Chris Summerlin

Mentioned in this April 2013 interview from QRD #61.

Dislikes: aside from the obvious stuff like “tone-lawyer” relic guitars that cost thousands of dollars, I’ve never really got on with Gibson guitars. I had a nice one (an ES135) that I recorded with a lot, but I never really bonded with it or felt right with it. I have friends with Gibsons that I really like so maybe I just haven’t found the right one (at the right price).

Mentioned in this April 2013 interview from QRD #61.

QRD – If you had a signature pedal, what would it be & what would some of its features be?

Chris – Martin Cooper - an amazing gear boffin who runs Coopersonic - built me one for Kogumaza that I suppose is the closest to a “signature” pedal. It’s a type of delay that takes a weird glitch in the particular pedal it’s based on & then controls it with a wah-wah type pedal that’s attached. We call it The Cosmonaut. If it breaks I’m kind of screwed though. That or a Green Russian Big Muff with the tone control taped to zero & Jimi Hendrix painted on it.

(…) As for pedals, I know folks with hundreds of fuzz & distortion pedals, but I’ve had a Sovtek Green Big Muff & a Fulltone FD2 forever & I’ve never found anything to beat them. I have lots of pedals, but I’m pretty unfussy about them, it seems easy to get so into pedals that you forget to make music sometimes, so as long as they work & are reliable I’m happy.

Mentioned in this April 2013 interview from QRD #61.

As for pedals, I know folks with hundreds of fuzz & distortion pedals, but I’ve had a Sovtek Green Big Muff & a Fulltone FD2 forever & I’ve never found anything to beat them. I have lots of pedals, but I’m pretty unfussy about them, it seems easy to get so into pedals that you forget to make music sometimes, so as long as they work & are reliable I’m happy.

Mentioned in this April 2013 interview from QRD #61.

QRD – What’s your main amplifier & why?

Chris – It’s an early 1990s Fender Twin. It was the first “proper” amp I bought & I’ve had it for about 17 or 18 years now. They’re not very popular amongst the cork sniffers who like valve amps so they’re always fairly cheap. There’s some good advice there: people who spend lots on premium gear are always going to say it’s amazing as they spent a fortune on it so think outside of that & save yourself some cash (i.e. Peavey made some killer amps in the 80s & they can be bought for pocket change, or found in a skip usually). The design of the Twin leaves a bit to be desired (the knobs stick out from the front by a half an inch or so, so you always end up shearing them off when you load the amp into a car), but I’ve stuck with it & I have a combo version & a head version (through an Orange cab). They’re really loud, lots of EQ options & you can run everything to both channels so you always have tons of clean headroom. I use the Dual Showman for bass as well as it sounds great for either. I also have a little 15 watt solid state amp I swear by for recording.

Mentioned in this April 2013 interview from QRD #61.

QRD – What’s your main guitar & what are the features that make it such?

Chris – At the moment it’s a 70s Univox Hi Flier. I went to Texas in 2007 & stayed with a friend over there & he had one & I just loved it straight away. The necks are really slim, the whole guitar weighs nothing & feels perfect for me (& they look cool & they’re pretty cheap). I helped him out of a tricky situation a few years later & to say thanks he bought me one from Nashville Craigslist, which was amazing of him. Last year I got another one from Brooklyn when my girlfriend was on holiday there. I just saw it online back home in the UK & it was 2 blocks from where she was staying so I took it as an omen. It was a bit of a nail, but I got Xperience Guitars in Nottingham to totally rebuild it. They did an incredible job & that’s the one I use the most at the moment in Grey Hairs & just generally. For Kogumaza I use a 70s Japanese SG copy. I got it off Ebay in about 2001 from a guy in Birmingham for 110 quid. It had the unbranded John Birch pickup in it when I got it & it’s a bit of a mystery. I tried to find out where it came from & John Diggins (who worked with John Birch) said it was a special order for an artist (hence it’s unbranded). I’m hoping Tony Iommi or Dave Hill, but I’ll never know.

I play bass for my friend Dusty Bible too. At the moment I’m using his violin bass from the 70s. I have a 70s Epiphone but it’s being restored at the moment - another “£100 to buy / £200 to restore” classic money-pit purchase from me. Both are short scale as I have the tiny hands of a child.

QRD – If you had a signature guitar, what would it look like & what would some of its features be?

Chris – I’d be pretty happy with anything that had a bolt-on neck, was nice & resonant but not super heavy, thin & shallow neck profile, decent bridge & high output pickups like P90s. Just one volume & tone. I like the slightly reversed Mosrite shape as well, so I guess what I am saying is: a Univox Hi Flier with all the faults ironed out. A Mosrite, basically.

Mentioned in this April 2013 interview from QRD #61.

QRD – What have been the best & worst guitar related purchases you’ve made?

Chris – Best, financially, were buying Travis Bean guitars pre-Ebay. You could pick them up so cheaply & it was fun to hunt them down. I ended up selling mine for a big profit & it pretty much cleared the debts I had at the time. No regrets. I bought a 70s Telecaster Deluxe as well when they were still quite cheap & I still have that & it’s a beautiful thing.