Jeff "Skunk" Baxter

"What a thrill when that showed up in the mail! Usually, I use an Ampeg VT-22 or Vox Super Beatle head. The Vox is excellent for steel guitar because it has very little inter-modular distortion at low volumes. It's an old one and has a nice reverb and echo for the steel."

In the YouTube video titled "Jeff Baxter American Guitar Technique 6/9," Jeff Baxter is seen using his custom acrylic Fender Stratocaster, demonstrating techniques for playing with a band.

"I go back to the beginning with the Roland JC-120 Jazz Chorus amplifier. I met with Roland founder Ikutaro Kakehashi in 1975 and he presented the amp to me. Never before had I heard such clean tones at low and very high volumes. The JC-120 does an incredible job of reproducing whatever signal and sounds are plugged into it. I need an amp I can use for clean tones, fat tones, pedal steel guitar, and acoustic guitar. I have even bussed background vocals from a recording console through the JC-120 in the stereo chorus mode, with a mic on each speaker and back to the console—beautiful!

I have used the JC-120 on such songs as Dolly Parton’s “9 to 5” and Donna Summers’ “Hot Stuff,” and on recording projects with Rod Stewart, Ringo Starr, and the TV series King of the Hill, to name just a few examples. I use it on virtually every live gig I do, from rock shows to classical guitar at the Kennedy Center with a choir and orchestra. Reliable, solid, sweet, and versatile, it is my go-to amp of choice. Very few guitar amplifiers are referred to as “iconic,” and the Roland JC-120 fits that description perfectly."

"When the family moved to New York City in 1964, Jeff went to Jimmy's Music Shop on 48th Street to score his first good guitar—a Fender Jazzmaster—and wound up with a job: "For a buck and a quarter an hour, I was unloading Fender Twin Reverbs in the middle of the night, taking them up two flights of stairs, and loving every minute of it! Then I started to work on guitars. Dan Armstrong, who had a store on 48th and used to do Jimmy's repairs, noticed that there was no work coming from the shop anymore, so he came down to investigate and stole me. Boy, that's when my guitar education started happening. I learned a lot about electronics and how to build and customize—even made few guitars." Called to deliver an amp to a record company, Jeff was asked to fill-in for a guitarist who was late for a demo session. "Afterwards the guy didn't pay me, but he bought me a beer," he says, "and I thought hat was nice. It was cool—l was into studios for the price of a beer and an arm around my shoulder."

"I usually use these effects independently, I always have a limiter—an Orange Squeezer—coming right off the steel guitar, which keeps the signal to the volume pedal pretty constant. Then I put the other effects after that."

In this photo, Baxter can be seen with Roland GS-500. This guitar is now exhibited in Hard Rock Cafe in Florida.

"What a thrill when that showed up in the mail! Usually, I use an Ampeg VT-22 or Vox Super Beatle head. The Vox is excellent for steel guitar because it has very little inter-modular distortion at low volumes. It's an old one and has a nice reverb and echo for the steel."

Jeff "Skunk" Baxter, renowned for his influential roles in Steely Dan and the Doobie Brothers, is highlighted on Gibson.com for his association with the Skunk Baxter Gibson Firebird guitar. With a career spanning over five decades, Baxter has collaborated with legends like Bryan Adams, Rod Stewart, and Dolly Parton, showcasing his expertise and preference for this iconic instrument.

Jeff Baxter, renowned for his work with Steely Dan and the Doobie Brothers in the 1970s, is associated with the Epiphone Limited Edition ES-335 PRO natural guitar. His influential contributions to these bands, including bringing Michael McDonald into the Doobie Brothers, are highlighted by The Music Museum of New England.

"If someone wants a chain-saw solo. I'll go in with my Roland GR 300 or a couple of real ratty Gibson Les Pauls that sound pretty ugly when they're flat-out. And if they want the signature, like in "My Old School." I'll take my homemade Stratocaster. "

NAMM 2020 | Legendary guitarist of Steely Dan and the Doobie Brothers,** Jeff 'Skunk' Baxter** shows us the Deluxe 175, updated for 2020.

Per DR Strings website it states that He uses and endorses the Tite Fit Strings.

In this video from Roland, Skunk Baxter demos the Roland Blues Cube Hot. He says:

One of the problems with getting a good vintage tone has been to make the guitar sustain enough and this amp has a singing quality that quite frankly, I was a little amazed.

I like Reverb. I like Reverb because I think it adds a dimension to the sound live that you can't really get any other way. It's a trade-off between getting some reverb into your signal and being able to have clarity of your tone. And I won't tell you what the secret sauce is, but they listened and what they did with this amplifier is create a reverb that you could use live, and to me that's a whole new jump in technology.

There's something about a 12-inch speaker in a small cabinet. There's a tone that we've all grown to love. The bottom end of of the equalization circuit, instead of pushing the amplifier past the point where the cabinet and the speaker can handle it, it seems to just enhance it.

The Dynamics that I would like to have that come from my hands and my pick attacking the strings seems to translate very well into this amplifier. A very, very, friendly mid-range. It's portable, it screams, and it doesn't rip your head off. But it'll hold its own. I don't think I would need anything else, put it up on a chair, crank it up, sit back and play my music.