Larry Carlton

At 0:54 in this video interview, Larry Carlton talks about his most notable guitar, saying, "Yeah this guitar is the one that I played the majority of my sessions on and my solo records on. The choice to get the 335 was actually a very practical choice for me and so know I play a lot of different styles of music and for me I wanted to get a guitar that could cover a lot of bags so I didn't always have to switch to a bebop guitar for this blues guitar for that and this one covers most of the bags that I want to play or was called on to play. So that's how I ended up picking the 335 and the little store I went to in 1969 to buy a 335, it had three 335s hanging on the wall and I chose this one out of it because it sounded the best to me and the rest is really history, isn't it? ... Brand new...Yeah 1969... although I ended up carrying everything but this one seemed to cover most so I didn't have to keep pulling a new guitar out."

Asked if the guitar has had many modifications to it Larry responded, "Not really. Obviously the stop tailpiece because it came with the trapeze; same original pickups; a number of fret jobs over the years because I played it so much and we put in it the graphite nut. Long time ago Mike McGuire said gotta try this man there is no stick and it won't ever wear out and it doesn't stick and doesn't wear out other than that, you know, replace the tuning pegs when you need it... Nothing else. Yeah I copied this guitar [1969 ES-335] and it's really cool they came out really good... They copied everything and even the color they call this a Carlton Burst and so that's the label on it."

At 3:31 in this interview with Premier Guitar, Larry Carlton says, "This 335, this is a 1968. I got a letter from a fan and basically it took six months for the letter to get to me you know it went to the offices and people filed it away anyway this guy said you’re my favorite guitar player and this guitar that I have is a ‘68 335 that's been not played in, was it seventeen years? Yeah seventeen years and he said I would like to give it to you as a backup guitar if you like it and if you don't like it please don't keep it well he sent it and it's just just great so this was a gift from a fan."

When asked if it sounds similar to his number one, Larry responds, "Yeah it does, it really does. And the tone was very very similar and so what I did though is I wanted to experiment so I put PAF pickups, old matched PAF pickups in this one so it wouldn't try to sound exactly yeah so it gives me a whole different world I play this one tone wise."

In this rig rundown video from Premier Guitar, Larry Carlton says at 4:57, "Yeah these are guitars that are just in my arsenal that over the years I've played. This is a ‘57 Les Paul Special and I haven't done anything to this guitar since I bought it. It's got the P90s obviously. It's just a great sounding guitar. I remember the early 90’s when I went on tour with Stanley Clarke and Billy Cobham and we did the Jazz Explosion I used this guitar for that tour just because and we recorded live at the Greek so that's the guitar you would hear on that record."

At 6:51 in this interview, Larry Carlton talks about his '51 Telecaster, saying, "Yeah this is a ‘51 Telecaster. The tech that worked for me in the 80s, Dave Rouse, he was with me at least three years full-time, at my studio and on the road. And his best friend, Dave's best friend Pierre Du Bois was Keith Richard's tech. And the Stones were gonna go out on a tour and they wanted to add another guitar tech. Pierre called Dave, his best friend, my tech, and said "Can you go out for the year with the Stones?" And Dave came to me, "Larry can I go out Stones for a year?" Well, he stayed with them 20 years. But what I'm getting at is at one of the Stone's sound checks, somebody showed up at sound check with this guitar to show it to Keith. And so they gave it to David and said, "Would you show this to Keith? It's for sale." And Keith said "I have enough Telecasters, blah blah blah." But Dave said "but I have a buddy who might be interested in it." So they shipped it to me. It screams. This back pick up, this back pick up tells a story when you crank it. So yeah, I'm happy to have this and I've actually done some bebop gigs with this too... The Montreux Jazz Festival 1997. If you go to YouTube and check it, out I'm playing "So What?" on this guitar... It's my understanding that the neck is stamped 1951 and the body is stamped '52, so it was put together sometime during that transition, probably... Right, yeah, so no, I haven't done anything to it. Just a special tone."

In this video interview, Larry Carlton discusses his 1964 Stratocaster at 9:18. “Yes, so it's a '64 Strat. Gosh, I got this in the 80’s also. I was living in Los Angeles and for some reason was looking for Strat, got in the mood. And there was a music store on Sunset Boulevard, I think it was called Guitar Circus, something like that. And they were very nice. They would let Dave, my tech, go down to the store and bring three Strats to the house, to my studio. And I could check them out with my gear in my studio send them back and this is the one that my ear, caught my ear.”

When asked about playing Valley Arts Strats and if they feel similar to this guitar, Larry responds, “That's right. That was a great season too being affiliated with Valley Arts. Mike McGuire was making great guitars back then… No this, this sounds more authentic. Yeah, I mean that's the real deal… I'm happy to have this and my son, Travis, you know he's a professional bass player… Well he's been in Japan for two months with Tak Matsumoto and he's doing something with Scott Henderson coming up in a few days… Yeah, anyway Trav said, "Dad whatever you do when you pass away, I want the Strat.” And he's a bass player! But he loves the tone of this guitar.”

At 11:00 in this video from Premier Guitar, Larry Carlton says about his acoustic guitar, “Yeah, this is my Valley Arts acoustic that I've played since the 80's. And I fell in love with a little Martin D-28, and so I went to Mike McGuire at Valley Arts and I said, “I love this guitar, but when you put pressure on it, or you're playing, it didn't stay in tune, the little Martin. It’s so soft.” But I said, “I love the size, and the feel, and that tone.” So we copied the body, obviously, but reinforced with bracing everywhere. So the insides, it won't budge on the pitch if you put some pressure on it. And that was a motivation for it and this is the I played Smiles and Smiles To Go, Discovery, all those tunes on.”

When asked if the guitar was ever commercially released, Larry answered, “No, he made five of these and let me choose and then I think Carlos Rios has one. Maybe Paul Jackson Jr. You know, the guys that were hanging out there during that time in LA, they got to choose one… So yeah this has been with me a long time.”

At 12:20 in this interview with Premier Guitar, Larry Carlton says, “Yeah, I designed this with Mike McGuire. I wanted a very, very small neck. I built it for speed. I built so it'd be just fast to play, and at the time we did it the newest pickups out were EMGs with a mid-range boost. And if you look at the album Last Night Live at the Baked Potato, it's a Valley Arts guitar that's playing all those beautiful harmonics on Emotions Wound Us. So yeah, we've kept this one all these years. God, I bet I haven't played this in 25 years.”

At 13:18 Larry Carlton talks about his Fender Deluxe amp, “We'll start here with the Tweed. And I've talked about this before on my website. That's the amp that I used for the Steely Dan sessions and I don't even remember why and how I'd brought the Tweed in, because I didn't use it on any other sessions, only the Royal Scam, Aja, and Donald's Nightfly album. So yeah, I got that with my 335 on the back pickup was the Kid Charlemagne and Don't Take Me Alive… No effects… Well I don't remember the exact setting but obviously you can play and you just keep moving it until it starting to bark but not sound too trashy... It was just luck, man. I don't know how I ended up taking that one for the solos.”

Larry goes on to say about the tweed, “Yeah I think it this is part of a cool story too when Donald Fagen was doing the Night Fly he flew me to New York to do some overdubs and I took my 335 in a suitcase and take an amp but I got there and we're visiting in the control room and he says “Oh, where's your amp?” “Well I didn’t bring one, I thought we’d just rent one.” They sent for my amp and on the Night Flights it’s that amp, my 335, and it had been a number of years you know so I thought, he really remembers that tone.”

Larry Carlton talks about his Bludo-Drive setup at 15:23 in this rig rundown saying, “Yeah, the Bludotone. Well, wonderful wonderful open sound. I described what I liked about my Dumbles to Brandon Montgomery, the maker of this amp, and he said “I think I can find something that you coul really be pleased with.” And he knew my sound from over the years, so he went to work and designed it and it's right in the sonic arena that I like to be in. So it’s worked out great. This is my 50 and 100-watt rig, which I play on the road in the states. I have the same thing, I have one in Brussels so we can pick it up and tour Europe and I have one in Tokyo so I don't have to ship one there and a pedalboard in Tokyo also so I'm covered and I don’t have to fly them every time. Yeah, I’m just tickled with tone of this amp and for my studio when I'm in here actually this is for the road, the 50-100, and he made it 25 watt-50 watt for me. For my studio, where I could get the same tone but you don’t have to play as loud… So yeah killer happy been playing it a number years now.”

When asked how he gets his overdrive tone, Mr. 335 responded, “Most of it is from the amp. I like, you know, over the years I set my preamp to when I hit it hard just wants to talk just it just wants to say something different… And then obviously there's the overdrive section which is very similar to my Dumbles before and it's just a sweet sweet sweet tight overdrive.”

Larry goes on to say at 17:33, “Yeah, you know it has so much what I call headroom that the transience just keep going through even when you play softly… and when I play harder it doesn't compress like a lot of the amps will stop a sound, it stays open…This is a 50-100 watt you know it has a switch in the back to choose.”

At 19:24 in this interview Larry Carlton points out his Sho-Bud. "So obviously that’s a Sho-Bud volume pedal which I started using in the early 70’s... Well at the time I don't know of another volume pedal that was available but I do know that the great steel guitar player Buddy Emmons, he used a Sho-Bud pedal and we were comrades in the studio so I, when it came time to get one, I thought that I’d get the Sho-Bud since that’s what Buddy’s using."

At 19:59 in this video, Larry Carlton talks about his wah pedal stating, "Yeah, next we have just a Cry Baby Wah Wah. Nothing special about it. I like having it there for the once in awhile time that I'm I might want to do that."

At 20:19 in this video interview from Premier Guitar, Larry Carlton talks about his Liquid Chorus. “But now we're up here in the chorus you know this Liquid Chorus. I open my show with the Lord's Prayer every night, and so I liked it to get the beautiful chorus going and some delay and really create a solo guitar atmosphere for the audience for the very opening of the show. So yeah, this has been clean and sounds wonderful…”

At 20:40 Larry Carlton talks about his Providence Chrono Delay after talking about his Liquid Chorus. "So yeah, this has been clean and sounds wonderful… same with the Providence delay. I like it. It’s got the the tap, so I can tap the tempo to whatever song we’re playing so that, it drives me nuts if it's not in time."

Around 21:12 in this rig rundown, Larry Carlton says, “…and then this TC Electronic reverb pedal since the Bludo’s don't have reverbs built-in, it's nice for me to have some reverb available. And it depends on how dead the stage is and all that stuff."

At 21:25 in this interview, Larry Carlton talks about his use of the Zenkudo Overdrive. "...down here we have an overdrive pedal, Zenkudo, that’s a Japanese maker obviously, and been using that for a number years now on my pedalboard when I'm doing backline. That becomes my overdrive to get a little more out of the amps that I'm borrowing. For that night and it’s sweet it's really sweet it's tight with the 335 it works. I've tried other overdrive pedals that other guys like but it seemed to not work with the 335, so this one does in my opinion. I could get the same character [as my Bludotone amplifier]. To where it makes me, I'm feeling what I want to feel when I’m playing it's not as open as an amplifier would be but it's, it doesn't have any of the ugliness that a lot of other pedals have. This was just sweet in the center."

The Voodoo Lab Pedal Power 2+ is seen on Larry Carlton's pedalboard around 18:30 in this rig rundown.

Larry Carlton talks about his Hilton Volume pedals at 23:45 in this interview. "This volume pedal would be for the acoustic guitar, and then this one would be when I'm playing the electric guitar." Larry's pedals were custom built by Keith Hilton and include a tuner out modification.

The board starts with two Hilton volume pedals—one for electric and one for acoustic—each of which has an output to send a signal to the Korg DTR-2000 tuner (top).

At 24:34 Larry Carlton talks about how he uses the Shure SM57 to mic up his amp to his effects. "Yeah, yeah, so pretty simple set up if you notice now there's a 57 on my speaker cabinet. There will be, when I'm playing live, 2 57s on my speaker cabinet one 57 is for the house mix the other 57, the tone of my speaker and my amplifier, it's that 57 and that tone is what ends up hitting my effects. Just like when you're in the studio, you have your dry guitar sound which you wanna put some effects on it, you have the send and return. It's getting the source from the microphone on your amplifier, so that's the conversion that I did because the tone I want my effects to hear is the tone I'm sending through it, right?"

At 26:09, Larry talks about the TC Chorus, "...The TC chorus which sounds great because we're running stereo on stage for me so I really get the warmth of it not the mono backline kind of sound."

At 26:22 Larry Carlton talks about his reverb briefly. "Yeah, and then some reverb just to have it in line."

At 25:40, John Carlton talks about his delay, saying, "Yeah you know the delay, the reason I like the Roland is the tap because of the tap. Sounds great but the tap is convenient."