No problem. Certainly you can run down the type of guitars you're using.
The (Fender) Strat is about all I used.
What is it about the Strat that covers all the bases for you?
You know, that's a good question. It's a great sounding guitar, first off, and it's one of the best guitars that I've heard acoustically without an amp and with an amp. The tone of it, the ring of it, it seems to be very balanced with the wood and the … this sounds boring.
No, Mick, not at all. We're doing this interview for serious guitar freaks. So please continue.
Well, the way that the wood rings? The way it's set up, the neck; I've had three different necks on it; I've worn it out.
Is it a newer guitar or an older one? It looks beat to hell.
It's a '96; it's a custom shop. When I was rehearsing with my 'burst, my old one; it was a pieced-together one from a '66, '64, and '65 or '63, somewhere in those years. It was three guitars pieced into one when I bought it and it was pretty beat up and I liked it. But the pickups were kinda broken; they only put out about three ohms or something and some of the pots were like stuck and stuff but I didn't care. And I bought it anyway and I pieced it together and put some humbuckers on it and put some new pots on it and stuff and made it like this guitar that screamed. One of the guys from Fender and saw us rehearsing and liked the idea of that and built me three (of them). I call 'em stressed; beat out, they look like they're 100 years old and have been on the road for many years and that kind of stuff. New guitars to me are cool but when they have some character to them, they're better.
"I can't use the same tone all the way through an album."
Were there any physical reasons for changing to a Stratocaster? Certainly a Fender is a lot lighter than the Gibsons were.
Yeah, the guitars, especially the Pauls, started getting a bit heavy. And the Strats were much lighter. It was this stupid inconvenience crap that I own, my AS (ankylosing spondylitis),
So this truly is a custom Fender guitar?
Oh, yeah, yeah.
