Gorbacheva
A trick I like to employ as a writer, I say to Emmanuel, is that when I’m describing something, I’ll provide the reader with just enough context so that they can complete the thought on their own.
“You can do that musically as well,” says Emmanuel. He explains how, in his arrangement of “What a Wonderful World,” he’ll play only the vocal melody. “When people are asking me at a workshop, ‘How come you don’t put chords behind that part?’ I say, ‘I’m drawing the melody and you’re putting in all the background in your head. I don’t need to tell you what the chords are. You already know what the chords are.’”
“Wayne Moss came up to me and said, ‘You know, you did my part and Chet’s at the same time. That’s not fair!’”
Another track featured on Live at the Sydney Opera House is a cover of Paul Simon’s “American Tune” (which Emmanuel then jumps into an adaptation of the Australian bush ballad, “Waltzing Matilda”). It’s been a while since I really spent time with There GoesRhymin’ Simon (on which “American Tune” was first released), and yet it sounded so familiar to me. A little digging revealed that its melody is based on the 17th-century Christian hymn, “O Sacred Head, Now Wounded,” which was arranged and repurposed by Bach in a few of the composer’s works. The cross-chronological and genre-lackadaisical intersections that come up in popular music sometimes is fascinating.
“I think the principle right there,” Emmanuel muses, “is people like Bach and Beethoven and Mozart found the right language to touch the heart of a human being through their ears and through their senses ... that really did something to them deep in their soul. They found a way with the right chords and the right notes, somehow. It could be as primitive as that.
Tommy Emmanuel has been on the road as a performing guitarist for 64 years. Eat your heart out, Bob Dylan.
Photo by Jan Anderson
“It’s like when you’re a young composer and someone tells you, ‘Have a listen to Elton John’s “Candle in the Wind,”’ he continues. “‘Listen to how those notes work with those chords.’ And every time you hear it, you go, ‘Why does it touch me like that? Why do I feel this way when I hear those chords—those notes against those chords?’ I say, it’s just human nature. Then you wanna go, ‘How can I do that!’” he concludes with a grin.
“You draw from such a variety of genres in your arrangements,” I posit. “Do you try to lean into the side of converting those songs to solo acoustic guitar, or the side of bridging the genre’s culture to that of your audience?”
“I stole every idea I could, and I tried to make my little two-and-a-half minutes as interesting and entertaining as possible. Because entertainment equals: Surprise me.”
“If I was a method actor,” Emmanuel explains, “what I’m doing is—I’m writing music for the film that’s in my head. So, I don’t think, ‘I’m just the guitar,’ ever. I always think it has to have that kind of orchestral, not grandeur, but … palette to it. Because of the influence of Stevie Wonder, Billy Joel, and Elton John, especially—the piano guys—I try to use piano ideas, like putting the third in the low bass a lot, because guitar players don’t necessarily do that. And I try to always do something that makes what I do different.
“I want to be different and recognizable,” he continues. “I remember when people talked about how some players—you just hear one note and you go, ‘Oh, that’s Chet Atkins.’ And it hit me like a train, the reason why a guy like Hank Marvin, the lead guitar player from the Shadows.... I can tell you: He had a tone that I hear in other players now. Everyone copied him—they just don’t know it—including Mark Knopfler, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, all those people. I got him up to play with me a few times when he moved to Australia, and even playing acoustic, he still had that sound. I don’t know how he did it, but it was him. He invented himself.”
YouTube It
Emmanuel performs his arrangement of “What a Wonderful World,” illustrating how omitting a harmonic backdrop can have a more powerful effect, especially when playing such a well-known melody.
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