gmaltac

That one being so unique, I have not much words to describe it or to put in words how much I love the guitar – in a briefly resume one can say that it does things it probably shouldn’t, and all and all It’s simply a tone monster. I equiped her with a Seymour Duncan Broadcaster for the brigde single coil that I found very similar to the sound I like to hear on fender Esquires – the wound hot with some growl in it - and for the neck pup it have the original lipstick that came with her. The neck shape is very slimmy, with the whole whole mojo rooted deep down on the thing. I’d still consider the idea of converting it into a esquire, for I completely madly and deeply obsessed with the charm of simplicity this configuration have - I like very much to play without worring about push-pull and multiple pups and just jam, and I personally has the sense that the guitar is more aggressive, more pure and fun.

The growl of it and the ‘’body to the tone sound’’ of this guitar always had me. Back in the day when I first put my hands on that model for the first time, I would just plug it directly into a Music Man 2x10 65 and that was such a great sound, without any effect pedals. It was what first proved to me that what I felt in my guts for so long, with my very own primitive instintcs, are true: what really makes a great tone is those long things on the end of your hand. Another thing that I really like with that specifficaly guitar is the chunky neck ’58 and ’59 ES-335 have that also are a thing that delights me a lot when it comes to playability, even that I can really get along with guitars that have a slimmer necks, such as my teles and the SG Custom, because I’m not really of a speed player – I prefer to call me more of a feeling kind of guitarist, I like to enjoy each note with no hurry and try to play with real human feelings instead of pyrothecny and virtuous skills, even though I can really see the point of it. The C shapped and chunkiest necks are very confortable to me, though I really doesn’t apply much of the thecnical aspecst of my years studying classical guitar, in the erudite tradition you always play with your thumb down to the neck, never appearing or hanging or grabbing the entire neck like Hendrix introduced with his style of playing his strotocasters. So I’m very used to this shape. For me, to work into my composition ideas and study the ES-335 is a guitar that opens a very wide field of possibilities, that’s why I always like to keep it close when I’m creating - It have more lows and mids and more meaty highs, every note you play in it is perfect and consistent. I always think of ES-335 of a ‘’do-everything’’ guitar, the kind of guitar you just plug into the house’s backline and fuel the entire place down. It is a very pleasing instrument to play and to write in it, since unplugged it has a very ‘’full’’ sound that able you to write even without an amp around, and amplified the sound of the humbuckers have this dry and warm tone I like. Having a tele and a ES-335 I would say you have the best of both worlds, althought I’m a V fan and a SG and Les Paul model enthusiast, as a musician I said that definitely these are my favourite duo for working at the studio. They’re the originals and quintessentials blues-machines.

Personally, I like to think that as a guitarrist I'm from the same lineage of bluesmen such Albert King and Tom Petty 'cause of the Flying V's preference for tone and playability, specifically the 1958 Korina models – from the start, a lot of people told me again and again that V's are a metalhead sort of thing and that for my line of sound in folk, country music and blues I should probably stick to the telecaster tones I usually use in my performances, or move to semi-acoustic tones for a fuller blues tone, but I still dig the dirty and heavy tone with the melodious and easy acces to the neck frets that beauties have, and that alone made me fall madly in love with the design and sonority of those guitars and the Les Paul tones in general. Figures like Neil Young with his legendary Korina Flying V and Kravitz himself are sound references that influenced me and helped to understand better this unique instrument as a true sacred beast of blues and rock'n'roll music it is. Personally, I’d sticked to a Korina 1958 even though I've tried to adapt for a while with a 1967 model, but I must say I'm not a fan of the system and gear of these ones, like the one Hendrix and James Hettffield uses. Also, of course, I’ve had to make some adjustments and customizations to make this a more adequate instrument for me on stage and for studio usage, such as replacing the original alnic classic pickups - which I used for a long time - for Gibson 57 classics and a new bridge, but other than that it's a great instrument and carries a great deal of meaning and emotional weight to me - it was the first guitar I hit the road with and played with for a long time inside the local rock scene of my hometown before discovering my voice inside folk and getting into the acoustic guitars . This Customshop Ebony model that I still use today, preceded from a vintage one finished in natural aged korina that I owned before. For me that is still aren’t a single better looking guitar ever made than a natural aged blackguard Korina. One of the best looking guitars out there aside with the custom nocasters that have a humbucer I the lipstick pickup section, in my opinion. Just marvelous pieces of craftmanship.

I would have to say that at first sight I never was a totally SG stan neither a Les Paul kind of guy, but I became as my peculiar tastes for guitar tones aged through all those years I’ve been out there playing. Despite Les Pauls being extremely badass, goldtop finishing being the holy-grail of all the godtier goodlinkg guitars (asde with Gretsch White Falcon and, as I said before, the humbucker Nocaster and the natural blackguard Korina V) I never owned a Les Paul, but also never felt a thrill, to this day, about it to having one. Maybe I’ll change my mind in the futre who knows? The thing is that through the years I’ve putted my hands in so many SG’s that I finally made up my mind that this is one of the best suiting instruments for my live performances, inspired a lot by Hendrix, Jake Kizska and Sister Rosotta Tharpe style of playing and the use they have to that instrument. Georges Harrisson’s 1964 Sg standard with maestro vibrola and walrus tooth (in shape) handle is for me the pinnacle of SG greatness, alongside with Sister Rosettas model that in fact inspired me on naming my very own Les Paul 1961 Custom, so influent she has for me as a guitarist. She inspires power and revolution and there’s something about that period of time in rock music that drives me crazy and every time I think about it I get a haze. A creativity haze, a craving for creating something asap. I don’t know, It’s magic.That being said, an interesting funfact about my relationship with these model’s are that in my early youth a ESP LTD Viper SG was my very first guitar, one that doesnot hold much options and a very very low end, but that served me well as a study instrument for that period of my life. After that I slowly upgraded my gear for live performances, but still find it odd that I end up with this guitar, and that amoung all the ones I own it is my favorite to jam around. My model it’s a very cheap clone made in England, but that actually upgraded it with BB pros wich I found that sound a little darker to me, with a Gibson 57s on the neck that are brighter and a little edgier. BB have a smoother more compressed kinda sound, but 57 have more crisp, defined sound that complement each other when playing. That models also had a maestro vibrola added as a custom feature by the previous owner, and for versatiliyy on stage I added a different set of speed knobs from A Gibson Les Paul Special.

Stratocasters for me are the kind of guitar that makes you ready for anything on stage. No matter what’s the level of threathning or from which direction comes the danger - whatever happens, if you have a Stratocaster you are good. That one with whom we recorded the solos for ‘’The Girl With the Messy Hair’’, ‘’No Sympathy Blues’’ and ‘’The Ballad of Electric Dreams’’ have this primitive, harsh and funky sound that amuses me. It’s far from being my favorite pick-up setting or the style of guitar that I’d pick if I have more options, but I hold very deep affection to that model, since it’s the one I’ve leaned my very first chords on. Also, I owned for a brief time a Olimpyc White Stratocaster that still miss to this day, wich have a such brighter tone I’d never heard in any other instrument. I think that even being a fenderhead because of my telecaster tone obsession( that I credit to the country and folk music roots of mine in general) I’m much more of a Gibson design, tone and construction pattern due to it’s solidity both in the matters of materials and sounding. I’d definitely pick a Stratocaster for a few occasions, but despite the telecaster incident I’m not a a fender enthusiast at all.