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Category: guitar

  • The Jon Herington Interview

    Soloist, Sideman & Steely Dan’s Guitarist of Choice

    One unexpected pleasure of my recent Marianne Faithful mini-tour was getting to hear guitarist Jon Herington at the Kate Wolf Music Festival.

    Jon Herington with his Gibson ES-336. [Photo: Tony Kukulich.]
    Jon Herington with his Gibson ES-336. [Photo: Tony Kukulich.]

    Since 1999, Herington has been best known to audiences as Steely Dan’s touring and recording guitarist. He also performs with The Dukes of September Rhythm Review, an all-star band featuring Donald Fagen, Michael McDonald, and Boz Scaggs. And when he’s home in New York, he sings and plays with his trio, the Jon Herington Band, whose material blend bluesy raunch with sly, jazz-informed harmonies in a way that Steely Dan fans are likely to love. (Their latest release is Time on My Hands.) He’s also worked with many other jazz and pop luminaries (partial discography here).

    Angel-voiced Madeleine Peyroux was onstage when out van pulled up at the festival. She was performing a set of intimate chamber jazz, complete with strings and a whisper-quiet rhythm section. We couldn’t see the band, but man, could we hear them! When the guitarist took flight with a ravishingly lyrical slide solo — in standard tuning, no less — my bandmate Rob Burger and I turned to each other. “Who is that?” I mouthed. More lovely guitar work wafted from the stage: a fluent bop solo. Sublimely understated rhythm guitar work straight out of a 1940s session. “Seriously,” I muttered. “Who is that?”

    It was Jon, of course. As he left the stage, I plied him with as many questions as the quick set change permitted. How did he get those tones? How did he wring such a great slide sound from that Gibson ES-336 using conventional tuning and a standard setup? I was also curious about the demands of the Steely Dan gig, and not merely the challenge of performing a vast catalog of complex guitar parts for the notoriously demanding duo of Walter Becker and Donald Fagen. How, I wondered, would a player approach those oh-so-varied riffs and solos? How would a guitarist honor those beloved solos without making them sound canned?

    I didn’t have time to ask half those questions. But Jon, a charming, articulate fellow, agreed to an email interrogation upon his return home, even though he’s busy with Steely Dan rehearsals in advance of the band’s summer tour. (more…)

  • Well, THAT Was Quite a Week!

    Well, THAT Was Quite a Week!

    8x Marianne

    Wow, what a week!

    On Thursday I met Marianne Faithfull for the first time at rehearsal, and then played two shows with her this weekend. It was intense. It was musically challenging. It was amazing.

    Ten facts about Marianne Faithfull:

    • She’s written countless great songs, including the Stones’ “Sister Morphine.” Her songwriting collaborators have included Nick Cave, Polly Harvey, Jon Brion, Angelo Badalimenti, Beck, Roger Waters, Dave Stewart, Damon Albarn, Jarvis Cocker, and many others.
    • Many great songs were written about her: The Stones’ “Let’s Spend the Night Together” and “You Can’t Always Get What You Want.” The Beatles’ “And Your Bird Can Sing.” “Carrie Anne” by the Hollies.
    • Many great songs were written for her, including “As Tears Go By,” which she recorded before the Stones, and “Strange Weather” written for her by Tom Waits.
    • She portrayed God on the TV series Absolutely Fabulous.
    • She portrayed the devil in the stage production of Tom Waits’ The Black Rider.
    • She is hereditary Austrian nobility, the Baroness Sacher-Masoch. Her great uncle was Leopold Sacher-Masoch, author of the perv novel Venus in Furs and the man whose name inspired the word “masochism.”
    • In the early ’70s she was a junkie who lived homeless on the streets of London’s Soho district for two years.
    • She appears as one of the hangers-on in the seminal Bob Dylan documentary, D.A. Pennebaker’s Don’t Look Back.
    • She’s written two riveting memories: 1990’s Faithfull: A Biography (with David Dalton) and 2008’s Memories, Dreams, and Reflections.
    • She has collaborated with an astonishing list of great guitarists. Jimmy Page played on her earliest sessions. The week before last, she performed in Vienna, Paris and London with Bill Frisell, who’s worked with her for almost 30 years. Her other guitarists have included Keith and Ronnie from the Stones, Marc Ribot, Ry Cooder, Barry Reynolds, Chris Spedding, and Polly Harvey. So no pressure there.

    Marianne  is one of my musical heroes — and would be even if she’d done nothing more than record 1979’s Broken English, for my money one of the bravest albums of all time. She is cool, gracious, witty, generous, and generally brilliant. What an experience!

    Preparing for the shows presented a number of technical hurdles (beyond the usual difficulties of having to learn much music in little time). We performed as a trio, with just me and my old pal Robbie Burger on piano. I made a number of technical discoveries, both in terms of playing and gear. I’ll share some of them with you in upcoming posts. 🙂

    I love my hometown.
    I love my hometown.

    All this unfolded against the delirious backdrop of San Francisco Pride Week, with the entire city exulting in the US Supreme Court ruling that nullified California’s homophobic Proposition 8. I strive to keep this blog apolitical, but I must speak out here, since the issue of marriage equality affects my family, friends, co-workers, bandmates, teachers, and mentors. My eyes teared up when I saw the pics of anti-Prop 8 plaintiffs Sandy Steir and Kris Perry getting hitched in the beautiful SF City Hall rotunda, where my wife and I exchanged vows 20 years ago.

    Like I said: a hell of week. :beer:

  • Fuzz Detective Appendix 1.0

    D’oh! I omitted a circuit from the Fuzz Detective video. It’s the germanium version of the Shin-Ei Companion Fuzz FY-2. So here’s a brief Fuzz Detective Appendix.

    The silicon version of the FY-2 is a cult item, a nasty little thing best known for its appearance on Jesus and Mary Chain’s Psychocandy album. The germanium version (which I didn’t even know existed until reader Bear pointed it out!) is a very different beast. Most notably, it lacks the silicon version’s signature midrange scoop, delivering a thicker, fatter sound.

    As noted in the video, I replaced the stock B50K gain pot with a B5K. (The overall range of tones is pretty much the same, but this way, all the variations aren’t crammed into 10% of the knob’s range.) Construction details and testing procedures are the same as they were for the 12 Fuzz Detective pedals. (more…)

  • Fuzz Detective:The Case of the 12 Germanium Fuzzes

    Fuzz Detective:
    The Case of the 12 Germanium Fuzzes

    As threatened, the Fuzz Detective video:

    WHAT: Twelve germanium fuzz circuits compared and analyzed. These represent the sounds of almost every fuzz pedal introduced between 1962 and 1968.

    WHY: A tool to help players identify the circuits most relevant to their musical needs. This isn’t about particular brands of pedals, but the circuits they employ. If you hear something you like, you can either do as I did and build a clone from the schematic, or buy one based on that particular design. (The relative merits of rival clones is another story.) Of course, if you’re rich and you desire an ancient pedal that probably doesn’t sound as good as a new clone, you can always purchase a vintage original. 😉

    HOW: I tried to establish a “level playing field” by removing as many sonic variables as possible. I used the same signal chain, the same guitars, the same musical material, etc. (Tech details below.)

    WHO:

    1. Maestro FZ-1 Fuzz Tone
    2. Sola Tone Bender Mk 1
    3. Hornby-Skewes Zonk Machine
    4. Sola Tone Bender “Mk 1.5” (similar to Vox Tone Benders)
    5. Dallas-Arbiter Fuzz Face
    6. WEM Pep Box Rush
    7. Sola Tone Bender Mk II (same as Marshall Supafuzz)
    8. Mosrite Fuzzrite (germanium version)
    9. Orpheum Fuzz (germanium version)
    10. Selmer Buzz Tone
    11. Sola Tone Bender Mk III (same as Park Fuzz Sound, Carlsbro Fuzz)
    12. Baldwin-Burns Buzzaround.

    WHEN: Like, now, man! (more…)

  • Tonefiend Book Week 2013: Epilogue

    Monday: Theory and Technique
    Tuesday: Gear
    Wednesday: Repairs and DIY
    Thursday: Biography
    Friday: Fiction

    Thanks to all my smart and cool readers who contributed to the first (maybe annual?) Tonefiend Book Week! I loved chatting about some old favorite books, and getting exposed to so many cool new ones.

    An encyclopedia of rad.
    An encyclopedia of rad mods.

    I have just two quick additions: the first concerns an exciting new acquaintance, and the other a sad departure.

    In comments to Tuesday’s post on DIY and repair books, reader smgear mentioned Nice Noise, a book on prepared guitar by Bart Hopkin and Yuri Landman. I immediately ordered a copy, and received it the other day. I’m blown away. It’s a small-format book, a mere 72 pages, but it is a veritable encyclopedia of alternate guitar treatments.

    Hopkin (he edited the journal Experimental Musical Instruments and wrote the fabulous alternate instrument books Gravikords, Whirlies & Pyrophones and Orbitones, Spoon Harps & Bellowphones) and Landman (he builds mutant guitars for Sonic Youth, Liars, Melt Banana, and other artists) discuss pretty much every avant-garde guitar mod I’ve ever heard of, and many besides. It’s not just a catalog — it’s a detailed how-to, meant to be consumed alongside the pair’s online audio library of musical examples. I’m sure you’ll be reading about it more here, because I’m definitely going inflict some of these rad alterations on some unwitting guitars.

    One of the finest rock-and-roll novels.
    A great rock-and-roll novel.

    An a sadder note, the death of Scotland’s Iain Banks this weekend reminded me of a book that should have been inclued in Friday’s installment on musical fiction. Both funny and moving, his 1987 novel, Espedair Street, is simply one of the finest rock-and-roll novels ever. Its protagonist is a fabulously successful rock star (think Floyd or Fleetwood Mac in their prime) who must process his own past while grappling with the prospect of suicide.

    Readers in the UK, where Banks is hugely popular, may be surprised to learn he’s strictly a cult figure in the States. While Espedair Street is his only work to focus on the music world, he wrote many fine novels marked by wry humor and vast empathy. (The Crow Road and Whit are two other favorites of mine.) He also wrote scads of science fiction under the name Iain M. Banks. Banks, 57, had only recently learned he was dying of cancer. In April he composed a final communique to his readers, writing:

    I’ve asked my partner Adele if she will do me the honour of becoming my widow (sorry – but we find ghoulish humour helps). By the time this goes out we’ll be married and on a short honeymoon. We intend to spend however much quality time I have left seeing friends and relations and visiting places that have meant a lot to us.

  • Tonefiend Book Week 2013
    Friday: Musical Fiction

    Monday: Theory and Technique
    Tuesday: Gear
    Wednesday: Repairs and DIY
    Thursday: Biography
    Friday: Fiction

    Tonefiend Book Week is simple: I discuss a few titles I’ve found particularly enlightening, useful, or entertaining, and then you jump in and do the same. I’ve organized the days of this week by subject matter. Today’s topic: musical fiction.

    In comments to yesterday’s installment on musical autobiographies, several folks mentioned the Real Frank Zappa Book. Which reminds me of a quote often (and apparently incorrectly) attributed to Frank: “Writing about music is like dancing about architecture.”

    Glimpses
    A music fan rescues ’60s rock via time travel. (Not as dorky as I’m making it sound!)

    The line probably originated in reference to music journalism, but it applies just as well to fiction about music. Countless novelists and screenwriters are ardent music lovers. Yet there aren’t many novels or films that capture the act of music creation — what’s it’s like to be a musician.

    The problem isn’t a lack of passion for music. Leo Tolstoy, Thomas Mann, and Victor Hugo were knowledgable listeners who channeled the emotions they perceived in great music into equally great prose. But even among literary titans, depictions of the music-making process tend to be as bogus as that clichéd Hollywood montage: Composer paces room. Furiously crumbles aborted manuscript page. Howls at moon. And then — Eureka! — a Masterpiece is born. [CUT TO END OF CONCERT, STANDING OVATION.]

    Writers seem to do better depicting the worlds that surround music. For example, Jennifer Egan’s 2011 novel A Visit from the Goon Squad includes scenes set in the old San Francisco punk scene, and she nails the vibe. Many fine younger writers — Egan, Dave Eggers, Jonathan Lethem — are obvious rock geeks who skillfully evoke the experience of music consumption. There are also memorable depictions of fandom, notably Nick Hornby’s 1996 novel High Fidelity. But few books attempt to provide glimpses into the musicianly mind. (Actually, I haven’t yet read Lethem’s You Don’t Love Me Yet, which is set in the indie rock scene. Have any of you? I sure love his Motherless Brooklyn and Fortress of Solitude.)

    At worst, smart writers sound stupid when attempting to write knowingly of music creation. I dig most Salman Rushdie I’ve read, but man, his 2000 “rock” novel, The Ground Beneath Her Feet is a stinker. Rushdie attempts an alternate rock history via his signature South Asian magic realism, and the result isn’t fantastical — it’s bunk. Sorry, partying with members of U2 doesn’t automatically afford vast insight into the musicianly mind. Or at least that’s been my experience. 😉

    (more…)

  • Tonefiend Book Week 2013
    Wednesday: Repair and DIY

    Monday: Theory and Technique
    Tuesday: Gear
    Wednesday: Repairs and DIY
    Thursday: Biography
    Friday: Fiction

    Tonefiend Book Week is simple: I discuss a few titles I’ve found particularly enlightening, useful, or entertaining, and then you jump in and do the same. I’ve organized the days of this week by subject matter. Today’s topics are repair and DIY.

    I'm indispensable.
    I’m indispensable.

    Sorry in advance if my faves in this category are a bit predictable!

    For any repair topic, I turn to the redoubtable Dan Erlewine. Dan knows his stuff like no one else, plus he’s a terrific writer, with a rare talent for explanation and a charming sense of humor.

    Dan has serviced the instruments of countless great players. (I’d insert a list, but it might wear out my comma key.) Better yet, he makes comprehensive notes and measurements. You learn much about, say, Albert King, just by studying Dan’s numbers.

    Now, I’m the furthest thing from a guitar tech. (Just ask San Francisco’s brilliant Gary Brawer, who regularly rescues my guitars from clumsy abuse and ill-considered DIY attempts.) But for players who simply need help with basic setup, maintenance, and modification tasks, Erlewine’s books — The Guitar Player Repair Guide and How to Make Your Electric Guitar Play Great — are godsends. Get ’em both. You won’t be sorry. (The digital versions live on my iPad for workbench reference.)

    "Me too!"
    I’m indispensable too!

    I never had the pleasure of editing Dan’s columns when I worked at Guitar Player — Jas Obrecht jealously guarded that privilege. But the entire staff would laugh itself silly over Dan’s April Fools columns, like the one where he explained how to install a Floyd Rose tremolo on a pre-War Martin. (If I recall correctly, the process involved filling the body with cement.) Another year, he suggested using kitchen objects as lutherie tools. The photos included a kitchen table used as a clamp for a glue job on some über-valuable axe. (Touch of genius: The pic showed the poor guitar being crushed by a weighty trestle table, where Dan’s kids sat enjoying large bowls of breakfast cereal.) That one prompted a very famous guitar maker to write a shrill letter to the editor. (“It’s highly irresponsible for Mr. Erlewine to recommend using a heavy kitchen table as a clamp. Proper clamps don’t even cost that much!”) The luthier followed this with a frantic phone call, explaining that someone had alerted him to the joke, and begging us not to run the letter. We didn’t. (Dagnabbit!) (more…)

  • Tonefiend Book Week 2013
    Tuesday: Guitar Gear

    Monday: Theory and Technique
    Tuesday: Gear
    Wednesday: Repairs and DIY
    Thursday: Biography
    Friday: Fiction

    This week we’re talking about our favorite guitar/music books. The plan is simple: I discuss a few titles I’ve found particularly enlightening, useful, or entertaining, and then you jump in and do the same. I’ve organized the days of this week by subject matter. Today’s topic is guitar gear.

    Guitar gear books seem to fall into three categories:

    1. Pornographic. Lavish publications featuring beautiful photos of rare instruments, often focusing on a single manufacturer or collector.
    2. Encyclopedic. Thick reference books covering wide swaths of guitar history.
    3. Pragmatic. Books that explain the inner workings of guitar technology, with an emphasis on how to turn this info to your musical advantage.

    Even if I weren’t a jaded former guitar mag editor, I doubt I’d have much interest in coffee-table guitar porn books (and the occasional guitar porn magazine). Or at least, no more interest than I’d have in photos of, say, beautiful watches, speedboats, or nutcrackers. I’m not a guitar collector.

    Not on <i>my</i> coffee table, you don't!
    Not on my coffee table, you don’t!

    Hey — stop laughing! Yeah, I own more than 20 guitars. (The exact number depends on whether I count guitars I’ve loaned out indefinitely and ones I’ve borrowed indefinitely.) I appreciate my instruments greatly, and I am very aware of how fortunate I am to have access to so many musical tools. But in the end, they are just tools to me, with little significance beyond their musical applications.

    I realize this is a pretty weird attitude for a guitar dude, and one reason why I was probably never a perfect fit as a guitar mag editor. (I must be missing some crucial male gene, because I’m equally blasé about cars and sports. With rare exceptions.)

    The classic reference book.
    The classic reference book.

    Reference books are a different story, especially the books of George Gruhn and Walter Carter, and those of Tom Wheeler. Sure, some of their weightier works have guitar porn aspects, but always paired with vast historical knowledge and the expertise of longtime industry insiders. Gruhn and Carter may know more about American guitars than anyone. But I always gravitate to Tom Wheeler’s books, and not just because he’s a longtime friend and mentor. Tom is a fine writer, an impeccable researcher (he’s been a journalism prof for the last 20 years), and he still conveys a teenager’s passion for the instrument. Tom is my hero.

    (Bonus question: Has Wikipedia rendered the guitar reference book obsolete?)

    But these days, the gear books that excite me most are the technically slanted, nuts-and-bolts titles. It’s one thing to ogle pretty instruments, and another to explain how they work, why they sound the way they do, and what that all means for the music we make today. And that’s why I love the books of Dave Hunter. (more…)

  • Tonefiend Book Week 2013
    Monday: Theory and Technique

    Monday: Theory and Technique
    Tuesday: Gear
    Wednesday: Repairs and DIY
    Thursday: Biography
    Friday: Fiction

    This week we’re talking about our favorite guitar/music books. The plan is simple: I discuss a few titles I’ve found particularly enlightening, useful, or entertaining, and then you jump in and do the same. I’ve organized the days of this week by subject matter. Today’s topics are theory and technique.

    Tonefiend Book Week 2013 is an entirely selfish project. I expect to reap tons of great new info from you, smart readers. So don’t be shy about chiming in.

    1. Ted Greene’s complete works

    Yes, it's true — I studied guitar with Bigfoot!
    This week on Finding Bigfoot, the BFRO team visits Encino, California.

    Ted Greene’s jazz guitar books have haunted me since the ’70s. Chord Chemistry, Modern Chord Progressions, and Jazz Guitar Single Note Soloing Vols 1 & 2 remain in print, and are available in both paper and digital editions.

    Ted’s books helped me understand the fretboard, tackle jazz harmony, and perhaps most of all, grasp the concept of voice-leading — that is, the ability to perceive chords not as static blocks, but as volatile structures resulting from dynamic melodies. Ironically, even though Ted’s books are divided into chordal and single-note topics, they go a long way toward erasing such distinctions. Melody generates harmony, Ted teaches, and harmony generates melody.

    Not that I’ve completely digested Ted’s books. Has anyone? These tomes are dauntingly dense and complex. I just cracked open Modern Chord Progressions at random, and this confronted me:

    (more…)

  • Tonefiend Book Week is Coming!

    Tonefiend Book Week 2013

    Next week at tonefiend we’ll be talking about our favorite guitar/music books. I’ll write about some of the titles I find especially useful, inspiring, or entertaining, and I hope you’ll chime in with some of your recommended reading.

    Since there’s so much potential material here, I suggest we focus on a different book category each day. Here’s my proposed schedule:

    Tonefiend Book Week is strictly an experiment, and a selfish one at that. If the past is any guide, the obsessive geeks experienced and sophisticated players who frequent this site will introduce us to lots of lively lutherie-linked literature. And I’ll do my best to keep up!

    So scour your bookshelves, real and virtual. This shit is about to get real promises to be a most edifying conversation.