sign in sign up
<<
Home , Chris Dreja, Jeff Beck, Little Games, Over Under Sideways Down, Silvertone (brand), The Yardbirds

Mountainview Publishing, LLC INSIDE the

Johnny A And

The Player’s Guide to Ultimate Tone TM 7 $20.00 US, May 2017/Vol.18 NO.7 Report G&L ASAT A Fine Tribute to the Beloved Telecaster with Johnny A.

8 G&L F-100 Since he embarked on a solo career nearly two decades ago, Massachusetts-based Johnny A. has emerged as a world class whose solo work has made fans of fans numbering in the Rock Solid hundreds of thousands. He truly is a modern day virtuoso, whose music also came to the attention Investment of , who gave him his very own signature model back in 2003. Now occupying the sacred “lead ” chair in The Yardbirds, Johnny A. can truly do it all, from melodic guitar music to all out up . 9 DuoSonic Clear, Bright, Clean

11 Interview with Jono Mason Kitchen Sink Studios

16 Classic Tube Tone Circa 1965 Silvertone 1485

17 State of the Art, Yesterday & Today SWR California Blonde

We recently caught up with Johnny as he was preparing to embark on another solo tour of America, 18 to be followed by a tour and with The Yardbirds. Cheap & Better Than Good TQR: You’ve been a Gibson endorsee for what, seventeen years now? How’d that come about? Martin DX1KAE Acoustic Guitar www.tonequest.com cover story

Actually longer…I first got endorsed by Gibson in 1994 back because it was the first time I’d done it, so I started to only when I was playing with Peter Wolf. I basically cold called use R9 bursts with Bigsbys…I was the first one to receive a them…I was in the market for a flametop, they’d just started '59 burst reissue with a Bigsby, as the Bigsby was a big part of the whole Gibson Historic reissue program a couple of years what I did. At the next NAMM show down in Nashville, and before, and I had bought a 1993 goldtop which I loved and I Rick Gembar asked me “how are the Bigsby Les Pauls work- was on a hunt for a burst which I ended up finding in Bangor, ing out for you” and I said “I love the , but I miss the Maine. So I just reached out to Gibson Custom, and connected hollowbody tone that is a big part of the sound I like getting.” with a guy named Mike McGuire who was the shop supervisor So I was just voicing my concerns, saying that it would be and also GM Rick Gembar, and said “hey, you don’t know me, great to have a guitar that was able to get me both what a Les but I’m working with Peter Wolf, and I’ve played your guitars Paul got but also get the other things that I’m searching for forever and I’m totally enamored with the work you’ve been live. So Rick said that they’d be interested in developing a doing with the Custom Shop, and are you taking on any new signature model with me, which was ultimately released at artists?” For whatever reason, Mike and I had a great chemistry Summer NAMM 2003. I got the first two prototypes in March right off the bat… we just became really tight, they’d give me 2003 which I used on my second album which I was record- artist pricing and they made sure I got selected woods, that ing at the time and they were so diligent with me in tweaking type of thing. And as I continued to work with them, they’d the design that when I got those first two prototypes, we never help to tailor the guitars to me, maybe change the neck profile, made any changes going forward. Even the color was right so roll the edges, maybe some different colors, so that was always they ended up being the production model. a nice perk of being involved with them. TQR: Did they come stock with the '57 Classic As far as becoming a signature artist, that happened later on, humbuckers? after the “Sometime Tuesday Morning” album in 2002. This album was pretty successful for me, it sold 100,000 copies and Yeah, I liked the '57 Classic and have never switched from had a number one single across the country (“Oh Yeah”), so them. There are a lot of great pickup builders out there, but we were at a NAMM Show and I was talking to Gibson about this really seems to work for me and if something seems to be custom guitars. I was pretty much using an ES-295 for about working, I don’t wanna change it to confuse myself. 75% of the record, with the rest being other . So when the record started to click, I was touring around with multiple TQR: We’ve talked about some great Fenders you’ve guitars, and was switching back and forth between the 295 and owned as well, but really got away from them with an ES-335 and the Les Paul, and even though they all had the the rock explosion (e.g. SRV) during the '80s. same scale lengths, they are completely different ergonomical- Do you still have any Fenders you like playing as ly, the weights, neck sets, etc., and I was sitting down at this well? early point in my solo career, and it became unnerving to go I don’t have any of my vintage Strats or Teles that I used to have, I’ve got- ten rid of them and the two that got away that I should have kept were my '65 Strat with stock bass frets that was Lake Placid Blue which has two very identifiable blemishes in it, and an original from a 335 with the neck set at the 19th fret to a Les Paul and '52 Tele which 295 with different locations for the neck set and different sized was a beautiful guitar too. The only Fenders I have are a bodies, as well as the feedback issues with the 295. To be hon- baritone Bajo Sexto and a James Burton signature Tele which est, I had a lot of anxiety in the early solo instrumental days James gave me, and a first year Clapton Strat in 7-Up green. I -continued- 2 TONEQUEST REPORT V.18 N.7 May 2017 cover story don’t really use them or play them to be honest… And I think I like, occasionally I might use an octaver or chorus, though a Gibson sound has become identifiable with my sound… I’m not typically a fan of chorus, and occasionally I might use a wah wah or a flanger. TQR: Of course, many versions of the Johnny A. come equipped with a Bigsby vibrato, and you seem to TQR: I’ve seen you recently both with The Yardbirds and have mastered the subtlety of the Bigsby as well… with your solo band and you are using vastly dif- how do you approach using that? ferent rigs. Take us through your signal chain with each outfit. I’ve heard it said by a lot of people that they don’t stay in tune, all that stuff, but I think its important to know the limita- Starting with the solo rig, it always starts with the guitar, and tions of the tools you use. Even Eric Johnson said to me one for the majority of my solo career I’ve been using the Gibson time “how do you keep a Bigsby in tune?” I’ve never really Johnny A. I tour with three Johnny A.’s, one in regular tuning, had any problems with it, I keep the nut and string contact one in open G tuning with a low D with flatwounds for the points lubed with Big Bends Sauce. I do all my own setup ballads, and just a backup. That goes into a Lava Retro Coiled work so I understand how they work. cable into a TC Electronics G My ap- System. There proach to are four insert playing loops into the G guitar is to System and I use always try to four different have a vocal overdrives for quality type different levels of phrasing, of distortion. an emotive Most of the sound. I’m time, the volume a frustrated control on the singer, I guitar for my wish I could solo gig is flat sing, but I out, and the amp really can’t, is set very clean, so when I so the distor- play, espe- tion comes from cially in my the overdrive pedals. I currently am using two Klon KTRs melodies, I in Loop1 and Loop2 set at two different levels of distortion, always try in Loop3 I am using a Jetter GS124 for a different type of to make it distortion, and then in Loop4 it’s a Jetter Train Drive for even very vocal, and with the Bigsby, I can add a subtle vibrato like more distortion. I was using a wah too but have since changed a vocalist would use. Nothing extreme, it’s not that kind of to using a Mission Engineering expression pedal. From there, mechanism… it differs based on the size of the venue. All my rigs run in stereo, and I use handwired Marshalls, either two 18 watt TQR: You seem to have kept up on emerging technology, Marshalls 1958Xs loaded with 10” Celestion Alnico Golds as you successfully employ more modern pedal- and from there, I run George L’s cables to the amps, then di- board effects into your solo band stage rig. I know rect into the PA using 2 Mesa Cab Clones for speaker emula- you worked for Tom Scholz for awhile, did that tion. I also have two 20 watt handwired heads with twin 2x10 spark your interest in it? How do you keep up with cabinets, and for bigger venues I have two JTM45 handwired new gear? heads with two 4x10 cabinets. I do prefer 10” speakers…

I did work for Tom for about four years as his “ears,” his For The Yardbirds, I use a totally different rig…I use a Les audio tester at Scholz R&D, but my awareness of gear didn’t Paul Junior with a P90 and am very active with both the really come out of that. I really like different tones, great guitar’s volume and tone controls, a Lava Retro Coiled cable ambiances, the right type of echo, the right kind of reverb. As which I find knocks down some of the pinchy highs because far as my pedalboard, it could probably do a lot more than I do of the resistance, into a custom prototype fuzzbox made by with it. It basically just has the type of delays and reverbs that David Main of Macari’s Music in London England. It’s a -continued- TONEQUEST REPORT V.18 N.7 May 2017 3 cover story

prototype of an original 1965 MK I which they made for Jeff I’ve always had this adoration of guys playing lounges or . From there, it goes into the custom MK IV Sunbender piano bars, and was struck by how they could deliver a whole that Mike Piera of Analogman made me. The reason for the sense of a song just by themselves, without singing or accom- two different fuzzboxes is that I need two different tones for paniment, so as a survival thing, I was trying to get more of the different Yardbirds songs, the MK I for tunes like “Shapes that into my playing so I wouldn’t have to depend on a singer. of Things,” So, I never really was a chord melody guitar player, I was “Happen- never a schooled musician though I spent a semester and a ings Ten half at Berklee…I barely knew how to read, but I was able Years Time to pick up a book that a friend had given me, The Complete Ago,” “Little Beatles, and tried to conquer a song chord melody style, and Games,” that song was “Til There Was You.” I was determined to read where I want the notes on the staff rather than the chord symbols, so I’m that real playing the notes in these strange chord structures that I had compressed never played before, and at first I didn’t even know what they darker fuzz were. I learned it in the chord melody style, it took about the sound, and better part of a week, and my fingers, my left hand and the then the MK muscles in my forearm were sore and on fire by the time I IV for things was done, and I was learning it on my . There was like “Heart a cool sense of accomplishment it gave me. Two things that Full of Soul,” happened was that I was learning the song with the Bigsby “Over Under equipped Gretsch, but I also realized that wasn’t the tone that Sideways I wanted, which is how I came across the ES-295. Down,” “New York The revelation that happened was that I realized I was playing City Blues,” which can get that very bitey, non-compressed piano charts, not guitar charts, so a lot of the close voicings in your face fuzzbox sound. The path then goes to an Xotic I was doing EP Booster. I also use a handwired wah wah and then to which didn’t a Wampler Tumnus and a Hermida distortion pedal (from the necessarily maker of the ZenDrive). It was sent to me years ago, and just include the says “distortion” on it. To tell the truth, I never used it and root came then all of a sudden it just sounded great with The Yardbirds. from piano From there it’s fed into a TC Electronics PolyTune Mini, and vs. guitar. goes into a TC Electronic Stereo Flashback and then in A lot of the stereo into a Hall of Fame reverb, out to the amplifiers with melody was George L’s cables. The amps are twin Vox AC-30’s with no buried in the speaker emulation. Both pedalboards were made for me by a chords vs. on company called Fix Pedalboards from California. the top, and that’s really TQR: Your live solo shows include some beautiful guitar how I de- instrumentals where you are playing a combination veloped my of rhythm and lead in a technical approach remi- style, it was niscent of . You’re emulating the vocal more out of line and both the rhythm guitar and sometimes bass ignorance of lines as well…How did you develop that? not knowing what I was Quite accidentally, and out of survival (laughs)…I’ve always doing, and I just liked the sound of it, so I developed it more played hybrid picking, with a flatpick and two fingers. Even and more. This led to me developing chord formations into as a kid, for some reason it came natural to me. With a chord songs that I started to compose. melody approach, you are trying to cover a lot of ground and while I do love Chet, that really came out of survival – when I TQR: When the new, rejuvenated Yardbirds first first started out the instrumental solo rehearsals back in '98 or announced plans to regroup and tour, they original- so, I had just left Peter Wolf and I wanted to start a band but ly tapped for the project, but soon after not have to rely on a singer, I knew that whoever delivered the announced you would be taking the coveted lead melody…was the sound of the band. guitar slot. How did this gig come about for you? -continued- 4 TONEQUEST REPORT V.18 N.7 May 2017 cover story

Well actually, I was called initially for that Yardbirds’ tour, but to come out of Great Britain, how do you approach I had already committed to a series of west coast dates for my the different stylings of each? solo band. I had known and Jim McCarty since The bulk of what we do is from the period, but we do a couple things from the Clapton days such as “I Ain’t Got You” and “Good Morning Little Schoolgirl” and also a few numbers from the latter days with , including “Dazed and Confused” and “.”

But it’s not a conscious thing, I don’t think “now it’s time to put my Jeff Beck clothes on” when we do “,” I just was so immersed in their music from an early

2003 because their “Birdland” album was on the same label as I was, ’s “Favored Nations Records.” I got to know them because they were playing at House of Blues in Boston, and I went to the show, introduced myself and I was asked to sit in, and we had a great time. Then the label called me, and asked me to go down to Manhattan, and sit in again with them at B.B. King’s, which I did. Consequently, every time they would come through town, if I wasn’t , I would hang with them, sit in with them, blah, blah, blah. So I got the call to do that initial tour with them, which I really wanted to age, it’s part of what I do … The growth period in your won- do, but as I said earlier I was already committed to leave for a der years is amazing…everything comes to you so fast and fully booked west coast tour, and you can’t just cancel shows, you absorb it like a sponge. It’s like your original friendships so I had to say no, so they looked around and approached from when you were in school, or guys from your first band, Earl Slick. They were going to use Earl, then Jim became ill you get together and it’s like nothing ever changes. I think it’s and their tour was cancelled. When they put the tour back the same way with music, it becomes a part of your structure together again, I got called again, and I was just in the process and it impresses itself upon you and always stays with you. of mounting a mid-west tour, had a couple gigs confirmed, but Through the years, I’ve gotten into all kinds of music, but the the rest of the tour was not in place, so I personally called the stuff that always has stayed with me, is the promoters and they graciously let me out of my gigs and I did stuff, the stuff like Clapton in Cream, and most the first Yardbirds’ tour in October/November 2015, and so far definitely Jeff Beck in The Yardbirds. So, I don’t drift con- we’ve done five tours together and we’re planning on going sciously from player to player…I mean, I never auditioned out again a few more times this year. for The Yardbirds, I just got the gig, and it was the same for all the guys. We just showed up for rehearsal three days The Yardbirds’ music from '65-'66 was directly responsible before the first gig, and that’s been the lineup. for the rock and blues approaches to my playing. I started out in music on drums, then moved over to guitar when I heard That being said, when they sent me the list of songs to learn, , falling in love with their melodies…but then I realized that even though I was really into them as a kid, when I heard The Yardbirds, I had in my mind that the only Yardbirds song I had ever covered in my early bands I wanted to be a lead guitar player. The “Having a Rave Up” was “New York City Blues,” yet I knew all this stuff for some and “Over Under Sideways Down” period became part of my reason. I just went back for a refresher and dug a little deeper, DNA, it’s how I approach my rock tone, how I release a solo, tried to find some old videos on YouTube to try to see where the aggressiveness…it’s all really due to The Yardbirds and to the positioning was on certain chordal things, or where a lick Jeff Beck. or solo was played, as it does affect tone.

TQR: Given the guitar legacy of The Yardbirds which TQR: Have you played with any of the original featured arguably the three greatest ever Yardbirds’ guitarists, Eric, Jeff or Jimmy? -continued- TONEQUEST REPORT V.18 N.7 May 2017 5 cover story

I have played with Jeff Beck. It was a bucket list moment for I do know that I have a good business mind and could start me, as would be a chance to play with Clapton, any of the a business…but I don’t know at this point if I could go into Beatles, Hendrix, John McLaughlin…but as a kid, if you had an endeavor like that, though I’ve always wanted to have asked me if I could play with any of my favorite guitarists in a martini lounge with live jazz music, but that’s a full time the world, it was always Jeff Beck! commitment as well, and while I’m performing, I can’t really give something like that the attention it needs. The thing about Jeff Beck that always struck me is that I always thought that his playing was a true extension of his I’m currently writing songs for the new Yardbirds album personality…he is up front about his personality and wears it which we are going to start recording in November, and the through his guitar. His sarcasm and his humor, his aggression, inspiration is there, I don’t really know where it comes from. and it was a real thrill for me to play with him. People ask, “how do you write a song,” and I think…”I don’t know, how do you pull an engine apart?” (laughs)…it’s just I was called to be a counselor on one of those rock and roll that everybody has a certain talent, and mine happens to be fantasy camps which I’ve done a few times. In this particular how to chase a melody, how to play guitar and having some camp, the marquee artists were and Jeff Beck. chops, or something like that, and it comes quite The way those work is that you put a band together with the naturally. campers, you try to learn some material and you play fifteen minutes on the stage with them. The rockstar counselors get TQR: So how do you go about writing a song? (laughs) to play on the first night with the marquee artists, and does a performance for all the victims, I mean, campers (laughs), and Lately, or since the start of my solo career, I’ve tended to we got to play with Jeff. I got to stand right next to him and it write a melody first, usually not even with an instrument in was a lot of fun!!! my hand. I’ll hum a melody and then pick up a guitar, and try to frame some chords around it, usually the most obvious TQR: Many top artists including KISS, and chord have gone on record saying that it is pattern pointless to create new music since nobody is that fits buying it, yet you’ve released three excellent solo that in the recent past. What keeps you ticking melody, as a creative musician? but then I’ll start I guess it’s what we do. I do like business and have a business to alter side of me too… I recently had a slight accident (note: on chords… The Yardbirds’ recent tour of Florida, Johnny slipped on a wet the mel- floor and severely injured his wrist), which has temporarily ody will limited my mobility and I’ve been nursing it for the past three remain the same, but the chords framing it will give it a whole new depth. There’s nothing more satisfying than creating, you come up with a germ of an idea, from noth- ing and by the time you’re finished you have a new piece of music. Having a good studio really completes it, you have a total blank canvas, you don’t need to watch a clock, but hav- ing the discipline to say “it’s done,” or having the luxury to say “this isn’t quite right, I have to scrap it and start from the beginning” really is a great thing. I’ve never had that luxury weeks, but facing the fact that it could have been worse, with until the “Driven” album, where I played all the instruments the risk being that it could have prevented me from playing and was able to use the studio as another instrument…it was a the guitar for the rest of my life was really scary…it’s the lon- huge undertaking because besides playing all the instruments, gest relationship that I’ve had with ANYTHING, other than I did all the recording, all the editing, all the mixing, etc. TQ my parents…I’ve been playing my guitar for over 50 years and I play it every day…it’s all I do to make a living. -Tom Guerra -continued- 6 TONEQUEST REPORT V.18 N.7 May 2017