Month: October 2003

The dog died and the woman done me wrong! Such are the traditional pains of the country music songwriter.

But as tired and trite as mainstream/top 40 country music can be nowadays, there are still times when a fan of the real deal can be convinced that, given the right boots, these themes can still be properly kicked around. You know, like Marty, Merle, Buck, Waylon, and The Man in Black used to do it.

Enter The Domino Kings – and their size 12 Tony Lamas.

The three-piece unit based in Springfield, Missouri, has been kicking around the countryside since 1994, and recently upped the anty with Life and 20, its second album. Featuring gutsy, down-to-earth tones and attitude by guitarist/vocalist Steve Newman, bassist/vocalist Brian Capps, and drummer Les Gallier, DK offers up country/rockabilly that oozes distinct originality despite its retro feel. Listening to DK music, at no time do you get the feeling they’re copying anyone, but there is something familiar.

And New-man, whose playing hints at many stylistic influences, is a guitar show-goin’ equipment lover whose knowledge of gear, combined with his skill, makes DK music a hellaciously sweet listen for vintage tone lovers, regardless of their tastes.

Vintage Guitar: At what age were you first exposed to music, who was responsible, and what effect do you think that exposure had?
Steve Newman: I’ve been exposed to music – country music – since the day I came home from the maternity ward. My family is musical and it was natural to see guitars, fiddles, and mandolins in every corner of everybody’s living room. It was something we all did in some form or another and something we all still do every time we get together.

Although I started later than most of them (I was 14 years old), music was always right in front of me. I think when music is presented to you like that, it’s bound to be more natural-sounding and feeling, even if you never play. It will always be just a little more familiar to you than to folks who didn’t get to grow up that way.

You and the band hail from Springfield, Missouri, a place with notable musical history.
I moved here from Hickory County, about an hour north of here, when I was 17, and man, I thought I was in the Big City!

But yes, Springfield has a great musical history – it was the home of The Ozark Jubilee, hosted by Red Foley. They had folks on there like Chet Atkins and The Carter Family – a moment of silence, please. And Ronnie Self, who was on Sun Records and a great rockabilly songwriter and picker, was from here. We also got Robin Luke, who had a number one hit in 1957 with “Susie Darlin’.” I think he was on the Dot label.

Springfield was just creepin’ with real-deal hillbilly music from the start. I don’t know how much it influenced me, but it sure is cool to be able to drive up and look at the house where The Carter Family used to live.

What was in your first rig?
The first rig I actually owned was a Teisco guitar and an old Silvertone amp. I broke ’em both and then my mother got me a Peavey Patriot and a Peavey amp with a 10″ speaker. That was after I started playing out.

When I started, I was borrowing my uncle Donnie’s ’62 Stratocaster. My cousins didn’t like to play it, so I always got “stuck” with it! My uncle sold it to a dealer, and I’m told it belongs to Charlie Daniels now. I’d love to get that guitar back in my hands some day…

Who or what most influenced you to start playing guitar?
I guess that would have to be my family. Like I said, they were always playing together and visiting in between songs. Then after I started, I discovered that girls liked it!

How did your influences evolve after you started playing?
After my family, I listened to the radio. Country and gospel with the family, rock and roll with my friends. I was into anything that had a guitar in it – Roy Nichols, Luther Perkins, Don Rich, Grady Martin, Pete Anderson, John Jorgensen. At the same time, though, I liked rock guitar like The Eagles and The Allman Bros.

There’s also a guy who was in The Fabulous Eels (Rick Springfield’s band) named Tim Pierce, who is a killer straight rock player. I know country music fans are choking right now, and I take a lot of crap for saying that, but that was a good band, and everybody can kiss my ass.

Who do you now consider primary influences?
It would be hard to pick now, because it seems that whatever I hear that strikes me today will come out in my playing, whether it’s a Pete Anderson guitar lick or a Floyd Cramer piano run. Sometimes it’s music from a TV commercial or a sitcom theme song.

As a teenager, you kept busy playing professionally…
Yeah, I played in Opry bands since just before I turned 15. They were music shows similar to the “Grand Ole Opry” or the “Louisiana Hayride.” The bands I played in on the side were everything from straight country to rock and roll, but my bread was buttered by the Opry bands.

Then, after I moved to Springfield the first time, I had some auditions in Branson. On the way to there, I started thinking, “This is no different than the other shows, they’re just in a different place. If I’m gonna have to keep playing songs I don’t like. I think I’ll just quit.” And I did. I stopped at the first music store I saw, sold everything I had, and didn’t touch another guitar for almost two years.

Burnout?
I wouldn’t say I was burned out…I guess I just had a mad fit.

And you went without a guitar for a couple of years, right?
Right. But I thought about guitar constantly – all day, every day, no matter what I was doing, I was playing the guitar in my head. And somewhere in that time I reached a point where I learned how to learn. The notes became clear on the guitar neck in my head. I couldn’t tell what key a song was in, but I could tell where all the notes were in relation to whatever the root note was. So no matter the key, when I heard the progression of notes, I could play the song in any key. Kinda like theory made ignorant.

When I finally bought another guitar, I suddenly knew all these songs. I learned more music in those two years than I ever had before or since.

What was your first band called, and what sort of tunes did it do?
I honestly don’t remember the names of most of the early bands I was in. I remember some of them being exceedingly bad, though! It seems like there were a few “Somebody and the Somethings” bands and a few girl singers. We’d play Dwight Yoakam, Highway 101, Don Williams, Don Gibson, Haggard and Jones, of course, and even Bill Monroe and the Stanley Bros.

At the same time, I was in bands playing everything from Bill Haley to Bryan Adams and Paul Young. And I kept playing in those Opry bands with my family.

What was in your rig back then?
I used a bunch of different guitars (mostly Peavey) straight into one of several Peavey amps or into about a dozen Harmony and Silvertone amps chained together. More buzz than a dope smokin’ contest!

Eventually, I graduated to Stratocasters and Super Reverbs. I never used any effects, then, other than reverb and tremolo.

Were you in any other bands?
From 1990 to ’94 I played in any band that would hire me, and some of ’em never even told me their name. I played country, rock and roll, gospel and everything in between.

When and how did the Domino Kings get rolling?
In ’94, I got hired to play in a band doing a high school reunion. The other guitar player was Brian Capps – he’s now the bass fiddle player in the DKs – who got my name from a music store employee who told him, “This guy will do the gig, but he doesn’t play in a steady band because he’s an ***hole!” Well, it turns out Brian’s as big an ***hole as me! We’ve played together, on and off, for six years now. We had a couple different drummers until Les Gallier came to the band. He really made a difference in our sound.

We’ve played about a million club gigs and essentially lived together in my van when we were on the road, so we all know the other guys’ tricks, trademarks, and dirty little secrets…for the most part.

When did you start writing your own stuff? Do you find the process fairly easy, extremely challenging, or somewhere in between?
I’ve written songs from the start. It’s always been a real strange process where the song comes to me as fast as I can write it down. Very rarely will I use a song I’ve had to labor over. Sometimes I can save phrases or ideas, but mostly they work best if they just come to me. That’s just my method, though, and everybody writes differently.

Apparently, songwriting is in your blood. Tell us about your Aunt Susie.
Aunt Susie was a staff writer at Acuff-Rose in Nashvegas a few years ago, writing mostly, I think, for Loretta Lynn. I’m not sure how many of her songs were hits because she doesn’t talk about it like that. Her last big hit was “Far Side of the Bed” on Lorrie Morgan’s Leave the Light On album in ’89. She can write using any method she wants to – sometimes she snatches a song out of the air in a grand gesture of high art, and other times she carves them out of the big blocks of everyday we all have.

The Domino Kings now have a couple albums to their credit – Lonesome Highway and the brand spankin’ new Life and 20. There are some major differences in tone from one to the next, and there are some stylistic changes. In your mind, how do they compare and how do they differ?
I think one big difference is that we’re an older, more experienced band now. Now, we see the band as more of one big instrument. When we did the first record, Les had been in the band a for only a few weeks, and about half the songs were either written or learned in the studio.

On the new record, we cut songs we’d been playing for a few months. We only learned two songs in the studio – “Time After Time” and “Steppin’ Out Again” – The song “Life and 20” was actually kicked off the first record. It just hadn’t grown up yet.

As far as tones, I just tried to use guitars and amp sounds that fit the songs. I used hollowbodies on the last record, and when I play hollowbodies I always want to play hollowbody licks. I used a bunch of Teles on the new record, so I played Tele licks.

Can you give us a breakdown of the gear we hear so much of on Life and 20?
I used a slew of stuff – a ’63 Tele, ’54 Tele, ’74 Tele, a ’52 reissue Tele, a ’54 ES-175D with P-90s and a Bigsby, ’97 ES-5, ’60 Danelectro Shorthorn, ’67 and ’73 Martin D-18s, and a ’48 Gibson J-200.

The amps were a ’59 Bassman, ’57 Pro, ’59 Tremolux, ’60 Champ, ’65 Vibrolux Reverb, ’64 Deluxe Reverb, ’59 Pac-Amp Troubador made by Magnatone, and a ’62 Fender reverb tank. I also used a Danelectro Danecho delay pedal.

How about track-by-track?
Sure. Let’s see…”Borrow A Lie” is a ’63 Tele through the Bassman, Vibrolux, and Deluxe. “Will He Be” is a ’63 Tele Vibrolux into the Pro cab Altec for the rhythm, and the ’52 reissue Tele through the Vibrolux and the Deluxe for the lead. “Where Your Lies Stop” is the ’63 Tele, the Vibrolux, and the reverb unit. “One More Day” is the ’54 Tele through the Deluxe. “Alice” is the ’63 Tele and the Bassman.

On “Anything But You” the rhythm is the ’74 and ’63 Teles, and the ’52 reissue through the Vibrolux/Pro cab and the Bassman, and the lead is the ’63 Tele and the reissue through the Vibrolux, Deluxe, Pro, Bassman, and the reverb. “Deep & Black” is the ’74 Tele strung .012 to .064 (wound G) and tuned up a half-step, through the Vibrolux/Pro cab, Champ, and Troubador. “Life and 20,” “Don’t Be Indifferent,” “Time After Time,” and “Steppin’ Out Again” are all with the ES-5 through the Vibrolux/Pro cab. “The End of You” is the reissue Tele tuned up a half-step, through the Tremolux. “Tied to Trouble” is the ’63 Tele and the Bassman. “Letting Go of You” is the ’67 D-18. The other instrument is Les playing a mountain dulcimer handmade by his brother, Gary.

I don’t remember where I used the Dano, but the ES-175 is on “I Think My Baby’s Talking to the Devil” on our website (www.dominokings.com) into the Bassman. Log on and download it for free.

You wrote “Will He Be” after finding out your wife was getting you a Telecaster, right?
Yeah, I knew she was getting me a Tele for Christmas, and I wanted to have a new song to go with it. One of the few songs I just made up out of nothing.

It’s always good to have the support of loved ones. But what’s the deal with her running over a guitar?
Actually, it was two guitars – a ’65 Strat with the small headstock, and a ’64 Gretsch Double Anniversary in two-tone green. She is, of course, dead now…(pauses). No, no, she’s not really dead!

Actually, she didn’t even know she did it. We were getting ready to leave for a guitar show in Kansas City, and I had taken the guitars to the car, but couldn’t load them, because she had the keys. So I told her, as she came out the door, to load the guitars in the car. She still says she didn’t hear me. We got in – she was driving – backed up, and suddenly we heard some baaaad noises.

I got out to find the Strat had fallen out of the case and was lying face down in the driveway with tire marks around the eighth fret. I know it’s hard to believe, but I picked the thing up and it was still in tune! The case was in three pieces – she ran over it with a Thunderbird – this weren’t no Yugo!

Sadly, however, the Gretsch didn’t make it. I opened what was left of the case to find it dead, dead, dead. I couldn’t tell parts of the case from parts of the guitar.

I remained fairly calm, though…considering. She sat in the car with the doors locked and I kicked what was left of my Gretsch around the neighborhood for 10 or 15 minutes, then I went in the house, got another case for the Strat, and we went to the guitar show.

This article originally appeared in VG‘s March ’01 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.

Before teaming up with Jimmy Page in 1968 to form the soon-to-become greatest and most influential hard rock band of all time, John Paul Jones was an arranger, composer, and session player, working with many of the most prominent artists of the 1960.

Though best known as a bassist, he’s also an accomplished multi-instrumentalist who had been exposed to a variety of musical styles at a very young age. This vast musical experience provided an extensive resource to draw from as both a player and writer, as he demonstrated in Led Zeppelin. In turn, it was the mixture of many influences brought in by each of the four members and their influence on each other which enabled the group to be so prolific, innovative and unique.

After the mighty Zeppelin disbanded, Jones was not ready to rest on his laurels. Instead, he continued his work as an arranger and composer, but also began producing records with other artists and writing film scores. In ’82, he taught a class in electronic composition at Dartington College of Arts in Devon, England.

While he’s played on and produced a slew of recordings since the ’60s and composed music for (and with) other artists, Jones didn’t release a full-fledged solo album (Zooma) until 1999. The album was received with rave reviews from both fans and critics. A successful solo tour followed with a three-piece band that spotlighted the virtuoso at work and brought new attributes to the classic rock power trio.

With Chapman Stick player Nick Beggs and drummer Terl Bryant furnishing a solid foundation, Jones handles an array of instruments during the band’s live show, including some multi-string basses, electric and acoustic mandolins, ukelele, steel guitar, organ, piano and synthesizer. In addition to performing selections of his new material, Jones and his band also serve up revitalized instrumental versions of several Led Zep classics such as “Black Dog,” with Jones mirroring the legendary riffs on steel guitar, “No Quarter,” with Jones recreating his parts on organ and keyboard, and “When The Levee Breaks,” which he tackles on multi-string bass. For Zep fans, it’s quite a treat.

Vintage Guitar caught up with Jones just after the U.S. release of his second solo work, The Thunderthief (Discipline Global Mobile), and he provided insight on his creative process and shared stories of his experience and education with Led Zeppelin.

Vintage Guitar: Who are your main influences as a player and songwriter, and how have they changed over time?
John Paul Jones: The first record I ever bought as a teenager was Jerry Lee Lewis’ “Great Balls Of Fire,” and then I was a big Everly Brothers fan. I was into “Cathy’s Clown,” “Bye Bye, Love,” and all of those songs. I was mainly getting into songs then, although I hadn’t actually started writing my own. I was just a player. I probably got my share of bluegrass and country music from them.

I also discovered Ray Charles and Little Richard, and through them got into soul. I was a big fan of soul music and Motown in the ’60s, and I especially liked Marvin Gaye and Otis Redding.

Instrumentally, I suppose I got a lot from James Jamerson, the Motown bass player, and Duck Dunn. They were very important. From rock, Jimi Hendrix was probably the biggest influence, although I don’t play guitar; his approach and sheer soulfulness was influential. For modern jazz, it was Charles Mingus, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Gil Evans, Bill Evans, and all of those types of players.

So it was the mixture of players and styles?
I’m influenced by everything I hear. Not just by “names,” but any music that I hear. If I’m in a supermarket and I hear some horrible muzak, I’ll find myself [thinking about] why it’s horrible. Then I can file the information somewhere as, “Don’t do that.” So it’s all useful stuff.

I had even earlier influences which gave me more interest in world music. My father was a musician, and was also in vaudeville with my mother. So we were always up against some Chinese acrobats, accordion acts, bear acts, and all this other stuff. Because I was always on tour with them, I heard music from everywhere in those days. My father was a pianist and trumpet player, and he was a fan of jazz and blues. He introduced me to Sonny Terry, Brownie McGhee, Bukka White, and Big Bill Broonzy, who all used to tour England in those days. He was also a big Latin music fan, so I became interested in a lot of Cuban music and Salsa. There was just a ton of stuff out there, and I absorbed most of it.

You were exposed to many diverse styles at a very young age…
I think it’s very important to be exposed to a variety of music. I worry about younger bands that only listen to their favorite band. They miss out on what made their favorite band so interesting – if indeed it was.

In what ways have your writing and playing styles evolved? And where do you see the greatest changes in your music? And are these things that you’ve consciously worked to change, or just a natural evolution of your style?
It’s all much simpler than that. One of the first things we discovered with Zeppelin was that it was what it was because of the different influences and different musical tastes of each member. We put everything into the mix. We could go a bit more folky or a bit Celtic or a bit Arabic or a bit rocky or bluesy and go in any direction because all the skills and the love of these musics were there. And so the plan was at the time, “There is no plan.” If it sounds good, then it doesn’t matter where it comes from and it doesn’t matter what the influence is. That formula has just stayed with me forever.

Usually, I go for walks when I’m trying to write for a record. I’ll take a bit of manuscript paper and when something sets off an idea, I’ll just follow that idea. Whether it’s blues or bluegrass, it really doesn’t matter. In fact, I’ll probably just try and mix the two because it’s all the same to me. So my writing style has never changed.

Are you ever influenced by the tone an instrument?
Sometimes by the instrument, sometimes by its purpose. On The Thunderthief album, I really wanted to get Robert Fripp, who is my label boss, to do a guitar solo. I wanted him somewhere on the album. So I started thinking, and one little riff [from “Leafy Meadows”] just popped into my head.

Then I just imagined what I thought he would play, if he did a solo. It was all guesswork and supposition driven by experience. Then Robert came in and did the solo I’d hoped he would do. He heard the track and nailed it, straight away. So that track arose out of a purpose.

Another track, “Down To The River To Pray,” came from an instrument. I’d just had a triple-neck mandolin built by Andy Manson, the brother of Hugh Manson, who makes all of the basses, steel guitars, and electric mandolins I use now.

Andy also built the triple-neck guitar I used to use in Zeppelin, so I had him build this beautiful F-5-style mandolin with a carved back and three necks; a regular mandolin at the top, octave mandola in the middle, and a bass mandolin on the lower neck. It’s a long, fat, neck with a gorgeous sound.

I had to think of how I could use it on the record, and I chose “Down To The River To Pray,” which I’d seen in O Brother, Where Art Thou? I’m a big fan of Alison Krauss, and I really liked the arrangement. In the film, it starts with a few voices, then in the next verse, there are more added, and it finally ends up with this huge choir.

So, using a computer sound design system called Kyma, I wrote a loop program that is programmable by footswitches. For each verse, I’d just put another layer down. I did one live take and then put about seven or eight layers on top. And that’s how that song came about.

Usually, if I need a song for a purpose or a solo, I’ll hear the part, then choose the instrument.

So you typically notate ideas on paper before you ever pick up an instrument?
Right. I like to write when I’m walking; I’ll go for a walk and search for an idea that starts me off. I’ll play the idea in my head over and over again. Hopefully, it will get into the bridge section. If you let your mind go, you’ll suddenly find that it will go, and the ideas will come together. I take the staff paper along just so as I can notate the ideas really quickly, just to get the bones of it down.

You’d be surprised at how you think you remembered something and then you get home and it’s actually quite different. I don’t need to carry tape machines around with me.

My father taught me this real simple system, where you don’t even need staff paper. Basically, you put everything in the key of, say, C, then you number the notes, like from C to C is 1 to 8. So if it’s an E, you write a 3 and if it’s an Eb you write a 3 with a little minus sign. If it’s an F, you write a 4 and if it’s an F#, you write a 4 with a plus sign. Then for the rhythm, I use eighth and quarter note beams over the top of the numbers.

So all I need is a blank piece of paper, or anything to write on. I’ve written stuff on my hand with a pencil, just to get down a quick riff. That’s how I did “Black Dog.” I was sitting in a train, and I wrote it on my arm just so I wouldn’t forget it. If you sing it over and over in your head, you’ll find that you change it and the idea might not sound as good as when you thought of it, just because of a minor change.

One little change can make the whole thing different, so you have to get the idea down as soon as you think of it.

Do you make demos?
Yes.

Are they just simple recordings to document the ideas, or more complex arrangements of the parts?
I’ll usually go to the computer and put a quick loop down with an instrument, to get the sound, then play into a ProTools system using whatever instrument is required.

For instance, on “Angry Angry,” you hear what sounds like a bass guitar, but it’s actually an electric bass mandolin. To get the sound and feel, I recorded a couple of bars to a click track, as a reference point. Then I’ll get a similar sound out of a synthesizer and write it in MIDI onto the computer using drum samples. That way, I can easily change key or change tempo. I can do anything and it’s still in MIDI. Because it’s not using samples, it’s very flexible. Then I just build the song in the computer and finalize the arrangement. Then, once I’m happy with tempo and pitch, I replace everything with real instruments.

Do your demos ever become final tracks?
I try not to elaborate the demo too much. I leave it in “drum machine world” and I don’t bother getting a good sound on drums. I get the kicks and snares in, to move the riff along. It’s very important that the drum part is correct; that’s something I learned in Zeppelin.

But there was an instance where I had to use a demo track – the solo to “Daphne,” which is on an electric mandolin. I couldn’t ever get it as good as that demo. When I was playing the solo, I wasn’t thinking about playing, but of how I was going to record it. So my mind was elsewhere and it was like the damn instrument played itself! Then when it came time to do a solo on the final track, nothing was ever as good as the demo. Well, one trick I learned a long time ago, having been badly burned on this before, is that if I’m recording a live instrument on a demo, I record it at the best possible quality. I take a little time just to set it up so there are no buzzes or hums or anything horrible.

So sure enough, I had to use the solo from the demo. I know I really screwed up a couple of bars. There’s one bar I made a complete mess of because I wasn’t in performance mode at the time. I might have tripped over a chair, who knows?! So I had this really great solo with just this one bar that was a total mess. Using ProTools, I was able to just sort that bar out. I reconstructed it from the notes, moved a little here and there, and was able to work out that one bar and save a solo with a great feel. In the old days, if you screw up a solo, you had to play it again or drop in with an overdub. I know that a lot of people say that by using computers and ProTools, you can actually take the life out of something. Well, you can also save the life of something, too. In the old days, you could play something and take the life out of it.

Computers and ProTools are wonderful. You might get a drum fill that’s perfect in every way except it just laid back in one spot. Sometimes one off beat can spoil a whole intro to a chorus or something like that. The whole thing can lag just because that one beat is in the wrong place. So you shift it! It’s only one beat, so who cares? I love that flexibility.

Tell us about your custom-built instruments made by the Mansons.
I met Andy in the ’70s, and he built the triple-neck guitar in ’77 and the ukulele I use onstage. I looked inside it and it says “John Paul Jones 1979.” So that’s sort of a vintage instrument now, I guess. Andy also made me a little collapsible guitar that fits under an airplane seat; it folds in the middle, and all the strings stay on. It’s very impressive. For the next album, Andy just made me a baritone ukulele. I was looking on some website for ukulele strings and it said they carried baritone ukulele strings. I wondered what that was. I did a web search and I found a store selling baritone ukuleles, and I bought one.

It was the first instrument I ever bought on the internet – a Chinese baritone ukulele, which was terrible. It was just barely in tune up to the fourth fret, but was only about $75 and at least I could try it out to get a better idea of the instrument’s sound and range.

So I asked Andy to build a real one. He did some research and he managed to find a piece of koa, which is the traditional Hawaiian wood that is used for these instruments and made me this beautiful baritone ukulele. It’s kind of like an acoustic guitar except that the body is smaller, so it speaks very fast and it’s only got four strings.

I met Hugh Manson in the early ’80s and I have a couple of basses that he made at that time. I’d had him start making me the multi-string basses around the time of the Diamanda Galas project (The Sporting Life), when I wanted to use eight-string bass again. I’d had an eight-string that I’d used in the ’70s on Zeppelin’s Presence album, but it was a bit worse for wear. But I wanted to use that sound again for the project with Diamanda, so I had Hugh build me an eight-string bass. Then he built me a 12-string bass, then I wanted a 10-string bass, then it was a 10-string bass strung differently.

The next instrument he built was a lap steel because I wanted to use one with Diamanda. So he built me a beautiful bass lap steel, which has extra bass strings and goes to a low E.

Is that the lap steel you play onstage?
No. The one that I use onstage is the second one that Hugh built me, which is a gold twin-neck bass lap steel. It has a fantastic sound and I use different tunings on each neck.

Which tunings do you use when you’re playing live?
I have the necks tuned to open E and open A. But I’ve got those little Hipshot three-position levers on the bridge, so I can set them up for a modified A tuning, where I put a fourth into it, instead of a third. I can have them set up for all different stuff, and I can flip to different tunings.

What types of woods are the Manson basses made from?
The 10-string is maple, mainly. The old 12-string is Australian blackwood. That’s the big 12-string. I don’t play it onstage because it’s really heavy, but I did use it on record because it sounds wonderful.

How do you mic and amplify the instruments you play?
All of the basses have got twin pickups, and the neck pickup goes through a bass rig, usually the SWR SM900 and I’ve just started using the Mo’ Bass, which is great. Then onstage, the bridge pickup of the basses go through Marshall 100 watt guitar amps. But in the studio I use a Matchless amp for the bridge pickup. I usually use a Matchless for my steel guitar in the studio, too. I use the SWR rigs in the studio, as well.

When I’m recording, I put a bunch of mics on everything. I have time and I have tracks – I’ve got a 48-track system. So I just put several mics up and then see what sounds I like. I’ll use close mics, distant mics, and a mixture of the two. I’ll also try putting some mics out of phase with other, and just experiment with the sounds.

Do you also run a D.I. line?
I do, but I hardly ever use it. Sometimes I’ll take the DI off and run it into an effect, if I want something with chorus or another effect. I hate to say, but I don’t really like the sound of the DI that much – there’s no air, and it’s just very dry. I might use it if I just need to add a little bit of center to an amp. I’ll put up an amp first, get a couple mics set up on the amp and then I’ll just move them around until I get a really good sound. Then I’ll put the D.I. up and see if it helps. If it doesn’t help, I won’t use it.

Do you have any favorite mics?
I use a Beyer M88 condenser mic on the bass. Sometimes I’ll use a Sennheiser 421 and a kick drum mic like an AKG D 112. I basically just move stuff around until it sounds good. Sometimes I’ll put a Neumann U87 up, too, or I’ll leave a mic on in another room, then open the door and let it pick up the leak-through. I’ll just mix it in and sometimes it sounds good. But then again, sometimes it’s horrible. I do different things just to experiment.

As a player, you have a very unique sound and style. What are the most essential elements of your bass tone and technique?

Well, my fingers probably account for most of it. I’ve had people pick up my bass after me and sound so completely different. It’s the way you play it. It really is. I play quite hard with my fingers and with a pick. I use a very heavy pick, if I’m using a pick for the multi-string basses. I use Jim Dunlop picks, the ones that are like 2 mm. I use them for everything because they have a softer tone than the real hard plastic ones.

Do you use the same kind of pick on all instruments?
Yes. I use the same pick for everything. I play ukulele fingerstyle and I use the same pick for mandolin and steel guitar. I find it easier than if you keep swapping picks for different styles. So I kind of force myself to use the same pick for everything.

How are your basses set up?
The action is quite low – just above rattle point. I still play them quite hard, but then I don’t mind if they’re rattling. That’s all part of it… or part of me, anyway.

Do you have a preference for your brand and gauge of bass strings?
Yes. I use Rotosound Swing Bass strings for everything. For the multi-string basses, I use the Rotosound Piano Bass strings, with the exposed center core, because they’d be too far apart if I were to use regular bass strings. I prefer Rotosound bass strings, but I was never that particular about string gauges. The gauge doesn’t really matter to me.

Aside from the custom-built instruments, do you have a collection of vintage instruments?
Yes, but nothing that’s that original or collectible. Even my old Fender bass that I used in Zeppelin has gone through many re-sprays and this and that. I was just never that particular about keeping things original. I probably shouldn’t have, but it’s a ’62 Jazz Bass which I bought new. I bought it to play, not to hang on the wall; I hate instruments hanging on walls. They’re hanging on all my walls, but I use them all. I pull them down off the walls and they get to work, otherwise they go. I use the shop racks with the extending arms that are angled to the walls. Then I can get to them easily and if I see them, it makes me think about playing them. For playing the odd backing guitar part, I have an old beaten-up SG. But things that sound like strummed guitars on the album are quite often electric mandolas. I try not to use guitar on my records, mainly because everybody else does. For solos, like “The Thunderthief” solo, I used the lap steel. Everything else, like “Hoediddle,” is all electric mandolin.

When you play guitar parts on other instruments – for instance, when you’re playing “Black Dog” on your lap steel – are you thinking about the original guitar part or hearing the sound of Jimmy Page’s guitar in your head?
No. However, sometimes I’ll do a quote from the original part. There are some little Jimmy bits that I do in the solo and little quotes that I’ll use in the song. Jimmy’s parts are quite fun to play because he’s playing with more fingers and I’m playing with a big lump of iron. It’s kind of interesting to see how I can do those little things sometimes. It’s a good challenge and it gets me moving.

What’s the most interesting piece of gear that you’ve acquired in recent years?
I think the triple-neck mandolin is pretty interesting.

How do you typically warm up for a gig?
Basically, I stretch my limbs, wave my arms around, and do a few bends to try to get energy going, rather than actually playing anything. The instruments are usually onstage, so I don’t have any backstage. We’ll sit around and tap on bottles and glasses, which is great. It really focuses your mind on playing along with what the other musicians are doing.

Do you maintain any sort of practice routine when you aren’t touring or recording?
No, but I’m always playing instruments.

What advice would you give to other players on developing their own playing style?
Listen to everything – every style of music, absolutely everything. It’s got to get your brain going, as well as your fingers. One thing that I like to do is to turn on the TV or the radio, sit there with an instrument and just play to whatever comes on, whether it’s Top 40 or anything. I’ll just fit in somewhere and play a meaningful part to whatever’s on. Sometimes you’ve go to tune up real quick and just get in there and try to make sense of it. There’s something to be learned from absolutely everything. I’ve played some killer parts over [Destiny Child’s] “I’m A Survivor.” I’ll do that on mandolin and I’ll get some great mandolin solos I could have recorded over that. But who’d have put mandolin together with Destiny’s Child? You don’t expect to play mandolin to it, so it gets your brain working in different ways, rather than getting set routines. You ambush your brain and your chops and it will help you to be more creative.

What kind of music do you put on when you’re listening for enjoyment?
When in the car, I’ve got Radiohead, Trent Reznor and Tool, but I also play a lot of bluegrass on the mandolin, like Alison Krauss, Rhonda Vincent, Nickel Creek and Chris Thile. I also enjoy world music, Cuban music, flamenco, blues, jazz, contemporary classical or whatever. I don’t care. I enjoy all music, as long as it’s good! Duke Ellington was right: There are only two types of music – good music and bad music.

What are your plans for the next year?
I want to tour The Thunderthief. We’re soliciting offers and seeing what we can put together, whether it’s a headlining tour or a support tour. I’ve got to play to more people and just get out there. After the tour, I’m going to do another album.

Have you started writing material?
No, I wait until it’s time to do an album. Otherwise, things kind of get out of sync. I don’t write constantly – I write when I need songs. It focuses the mind, and you get better cohesion.

Even if the songs you’re writing are different styles, they feel as though they were done at the same time and you don’t get stale ideas. It’s more fun that way and you feel like you’re doing something where there’s a purpose. You start from nothing, write the songs, go in and put the tracks down and record them, mix them, master them, and you’re finished. You do the artwork, then there you go; you started from nothing and you’ve got something.

So it’s one complete process. For me, it works that way. Recording is my hobby, as well, so I’m constantly updating the equipment in my studio and buying new toys. I can’t stop!

This article originally appeared in VG‘s Aug. ’02 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.

Frank Gambale is enjoying a busy life these days. He recently spent a week playing the Blue Note, in Las Vegas, with Vital Information in support of the recently released Show ‘Em Where You Live. The album is Gambale’s seventh with the quartet that also features keyboardist Tom Coster (Santana), bassist Baron Browne (Jean-Luc Ponty, Steps Ahead, Billy Cobham, Mike Stern), and Vital-founder/drummer Steve Smith (Journey, Steps Ahead, Jean-Luc Ponty).

Smith and Gambale have also collaborated on two fusion-trio barn-burners with bassist Stu Hamm, Show Me What You Can Do and The Light Beyond. If those lineups aren’t head-spinning enough, in August, the jazz/fusion stalwart plans to hook up with his old friends from the first incarnation of Chick Corea’s Elektric Band (drummer Dave Weckl, bassist John Patitucci, and saxophonist Eric Marienthal), in honor of Chick’s 60th birthday.

While all of the lineage suggests that Gambale is a huge jazz or fusion fanatic (and he certainly is), early on he really weaned himself on the electric blues of Mayall, Clapton, and Hendrix. Growing up in Canberra, Australia (“a fairly small town, about 300,000 people,” he deadpans), he picked up the guitar at seven, and began playing serious gigs at 13. Years of clubbing with his two brothers, playing everything from rock to disco to country/western, he saved up enough to come to America in 1982 and enroll at the Guitar Institute of Technology (GIT) in Los Angeles.

He graduated with Student of the Year honors, and from there it’s a blur. Four years of instructing at GIT, his first major-level gig with Jean-Luc Ponty, a five-album, Grammy-laden stint with Corea’s legendary Elektric Band, Vital Information, and 11 solo albums including Coming To Your Senses (the first release from Steve Vai’s Favored Nations label) and his latest, Resident Alien – Live Bootlegs, on his own Wombat label.

And besides the busy touring and recording schedules, he has remained active on the educational front. He currently heads the Guitar Department at the L.A. Music Academy, and has authored various videos and books, including Monster Licks And Speed Picking, Modes: No More Mystery, and Chopbuilder: The Ultimate Guitar Workout.
Gambale recently hooked up with Yamaha to design and produce a signature solidbody electric guitar, the AESFG, and there’s talk of a signature amplifier from Carvin.

Vintage Guitar: When did you first pick up a guitar?
Frank Gambale: I started when I was seven. I had two older brothers in their early teens, and of course they got distracted being more into girls than guitar. Which is understandable. But I was seven – too young to get into girls, I think. So guitar was it for me.

Were you taking lessons?
No, just learning by ear, off of records. Just simply copying and watching people play. No formal lessons, that’s for sure.

What were some of the records?
Some of my earliest were John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers Blues From Laurel Canyon. My brothers were really into blues. I remember East West, the Paul Butterfield record with Mike Bloomfield on it. And Hendrix, of course, was a huge influence. More of the rock and blues kind of thing, at the time. And Jerry Garcia; the Grateful Dead were a huge influence, too. I really dug the idea of a whole side of the record being one song. And then I couldn’t believe that you’d flip it over, and it was a continuation.

What was your first guitar?
My oldest brother wanted a trumpet, and mom couldn’t afford one, so she bought a $10 classical guitar, which was obviously a piece of junk. Nylon strings. We all started out on that.

Then my brother ended up getting a much nicer, maybe $100 classical guitar. We had those two, which was good because it meant a little less fighting amongst the siblings.

Our first electric was a no-name that we’d plug it into our home stereo. We used to take turns, because you had to hold the guitar jack, one end of it against these two points to get it to work through the stereo system. One of us would have to hold it, from underneath, on our back while the other played. It was hilarious.

My first good guitar was a real surprise on my 13th birthday. I was expecting a cheesy SG copy. My family chipped in; they could see that I was serious about the guitar, and bought me a nice, old, white L-series Strat – a ’63 or ’64. And that became my main guitar for quite a while, because it looked like Hendrix’s Strat. I thought it was the coolest thing in the world.

You still have it?
Oh no, it’s long gone.

Sold it?
Yeah, I sold it to buy a black Les Paul Custom that I used for a number of years. I went through various Gibson and Fender guitars, all of which I sold before I left Australia to go to the states, which was in about ’82.

Do you regret selling the first guitar?
A long time ago I was sentimental, but I certainly am not anymore (laughs).

What was your first amp?
I think a Fender Twin, which was a terrific clean amp. But for distortion, it didn’t really sound that good. So from there I went to Marshall, and I love those amps to this day. I think they’re the ultimate rock guitar sound, and great for fusion guitar sounds, too. They’re a lot more versatile than people give them credit for.

I used to find that most of the amp heads that a lot of people like to use, I just couldn’t get enough head room out of those combo amps. So fairly early on I went for the preamp/power amp situation. I know the majority of guitar players prefer combo amps, so I’m sort of not in the mainstream when it comes to amplification.

I went through some Boogie gear at some point, but now I’m stuck on this setup of a JMP-1 Marshall pre-amp, with a Stuart power-amp. Stuart makes a beautiful one-space power-amp. And I use a G-Force TC Electronics box for multi-effects, a mini-pedal, and a couple of volume pedals. That’s it. And I use a nice quad box, usually a Marshall.

The latest setup is with some Carvin speakers, and we’re talking about designing a signature amp, which is quite exciting. It’ll probably be a preamp with an amp head, and also a combo.

Early on, were you a Strat guy or a Les Paul guy?
Well, there have always been the two camps. Now, I use a variety of guitars, and then there’s the new guitar I’ve designed with Yamaha, which has a Strat scale.

The thing about vintage guitars is they’re interesting. But to me, the design is so old. I mean the Strat, God love it, but when you look at it from a design standpoint, the way the neck joins the body is really clumsy. And it was done that way because that it was the absolute cheapest way to put neck to body. It was a successful design, obviously, nobody can fault it. But for me, as a serious player, when I get to the 12th fret on that guitar, there’s so much wood that hits the palm of your hand – to me, it’s just not very ergonomic. When you’re on the higher frets, it’s like holding an L.A. phone book.

So with my new guitar, we’ve retained the string length and put the pickups in the same place as a Strat, but made the guitar much more ergonomic. There’s nothing between the first fret and where the frets join the body – it’s all neck. To me, that makes more sense. The old Strat design is like having speed bumps in the road. It’s like driving down the Audubon and hitting a cow at the 12th fret.

You also worked with Ibanez a while back.
Yeah, when I was playing with Chick Corea, the Ibanez company approached me with a guitar that’s called the “S-body.”

And you were the Saber poster boy for awhile…
I was a Saber guy for a long time. I put a lot of my ideas into that guitar, and we ended up making four versions over a 13-year period. They all sold very well. I didn’t really design the shape of that guitar, but for my version I did the low profile, something Ibanez has done with several other models. Basically, the top of the pickup was flush with the top of the guitar, and the bridge was recessed. A low-profile bridge means the angle that the string comes through the body and over the bridge is greatly reduced. So you just never break strings. And it felt really felt slick. I also had a lot of input on the way the neck joins the body.

But it wasn’t until I got this deal that I really got to design a guitar, and Yamaha gave me carte blanche. I designed it with a guy named Dave Cervantes, who now works for Fender. I feel really connected to this guitar, it’s our own concept.

You know, it’s harder than you think to sit down and make a guitar; you can’t reinvent the wheel. Most shapes have been done. I just set out to make a great guitar, I didn’t expect it to be earth-shatteringly new in any way. But it’s funny that when we started out with just the expectations of making a great guitar, we actually found some things that make it unique, and that’s hard to do.

One of the things was the construction. I wanted to have the whole neck, with all the frets, free and clear from the body. And I always wanted pickups mounted from the rear. I always liked the way that looks, without all the hardware around the pickups [visible] from the face of the guitar. The pickups just look like they’re part of the body, you can’t even tell they’re there.

How did you attach the neck?
Well, when you have pickups mounted from the rear, attaching the neck becomes a bit awkward. So when we attached the neck, getting the rigidity we needed was quite a labor. We really went to the absolute extreme with the way this neck joins the body. The neck goes about half-way down the body, and that’s no big deal, really. Except that when we went to put the bridge on – you know, with a tremolo you’ve got the block and springs under that, and the springs are attached like a claw, like on a Stratocaster, and that usually goes straight into the body. But we didn’t have any body left, really. So the only place to put it was on the end of the neck. So as far as we know, in about 50 years of electric guitar design, that’s never been done, where the tremolo-arm assembly returns straight to the neck.

We didn’t really think much of it, because it was sort of our only option. But the result surprised us once we plugged the guitar in. The sustain and brightness are uncanny. Something happened when we returned the bridge to the neck, it sort of created a string loop. So when you play the guitar, you immediately notice something bizarre is going on.

What types of woods did you use?
I’m kind of traditional in that all of my guitars have had mahogany bodies, and this is no exception. There’s something about mahogany that I just love, it’s a very warm tone. The neck is maple with an ebony board. So it’s basically a Les Paul in terms of materials, but it has a Strat scale. So I’ve tried to combine the best of both camps. I wanted to end up with a guitar that was somewhat in the middle, and I think we achieved that. Whoever plays the guitar, whether you like it or not, couldn’t dispute the fact that it’s a high-quality instrument. And that’s important to me.

With all this talk about solidbody guitars, on the Live Around The World tour with Vital Information, you used some hollowbody jazz guitars. What are your leanings there?
With Vital Information, basically Steve wanted us to look more like a jazz group, so he was insisting that I play a hollowbody. But I’ve since been playing my own solidbody with the band.

But there’s pros and cons of endorsements, right? One of the pros is that you have a very strong company that’s interested in having you play their guitars, and if they don’t have something, they’ll build it for you. One of the guitars I’ve been playing a lot is an AS-2200, which is basically a 335. It’s a beautifully made guitar. But before that I was using a GB10 George Benson model, which I really love.

Do you lean more toward solidbodies?
I love jazz guitars. In fact, I recently bought a ’68 Johnny Smith, absolutely mint. I’ve always wanted some classic guitars. I do love the way jazz guitars sound. I use flat-wound strings for a very traditional sound. I recorded the entire album, Thinking Out Loud, with the GB10. A lot of people want me to play that style more, but I’m still more into my fusion mode at the moment. Which means a solidbody. Maybe when I’m older (laughs), I’ll mellow out a little bit.

What other projects are you keeping yourself busy with?
I do various things; I tour a bit with a famous classical guitar player named Maurizio Colonna. That’s a wonderful acoustic duet… people love that in Italy. There’s a possibility of dates with Alain Caron, the French-Canadian bass player from UZEB. Dennis Chambers usually plays drums with that group. And there’s also an Elektric Band reunion planned for later in the year.

It’s Chick’s 60th birthday this year. He played the Blue Note in New York in December with various people; every week was a different ensemble. I went on the 22nd and 23rd, and Brecker, Steve Gadd, and Eddie Gomez were there. I had to go. Plus, I wanted to go to Ground Zero. Not long before September 11th, I was at the top of the Trade Center. I have digital from up there on my website. It was just eerie.

But anyway, regarding the Elektric Band, Chick called us all up in January and said, “You guys free in August?” I said, “Sure, what’s going on?” On the west coast he’s planning it all in one night, he’s booked the Hollywood Bowl on August 28th. And it’s going to be various ensembles, and the Elektric Band is slated to play. And that led to, “Well, I’ve been offered this festival in October, you guys got a couple of weeks free?” So it’s just evolving, we’ll see what comes up. It would be what I would consider a real supergroup, because everybody’s gone off to have pretty good careers.

It seems the only difficult thing would be scheduling – you guys are all pretty busy.
Yeah, but the thing is, when Chick calls, we all jump. We love Chick, man. He’s one of the greatest composers who ever lived.

Earlier, you said that with a guitar it’s difficult to reinvent the wheel. With the prospect of doing an amp with Carvin, what are you doing differently here?
I’m going to go into this the same way I went into the Yamaha guitar. I want to create a really great-sounding amplifier, bottom line. I really want to work with them to dial in what I consider to be some great basic tones. I want it to be very versatile, I want to be able to use it with a jazz guitar, with a lot of headroom clean, as well as great distortion tones. I don’t like one- or two-channel amplifiers. The thing I like about the Marshall preamp, is you have about four presets, two clean and two distortion, and those have basic EQ starting points. Then you go from there with the tone controls to dial in something else.

I love the Yamaha DGAT, which has eight starting points. Two clean, two crunch, two drive, and two overdrive or distortion. I’d love to have at least that many starting points [in the Carvin] and of course have it all completely programmable. I don’t know if I want any effects built into the amplifier, because I tend not to use that kind of stuff. It just takes up space inside the thing. Basically, we’re all after a great tone, and that’s going to be the most important thing. I want it to sound brilliant right from having everything at zero. I want the presets to sound awesome.

I’m all for the idea of having tremendous range of equalization. You know, there’s all these modeling amps and stuff, I can’t get into those amps for some reason. They sound like a bad simulation of a lot of amps. I don’t know, I guess they’ve pulled the wool over the eyes of a lot of people, they’re tremendously popular amps. The thing is, I dial in a Fender Twin Reverb Blackface and I go, “I don’t think so.” If you believe enough, a lot of people are into this blind faith, “Oh yes, it really does sound like a Marshall.” Sorry, I don’t think so.

If you’ve ever played a Marshall cranked, and you listen to that against an EQ preset, it just doesn’t hold water for me. I’m hard to convince. McDonald’s is popular, but is it good food? I’m not saying that something can’t be great and popular, but that’s what I’m shooting for. I don’t want [my amp] to be a McDonald’s amplifier.

For more info on Gambale, visit www.frankgambale.com.

This article originally appeared in VG‘s Aug. ’02 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.