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Brad Paisley

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In thIs GP cover story from December 2007, PaIsley talks about tone, technIque, Gear, anD PushInG hot-roD country PlayInG Into the stratosPhere.

Tom morello sTeve morse on craftInG lowDown meloDIes

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July 2014 · Volume 4, Number 7

contents

from the vault 08

Brad Paisley In the cover story from December 2007, Paisley talks about tone, technique, gear, and pushing hot-rod country playing into the stratosphere. (from the December 2007 issue of Guitar Player).

24

Tom Morello

(from the January 2009 issue of Guitar Player).

Gear 28

New Gear

From the July 2014 issues of Guitar Player.

oN the NewsstaNd 30

GP July 2014 Table of Contents

lessoNs 32

Steve Morse on Lowdown Melodies

From the November 2004 issue of Guitar Player.

34

Lee Ritenour on Establishing Your Identity From the November 2004 issue of Guitar Player.

sessioNs 36

The ever-popular TrueFire Lessons

traNscriptioNs 38

“BU2B” Rush

54

“Wither” Dream Theater

66

“California” Semisonic

Brad Paisley - page 8

GUITAR PLAYER VAULT | July 2014 | 7

classic interview

p hot o: D av i D Be a n


december 2007

Country superstar Brad Paisley is a Tele-toting connoisseur of boutique amps, and a blazing picker who’s pushing the boundaries of twangy guitar. By Andy Ellis The sleek Tour bus idles a few feeT behind The sTage

at the fairgrounds in Syracuse, New York, as Brad Paisley and his longtime band pound out an uptempo version of Johnny Cash’s “Folsom Prison Blues.”


classic interview december 2007 On the Bonfires & Amplifiers tour, Paisley’s stage amps include a Tony Bruno-modified Vox AC30 head, a pair of Dr. Z 30-watt Z-Wreck heads, and a Bruno Underground 30 head driving a trio of 2x12 Dr. Z cabs. Hidden from view is a blonde Fender Vibro-King 3x10 combo, which adds occasional twang to Paisley’s Vox-leaning tones. The elaborate stage set includes 56 video screens mounted in what appear to be as many Dr. Z 1x12 combos, but are in fact, simply shells.

Above the churning drums and whining pedal steel, Paisley’s Tele snarls, stutters, and wails, spewing a high-velocity mix of Bakersfield honky tonk and Memphis grit through custom EL84 heads and shuddering open-back 2x12 cabs. At either side of the stage, huge video displays capture the lean guitarist’s every move, while a black-and-white film starring Paisley and his bandmates as gunslingers flickers on a massive screen above their heads. The crowd goes nuts. Even as the song’s last notes ricochet through the amphitheater, the bus

doors open with a quiet sigh and Paisley bounds onboard. His fans are still hollering their appreciation as the driver accelerates through the fairground gates with the flashing blue lights of a police escort guiding the way to a nearby private airport. There, Paisley and members of his band will fly his personal jet back home to Nashville to spend the Labor Day weekend with family and friends before resuming his Bonfires & Amplifiers tour. Hurtling down the highway at 80-plus miles an hour, Paisley is unfazed by the evening’s excitement, and shows no signs of having

just performed a long, physically intense show. He peers into several pizza boxes stacked on the bar counter. “Hmm, pepperoni,” he says dubiously. “What else have we got?” A slice of pizza later, Paisley and crew file onto his Lear 45. As it taxis down the runway, Paisley eases into a leather seat, accepts a drink, and chats about the gig with his musicians. By any standard, he is soaring at the top of the entertainment world—his latest album, 5th Gear [Arista], debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart—but it has been a p hot os: A n dy e lli s


december 2007

classic interview Guitar tech Chad Weaver does most of Paisley’s amp and pedal switching remotely, using a Voodoo Labs Ground Control Pro MIDI foot controller and GCX Guitar Audio Switcher. Paisley’s primary pedals are a Way Huge AquaPuss analog delay and Hermida Audio Technology Zendrive distortion pedal. “The Aqua-Puss is the most used pedal we have,” says Weaver, “and the Zendrive is the coolest overdrive I’ve heard.” The pedalboard also includes a Maxon AD999 analog delay, a Boss DD-2 delay, and Robert Keeley-modified Ibanez TS808 Tube Screamer and Boss DD-3 delay pedals.

Beyond groovy—Paisley’s stage guitars line up for a show. Leading the pack is “old pink,” his ’68 Fender Tele. Lurking in the shadows is a soulful ’63 Gibson J-45.

long, slow climb since the 34-year-old left his home in Glen Dale, West Virginia, to accept an ASCAP scholarship, and earn a Music Business degree from Nashville’s Belmont University. “I’ve spent many years with my band playing little fairs on flatbed trailers,” he recalls. “We’d show up, and no one knew who we were, so we’d work the whole time to try to convince people not to leave.” Now a multi-platinum recording artist— one who many credit for bringing twangy Tele sounds back into modern country— Paisley is still more inclined to crank bou-

tique amps than bask in accolades. Yet the accolades continue. A day before the Syracuse show, the Country Music Association announced this year’s award nominees, and Paisley nabbed five nominations—Entertainer, Male Vocalist, Album (5th Gear), Video (“Online”), and Single (“Ticks”) of the Year. None of this seems to matter much to Paisley, who would rather talk about his Trainwreck Liverpool 30, custom Dr. Z heads, and Bill Crook guitars, than the gold and platinum records that fund his tone lust. “Yeah, I’m a nut case,” he laughs. “I

really love gear.” Tell us about your stage rig and the different amps you’re using on this tour.

The setup changes over time, but right now I’m using a handwired Vox AC30 head, a Tony Bruno Underground 30 head, a custom Dr. Z head we call the “Z-Wreck,” and a Fender Vibro-King. I run the heads through Dr. Z 2x12 cabs loaded with Celestion Blue 25-watt speakers, or the new Celestion Gold 50-watt speakers. I love the sound of the Blues—they bring out that classic Vox chime—but I play really loud, and, sometimes, the 25-watt speakers just


classic interview december 2007 “In high school, I saw the Desert Rose Band, and it changed my life.”

start to give up. The Golds still have that alnico tone, but they can handle higher volumes. We’ve got one of the cabs loaded with a Blue and a Gold. That combination sounds pretty cool. What do you like about multi-amp setups?

The harmonics from one amp fills up certain frequencies [opens his fingers on one hand]. When you use two different amps, they couple [laces the fingers of both hands], filling up the mix, and rounding out the sound. I always play through two amps onstage for that reason. For example, on “Mud on the Tires,” “Celebrity,” and “Throttleneck,” I combine the Z-Wreck with the Underground 30 that Tony has tweaked for me. For punch and twang—like in “Wrapped Around” or “Mr. Policeman”—I’ll pair the Vibro-King with the Z-Wreck, which has a more Vox-like sparkle. I use that combination in the beginning of “Folsom Prison Blues.” Then for the second half of “Folsom,” when I really start to dig in, I kick in the Bruno, which is a little more compressed and angry. I like being angry on guitar, and Vox amps—and amps inspired

by the AC30—sound angry at all times. Most country players dwell in the blackface Fender realm. How did you discover the world of the AC30 and EL84 power tubes?

In high school, I saw the Desert Rose Band, and they changed my life. I was heavily influenced by John Jorgenson, and what he played with the group in the ’80s. That’s some of the greatest country guitar tone ever, and that was at a time when everybody else’s tone completely sucked. Nashville guitarists were all playing Strats through racks and using multi-effects units to coat everything with chorus, compression, and delay. Here’s John using Boss pedals, ’60s Vox amps, and a G&L ASAT, and it was wonderful. That was my main tone influence early on, and it still is to this day. If I hook up a guitar rig and play “Hello Trouble” [a Desert Rose remake of the Buck Owens classic, from 1988’s Running], and it sounds right, then I’m happy. John gave me one of his ASATs, and I believe it was the one he used on that cut. I ordered my first AC30s from a music store in England called Music Ground. This was before the big Vox boom, and I


bought two amps—a Top Boost and a nonTop Boost—for around $2,000. They were okay—not great, but that got me started. Then I found a ’62 AC30 with perfect old Woden transformers at the Arlington Guitar Show in Dallas. That’s my favorite amp of all time in some ways, and I’ve recorded every album with it. It’s a really rare model—a black panel with a factory Top Boost that was recovered in red. It has a wonderfully thick midrange, and was my first great amp. Does this ’62 AC30 serve as a tonal reference for your newer custom amps?

It does. Take the new handwired AC30 head I use onstage. I went to Tony Bruno, and I said, “This amp already sounds great, but how would you tweak it?” He asked me to send him pictures of the inside of my ’62 Vox, so he could see what makes it so special. Then he ordered the exact resistors and rare Belgian capacitors, and he went to town on my new AC30. He had it for the last two months, and I just got it back. Can you hear a difference?

Oh yeah, it’s unbelievable—like a great old ’60s AC30. He gave it three different

p hot o: pi n ky Gon z a le s

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classic interview december 2007 channels, including an EF86 channel like the original 4-input model. An amp is an instrument—it’s actually more important than the guitar. I love these little tweak things you can do to an amp to fine-tune it to your playing style, and what you hear in your head. Dr. Z [a.k.a. Mike Zaite] and I have done this for years now.

Hattie Mae—Paisley’s rare Trainwreck Liverpool 30—was built and named by Ken Fischer, who, a few months before his death, estimated there were about 100 Trainwrecks in existence.

What is the Z-Wreck?

It’s the result of a collaboration between the late, legendary Ken Fischer—who built Trainwreck amps—and Dr. Z. It started with Z building an amp inspired by the Rocket, one of Ken’s creations. After Z finished, he gave it to Ken and asked him to put his fairy dust on it. Ken worked on it, doing the weird stuff he’s known for, like moving the transformer, relocating wires, and changing some resistors and

Stashed behind the Dr. Z Mazerati GT and Z-Wreck heads is the red ’62 Vox AC30 that serves as Paisley’s tonal touchstone.

“An amp is an instrument—it’s actually more important than the guitar.” tubes. It’s probably the last amp Ken actually worked on. When Z and I played it, we couldn’t believe how great it sounds. Dr. Z built three copies of the original Z-Wreck, which I keep at home. Z has one of the clones, and I take two out on the road. Basically, it’s a really harmonic, maxed-out AC30 with a big, aggressive midrange. It sounds very robust for a 30-watt amp. For me, a fine amp is a work of art, and you really see this in Ken Fischer’s heads. They’re all a little different, and he named each one. I have a Trainwreck Liverpool 30 named Hattie Mae. Do you take it on the road?

I’ll play it on TV, or sometimes take it out on a weekend to show some buddies who may not have seen a Trainwreck.

Z-Wreck and Trainwreck heads prepare for a shootout in Paisley’s living room.

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classic interview december 2007 Two Crook Esquire-style electrics hang over a 1961 Vox AC30 head in Paisley’s music lounge. Both guitars play a key role in his live and recorded sound. That’s James Burton’s signature on the blue Crook.

When it travels, it gets its own bunk on the bus—just like a person. For many, a Trainwreck represents the holy grail of amps. Do you also use multiple amps in the studio?

PAislEy’s PAislEy Crooks

Yeah. I usually use a couple of amps. On 5th Gear, for instance, one of the combinations was the ’62 AC30 and the original ZWreck driving a cab with a pair of Blues or Golds—which we miked with a ’60s Neumann U67. I also used a Dr. Z Stang Ray and an 80-watt Victoria 80212 Tweed Twin. We put a ribbon mic on the Victoria to create a big thump. I didn’t have the Trainwreck at that point, so it’s not on an album yet. Describe your main guitars.

Paisley’s custom Telecaster-style guitars are all built by his longtime friend, Bill Crook, who has his workshop in West Virginia. “I’ve known Brad since he was eight,” says Crook, “and he has always had a fascination with gear.” Crook chooses alder or light swamp ash for his guitar bodies, and has the necks for Paisley’s instruments built by USA Custom Guitars in Tacoma, Washington. “The fretboards have a compound radius,” he says. “They begin with a vintage 7.25” curve at the nut, and flatten to 9.5”—starting at around the 9th fret. The fretwire is Dunlop 6105, which is considered tall and narrow. I use a narrow fret because the intonation is more accurate than with jumbo frets.” Crook installs strap-activated G-string benders made by Charlie McVay in all Paisley’s guitars. “Charlie is an ace machinist whose background is in building and repairing pedal steels,” Crook explains. “The McVay bender is light, minimally invasive, beautifully crafted, and very toneful. Charlie makes both B- and G-bender systems, but Brad uses a G-bender exclusively.” The neck on a Crook guitar attaches to the body with machine bolts and threaded metal bushings, rather than traditional wood screws. “The player is always pulling on the neck of a bender-equipped guitar,” Crook details, “and machine bolts can stand up to this repeated movement. They also create a very tight, precise neck-body coupling, which enhances sustain and tone.” On Paisley’s guitars, which all sport traditional 3-saddle Tele-style bridges, Crook often uses different materials for the bass and treble saddles. “It can be tricky to balance the tone between the low and high strings on a Tele,” he says. “You want snap on the bass notes, but not that ice-pick-in-the-ear sound on the high ones. I find an aluminum saddle gives the low E and A strings a clear twang, while a brass saddle adds some sweetness to the B and high E strings.” The McVay G-bender replaces the Tele’s center saddle with a high-tech, locking G saddle attached to an adjustable pull mechanism, and an offset D saddle that’s similar to those found on modern 6-saddle Fender Teles. McVay uses stainless steel and aircraft aluminum for his bender hardware. “Brad and his guitar tech change pickups like most people change their underwear,” laughs Crook, “so there’s no telling what he’ll have in any given guitar. However, my favorite neck pickup is the Adder Plus T300, which is in many of Brad’s instruments. To my ears, traditional Tele neck pickups sound muffled, but the Adder Plus has nice high-end clarity, excellent string-to-string definition, and a strong output.” At various times, Paisley’s Crook guitars sport bridge pickups from Lindy Fralin, Alan Hamel, Peter Florance, and Chris Kinman. Crook wires Paisley’s guitars with a Fender No Load tone control that removes both the capacitor and pot from the circuit when rotated fully clockwise. “Bypassing the tone control adds a bit of brightness to the signal,” says Crook, “similar to the third switch position on an original Fender Esquire.” It’s a safe bet that Crook is the world’s leading expert on paisley guitar finishes, which he offers in a eye-popping array of colors, including burgundy, surf green, red-silver, tangerine, blue, and, of course, pink. —AE

My ’68 pink paisley Fender Tele is my main guitar. I bought it in ’93, and it was my first high-priced Tele. I always wanted a Paisley guitar—that’s my real name— and this is a really good one. It had the original bridge pickup for the first four songs on the first album [1999’s Who Needs Pictures], but then the pickup died in the middle of the sessions. So I bought a bunch of pickups to try out, and that’s when I discovered Lindy Fralin. Fralins sound very ’60s—they’re the closest you can get to that highly harmonic, Don Rich sound. Lindy’s pickups have a little fairy dust on them. The ’68 has a Fralin Blues Special in the bridge, and a Duncan Hot Rhythm neck pickup. I have a vintage Fender Tele with a Hamel bridge pickup, which has that thick, spanky, early-’50s Broadcaster tone. That guitar has a ’52 body and a ’57 neck. I play it on “Folsom Prison Blues” at the end of the show. Bill Crook makes my paisley Tele-style guitars. They’re superb instruments that look as great as they play and sound. I bring two acoustics on the road— a McPherson cutaway and a ’63 Gibson J-45—which I use for the solo-acoustic section in the middle of the show. You have seven electrics onstage. How do you choose which guitar to play on a particular song?

Some songs need a little more girth. For example, on “Ticks,” I play a paisley Crook Esquire with a Voodoo flatpole alnico Broadcaster-style pickup—which is also the guitar I used to record it. It sounds thicker than a Tele. The lead guitar supp hot o: a n dy e lli s


classic interview december 2007 ports the whole intro, so it needs to growl, rather than sound twangy. By comparison, on a song like “Mr. Policeman”—which has an intro based on fast licks—you can get away with a twangy Tele sound that doesn’t punch as hard. I like Esquires because they have a lot more harmonics than a Tele. Why is that?

The strings vibrate more on an Esquire because there’s not that neck pickup sucking their life away. You can totally hear the difference between an Esquire and a Tele—at least I can. Esquires sound nastier. Another reason for this is they have a pickup selector position that disables the tone control and gives you a little more high end. All my Crook guitars have a special tone pot that does the same thing. You turn it all the way open, and then go a little further to get a click. At that point, the tone control is out of the circuit, which brightens and opens up the sound. Your lows and highs sparkle a little more. When I’m playing a lead on the Tele it’s usually— click—all the way up. Did you always play a Tele, or did you migrate to it as you developed your style?

Bill Crook, who built this Esquire-style guitar for Paisley, often sweetens the tone of the top two strings with a brass saddle. Adjacent to it is the McVay G-bender saddle.

It took a while. My first guitar was a Silvertone, given to me by my grandfather when I was eight. Before long, I begged for and got a Hondo Strat copy. My next guitar was a nice Strat-style Tokai, which I still have. In the ’80s, country guitarists were playing Strats—Steve Wariner and Reggie Young, for example. Even Albert Lee, with his signature Music Man, was in that realm. I have a couple of those guitars, by the way, and they’re great. These guys were huge influences on me as a budding guitarist, but once I connected with the Tele— which I associated with Don Rich and Roy Nichols—there was no turning back. Tell us about your string benders.

I have a couple of B-bender guitars, but I never use them. Instead, I like G-benders. Charlie McVay build me my first G-bender when I was in college, and it stuck with me. I like the G-bender because you’re working a lower string, and this sounds more like steel guitar to me. It’s beefier, yet musically more subtle. A B-bender can be very obvious—although Albert Lee sounds fantastic when he plays one. Do you have your bender set to raise the third string a whole-step? Most of Paisley’s guitars have McVay G-bender systems—its strap-activated pull-lever is visible here on the blue- and red-paisley Crook guitars. However, his two Fenders (the ’68 pink paisley, far left, and the butterscotch ’52 body with a ’57 neck) sport Glaser G-benders.

Yes. It lets me take an A7 shape, and bend up to a major chord, for example, or bend the root in a G major chord up to a p h o t o s : a ndy ellis ; pa i sley- pi n ky Gon z a le s


december 2007

classic interview

2, and then drop it back. Another move I like is to play a G chord, fret the 2 [A] on the G string, and then bend that up to the 3 with the bender. In the studio, I have a lot of fun with it. I’ll come up to the solo, and just pull down and start playing to see what happens. Your recorded fills and solos sound spontaneous. How do you approach tracking them?

The first step is to get the bass, drums, and my acoustic guitar to sit right in the rhythm track. We’ll explore several songs—sometimes with keyboards, but mostly just as a trio—and work out their arrangements and structure. We’ll do a few takes of each one—including a rough vocal—and then give the tracks to our editor and overdub engineer, Brian Willis, who uses Pro Tools to compile skeleton tracks from the best parts of each song. Brian is a drummer, which makes him very good at matching sections, and choosing the best ensemble parts. If something is close, he’ll fix it without sucking the soul out of it. The beauty of Pro Tools is that you play freely knowing you can keep the parts that come out really great. So it’s liberating.

A close-up of Paisley’s two Z-Wreck heads,

This handwired Vox AC30 head has been

co-designed by Dr. Z and amp guru Ken Fischer.

tweaked by Tony Bruno. Note the mix of Celestion 25-watt Blue and 50-watt Gold alnico 12s in the cab.

again? Just paste it into the next section.” But Frank is a real purist—he won’t let me get away with playing a hot intro, and then pasting it into the refrain. He’ll say, “Do it again. I want people to hear something a little different each time they hear the chorus.” And he’s right—you never play anything exactly the same way twice. How involved do you get with miking your amps?

Totally. When he brings these tracks back, I’ll record vocals in the morning, and then spend the rest of the day on guitar parts—intros, fills, and solos. A lot of the guitar sounds on 5th Gear were recorded by a fantastic engineer named Neal Cappellino. It’s really a matter of my producer, Frank Rogers, and the engineer working with me to capture some inspiration. My guitar tech, Chad Weaver, is there stringing up guitars and making sure nothing is buzzing with the amps. It can be tough.

I have a Pro Tools rig at home, but, in the studio, I don’t touch the mics. But I’ll tell the engineer if we’re not getting what I’m hearing from my amps. For me, that’s the most frustrating thing about making records. I wish everybody could walk into the studio, and hear those amps, because you can never get that on tape. No matter how good it sounds on a record, man, you need to have been there in the room. You can’t get an AC30, Trainwreck, or Dr. Z squeezed into iPod earbuds, or even stereo speakers.

Why?

How has your guitar playing evolved over the

I don’t want to repeat myself. This is my fifth album, and I’ve recorded more than 70 songs. That’s a lot of guitar intros [laughs]. So I play, and Frank listens. We record dozens of ideas, but the minute I nail something that works, that’s what you hear on the record. So the parts are spontaneous, even though the process is laborious. We don’t stop until we’re happy with the solos, and I feel the guitar parts are unique for each song. It’s funny, Frank will hear something, and he’ll say, “Great let’s use that.” Then I have to hear it back to learn it, so I can do it again in another section if the song requires it. So no cutting and pasting parts?

No. Not that I haven’t tried—especially with vocals. I’ll say, “Why do you need it

This” is a song about camping, and wishing that Merle Haggard and Willie Nelson would show up with a busload of women, pizza, and beer. What’s more country than that? Because of the subject matter, I can get away with a wah guitar solo. Tell us about your picking technique.

When I want to dig in, I play everything with a flatpick. For riffs and chordal comping, I’ll also use my middle and ring fingers along with a pick. Do you treat your nails or have acrylic caps?

No, I just let those two nails grow out

course of these five albums?

I’ve gotten to where I’m not afraid to go places I used to avoid musically. I learned a lot of different styles as a kid—from Tal Farlow to Clapton and Van Halen—and on my first couple of records, I really shied away from showing those influences. Shades of Tal Farlow or Joe Pass might slip in, but I was leery of showing how Clapton or Eric Johnson affected my playing. But country music has changed a lot in recent years, and so have I. I’ve realized I can still be a very country artist, and use a Trainwreck amp. It’s okay to blow out a distorted guitar solo with a wah pedal in the middle of something like “Better Than This,” and then roll the volume back, and play clean, spanky lines. “Better Than

p hotos: andy el l is; st e Ve t Ra G e R F R an K W hi te pho to a Ge n Cy


classic interview december 2007 I worked on scales and modes—though I can’t remember half of it now. I’ve always felt that learning jazz really helps your country playing. Sometimes, I think country is just jazz on the back pickup. Can you elaborate?

a little. When one breaks, or I trim it too close, it’s a long night onstage. I can still do my hybrid picking, but it doesn’t sound the same. Occasionally, I’ll palm the pick and play everything fingerstyle, but I can’t play fast that way. For example, that’s how I recorded some of the some delicate parts on the verses and choruses for “She’s Everything” [from Time Well Wasted, Paisley’s fourth album]. I was going for a Mark Knopfler sound, like on his Shangri-La album, which takes us back to Ken Fischer, ironically. Mark was buddies with Ken, and used a [Fischer designed] Komet amp on much of that album.

A swing lick on an acoustic will sound like Django, but plug in a Tele, and play the same phrase, and you get something closer to Redd Volkaert. I was exposed to this as a kid, thanks to some great guitarists in West Virginia. One is Hank Goddard, who was my hometown hero and guitar teacher. His real name is Clarence, but everyone calls him “Hank,” because he plays like Hank Garland. When I was 13, Hank played in my band, and he taught me about swing and syncopated Merle Travis fingerpicking. Standing next to him on every gig was inspiring. Another guitar god in my hometown was Roger Hoard. He’s one of the best unknown guitarists you’ll ever hear—simply awesome. He and Hank would both alternate between flatpicking and playing fingerstyle with a thumbpick. Where I’m from, that was how you played. In fact, there are early photos of me with a thumbpick hanging off the sixth string behind the nut. Eventually, I decided to streamline my technique, and not switch back and forth between a thumbpick and flatpick, but learning that Chet Atkins and Merle Travis style was very important to my development, and it’s something most young guitarists don’t learn these days. It’s a shame, because that’s some of the greatest guitar music ever made. You use a lot of chromatic passing tones in your leads.

That’s some of the jazz stuff I learned in junior high and high school. I talked them

What strings and picks do you use?

Ernie Ball medium flatpicks—we go through millions of them, because I throw so many into the audience—and Ernie Ball nickel strings, gauged .010-.046. For a dropped-D song—like the instrumental “Throttleneck”—I’ll use a .052 sixth string to get a beefier tone.

into letting me play guitar in the jazz band [laughs]. I had an import ES-335 copy, and I played jazz charts. Because the audience liked hearing guitar, I was encouraged to solo—which meant I had to learn how to play over changes. It would go over great in our recitals and concerts. Playing standards was a big deal for me, and I never felt like a real guitar player until I could pull it off. Looking back, I can’t remember half of them, but you can hear the influence in a song like “Make a Mistake” [from 2003’s Mud on the Tires]. It starts off with a Chet feel, and then moves into Western swing. Next year, I plan to release an instrumental album, and that will allow me to explore some of these areas in more depth. Your stage show is very physical and technologically advanced, with video, lights, wireless rigs, and stage ramps.

When you get to the point where you’re selling as many tickets as we are, and people are charged $40 or $50, man, I want them to have a good time. The worst nightmare for me would be somebody going, “Well, that was not worth $50.” I really don’t think people leave our shows saying that. I hope not. For the most part, they tell me they’d have paid more. That’s what you want to hear. I’ve never liked performers who don’t give back—in one way or another—as much as the crowd is giving them. You see, some guys play, and it’s like, man, they phoned it in. The only time that happens with us is when we have such technical difficulties that it’s horrible. Like if there’s wireless interference we just can’t get around, and no matter what you do there are dropouts. Those are the nights where you’re just struggling to get to the last song. But, every

“I’ve never liked performers who don’t give back—in one way or another—as much as the crowd is giving them.”

Did you have to work hard to get your speed, or did it just come naturally?

It definitely didn’t happen naturally. I think you only get comfortable with speed by holding the guitar in your hands for a long, long time. When I was a teenager,

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classic interview december 2007 For his 2007 tour, Paisley hits the road with eight semitrucks, eight tour buses, and a 48-member posse of musicians, crewmembers, drivers, and managers.

show, I consciously try to give the audience everything we’ve got. You’ve come a long way from playing on a flatbed truck. Is there anything you miss from the old days?

I don’t miss the bars I used to play in, and I don’t miss playing for people who leave because they don’t know who you are. If I miss anything, it might be the hunger I felt then. But we have a different hunger now. I feel this need to go out there, and go, “See? I can play!” When you

get popular, you run the risk of people going, “Well, he must not be any good.” That crosses my mind, because I’ve always had the theory that if you’re really doing the best music of your time, you’re probably not on the radio. I’m definitely not doing the best music of my generation, but I still go out there every night thinking, “Even though we’re having success, it’s not that bad—I promise.” This is a band—the newest guy has been with me eight years—and others have

played with me for 12 or 15 years. We’ve all come so far together, from having no one in the audience, and not having things go our way, to this. So there isn’t a single night when we walk out there and hate our job. I am so thankful we’ve gotten to this level. It’s ridiculous we get paid for this. Not only that, but we get to play with big toys—like lights and ramps—that make it even more fun. It still blows my mind. g Special thanks to Chad Weaver for his technical help with this story.

CLASSIC INTERVIEW Brad Paisley Plays slide with a Fan’s GoPro cam

from the December 2007 issue of Guitar Player magazine

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january 2009

Tom Morello By Mat t B lacket t You might think that being a politicallY savvY,

half-Kenyan, Harvard-educated dude from Illinois would have Tom Morello thinking about a run for the presidency. You’d be wrong, but not because he’d have to take a massive pay cut. “If you are committed to fighting for human rights and real progressive change,” Morello explains, “that does not come from within the system. I’ve always felt much more comfortable outside that barbed-wire fence, throwing musical Molotov cocktails in.” And that’s just what he’s done as the guitarist for Rage Against the Machine and with his protest singer alter ego, the Nightwatchman. Despite the similar political bents of the two projects, however, Morello initially kept those two characters very separate, not attaching his name or any of his RATM bombast to his dark and brooding acoustic doppelganger. But his latest release, The Fabled City [Red Ink], is actually credited to Tom Morello The Nightwatchman and it does find the reluctant guitar hero blending his two personae, at least a little. The tour for the album will blur those lines even more, as he details: “Half of the show will be the stark Nightwatchman with his reaper at the ready and the other half will hopefully feature even more expansive playing than either my Rage or my Audioslave work.” Woody Guthrie’s acoustic kills fascists. What does your nylonstring do?

My nylon-string does whatever it takes, as is emblazoned on the front of the guitar. I figure that’s a fine moniker to bring into battle when you’re playing music to combat injustice. Why did you decide to attach your name to this record?

One of the things I felt much more comfortable doing on this record was expanding the musicality of it, incorporating some of my riff rock and some left-of-center soloing. That’s predominately why the record is under the name Tom Morello The Nightwatchman. On the first

Nightwatchman record I was hesitant to use my given name because people might expect a metal-fusion opus. The Fabled City is not a metal-fusion opus, but it does contain elements of my Rage world. That doesn’t have so much to do with effects, but more that the songs are given a broader rock treatment. From “St. Isabelle” to “The Lights Are On in Spidertown,” there’s a broader musical palette. The tune “Whatever It Takes” does have a lot of effects on it, though.

True. That’s still a nylon-string guitar, but it’s run through some of my electric guitar effects. There’s an octave divider and an MXR Distortion+ that was sitting around the studio. Talk about the tremolo-picking solo in that song. Did you play that in real time or is there some kind of gate on it that makes it spit out those machine-gun blasts?

I played it in real time but it’s multitracked, with four or five guitars playing almost random harmonies of the melody in those little bursts. How did you view Brendan O’Brien’s role as the producer?

He really fills in the gaps for me. I’ve been very comfortable and confident writing and recording rock riffs, but when it comes to getting the best out of me as a singer, making sure the songs are in the right key, and working the arrangements to help the lyrics have the most impact, he’s great at that. The engineering process is very fast and furious because Brendan realizes that the magic is in the take, not in the mic. He knows that creating an atmosphere that’s as comfortable as possible is the key to getting the right take. We used some mics just because they happened to be nearby. The “Spidertown” solo might have been a Shure SM57 or 58 right up on the guitar. That’s another great thing about working with Brendan: I don’t have to think about any of that. I have to come up with songs and performances but I don’t have to concern myself with the sonics. I was a huge fan of Brendan’s work with Pearl Jam before I worked with him in Rage and Audioslave. I’ve


classic interview january 2009 never had a better time in the studio than I had making these two Nightwatchman records. Speaking of the “Spidertown” solo, did you cut that on the basics or was it an overdub?

It’s an overdub, but I will absolutely track solos on the basics. I’ve done that many times in the past. On this record there are some live harmonica solos but I don’t think there are any live guitar solos. For this one, I did two takes and kept the good one. I don’t think Brendan was there. Nick DiDia, the engineer, and I were doing some work and I thought I would go for almost an Elegant Gypsyera Al Di Meola feel. I like the way that turned out. The Di Meola in me is coming out a little bit, and it’ll come out even more on the tour. I’ve started to feel very comfortable with that. My chops are up! Did you play the arpeggios on “Lazarus on Down” fingerstyle or with a pick?

That’s fingerpicking, although I have no nails. I chew them down to nubs. That song called for something both delicate and frightening, and I think the arpeggios set the tone for the song. I’ve always fingerpicked, al-though I haven’t put it on

record very often. My main practice guitar since I was 20 has been an acoustic. Over the last ten years, the one guitar that’s always in my house that I wrote all my rock riffs and my Nightwatchman songs on is a nylon-string. Fingerpicking on that is a big part of my practice regimen and my campfire playing. How did you come to play mandolin on “Gone Like Rain”? How are your mandolin chops?

About three years ago I did a tour with Steve Earle, who is a fantastic mandolin player. A hundred years ago, as a teenager, I worked at a Renaissance Faire playing mandolin, so somewhere in the recesses of my brain there was a little bit of that. I had to buck up for this record and do some practicing, because it’s an instrument that’s kind of counterintuitive to me, but I got it together for a few songs. I love the tone of it and how it mixes with the nylon-string. I’ll see how brave I am on tour, but I hope to play a song or two on mandolin. Who are your favorite players for combining great guitar work and a heartfelt message?

In terms of heartfelt message, that’s pretty broad and there are many. As far

as real guitar players who bring that sort of message, there are very few. I admire the guitar work of Jack White and Bruce Springsteen, and Leadbelly and Woody Guthrie. They’re not shredders, but I do admire their playing. In the pantheon of what might be described as protest music, I don’t know if there’s ever been a singer-songwriter who was fighting injustice with music and also shredding his or her ass off. What about Hendrix?

Hendrix obviously gets a 10 for guitar and, within his catalog, there are songs that get to the core of the protests of the era, although that message wasn’t usually at the fore. Hendrix did do a very unique thing that I also try to do. It’s summed up by the Chuck D lyric, “The rhythm, the rebel.” It’s the idea that the music can be just as revolutionary as the lyric. Making a dramatic, radical, and unexpected change for the sake of the art and for the sake of the message is a political act and Hendrix got that. He hit the nail on the head. I try to capture that in my electric and my acoustic playing. Maybe that’s my calling. g

CLASSIC INTERVIEW from the January 2009 issue of Guitar Player magazine Tom moReLLo anD Ben HaRpeR peRfoRm “Save THe HammeR foR THe man”


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i

Tips From The pros

know how to pack a suitcase for a year,” says Mike Scott. “We did 212 shows last year, and this year looks to be even busier.” Formerly with Prince, Rihanna, and other pop stars, Scott has joined forces with Elliott Ives to deliver a twin-guitar attack at Timberlake shows worldwide. Here, the rock/funk tag team shares what it’s like playing guitar for one of the world’s biggest stars. Ives: While it may sound obvious, the first thing to do if you join a group like this is just pay attention. You’re on stage with 15 other people, including keyboardists, singers, and horn players, as well as another guitarist. Plus, there are Pro Tools tracks flying in—cool Timbaland textures that can’t really be created by normal instruments. There is a ton of stuff going on.

20

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Scott: Joining this band is like merging into traffic at rush hour. You’ve got to find your lane. You can’t just pull in at 100 mph. Ives: The fun part is that there are plenty of guitar parts from the albums Justin wants heavier on stage. He’ll say, “Get it dirtier. Bloody that thing up!” When you’re in a band with all these crystal-clear sounds going on, it’s the guitarists’ job to take things over the top with overdrive and feedback, and to do all the other fun stuff guitar players are known for. Scott: [Timberlake producers] Jerome Harmon and Timbaland came to a show recently, and there was so much heavy guitar, they were like, “What is this, Mötley Crüe?” [Laughs.] Ives: On other songs, though, you may be playing the dopest part ever, but the guitars will be buried in the mix out front.

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The hold STeady’S Tad KuBler and STeve Selvidge decode Their aggreSSive Twin-guiTar aTTack by dAv e h u nt e r

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Under Investigation

Hold Steady forged a reputation that found them acclaimed by several critics and countless fans as “the best rock band in America.” Then, in 2010, during the recording of the Brooklyn-based band’s fourth studio album, Heaven Is Whenever, it all lurched sideways a little with the departure of charismatic keyboard player and backing vocalist Franz Nicolay. A regrouping was in order. In hiring a second guitarist to repopulate the touring ensemble (or a third, if you count singer Craig Finn’s coupla’-chordsand-done antics), Hold Steady lead-guitarist and co-founder Tad Kubler didn’t go the route that most might have taken—signing

A thorough examination of a particular style or player. This month: Jeff Buckley’s Grace.

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120 StompboxeS Reviewed by the Guitar Player Staff

Gat h e r i n G 1 2 0 sto m p b ox es a n d r e v i e w i n G ’ e m a l l d u r i n G o n e o f our typically short production cycles tends to have a mind-cratering effect on all involved, but wow, what a way to lose it when you’re knee deep in cool-sounding pedals! Seriously, we simply haven’t seen such a high degree of excellent effects boxes in any of the large-scale pedal roundups we’ve done over the years. No doubt we’re living in a golden era of stompbox craft, and it’s easy to stand by that assessment when you’re playing though distortion pedals that can deliver the rich, complex tones of a righteous AC30, Marshall JCM800, or Mesa Recto;

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SERIOUS ABOUT PLAYING THE GUITAR? GET YOUR FINGERS TO PLAY WHAT’S IN YOUR HEAD

The Serious Blues series covers: • Essential blues phrasing techniques such as trills, slides, and rakes. • Lead and rhythm techniques such as fills and call-and-response. • Expanding your groove pallet with shuffle, straight times, and12/8 feel. • Corresponding DVDs with live demonstrations of examples.

Also Available: Serious Shred!

Click here for a FREE sample lesson! Visit alfred.com/serious-series Photo By: Vincent Tijms

Brad Paisley: Tom Morello Steve Morse

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