Ted Nugent Ted Love the One You’Re With… How Optimizing the Guitars “I Am Classic Rock Revisited
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Mountainview Publishing, LLC INSIDE the Mambo Son’s guitarist Tom Guerra takes a journey to the center of The Player’s Guide to Ultimate Tone TM the mind $10.00 US, September 2010/VOL.11 NO.11 Report of the Byrdland blaster, Ted Nugent Ted Love the One You’re With… How optimizing the guitars “I am Classic Rock Revisited. I revisit it every waking moment of my life because it has the spirit you already and the attitude and the fire and the middle finger. I am Rosa Parks with a Gibson guitar.” own provides cheap – Ted Nugent relief in tough times… Who among us has played 7 more than six thousand RS Guitarwork’s shows, sold 30 million Roy Bowen records, arrived at the peak on replacement of their career bankrupt, pots, tone caps, rebounded with a vengeance refins, repairs and is still throwing down and the variable nature of loud and proud thirty years nickel-silver hence? Uh-huh. Ted. In case you hadn’t noticed, the state Optimizing Junior… of Michigan, and the city of Common sense Detroit in particular, have tips for safely turned out some very inter- replacing esting human beings… Bill pots, caps Haley, Del Shannon, Jim & pickup covers McCarty, Bob Seger, Alice Cooper, Iggy Pop, Marshall 14 Crenshaw, Wilson Pickett, Primal Scream! Little Willie John, Smokey Robinson, Aretha Franklin, Chasing Madonna, Don Was, Jack tone with Wolfetone’s White, and Stevie Wonder, MarshallHead among others. hi-octane humbuckers Then there are the bands… MC5, Mitch Ryder and the plus… Detroit Wheels, Iggy Pop and Wolfe’s the Stooges, Cactus, George ‘meaner’ Clinton and Funkadelic, P90s Grand Funk Railroad, Brownsville Station, ? Mark 17 and the Mysterians, Rare The Eastman T185 MX A truly superior, Earth, the mighty, mighty Motown stable, and The White Stripes. And let us not forget Clarksdale, affordable Mississippi native, John Lee Hooker, who found his voice playing in the east side clubs of Detroit semi-hollowbody while working a day job at the Ford Motor Company. But when it comes to ‘70s arena rock, Ted thinline electric… Nugent held a stranglehold on the blistering brand of gonzo mayhem that is and has always been www.tonequest.com cover unique to Detroit. Why Detroit? Who knows? It’s simply the Indeed, distortion place where the spark burned hottest long enough to create was Nugent’s friend, an attitude of complete, uninhibited abandon. Call it a free and he cashed a lot for all… of checks drawn on a towering bank “One chord is fine. Two chords is pushing it. of Fender Twins Three chords and you’re into jazz.” – Lou Reed pounding massive Showman cabinets In 1965, and the world’s The Fifth largest collection of Dimension vintage Byrdlands. in Ann It is also essential to Arbor and note how Nugent’s The Hideout feral leaping about and prowling the stage in nothing but a were the loin cloth or trailing a furry cat tail effectively ignited the places to latent tribal instincts of his white, working class fans — a be seen and generation centuries removed from the frenzied ecstasy of hear popu- tribal rituals celebrating the hunt, the kill, and the feast, van- lar Detroit quished enemies, life’s beginning and end, and the collective bands faith in a higher power. You can knock the act all you want — like The Underdogs, The Mushrooms, The Fugitives, The swinging on a rope or riding in on a buffalo — but Nugent’s Lords, and The Rationals. Downtown, Mitch Ryder and the game was all about putting people back in touch with the Detroit Wheels blistered the charts with two back-to-back essence of their primitive DNA — the very same reason why hit singles featuring one of the most influential and utterly the appearance of rock & roll scared the living shit out of so rippin’ guitarists in the history of rock & roll, Jim McCarty. many people when The Pelvis showed up. Ted was the lean- If you’re wondering why McCarty seems to be popping up est, craziest, hardest rocking mofo in the tribe wielding a so often in the TQR, we’re trying to give you a not-so-subtle lethal thunder stick that operated in just one mode... 140 dB. hint… Most of the major cities in the midwest could boast at least one local guitar hero in the ‘60s – Herb Crawford, Nugent’s first taste of success came early in the Amboy guitarist in Sir Winston & the Dukes, whose hit single, “Journey to the Center of the Mind” Commons in Indianapolis, was released in 1968 and charted at number 16. He eventu- in Cleveland (the original ally changed the name of the band to Ted Nugent and the guitarist in the James Gang), Amboy Dukes and recorded Survival of the Fittest, Call of the and in Detroit, McCarty was Wild and Tooth, Fang and Claw in rapid succession during the shit. Naturally, this did the ‘70s, while becoming famous for arranging cage match not go unnoticed by a young guitar duels on Ted Nugent, who also hap- tour with oppo- pened to note McCarty’s nents like the brief flirtation with a com- MC5’s Wayne paratively rare and unusual Kramer and Glenn Schwartz tool for rockers – the Gibson Frank Marino Byrdland, which Nugent cleverly chose as his signature gui- of Mahogany tar. Destined to transform Gibson’s comely jazz box into an Rush. Nugent acetylene jizz rocket, Ted shrewdly figured that a vibey, semi- then tossed the hollow axe like the PAF-loaded Byrdland would be uniquely Amboy Dukes capable of spewing molten torrents of thick, persistent distor- name com- tion when plugged into a blackface Twin (or six) on ‘10’ that pletely aside would sustain for days. and became simply Ted, teaming with Derek St. Holmes on guitar and “We were the first wave raised on Les Paul, Link Wray, vocals, Rob Grange on bass and drummer Cliff Davies. The Dick Dale and Scottie Moore... We were the first wave to band signed with Columbia and proceeded to scorch the say, ‘More amps is better.’ We were using the same amps as earth with the release of Cat Scratch Fever. Yeowww. Well, Chuck (Berry) and (Duane) Eddy. We just turned them up and that one was pretty good, but he trumped himself with the discovered distortion is not an enemy.” release of Double Live GONZO in 1978, arguably his best -continued- 2 TONEQUEST REPORT V.11 N.11 September 2010 cover work ever. (Riverhorse claims to have been deeply inspired by God clearly loves me and strongly recommends “Great White Buffalo.”) Now Ted more than other guitar was at the top of the rock & roll dung heap for half a minute players, since He has in the relative scheme of life, until Captain Even Up made an surrounded me with the appearance in 1980, and he was forced to file for bankruptcy. most gifted, ferocious Did he slither back into a dark hole and drown his troubles rhythm combos forever. in drugs and drink? Nooo... He hit the road like a man pos- Again, this “Trample sessed, worked his way back into solvency, and he hasn’t let The Weak Hurdle The up since. Dead NugeTour 2010” is propelled by the Yes, Nugent has more Godz of Thunder – recently become a Mick Brown on drums highly visible and and Greg Smith on controversial political bass. These guys ain’t right. They deserve me. Defying gravity animal as well, but with the highest energy rock of my life is such fun. It defies all the Quest for tone has logic, but our rockouts this year are tighter, higher energy, and nothing to do with ani- ridiculously more fun that ever before. We ain’t right. mal rights, the Second Amendment, children’s TQR: Going way back to the beginning, in your early charities, or politics, so teens, who were your early musical heroes, and you’ll get none of that what type of music really moved you? here (nor did we edit any out). For this edi- Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, James Brown, Mitch Ryder and the tion of the Quest, Ted simply shared his passion for the music Detroit Wheels, the Beach Boys, The Ventures, Lonnie Mack, that has super-charged his life. Enjoy... Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, all things Motown, the pure, raw interpretation by the Stones, Beatles, and Yardbirds of TQR: As a rocker entering his fifth decade on the world American black music drove me wild and still does to this day. stage, how are you holding up? TQR: Do you remember your first decent guitar and amp Considering all the animal flight time off the towers of amps setup? What were you playing back then? and 5 foot drum risers for more than 6,000 brutally energized rockouts, plus 40 years of mountain climbing, swamp running As early and killing dangerous beasts with sharp sticks, I’d say I am as 1958 doing miraculously grand! Sixty-one years clean and sober I had does a healthy wildman make. a beat up but TQR: Are you surprised that straight ahead heavy rock gorgeous and roll has survived over the years? blonde no- cut- Not at all. All us so called “classic rock” bands were raised, away inspired and spiritually driven by the Godz of black American Epi- soul, masters like Chuck, Bo, James, Wilson, BB, Howling, phone Muddy, Lightning, and the mighty Motown FunkBrothers big fat magical music et al. Such emotional, uppity, soulful mu- hollow- sic motivated us to put our hearts and souls into being the body and a small single 12” speaker Magnatone amp from absolute best musicians that we could possibly be, and such Joe Podorsek at the Capitol School of Music on Grand River American Dream excellence has a life of its own and cannot Avenue in Detroit.