Sure, we all drool over Fender Custom Shop axes, but those instruments are sometimes out of wallet’s reach. Coming to the rescue is Fender’s new American Vintage II series, which attempts several things at once: on the surface, it offers period-accurate re-creations of classic planks, down to tiny details, but more importantly, delivers them in a solid mid-price range. The AVII ’57 Stratocaster brings an honest ’50s vibe without inducing a sticker-shock coma.
Among the attributes that make the ’57 feel like the real deal is its V-shaped neck, that essential “Synchronized Tremolo,” and Pure Vintage ’57 single-coil pickups. Offered with a body cut from alder or ash, the maple neck sports the classic 25.5″ scale, 21 frets, and a 7.25″ radius. The single-ply pickguard is white, and there are aged-yellow pickup covers and knobs. A nitrocellulose finish completes the old-school presentation.
Off the bat, the neck makes a great first impression. While Strat neck carves fluctuate widely from skinny to fat to wide, the ’57 has that all important “deep” shape that evokes vintage Leo. The profile is comfortable and subtle (unlike, say, a Clapton Strat), and sits right in the pocket of your hand. The advantage of a fatter neck, many will say, is it transmits body resonance better, alluding to the adage “fat neck, fat tone.” This ’57 reissue has that in abundance.
For tone, you’ll have high expectations for Strat quack, and the ’57 does not disappoint. Running through the five positions, it has all the warm, cutting, and out-of-phase tones you expect, depending on your choice of amplifier or recording interface.
With the AVII ’57 Stratocaster, Fender has done a fine job packaging vintage specs into an American-made axe that won’t break the bank. For a Strat that has vibe out the wazoo, that’s a big deal.
This article originally appeared in VG’s February 2023 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.
With notable string-bending monsters like Larry Mitchell, Eric Steckel, and Steve Stevens singing the praises of Knaggs Guitars, Peter Wolf and Joe Knaggs are obviously doing something incredibly right.
Beyond surrounding themselves with a team of skilled builders, their mission includes naming non-signature models after rivers using their Native American names.
Weighing in at a lean 5.2 pounds, the Knaggs Chena Old Violin is a single-cut hollowbody with a carved spruce top, mahogany body with f-shaped sound holes, mahogany neck with 24.75″ scale, a 12″-radius rosewood fretboard with 22 frets, and dot inlays. Other touches include a bone nut, nickel-coated Kluson tuners, tune-o-matic-style bridge, and its master Volume with separate Tone controls produce excellent sonic variations through the nickel-covered Bare Knuckle The Mule humbuckers. Knaggs calls its color Old Violin Relic.
Plugged into a fleet of combos and a crowded pedalboard, the Old Violin’s pleasing aesthetics and superb playability teamed with sounds reminiscent of an airy, open-sounding ES-330. Its hollowness, choice of woods, and pickups will enhance most playing styles – very suitable as a blues-rock machine or wailing on the jam-band circuit. It’s also great for jazz, where pristine chord melodies and sultry single-note lines demand substance and articulation. The Mules add equal parts growl, punch, warmth, and presence, and can handle the demands of plug-in-and-go clean pickers or overdrive kings; and those single-note overtones with overdrive – oh lordy!
From Charlie Christian to Jimmy Herring, this guitar handles all the best stuff, including unbeatable tuning stability, feedback-free play, and ridiculously cool looks.
This article originally appeared in VG’s February 2023 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.
What do you get when you cross a helicopter with a Martin dreadnought? Easy answer – Ovation guitars, perhaps the greatest champion of alternative materials in an age when traditional woods like Brazilian rosewood and Honduran mahogany have become virtually extinct. Among Ovation’s alt-material creations, the Adamas is the ultimate expression.
The father of Ovation guitars was Charles (Charlie) H. Kaman (1918-2011), a man driven by two passions – engineering, and playing guitar. Kaman chose aeronautical engineering and, in 1945, got a job with helicopter pioneer Sikorski, in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Eventually, differences of opinion led Kaman to start the Kaman Aircraft Corporation.
Like any true guitar fanatic, Kaman kept one at work, for inspiration and diversion. Connecticut can be warm in the summer, very cold in winter. As a result, Kaman made his share of trips to the Martin factory, having repairs made, like splits in tops.
In 1965, he conceived a “better” guitar, specifically, one he could hang on his wall without fear of cracking. He set his engineers to work solving the problem using aeronautical principals applied to the guitar, focusing on the back and sides.
Kaman’s designers came up with a spruce-topped guitar with a molded fiberglass body. They called it the Lyrachord, and among the first players to embrace it were folk/bluesman Josh White and jazz/classical fingerstylist Charlie Byrd. When Byrd was shown a prototype, the legend exclaimed, “This guitar deserves an ovation.” A name was born!
Despite those early endorsements, Ovation guitars might never have taken off were it not for Glen Campbell, the Arkansas singer/songwriter who scored big in ’67 with the pop-folk ballad “Gentle On My Mind.” With Ovation, Campbell devised a signature model in ’69 – the year his “Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour” variety show hit television airwaves. For nearly three years, Campbell played the show in front of a national audience, plucking his round-back Ovation. In 1970, Ovation developed its first acoustic/electric pickup system specifically for Campbell.
A surge in popularity of singer/songwriters through the ’70s added to Ovation’s success, the guitars’ durability and amplified sound proving ideal complements to the genre.
1983 Ovation Adamas II 1681-5 with serial number 3598; 5 in the model number indicates color (black).
Kaman wasn’t one to rest on his laurels, and innovation continued to pour out of his company, including an array of refinements to the Ovation guitar and a fascinating (if ultimately unsuccessful) obsession with trying to crack the solidbody electric guitar market with its own designs.
In for a penny, in for a pound, Kaman soon turned his attention to the guitar’s top. As VG contributor/consulting editor Walter Carter relates in The History of the Ovation Guitar, Kaman’s objective was to replace traditional spruce and eliminate the “problems” caused by a round soundhole in the middle of the top. The idea was to make the top as thin as possible (to increase resonance) while maintaining structural integrity. The soundhole creates a void in the middle of the stress lane that runs from head to bridge. This requires added bracing, which dampens vibrations.
The puzzle was solved with a top consisting of paper-thin birch sandwiched between two thin layers of carbon graphite. This allowed the top to be a mere 1/32″ thick – thin enough for great vibration yet strong enough not to cave when tuned to pitch. Twenty-two variously sized soundholes were moved to the top’s upper bouts and given wooden “leaf” designs called “epaulets.”
Add a walnut neck with the company’s revolutionary “Kaman bar” reinforcement (a hollow/inverted T-shaped piece of cast aluminum) under the epoxy-infused walnut fretboard, “carved” hard-foam for the bridge and headstock, and an optional stereo pickup with EQ, and you have the Adamas, introduced in 1976.
Enthusiastically received by the guitar press and pros like Larry Coryell, the Adamas had a harder time with average players because guitarists are a pretty conservative lot and the sticker price over $2,000 was hefty for any guitar in the late ’70s. In ’81, Ovation introduced the “budget” Adamas II, which saved about $600.
The primary departures from the Adamas I are a five-piece mahogany and maple neck and a much simpler bridge and headstock design. Also, the II was offered only as an acoustic/electric with stereo output and an “EQ” that was basically a super-sensitive active Tone control. The neck has a thin V profile with a narrow nut and very electric-guitar feel – there’s no way it would be confused with a Martin! That said, it’s a great-sounding guitar, with a rapid, sharp, crystalline attack, well-separated string voices, plenty of reserve volume, and rich harmonic content. Amplified, it’s very clean.
How many Adamas IIs have been made is unknown. They’re still offered in a cutaway version. Serial numbers apply to all variations and reflect production output, which appears to be approximately 1,200 to 1,500 per year. However, there are many variations. How many were Adamas II 1681s is impossible to know; the highest serial number found in online lists is 17958, which would be 1999-2000, suggesting the 1681 may have been replaced by other models about that time.
In 2007, Kaman Music Corp. was sold to Fender Musical Instruments and Adamas guitars continue to be produced, technically separated from its helicopter parent but forever technologically bound to Charlie Kaman and aeronautics.
This article originally appeared in VG’s December 2021 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.
Andrew Hyndryx Gears Up with Kellen Boersma and Phil Faconti
Andrew Hyndryx caught up Kellen Boersma and Phil Faconti for a behind-the-scenes look at the gear they played at the recent Rooster Walk 13 festival in Axton, Virginia. Kellen is based in Chicago and touring with Neil Francis, while Phil is a Grammy-nominated producer and guitarist in the Dave Eggar Band and Il Devo. Both guys bring it with cool classic tones! Keep up with Andrew HERE!
Blues-rock connoisseur Anthony Gomes stays on point with his latest, High Voltage Blues. Leaning into the heavier side, Gomes’ feisty recipe of catchy tunes, smokin’ licks has gained him a loyal following, and a new record deal. But he doesn’t kick out the jams for the reasons one might expect.
Did you take time off or go to work when the pandemic hit?
I worked harder than ever. In life, you gotta make the best of any given situation. Sometimes you’re given a sh*t sandwich, but it’s gonna be the best damn sandwich going (laughs). I feel like we’re going to have a renaissance, artistically, that will afford those who make art a luxury they didn’t have before. We had to justify going out on tour to pay our bills and playing 150 dates a year. Now we get to do it like the big boys – take a year off, maybe longer, make a record, and learn more about your craft. It was a challenge, but it was also an opportunity.
Is that how High Voltage Blues came about?
Yes. We were discovered by Rat Pak Records. In the 20 years of that label, we were the only artist they approached in the blues-rock vein. The president said, “I drank the Kool-Aid. I like what you do, and I can market you to a whole other side. People in the rock arena will like what you’re doing, and we can get you out there.” That opportunity may not have happened if it wasn’t for the pandemic.
Do you ever think about playing a different style of music?
Now and then, it’s important to grow and stray, but quickly return to your brand. You can tinker with the secret sauce, but we arrived in our lane because I love traditional blues and B.B. King and Buddy Guy. Every time I pick up the guitar, there’s that. But I also love Ritchie Blackmore, Billy Gibbons, Eddie Van Halen, Jeff Beck, and Zakk Wylde. I say I have a blues soul and a rock-and-roll heart, and maybe that’s where my lane is. I try to be honest, and sometimes, in the beginning, it didn’t fit neatly into either lane, but by us doing it long enough and building a fan base, people are taking to this different lane. I make music for the fans. If I want to do something self-indulgent, I can do it for my own enjoyment. I’m grateful people are listening to what we do.
What are your key pieces of gear?
My workhorse guitars are a ’66 Strat and a ’65 Strat, which are player’s guitars with humbuckers and single-coils. I also have a Custom Shop Les Paul that’s remarkable, a Malcolm Young Signature Jet, and a Custom Shop Fender Tele Master Built by Todd Krause.
This may sound sacrilegious, but I used a Kemper on the entire record. Initially, I bought one because I wanted a good guitar tone that I could track then run through a real amp. Then I realized that if I worked hard and miked my real amps for several hours, I could make it sound as good as my Kemper (laughs).
It’s not the sexy answer, but it works for us. Billy Gibbons’ biggest record was done with a drum machine and a Rockman. I still have all my vintage amps, but I love to plug in and play. The Kemper allows me to do that with a variety of tones. I’m a big fan of what Michael Britt does with his tones – it’s a marriage of vintage amps and modern technology. But I’m still a huge fan of vintage tones.
What’s the story behind your Flying V?
I call it my midlife-crisis guitar (laughs). I told my guitar tech I needed a Gibson Flying V. He said, “Get one from 2002.” So, I went online and found a 2002 Flying V. When I hit a couple of chords, it was like, “Oh yeah, this is it!” It stays in tune and sounds great in the studio. It’s a wonderful instrument. I love Michael Schenker, Albert King, and anything Hendrix used.
Your lyrics are very positive. Is that intentional?
When I started in music, I was making no money and had to take out a big loan to buy a van to tour. Making $300 a night, and you gotta ask, “Why am I doing this?” I made an effort early on to say, “I want to make this world a better place, bring joy to people, and put smiles on their faces.” I want to take people away from their lives if they’re going through tough times. Music is such a healing and positive force. I want to bring joy to a crazy world. So how can you be upset when you’re playing guitar? (laughs).
This article originally appeared in VG’s February 2023 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.
Yates McKendree hasn’t yet turned 22, but he has already digested a lifetime’s worth of American roots music.
The proof is in his debut album, Buchanan Lane, which is named for the street where he makes his home in Franklin, Tennessee. A 13-song collection, it reflects varied musical influences including blues icons like B.B. King and T-Bone Walker, New Orleans R&B keyboardist James Booker, and B-3 master Jimmy McGriff.
“I wanted this to be an amalgamation of the American music I love and grew up with,” he explains. “I also wanted it to be marketable, and want people to actively listen to it. But really, my goal is to introduce traditional blues to a younger audience – take it back to being a popular form of American music, because it’s relevant. And I think if you emotionally convey it the right way, people can understand it.”
A self-taught musician, McKendree was a teen when earned a Grammy for his engineering work on Delbert McClinton’s Tall, Dark & Handsome. He’s been playing guitar since he was five years old, but he was banging on the drums at two and started on the piano shortly thereafter; his father, Grammy-winning keyboardist Kevin McKendree, was McClinton’s longtime bandleader.
McKendree used a ’67 Gibson ES-175 as the primary workhorse for Buchanan Lane.
“It’s all original,” McKendree says of the ES-175. “I did take the neck pickups out and flipped the magnet so it’s out of phase in the middle position, to get the T-Bone Walker tone, or really just an early-blues sound. Some Freddie King songs have it. Probably the most famous out-of-phase tone would be Peter Green. It’s just a sound, a tonality that I’ve always loved. But I don’t tend to do a bunch of mods to my guitars. I just kind of pick ’em up and play ’em.”
You’ll hear the 175 on the swinging “Brand New Neighborhood,” an early-’50s song by Fletcher Smith, Tampa Red’s “Please Mr. Doctor,” and a pair of T-Bone Walker covers, “Papa Ain’t Salty” and “No Reason.”
For several other songs, McKendree employed a modern Gibson SG Special, including the Walker-esque slow-blues original “No Justice,” and the standout track “Wise,” a minor-key effort that evokes B.B. King’s “The Thrill Is Gone.” The tune puts McKendree’s versatility on full display, as he also plays drums, bass, and the B3.
No matter the guitar, the amp was consistent throughout – a ’71 Super Reverb. “It’s all original,” he says. “Original speakers – I think it has replaced tubes. There’s something about a Super Reverb that just gets the tone for me. There’s a depth and airiness to it that I just can’t find with any other amps.”
For strings, it’s D’Addario NYXL .010s and .011s, “Depending on what I’m feeling. They hold up for all those bends.”
Yates literally grew up in a recording studio. The family’s suburban Nashville home includes The Rock House, a studio owned and operated by Kevin. But despite the father’s standing as veteran of studio and stage, he downplays any substantial role in Yates’ musical upbringing.
“I always joke that when his mother was pregnant, I used to put headphones on her, so Yates would hear all my favorite music,” the elder McKendree said. “Junior Walker was a huge one – and I always go, ‘All that must have worked.’ But with your kids, you want to steer them toward what they are interested in, and he’s always been interested in music. So for him, it’s been nurture and nature. [The music] was in him, and he was fortunate to grow up and have a recording studio in his backyard.”
For Yates, 2023 looks hopeful and wide open, despite pandemic headwinds that continue to pose challenges for working musicians. He’s weighing options, including a possible Nashville residency. Bottom line is he just wants to play.
“For me, it’s the love of the music,” Yates explains. “I want people to understand that, and I want people to grasp the emotional aspect of the blues, how relatable it is, and how current it can be, if you think about it. Blues is not exposed to the masses, but everybody who isn’t a music fiend – every regular, run-of-the-mill person I’ve played my music for – is like, ‘Yeah, I understand that. It’s emotional. I feel it. I get it.’ And that’s why I think if you can get it in front of a bigger audience, it can be widely understood, because it’s just an emotion, really.”
This article originally appeared in VG’s February 2023 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.
Sitting with his TV Jones custom archtop, exploring “Unit 7” – the tune made famous by Cannonball Adderley and Wes Montgomery – Thom Rotella says, “For years, I played everything in octaves – even scales. I actually had to re-learn how to play single-string lines and at first I was really lost. And even today, I’ve never heard anyone play octaves that isn’t reminiscent of Wes, who is my hero.”
But Rotella is nothing if not comprehensive. For instance, his Storyline and Out of the Blues albums present seriously creative arrangements of standards and originals while his chart-topping smooth-jazz releases offer hip renditions of feel-good drive music.
Rotella grew up in Niagara Falls and experienced a circuitous road on his way to what has become a remarkable career. At age 10, he studied guitar with John Morell, who also taught a young Tommy Tedesco.
“I was surrounded by all these photos of Tommy,” Rotella says. “Every time I’d go to my lesson I’d hear about him. One day, John said, ‘You went through the first book faster than anyone I ever had. But then Tommy Tedesco took the longest.’ (laughs) Anyway, when buying records I’d always look for Tommy’s name. So even then I knew that someday I was going to California to be a guitar player.”
Rotella kept at it throughout high school before eventually hitting the road for professional seasoning with various lounge bands. But as his career path developed, he wisely stopped long enough at the Berklee School of Music to study with heavyweights Bill Leavitt and Gary Burton, who helped educate and conceptualize what the young artist needed.
After more equivocation and consultation from other mentors and masters, Rotella decided to realize his dream of settling in L.A. There in the early ’70s, he played in two or three rehearsal bands every day, gathered contacts, and did whatever was necessary to establish his visibility.
“I think I met every guitar player in L.A. but Tommy Tedesco,” he laughs. “But I didn’t want to contact Tommy despite my dad relentlessly encouraging me to do so. I wanted to make it on my own.”
But fate stepped in. Rotella’s dad happened to play golf with Tedesco when the guitarist returned to Niagara Falls for a visit.
“After their round, Dad told me, ‘Here’s his phone number, he wants you to call.’ So I called, and found out I was living around the corner from him. Tommy said, ‘What are you doing right now? Come over.’ How could I not? The guy’s a legend. I knock on the door and he answers wrapped up in a big towel. He asks me to list all of players I’d met and says, ‘So you know everybody in town but me.’ Then he asked me to play something.
“Soon after, he arranged for me to accompany him to several studio dates so I could see firsthand what he did. But perhaps more important, he invited me to Sunday dinner with the family. I went, and never really left. I became the fourth Tedesco brother.”
Rotella went on to establish a career as a first-call session player. In addition to studio dates for television shows, movies, jingles, and TV commercials, his long string of studio sessions included playing on hit records for any number of artists.
Today, Rotella is very focused on straight-ahead and smooth jazz for his Street Talk label.
“I still do ‘Family Guy’ and ‘American Dad’ with Walter Murphy, which has been happening for nearly 20 years. That’s a good, basic gig, and I’ve been creating my albums, library music, TV commercials, and of course playing sessions and gigging with a live band that features Walter’s horn charts. Also, people will send me tracks to play on, but, basically, I’ve been working on my jazz stuff, both straight-ahead and smooth jazz, and just learning how to play better.”
“In 2019, Chris Standring offered to produce some material to get me onto the smooth-jazz format. He promised me a hit, and the first single with him, ‘Eddie’s Ready,’ an homage to Eddie Harris, went to #1 on the Billboard Smooth Jazz charts. We followed with two singles every year, all charting in the Top 20, including a #3 with ‘Street Talk.’
“In February, I’ll release a compilation of singles from the last four years and new tracks. It’ll be called Say Hey! and will coincide with the next single release.”
This article originally appeared in VG’s February 2023 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.
While Boston-based guitarist Ron Bosse was inspired to begin his six-string journey while listening to classic rock, he became a jazz player and has been active for decades.
“The first instrument I learned was saxophone, in fourth grade,” he recently recalled to VG. “When I got to high school, I joined the jazz band as a saxophonist, which was right around the time I also started to play guitar. After about two years, I started playing guitar in the jazz band, so my first real experience playing guitar in a band was doing jazz.”
Not surprisingly, Bosse is a graduate of the Berklee College of Music, and he ventured into the business of music by founding the Bosse School of Music, and Bosse Studios.
While expressing admiration for players such as Lee Ritenour and Mike Stern, he said, “For me, it’s all about the two Pats – Metheny and Martino. From Metheny, I get a certain way of moving around the neck from a technical perspective; he has this way of using hammer-on and pull-offs when playing lines that give him a very fluid, horn-like approach. From Martino, I get a type of feel and an approach to soloing. Simply put, Martino swings harder than any guitarist I’ve ever heard.”
Bosse’s recent album, Burning Room Only, leans heavily on the groove-jazz mode with a dollop of fusion. For the first time in his career, he opted for a collaborative focus.
“I’ve been a highly active composer since being a student at Berklee,” he detailed. “Prior to recording Burning Room Only, all the jazz songs I’d written were composed by me alone. For the new album, however, I wrote all the songs with Grammy-winning producer and keyboard player Jeff Lorber. I’ve found the approach to be extremely rewarding and feel that collaboration can yield an end result that’s more unique than just going about it alone.”
While there’s ample improvised soloing on the album, listeners will also notice a lot of unison playing, as Bosse’s guitar goes one-on-one with saxophone, keyboards, and a horn section.
“Compositionally, I think you’d lose the punch of the lines if they were harmonized,” he said. “The unison approach tends to be more effective and also helps establish the melody better for the listener.”
Many of the songs feature dazzling, almost “bubbling” double-time riffs.
“Those lines use specific techniques I’ve spent a great deal of time working on,” Bosse explained. “Having good technique is especially important to me, and I’ve studied a lot of burning players from a variety of genres, including John Petrucci, Al Di Meola, Joe Bonamassa, and Eddie Van Halen.”
Bosse used his ’89 Gibson ES-347 almost exclusively on Burning Room Only.
“I’ve been playing it my entire career,” he said. “My previous guitar, which my dad bought me, was a Les Paul Custom. When I started gravitating to jazz, I wanted to get a semi-hollow because I was a big fan of John Scofield. Only problem was I wanted the exact feel of the Les Paul Custom – I absolutely did not want an ES-335. I told the store owner what I was hoping to find, and he said, ‘The ES-347 is exactly what you’re looking for!’
“It’s got great, low action, which I love, and gets a beautiful clean sound. I always play the neck pickup to get a fatter, more-rounded tone, and I’ll typically set the Tone control at three to give it a hint of brightness, but also to preserve the slightly darker tone I love.”
A sunburst Stratocaster figured slightly into the mix.
“My Strat is great for getting a searing, distorted rock sound and for clean rhythm parts. I used it for some rhythm parts on the album, though it was minimal.”
After trying several amps for the record, he discovered, “The approach that gave me the cleanest possible sound was to go direct into my Apogee Symphony preamps. I added a long-hall reverb and stereo delay, and it sounded great. The only exception is on ‘Strutter,’ where I played the solo through one of my Orange amps, and it was perfect for that.”
Bosse and Lorber have written four songs for a follow-up album. Other plans include touring and live videos.
This article originally appeared in VG’s February 2023 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.
Shred architect Vinnie Moore’s latest solo record, Double Exposure, holds the distinction of being both an instrumental solo album and a vocal-rock record. The glue that holds it together is Moore’s exceptional guitar playing, as he puts his neoclassical excursions aside to unleash the pentatonic fury heard at his day job with UFO. But there’s more, as the album features a style of rock music near and dear to his heart.
What are your thoughts on Double Exposure?
It’s a little something different from me. It’s going to be interesting to see how people react. UFO got grounded from touring and had a lot of shows fall through because of Covid. Nobody knew how long the lockdown would last. Is it going to be another month? A year? So, I got bored. I said, “Man, I gotta do something creative or I’m going to go nuts.” So, I started writing.
What possessed you to add vocals?
It happened without being aware it was going to happen. I originally thought I’d make an EP of six instrumentals. But then I was listening to demos in my garage, and started singing with one of the songs. I realized it could be a cool vocal song. Listening to the other tunes, I realized all of them could be vocal songs. It was a light-bulb moment where I said, “Hey, wouldn’t it be cool if I could do half vocal and half instrumental?”
Being in lockdown created an atmosphere where I felt like I could be experimental and do whatever. I had lots of vocal songs lying around – I go through periods where I write constantly, so I have a back catalog and I’ve always wanted to do a band thing with vocals. I’d been pretty busy with UFO, so I was waiting for the opportune moment, and it presented itself, so I look at it as a gateway for where I want to go next.
Does that mean a full-blown vocal rock record in the future?
That’s definitely what I want to do next – with a permanent band and one singer. On Double Exposure, there are four singers. I thought it would be cool, and it made it easier to finish.
Are you using a DigiTech Whammy pedal?
It’s not a Whammy pedal. It’s two things; mostly it’s the TC Electronic Sub ’N Up going an octave up, and a Fulltone Octafuzz that has a switch that takes it up to a higher octave. It’s a bit nastier-sounding. There’s one part where I had both on at once because I was A/B-ing, and it came out pretty gnarly. On “Breaking Through,” I used software plug-ins for three-part harmony, and that might be the sound you’re hearing. In the verses and the choruses, I used the Eventide Quadravox 4-Voice Diatonic pitch-shifter plug-in. It’s made for vocals, but turned out great for that particular guitar part. I got to play live with a harmony above and a harmony below. It felt like instant Brian May (laughs).
Amps or plug-ins?
Mostly amps. On the last couple records, I used a 1980 Marshall JMP 100-watt head I’ve had since 1984. It sat around in my house for decades. I decided to pull it out one day and I was like, “Wow! How could I not have been using this amp?” It became my favorite head in the studio. I’m afraid to take it out on the road. I also bought a ’65 Super Reverb and a reissue Deluxe Reverb, and I used an AmpliTube 5 for the modeling stuff, which is a great thing to add to the tone toolbox. It leads you in directions you might not have gone in with some of the pre-sets.
Which guitars did you use?
I’m with Kramer Guitars now, so I used those and an Epiphone SG. I also used my Dean Vinman 2000 Signature guitar and my Ibanez signature guitar from the ’80s. Someone asked if I still had that guitar, so I posted a photo on Facebook. I was recording a solo, so I tried it, and it worked. I also used a Fender Jaguar for different tones.
Listening to “Southern Highway” and “Hummingbird,” there’s a Southern rock record in your future.
It could be (laughs), and you’re right! I grew up playing Lynyrd Skynyrd and Molly Hatchet covers and listening to a lot of that stuff. A lot of people probably wouldn’t know that. I haven’t shown too much of that until recently.
This article originally appeared in VG’s February 2023 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.
Bouncing on a trampoline in the yard of the home his father built outside Temagog, Australia, nine-year-old Joe Robinson gleefully started playing air guitar while Eric Clapton’s “Layla” was blasting from his parents’ stereo inside. At that moment, he decided it would be “really cool” to be a professional guitar player.
A year and half later, he was touring with Phil Emmanuel, and at 17 he won the “Australia’s Got Talent” finale, playing Mason Williams’ “Classical Gas.”
Robinson’s latest album is The Prize, 10 original songs co-written with Grammy-winning producer, engineer, and songwriter Brent Maher, who discovered The Judds and has worked with The Supremes, Roy Orbison, Chuck Berry, Duke Ellington, and has more than 20 #1 singles to his credit. Early in his career, Maher was mentored by the husband-and-wife songwriting team of Felice and Boudleaux Bryant, who wrote the Everly Brothers “Bye Bye Love” and “Wake Up Little Susie” and whose compositions have been recorded by everyone from Tony Bennett to The Grateful Dead.
“Brent is a very deep well of musical experience,” says Robinson. “He would direct the songs in a way that was exactly what they needed.”
Robinson met Maher at a tribute show for the late slide player Mark Selby. Maher was impressed with how Robinson played all the guitar parts that night, and in 2019 they started writing for what would become The Prize.
Two seasoned Nashville session players were called in for the recordings – bassist Glenn Worf, who tours with Mark Knopfler, and drummer Nir Zidkyahu, who appeared on Genesis’ Calling All Stations and John Mayer’s Room for Squares. The recordings were done at Maher’s studio, The Blue Room, in Berry Hill, just outside of Nashville.
“They have songwriting rooms in the publishing part of the building,” said Robinson. “We would sit with two guitars and I’d have a riff and a title and he’d have a few title ideas. We would write for two or three days, come up with two or three songs, then call Glenn and Nir and arrange a recording date, often the following week.”
The sessions were engineered by Maher and Charles Yingling, and recorded on a vintage Trident console.
“We all recorded live and I played and sang at the same time,” said Robinson. “We brought in R&B singer Wendy Moten as a background vocalist and added strings and horns on certain songs, but the core group was always playing live.
“Part of the reason for not going into the studio and recording 10 songs at once was I was on the road a lot and I was paying for the whole thing, so it depended on when I had the cash. I like to pay the musicians more than union scale because I’m a musician myself and I like to work with the best people I can. If you go in and do it right the first time, it saves having to go in and fix things.”
The title song of the album had a simple beginning; Robinson had the phrase, “I’ve got my eyes on the prize” in mind and Maher suggested “The Prize” could be an intriguing song title and followed that up with the opening line, “I had a one-way conversation with me, myself, and I.” Given Robinson’s philosophy that songs should be straightforward, it worked.
“If you listen to a lot of the great classic songs, often times they repeat the first verse and the chorus is very simple,” he said. “Brent would say, ‘Okay, we’ve got a couple of verses and a chorus, and the first verse is strong – it’s a hook in itself, so let’s repeat it,’ and the song would be done. ”
For this album, Robinson used his signature Maton JR on the acoustic songs. On “So Much More,” it’s his Fender Custom Shop ’63 Strat into Maher’s mid-’60s Deluxe Reverb, and on “Moonlight and Magic” Robinson brought out his ’89 Ibanez George Benson GB-10 and ran it through the Deluxe.
This article originally appeared in VG’s February 2023 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.
