A Guild hollowbody stuffed with undies? A wooden slide? Dinky, about-to-burst, plywood combos? All these "left" turns fuel this Wood Brother's solo journey.
Just ahead of releasing his first solo album, Always Smilin'(via Honey Jar/Thirty Tigers), Oliver Wood invited PG into his Nashville-based studio space. In this episode, the Wood Brothers' cofounder shows off some key instruments—including his beloved and beaten 1965 Guild T100D, a Stella with a gold-foil, and an acoustic reminiscent of Robert Johnson's Gibson L-1—rattles small, cranky combos, and details how he looks for inspiration in all the "wrong" moves (like stuffing underwear in a hollowbody, using a wooden slide, and having a gold-foil in a 1930s Stella).
[Brought to you by D'Addario XS Strings: https://www.daddario.com/XSRR]
1965 Guild T-100D
"In the early '90s, I was one of millions that played Strats because of Stevie Ray and Hendrix," admits Oliver Wood. "I sort of felt lost in the shuffle of the Strat sound and look so I decided I needed to go in another direction."
So, when this 1965 Guild T-100D came to the shop he was giving lessons, Wood knew he could carve a new path with this interesting hollowbody.
It's been his main ride since the mid-'90s and the heavy hitter for King Johnson and Wood Brothers albums and performances.
Without Wood telling the story in the Rundown you may never believe it, but to combat and corral its unwieldy feedback he stuffed it with tighty-whitey briefs. That fix lasted nearly 20 years until a tech for Live From Here with Chris Thile properly outfitted it with foam.
He uses DR Strings (.011–.050) for his electrics, Dunlop Purple Tortex 1.14 mm picks, and will tune the Guild to standard or "1/2 G." (Wood tunes down the 1st string to D allowing for slide work, while still forming chords on the other five strings.)
1960s Harmony “Holiday” Bobkat
Here is a 1960s Harmony "Holiday" Bobkat that is loaded with stock DeArmond gold-foil pickups. Wood picked up the rare cat in East Nashville's Fanny's House of Music. The only change he made to the pawnshop prize is removing the pickup rocker switches, master volume and tone controls, and spruced it up with a fresh pickguard.
"Holiday" Headstock
Here's the "Holiday" headstock to Oliver's Harmony Bobkat.
1950s Gibson CF-100
Believe it or not, Wood scored this 1950s Gibson CF-100 at Guitar Center. In the Rundown, he claims that this was the first cutaway (like the ES-175) that Gibson ever did on an acoustic. To make it a road dog, he added a K&K Sound Pure undersaddle pickup and a Sunrise S-2 soundhole pickup.
1950s Epiphone Zenith
If you want to hear this 1950s Epiphone Zenith amplified, queue up "The Battle is Over" that's featured on Always Smilin'. He plugged straight into the board and captured on a 4-track tape recorder. Another mood of this archtop captured on the new solo album is on the jumpy, funky "Fine Line."
1937 Gibson L-00
Above is Oliver's 1937 Gibson L-00—a close cousin to Robert Johnson's famed L-1. The treasured piece was a gift from another artist and touring mate that gave him the pre-war guitar because Wood wouldn't stop playing his 1930s acoustic.
1930s Stella & 1960s Epiphone Pathfinder
Talk about a peculiar pairing—here's a 1930s Stella he got for $200 in Augusta, Georgia, while the amp is a 1960s Epiphone Pathfinder.
He sent the Stella to Reuben Cox (Old Style Guitar Shop) in L.A. to overhaul the guitar. Cox updated it with sturdier bracing, a rubber bridge, retrofitted with a Teisco gold-foil pickup, and Wood plays it flatwound strings.
Oliver's Wooden Slide
Recently Oliver has been interested in less sustain, so he's been experimenting with this wooden slide his wife gave him. Wanna hear the wooden weirdness captured on tape, check out "Unbearable Heart" on Always Smilin'.
’50s Kay Model 703 and a mid-1960s Fender Champ
With King Johnson, Wood wrangled his Guild T-100D through a blaring Super Reverb. During the tenure of the Wood Brothers (and his solo stuff), he's slowly downsized currently landing on these two diminutive darlings—a '50s Kay Model 703 and a late-1960s Fender Champ.
Boss TR-2 Tremolo
Since his Champ doesn't have reverb or modulation, he always has this OG Boss TR-2 wobbling in the background.
Oliver Wood's Pedalboard
For extra oomph and grit, he'll kick on either the Keeley Katana Clean Boost or the EarthQuaker Devices Speaker Cranker. The Livewire Solutions ABY1 Guitar Footswitch controls the amps and the Korg Pitchblack tuner keeps his guitars in check.
Then we give a Takamine guitar & Fishman amp to an up-and-coming Nashville musician.
Music City is always swirling with top-notch musicians performing anywhere they can, so Takamine and Fishman challenged PG's John Bohlinger to take his talents downtown to—gig on the street—where he ran into YouTube sensation DØVYDAS and hands over his gear to rising star Tera Lynne Fister.
At 81, George Benson Is Still “Bad”—With a New Archival Release and More Music on the Way
The jazz-guitar master and pop superstar opens up the archive to release 1989’s Dreams Do Come True: When George Benson Meets Robert Farnon, and he promises more fresh collab tracks are on the way.
“Like everything in life, there’s always more to be discovered,”George Benson writes in the liner notes to his new archival release, Dreams Do Come True: When George Benson Meets Robert Farnon. He’s talking about meeting Farnon—the arranger, conductor, and composer with credits alongside Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, and Vera Lynn, among many others, plus a host of soundtracks—after Quincy Jones told the guitarist he was “the greatest arranger in all the world.”
On that recommendation,Benson tapped Farnon for a 1989 recording project encompassing the jazz standards “My Romance” and “At Last” next to mid-century pop chestnut “My Prayer,” the Beatles’ “Yesterday,” and Leon Russell’s “A Song for You,” among others.
Across the album, Benson’s voice is the main attraction, enveloped by Farnon’s luxuriant big-band and string arrangements that give each track a warm, velveteen sheen. His guitar playing is, of course, in top form, and often sounds as timeless as the tunes they undertake: On “Autumn Leaves,” you could pluck the stem of the guitar solo and seat it neatly into an organ-combo reading of the tune, harkening back to the guitarist’s earlier days. But as great as any George Benson solo is bound to be, on Dreams Do Come True, each is relatively short and supportive. At this phase of his career, as on 1989’s Tenderlyand 1990’s Count Basie Orchestra-backed Big Boss Band, Benson was going through a jazz-singer period. If there’s something that sets the ballad-centric Dreams Do Come Trueapart, it’s that those other records take a slightly more varied approach to material and arranging.
When it was finished, the Benson/Farnon collaboration was shelved, and it stayed that way for 35 years. Now released, it provides a deeper revelation into this brief phase of Benson’s career. In 1993, he followed up Big Boss Man with an updated take on the smooth, slick pop that brought him blockbuster fame in the previous two decades and delivered Love Remembers.
Love is Blue (feat. The Robert Farnon Orchestra)
This kind of stylistic jumping around, of musical discovery, is a thread through Benson’s legendary career. From his days as a young child busking in Pittsburgh, where his favorite song to play was “On the Sunny Side of the Street,” he evolved through backing Brother Jack McDuff and leading his own organ combo, into his soulful and funky CTI Records phase, where he proved himself one of the most agile and adroit players in the jazz-guitar game. He eventually did the most improbable—and in anyone else’s hands thus far, impossible—feat and launched into pop superstardom with 1976’s Breezin’ and stayed there for years to come, racking up No. 1 hits and a host of Grammy awards.
At this moment, deep into his career at 81 years old, Benson continues to dive into new settings. While anyone observing from the sidelines might conclude that Benson has already excelled in more varied musical situations than any other instrumentalist, he somehow continues to discover new sides to his musicality. In 2018, he joined the Gorillaz on their technicolor indie-pop single “Humility,” and in 2020 he tracked his guitar onBootsy Collins’ “The Power of the One.” Benson assures me that not only are there more recordings in the archive that he’s waiting to reveal, but there are more wide-ranging collaborations to come.
On Dreams Do Come True, Benson covers classic jazz repertoire, plus he revisits the Beatles—whose work he covered on 1970’s The Other Side of Abbey Road—and Leon Russell, whose “This Masquerade” brought Benson a 1976 Grammy award for Record of the Year.
PG: The range of songs that you’ve played throughout your career, from your jazz records to 1970’s The Other Side ofAbbey Road or 1972’s White Rabbit album to 2019’s Chuck Berry and Fats Domino tribute, Walking to New Orleans, is so broad. Of course, now I’m thinking about the songs on Dreams Do Come True. How do you know when a song is a good fit?
George Benson: Well, you can’t get rid of it. It stays with you all the time. They keep popping up in your memory.
All the stuff that Sinatra did, and Nat King Cole did, and Dean Martin, that’s the stuff I grew up on. I grew up in a multinational neighborhood. There were only 30 African Americans in my school, and they had 1,400 students, but it was a vocational school.
I remember all that stuff like yesterday because it’s essential to who I am today. I learned a lot from that. You would think that would be a super negative thing. Some things about it were negative—you know, the very fact that there were 1,400 students and only 30 African Americans. But what I learned in school was how to deal with people from all different parts of the world.
After my father made my first electric guitar. I made my second one….
You made your second guitar?
Benson: Yeah, I designed it. My school built it for me. I gave them the designs, sent it down to the shop, they cut it out, I sent it to the electric department, and then I had to put on the strings myself. I brought my amplifier to school and plugged it in. Nobody believed it would work, first of all. When I plugged it in, my whole class, they couldn’t believe that it actually worked. So, that became my thing, man. “Little Georgie Benson—you should hear that guitar he made.”“I can let my mind go free and play how I feel.”
George Benson's Gear
The Benson-designed Ibanez GB10 was first introduced in 1977.
Photo by Matt Furman
Strings & Picks
- Ibanez George Benson Signature pick
- Thomastik-Infeld George Benson Jazz Strings
Accessories
- Radial JDI Passive Direct Box
So, your environment informed the type of music you were listening to and playing from a young age.
Benson: No doubt about it, man. Because remember, rock ’n’ roll was not big. When the guitar started playing with the rock bands, if you didn’t have a guitar in your band, you weren’t really a rock band. But that was later, though. It started with those young groups and all that hip doo-wop music.
I was known in Pittsburgh as Little Georgie Benson, singer. Occasionally, I would have the ukulele or guitar when the guitar started to get popular.
What’s your playing routine like these days? Do you play the guitar every day, and what do you play?
Benson: Not like I used to. Out of seven days, I probably play it four or five days.
I used to play virtually every day. It was just a natural thing for me to pick up. I had guitars strategically placed all over my house. As soon as I see one, my brain said, “Pick that up.” So, I would pick it up and start playing with new ideas. I don’t like going over the same thing over and over again because it makes you boring. I would always try to find something fresh to play. That’s not easy to do, but it is possible.
I’m looking for harmony. I’m trying to connect things together. How do I take this sound or this set of chord changes and play it differently? I don’t want to play it so everybody knows where I’m going before I even get there, you know?
“I wasn’t trying to sound loud. I was trying to sound good.”
How did you develop your guitar tone, and what is important about a guitar tone?
Benson: Years ago, the guitar was an accompaniment or background instrument, usually accompanying somebody or even accompanying yourself. But it was not the lead instrument necessarily. If they gave you a solo, you got a chance to make some noise.
As it got serious later on, I started looking for a great sound. I thought it was in the size of the guitar. So, I went out and bought this tremendously expensive guitar, big instrument. And I found that, yeah, that had a big sound, but that was not it. I couldn’t make it do what I wanted it to do. I found that it comes from my phrasing, the way I phrase things and the way I set up my guitar, and how I work with the amplifier. I wasn’t trying to sound loud. I was trying to sound good.
George Benson at Carnegie Hall in New York City on September 23,1981. The previous year, he received Grammy awards for “Give Me the Night,” “Off Broadway,” and “Moody’s Mood.”
Photo by Ebet Roberts
When I think about your playing, I’m automatically thinking about your lead playing so much of the time. But I think that your rhythm playing is just as iconic. What do you think is the most important thing about rhythm guitar parts, comping, and grooving?
Benson: That word comp, I finally found out what it really represents. I worked with a man called Jack McDuff, who took me out of Pittsburgh when I was 19 years old. He used to get mad at me all the time. “Why are you doing this? Why are you doing that? I can’t hear what you’re playing because you play so low”—because I used to be scared. I didn’t want people to hear what I was playing because then they would realize I didn’t know what I was doing, you know? I would play very mousy. He said, “Man, I don’t know if you play good or bad because I can’t hear you. Man, play out. People don’t know what you’re playing. They’ll accept whatever it is you do; they’ll think you meant to do it. Either it’s good or bad.”
So I started playing out and I found there’s a great truth in what he said. When you play out, you sound like you know what you’re doing. People say, “Oh wow, this cat is a monster.” It either feels good and sounds good or it doesn’t. So, I learned how to make those beeps and bops and things sound good and feel good.
The word comp comes from complementing. Whoever’s coming in to solo is out front. I gotta make them sound good. And that’s why people call me today. I had a record with a group called the Gorillaz. That’s the reason why they called me is because they realized that I knew what to do when I come to complement somebody. I did not have a lead role in that song. But I loved playing it once I found the space for me. I said, “Man, I don’t wanna just play it on an album. I wanna mean something.”
I did something with Bootsy Collins, who is a monster. I said, “Why is he calling me? I’m not a monster, man.” But he heard something in me he wanted on his record, and I couldn’t figure out what it was. I said, “No, I don’t think I can do it, man. I don’t think I can do you any good.” He said, “Try something, man. Try anything.” So I did. I didn’t think I could do that, but it came out good. Now I’m getting calls from George Clinton.
You worked on something with George Clinton?
Benson: Not yet, but that’s what I’m working on now, because he called me and said, “Man, do something with me.”
That’s not going to be easy. You know, I gotta find something that fits his personality, and where I can enhance it, not just throw something together, because that wouldn’t be right for the public. We want something musical, something that lasts for a long time.
“I can let my mind go free and play how I feel.”
In the liner notes for Dreams Do Come True, you say that there’s always more to be discovered. You just mentioned the Gorillaz, then Bootsy Collins and George Clinton. You have such a wide, open exploration of music. How has discovery and exploration guided your career?
Benson: Well, this is the thing that we didn’t have available a few years ago. Now, we can play anything. You couldn’t cross over from one music to another without causing some damage to your career, causing an uproar in the industry.
When Wes Montgomery did “Going Out of My Head” and Jimmy Smith did “Walk on the Wild Side,” it caused waves in the music industry, because radio was not set up for that. You were either country or jazz or pop or blues or whatever it was. You weren’t crossing over because there was no way to get that played. Now there is.
Because I’ve had something to do with most of those things I just mentioned, my mind goes back to when I was thinking, “What if I played it like this? No, people won’t like that. What if I played it like this? Now, they won’t like that either.” Now, I can let my mind go free and play how I feel, and they will find some way to get it played on the air.
YouTube It
George Benson digs into the Dave Brubeck-penned standard “Take Five” at the height of the ’80s, showing his unique ability to turn any tune into a deeply grooving blaze-fest.
The new Jimi Hendrix documentary chronicles the conceptualization and construction of the legendary musician’s recording studio in Manhattan that opened less than a month before his untimely death in 1970. Watch the trailer now.
Abramorama has recently acquired global theatrical distribution rights from Experience Hendrix, L.L.C., and will be premiering it on August 9 at Quad Cinema, less than a half mile from the still fully-operational Electric Lady Studios.
Jimi Hendrix - Electric Lady Studios: A Jimi Hendrix Vision (Documentary Trailer)
“The construction of Electric Lady [Studios] was a nightmare,” recalls award-winning producer/engineer and longtime Jimi Hendrix collaborator Eddie Kramer in the trailer. “We were always running out of money. Poor Jimi had to go back out on the road, make some money, come back, then we could pay the crew . . . Late in ’69 we just hit a wall financially and the place just shut down. He borrows against the future royalties and we’re off to the races . . . [Jimi] would say to me, ‘Hey man, I want some of that purple on the wall, and green over there!’ We would start laughing about it. It was fun. We could make an atmosphere that he felt comfortable in and that he was able to direct and say, ‘This is what I want.’”
Electric Lady Studios: A Jimi Hendrix Vision recounts the creation of the studio, rising from the rubble of a bankrupt Manhattan nightclub to becoming a state-of-the-art recording facility inspired by Hendrix’s desire for a permanent studio. Electric Lady Studios was the first-ever artist-owned commercial recording studio. Hendrix had first envisioned creating an experiential nightclub. He was inspired by the short-lived Greenwich Village nightspot Cerebrum whose patrons donned flowing robes and were inundated by flashing lights, spectral images and swirling sound. Hendrix so enjoyed the Cerebrum experience that he asked its architect John Storyk to work with him and his manager Michael Jeffery. Hendrix and Jeffery wanted to transform what had once been the Generation Club into ‘an electric studio of participation’. Shortly after acquiring the Generation Club lease however, Hendrix was steered from building a nightclub to creating a commercial recording studio.
Directed by John McDermott and produced by Janie Hendrix, George Scott and McDermott, the film features exclusive interviews with Steve Winwood (who joined Hendrix on the first night of recording at the new studio), Experience bassist Billy Cox and original Electric Lady staff members who helped Hendrix realize his dream. The documentary includes never-before-seen footage and photos as well as track breakdowns of Hendrix classics such as “Freedom,” “Angel” and “Dolly Dagger” by Eddie Kramer.
The documentary explains in depth that while Jimi Hendrix’s death robbed the public of so much potential music, the continued success of his recording studio provides a lasting legacy beyond his own music. John Lennon, The Clash, AC/DC, Chic, David Bowie, Stevie Wonder, Lady Gaga, Beyoncé and hundreds more made records at Electric Lady Studios, which speaks to one of Jimi’s lasting achievements in an industry that has radically changed over the course of the last half century.
PG contributor Tom Butwin dives into the Rivolta Sferata, part of the exciting new Forma series. Designed by Dennis Fano and crafted in Korea, the Sferata stands out with its lightweight simaruba wood construction and set-neck design for incredible playability.