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13/14 Hohner classical guitar. I ended up painting it Green on the front and back and blue on the sides.
2: The building’s burning down – what one guitar do you save?
Thinline Jap Jaguar. Its so pretty
3: What’s the oldest guitar that you own?
1983 (same age as me) Ibanez Destroyer 2
4: And the next piece of gear you’d like to acquire?
Starcaster
5: What strings do you use?
D'Addario
6: If you could change one thing about a recording of yours, what would it be?
I'd sing more
7: What are you doing five minutes before you go onstage?
Tuning up and being asked if I am single :-) (last gig anyway)
8: ...And five minutes after?
Reocvering and drinking
9: What’s the worst thing that’s ever happened to you onstage?
Blown amp,
10: What advice would you give your younger self about playing the guitar?
in your mid 20s you will stop playing guitar for 2 - 3 years. Don't do it.
An old nylon strung that my mum bought in America, she got it in the 60s/70s, I got it in the 80s (once born) and promptly destroyed it with stickers.
2: The building’s burning down – what one guitar do you save?
Gibson es339
3: What’s the oldest guitar that you own?
1996 Fender Jazz
4: And the next piece of gear you’d like to acquire?
Funds permitting; a HJ Williams Evo Pro. Less funds; a used Rasmus.
5: What strings do you use?
D'Addario 12s.
My tone on an old ep. It sounded odd in the room on the day so I completely fucked about with the eq, turns out my ears were wrong that day.
7: What are you doing five minutes before you go onstage?
Watching the band before, if no band then maybe taking a piss.
8: ...And five minutes after?
Watching the band after, if no band then sleeping on a nice comfy floor.
9: What’s the worst thing that’s ever happened to you onstage?
Kicking off after a 5 hour drive because my gear wasn't working. Turned out you need to put the jack INTO your guitar for it to work. Strange that.
10: What advice would you give your younger self about playing the guitar?
Don't obsess. It'll only lead to horrific credit card bills in later life. Play more golf or something.....erm....
1977, punk is in full bloom, I get a Columbus SG. This is the secret weapon which will get me girls. It works!
2: The building’s burning down – what one guitar do you save?
Gibson Flying V. Got it second-hand in 1980. Still gig it occasionally.
3: What’s the oldest guitar that you own?
That 1979 Gibson Flying V.
4: And the next piece of gear you’d like to acquire?
Something pointy, like a high-end Ibanez RG. Or a Jackson, never had one of those. Maybe something with active pick ups, never had those either.
5: What strings do you use?
D'Addario 9s on the RGS , 9-10s on everything else, 10s on the Jazzmaster
6: If you could change one thing about a recording of yours, what would it be?
Alcohol.
7: What are you doing five minutes before you go on stage?
Nothing much, probably chatting to the bass player.
8: ...And five minutes after?
Collecting wages, breaking gear down, and heading home!
9: What’s the worst thing that’s ever happened to you on stage?
A surreal loop where the set list and my head said “play Blink 182” but my hands kept on playing the riff to “Burn” by Deep Purple.
10: What advice would you give your younger self about playing the guitar?
You know when you were around Gillzie's in 1979, and you both had the broken legs, and he put on that album and said, “Listen to this...” Well if only you could have felt that it was a great chance to learn how to do that and get excited by playing, instead of becoming overwhelmed and giving up learning for 20 years or more cos you believed you could never be that good so it wasn't worth trying.
[Even now it's impossible to convey how it felt to hear EVH playing “Eruption” for the first time.]
1: First guitar - the usual cheap as fook strat copy with horrible action. Mine was a black CSL blazer with rosewood neck. To me it was identical to the one Hendrix played at Monterey. It was 1988 and I was 13.
2: 1980 Ibanez Blazer. Not valuable but its the best ash bodied maple necked strat I've played. Light as a feather and lovely neck.
3: 1975 CMI Les Paul copy. A gift from a friend at work who had it in his loft for years. It has some early Super Distortions in it and rocks like a goodun. The neck is like half a baseball bat. The fit and finish are (ahem) questionable.
4: Something Jooky and one of the small bodied all mahogany Guild acoustics to acknowledge I'm getting old.
5: Ernie Ball Hybrid Slinkys
6: I wish I was / could be more assertive over my guitar sound in the mix.
7: Watching / supporting other bands, forgetting why I'm there and getting a bit tipsy.
8: Trying not to be a dick
9: Blown amp before I'd played a note. Next bands guitarist still loaned me his custom Cornell for our set. Top Bloke
10: Instead of trying to play as fast as Paul Gilbert, try to play as well as him!
I get this completely Grunfeld and at the time, wondered how the hell it was played. At least now there's less or probably no mystery in how something's played/achieved. It's just whether you can play it
2: The building’s burning down – what one guitar do you save?
- Whatever is closest!
3: What’s the oldest guitar that you own?
- 1994 Patrick Eggle Milan IV bass.
4: And the next piece of gear you’d like to acquire?
- Wireless
5: What strings do you use?
6: If you could change one thing about a recording of yours, what would it be?
- Probably bass guitar tone.
7: What are you doing five minutes before you go onstage?
- Making sure everyone is in tune and that we're ready to go!
8: ...And five minutes after?
- Packing away.
9: What’s the worst thing that’s ever happened to you onstage?
- Going through drum skins.
10: What advice would you give your younger self about playing the guitar?
I would have packed up my gear and left the band before the end of the song. Seriously. Leave the arsehole to explain to the audience why the rest of the gig was going to be a bit dull.
Don't give up. Put this one down to experience and be thankful you found out what a total bunch of c***s they were before you invested too much time, effort and money in the band.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
2: The building’s burning down – what one guitar do you save?
My Gretsch is probably the trickiest to replace, as it was a ltd edition...so probably that. I'd want to save my LP though, to be honest.
3: What’s the oldest guitar that you own?
Squire Strat, brand new for Christmas 1989, if memory serves.
4: And the next piece of gear you’d like to acquire?
Realistically: Some new tuners for my PRS
Dreamland: I would LOVE a nice valve combo, and also lust after a Gibson ES 335.
5: What strings do you use?
6: If you could change one thing about a recording of yours, what would it be?
I've never done a single recording I was even remotely happy with other than a couple of nice live ones we have done, so really I'd like to scrap them all and redo them!
7: What are you doing five minutes before you go onstage?
Sticking my ear buds in place with some bandage tape from Boots.
Drinking the first few sips of a pint that will from that point on sit untouched in my clear view for the next hour or so.
Desperately checking the chords of the first dance.
Switching my phone to silent.
8: ...And five minutes after?
After the first set: Checking in with my other half by phone, searching for the food...
After the second set: Trying to pack my gear up as quickly as I can whilst trying to dodge requests from the laptop for our "DJ" section at the end of the night.
9: What’s the worst thing that’s ever happened to you onstage?
In my old band, during a gig where my ex-Mother in Law was present, the singertwat got her to identify herself to the crowd and then went on to tell her, and the entire room, that I had a "thing" for her.
Trust me, nothing could have been further from the truth (unless by "thing" he meant "deep-seated loathing").
Amusing though it is, it actually could have caused me a lot of trouble and I was decidedly not impressed.
My most recent car-crash-onstage was launching gungho into Mr Brightside this last weekend only to find my guitar was mashooooosively out of tune, to the point where the band carried on in a different key to normal in an attempt (unsuccessful) to find a key at least one string was in tune with. Thankfully we finished the song ok with little (read: no) contribution from myself and order was soon restored. No-one bar the band appeared to notice a thing.
10: What advice would you give your younger self about playing the guitar?
Play with other people sooner.
Buy a better amp sooner.
Some Encore Super Strat thing in the mid '80s all black and chrome. I ended up doing all sorts of weird stuff to it and 'selling' it to a girlfriend...
2: The building’s burning down – what one guitar do you save?
Nearest one. I have kids so they take priority over inanimate objects. Done the rescuing guitar from burning building in real life already when in my teens, so not risking that one again as I'm not as nimble these days.
3: What’s the oldest guitar that you own?
1969/70 Jazzmaster
4: And the next piece of gear you’d like to acquire?
I'll tell you when I see it.
5: What strings do you use?
D'Addario 10, 11 & 12s depending on the guitar.
6: If you could change one thing about a recording of yours, what would it be?
Nothing really I like all my recordings (I just delete anything I don't like) and as I engineer I can always change anything as I have all the original masters.
7: What are you doing five minutes before you go onstage?
Smoking, drinking & generally telling obscene jokes.
8: ...And five minutes after?
Drinking and using the loo (not always in that order, sometimes at the same time)
9: What’s the worst thing that’s ever happened to you onstage?
Pulled amp stack down with guitar cable, and that yanked out power socket off stage. Just before a solo.
10: What advice would you give your younger self about playing the guitar?
Lay off the women and the weed 'or' maybe a 100 watt JCM800 and matching 4x12 isn't an ideal 'bedroom amp'.
Win a Cort G250 SE Guitar in our Guitar Bomb Free UK Giveaway
1: What was your first guitar and when did you get it? - A Honher Strat copy in 1994, played it to death and still have it, badly needs a refret and a new nut but that thing has spot on intonation all over the board,in fact has ruined some far more expensive guitars for me!
2: The building's burning down- what one guitar do you save?- In all honesty probably that Honher strat, so many memories the rest can all be replaced, plus the Duncan JB I butchered into the bridge is really old.
3: What's the oldest guitar you own? -Sounding like a broken record but that Honher strat from 94 ( how sad!)
4: And the next piece of gear you'd like to acquire? - There's several but today its a Fender Billy Corgan strat or a G&L Fallout
5:What strings do you use? - Ernie ball 12's or Beefy slinky or heavy top dependant on guitar
6: If you could change one thing about a recording of your, what would it be? - I cant mix for sh*t so that I guess?
7: what are you doing five minutes before you go onstage? - Not gigged since 2001 but back then its downing a pint, smoking a cig and trying hard not to hurl.
8:...And five minutes after?- Thanking people for their pity claps
9: What's the worst thing that's ever happened to you onstage? - crowd knocked mic into my face breaking my nose, luckily I was drunk enough to brush it off and continue, next day hurt like hell.
10: What advice would you give your younger self about playing the guitar? - Learn a bit of theory - its ok it wont make you a muso wanker , stop swapping guitars all the time its not the guitar thats shit its you! oh and keep having fun whilst you can.
Indeed, it's an awful story.
Get your guitar out tonight and move on.
Yup, definitely don't give up. Put an ad up on joinmyband.co.uk, asking for other musicians of a similar level of experience to jam/form a band. One lot of cunts doesn't mean everyone's like that. And playing with others is THE best way to improve. It drives improvement through necessity, and is also motivational (in a good way). Countless guitarists site not really beiong able to play when they formed their bands.
Electric was an Aria Pro II soloist clone with sharkfins et al, it actually played really nicely, had a Kahler trem and a funky faux lightning paint job, would love to have it back. Must have been 1991/92
2: The building’s burning down – what one guitar do you save?
Easy, only got one at the moment - Charvel San Dimas hardtail
3: What’s the oldest guitar that you own?
My original 3/4 classical that i learnt on when i was 10, which makes it a 1988...
4: And the next piece of gear you’d like to acquire?
Gibson Explorer Pro, but i'll change my mind next week to a Les Paul, then back again
5: What strings do you use?
D'Addario 9-46, perfect blend of light top heavy bottom, enough beef for drop D and still bendable on a 25.5 scale on the dusty end
6: If you could change one thing about a recording of yours, what would it be?
The drum sound on my old band's last demo, i could have got a better drum sound flicking a piece of paper...
7: What are you doing five minutes before you go onstage?
Warming up my hands, doing geeky runs up and down the neck to loosen up the joints, oh and always have a pre-match piss
8: ...And five minutes after?
Packing up my gear sadly - i'd love to say something more rock n roll, but i'm pretty anal about tidying away my stuff when in the wild
9: What’s the worst thing that’s ever happened to you onstage?
My DSL100 head going down 30 seconds into the first tune of a 5 tune set, then getting my backup Laney GH100L head up and running somewhere in tune 3 only for that to go tits up too!
10: What advice would you give your younger self about playing the guitar?
Use less gain!!!! EQ for the room you're in, put the overall sound of the band before your ego, put the hours in on the technical stuff when you're young and learn some theory!
A twenty-quid POS from a pawn shop, but assuming I can gloss over that, it was a Black Squier Strat bought in November 1987 from Rockbottom in Croydon. £175 I think.
2: The building’s burning down – what one guitar do you save?
My recently acquired 1969 (YOB) Strat.
3: What’s the oldest guitar that you own?
That Strat.
4: And the next piece of gear you’d like to acquire?
Another Squier: A bass VI when my local shop finally gets one.
5: What strings do you use?
A different set each time. For bass I'm settled on TI jazz flats, but for guitar I'm still deciding.
6: If you could change one thing about a recording of yours, what would it be?
Play better, sing better, ...
7: What are you doing five minutes before you go onstage?
Going for a wee.
8: ...And five minutes after?
Having a drink, strength determined by how well/badly things went.
9: What’s the worst thing that’s ever happened to you onstage?
For my first gig I borrowed someone else's amp. It had a standby switch, unlike any amp I'd experienced at that point, and someone had switched to standby before I hit the stage. The intro for the first song was just me and the drums. Except my amp was on standby, so it was just the drums. Cue very puzzled looks from the drummer.
10: What advice would you give your younger self about playing the guitar?
Buy less, better kit, and worry more about the playing than the kit.