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From Acoustic Guitar Magazine, July 1999, No. 79 ANDREW YORK - JONATHA BROOKE - MARTIN CARTHY - CLIVE GREGSON - EDDIE LANG - JESSE COOK - JUAN CARLOS QUINTERO - ESTEBAN
Andrew York concertizes with two classical guitars built by David Daily (1425 Greenbrae Dr., Sparks, NV 89431; [702] 359-6370). He plays his cedar-top Daily in concerts with the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet and its spruce-top sister in solo concerts. He says the Dailys have superior sustain, clarity, brilliance, and volume—a combination that is difficult to find in one instrument. York also performs on a guitar made by German luthier Matthias Dammann (Rotthof 104, D-94152 Neuhaus, Germany). He describes the instrument as "more powerful than anything I ever heard before." When recording, York plays a guitar that is close to his heart—a cedar-top classical built by Eric Sahlin (4324 E. 37th Ave., Spokane, WA 99223). This was his first great guitar and the one on which he has composed most of his music. "It's a special instrument for me," he explains, "because so much music flowed out of me through it." So why did he retire the instrument from the concert circuit? "It got beat to death from playing with the quartet," he says. Aside from surviving many mishaps from traveling—having a case crushed around it flying into Paris, being dropped on a marble floor and taking "six violent bounces"—the guitar is virtually stripped of its finish. "That's the result of wild flailings with the quartet when my rasgueados were less than controlled," says York. "So I was happy to retire that guitar—to keep it home and just use it for recordings and playing for my own pleasure." York uses an unusual fold-up instrument for jazz and pop gigs—an electric classical guitar built by Frame Works Guitars of Germany (Spitalgasse 202, 84489 Burghausen, Germany; [49] 8677-912870; fax [49] 8677-912872; frameworks@t-online.de). It has a stick for a body, with upper and lower bouts that can be clamped on for playability. York says that far from being just a travel guitar, this is a quality instrument meant for gigs. York's steel-string guitars include a 1957 Martin D-28 he's played since he was a kid and a small-bodied Takamine acoustic-electric. —Alison Bert Jonatha Brooke mainly tours with two guitars, a Guild G-30 blond jumbo and an Olson cedar-top cutaway, which is also the guitar she records with (Olson Guitars, 11840 Sunset Ave. N.E., Circle Pines, MN 55014; [612] 780-5301; www.olsonguitars.com). "The Guild is awesome," she says. "I've had it for ten or 12 years, and it's a road horse. I wish I could travel with six or seven guitars because I use so many alternate tunings. Even switching back and forth between two guitars, there's time spent tuning—which, luckily, I've turned into joking time." She also occasionally travels with a Parker electric guitar and a Roland VG-8. "They provide a whole different landscape of sounds," she says. "It also enables me to program in all my tunings so I can retune just by pressing a pedal. It would be the ideal solution, but I still love that acoustic sound." Both the Olson and the Guild are equipped with Fishman under-saddle pickups that Brooke runs through a Pendulum preamp so that she doesn't have to be so dependent on a different sound engineer each night to adjust the guitar settings. "I'm thinking about doing what Patty Larkin does," Brooke says. "She has an AKG condenser mic that she combines with her guitar pickup for an amazing sound. The problem would be that I have trouble standing in one place, so it would kind of curb my style." Brooke uses D'Addario strings. "For a long time I was anti–phosphor-bronze because I thought they were too twangy, but I recently started trying them out again." She always uses medium-gauge strings because of the way she "bashes" on them, and she always brings her own vocal mic, a Shure Beta 87 or a Beyer M-88. —Lissy Abraham Martin Carthy still travels with an old friend. "I am using the same 1959 Martin 000-18 I have used for years," he says. "The pickguard fell off a while ago so I made a new one with the OM shape. I had a compensated saddle made for it as well. My tuning is the one I have been using since the '70s: C G C D G A." —Michael Simmons Clive Gregson tours with only one guitar, an Aria Elecord FE-5O strung with D'Addario Bluegrass strings. Aria stopped making that model about five or six years ago, and he's looking for another used one. He uses Fender medium picks, requests a Shure SM-58 vocal mic on stage, and occasionally performs with an echo box. But otherwise it's just him and his guitar. "I've tried everything," he says, "but I don't like to carry stuff. I'm not very gear conscious." Gregson is happy with the stock under-saddle pickup that came in his guitar. "I'm not a big fan of pickups (I don't like the way they sound)," he says, "but this is one of the best I've had. The whole setup isn't bad for a cheap guitar. "I used to travel with an Oakfield guitar—a copy of my '68 Martin 000-18—made by John Stirling in Manchester. It had a $15 Radio Shack mic tied inside. It sounded good if there was a good sound engineer, but it wasn't practical for festivals or band gigs." He's retired the guitar for studio work. Gregson owns about 30 other guitars—all steel-strings, including a couple of 12-strings—which he uses for recording. They are about evenly split between electrics and acoustics, and he keeps one high-strung (in Nashville tuning, like a 12-string with only the high octaves) and another with the action high enough to play slide. His favorite recording guitar is a '65 Epiphone Texan. Gregson's main piece of equipment in his home recording studio is a Roland VS-880 eight-track hard-disk recorder. He's got a bunch of drum machines, but these days he plays most of the percussion bits himself ("I can keep the rhythm steady for three-and-a-half minutes—just long enough for a song"). Some of the percussion on Happy Hour was done with "bits of cardboard boxes." His main instrument mic for recording is an AKG C 1000; for vocals he uses an Audio-Technica 4033. —Lissy Abraham The earliest picture of Eddie Lang with a guitar shows him playing a fairly large flattop, likely a Stella or a Galiano. He soon moved on to an archtop Gibson L-4 (the early oval-hole variety). Jazz guitar legend George Van Eps recalled that in 1925 Lang allowed the 12-year-old Van Eps to borrow this guitar overnight, thus cementing the direction of his musical career. Shortly thereafter, Lang availed himself of one of the new Gibson L-5 guitars. These pioneering instruments were the first production guitars with f-holes as well as carved tops and backs. This "cello" design was perfect for the new style of playing that Lang developed. He strung his guitar with what would seem to a modern player to be extremely heavy strings (.015, .018, .030, .036, .048, .075) so as to achieve maximum volume. Gibson apparently supplied Lang with a new L-5 every two years. It could be that the heavy strings were taking their toll on the guitars' tops or necks. —Tony Marcus On Vertigo, Jesse Cook played a Condé Hermanos flamenco guitar that he bought in Madrid in 1997. "I took about a week to pick out the guitar that I wanted," Cook says. "The Condé Hermanos won my heart. I tried all the guitars, and this is the most beautiful guitar that I heard while I was there. I love it." Cook uses his Hermanos in the studio but says it's too fragile to take on the road. For live gigs, he uses either a nylon-string Godin Multiac or a Takamine classical cutaway CP-132SC. "The Multiac gives me access to synthesizers while I'm playing a nylon-string guitar," Cook explains, "and it has strong feedback resistance, which is great for performing on a big stage." He plays the Takamine in more intimate settings. This guitar has been modified with an RMC pickup—the same pickup that's in the Multiac. Cook also uses a Roland GR-9 guitar synthesizer and a Roland JV880 sound module for synth sounds in a live setting, as well as a T.C. Electronic G-Force effects processor. Cook uses Luthier Concert Gold guitar strings on his Hermanos and D'Addario Pro-Arté hard-tension nylon strings on the Godin and the Takamine. "The Luthier strings are not as bright as the D'Addarios," Cook says. "They offer a more subtle sound, which is good because my style is a bit abrasive." He plays with either a custom-ordered Dunlop pick or his fingers (he treats his nails with superglue). Cook records using a Bruel and Kjaer 4006 microphone. "It was originally designed for use as a reference tool for acoustic engineers because it was so accurate," Cook says. "Lately, audio engineers have been using it in the studio and finding it not only flat but very musical as well." He also sings the praises of Yamaha's 40-channel O2R mixing console, which features fully digital 32-bit mixing. "In the past, I was not a big fan of digital EQ or compression, but with the higher bit resolution, this machine is both pristine and warm at the same time," he says. For recording, Cook uses a Mac 9600 loaded with Logic Audio and Pro Tools as the audio engine. —Bryan Powell Juan Carlos Quintero is hooked on his Godin Multiac Duet Nylon guitars, which have built-in L.R. Baggs pickups and internal mics. "They're great in the studio, and they're great live," he says. He tours with two Godins, one with new strings and the other with strings that are a couple of weeks old. He plays one while the other one settles. He uses a Reunion Blues leather gig bag for his main instrument and an Anvil trunk for other guitars. He also has a Tom Anderson electric with a Telecaster-style body and several Takamine steel- and nylon-string guitars. Quintero's live rig includes a pedal board made by Rack Systems, an L.R. Baggs Para Acoustic DI preamp (which he plans to use in future studio work), various Boss reverb and digital delay effects, a T.C. Electronic stereo chorus pedal, and a Boss chromatic tuner. He uses Bag End monitor speakers for his acoustic guitars. He recorded The Way Home on a Bill Schnee board and used Neve preamps for his guitars. Quintero uses D'Addario Pro-Arté hard-tension classical strings for his nylon-string guitars and D'Addario XLs for his Tom Anderson electric. He plays with both fingers and picks, usually a Dunlop Jazz 2 pick or a medium-gauge Dunlop Sharp. "I go back and forth," he says, "depending on the song." —Bryan Powell Estéban is an avid guitar collector. His main instrument is a Mexican-made Montalvo flamenco guitar (distributed in the U.S. by the Berkeley Musical Instrument Exchange, 2923 Adeline St., Berkeley, CA 94709; [510] 548-7538; www.berkeleymusic.com). The guitar has a spruce top and Spanish cypress back and sides. "It's a great damn guitar!" Estéban says. He also has "a bunch" of Ramírez guitars, including one given to him by Andrés Segovia, and a Manuel Contreras, "a beautiful little '60s ax that is an exact copy of a Torres model guitar with a spruce top and Brazilian rosewood back and sides." He also has a Robert Ruck guitar he enjoys, a couple of José Oribé guitars and a 1940s Condé Hermanos flamenco, which he says "has an incredible tone but will fall apart if you play it too hard." Estéban uses a variety of pickup systems by L.R. Baggs, Dean Markley, and Fishman. His Rick Turner thin-line solid-body nylon-string is equipped with a Highlander pickup system. He uses a Boss DA-5 preamp in live performances, regardless of the guitar. In the studio, he uses Neumann UM-47 and Microtech Gefell UM-92S tube mics. Estéban uses a mixed set of strings: Augustine Reds for the three bass strings, Augustine Blues for the G string, and German-made Hannabachs for the B and E strings. He never plays with a pick and is fastidious about nail care. He uses Delore Organic Nail Treatment, followed by layers of Opi, a Chinese product. He files his nails daily with silicon carbide 600-grit sandpaper. —Bryan Powell |
Frame
Works' fold-up guitar.