Nils Lofgren, Kenny Smith, Jones and Leva, Beck, Nick Drake, Woody Mann
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Nils Lofgren likes to keep an old Gibson L-10 on a stand next to his living room couch. "I found it in a music shop and I had it restrung," he says. "It's all beat up and it doesn't sound pretty or gentle, but it's a good guitar. If I'm watching too much TV, I feel guilty about it, so I'll just put it in my arms and mindlessly play it." He also owns three Martin guitars. His most cherished is a D-18, a gift he received from Neil Young for playing on Young's After the Gold Rush. But on stage, Lofgren prefers a Takamine acoustic-electric guitar with stock pickups. "I put it right through a PA. It sounds great that way," he explains. "I really love the pickups. With a good soundman, you can get a lot of level and low end without feeding back." He also likes the freedom of the Takamine. "They give me a chance to move around on stage. I can go direct and not have to be stuck in front of a mic." Lofgren uses D'Addario medium-gauge phosphor-bronze strings on all of his guitars. "They are thick enough to play rhythm, but when I do the lead playing they give me a little flexibility too. I change them for every set because the brightness goes away after a few hours." --Robin Honig |
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These days, Kenny Smith's primary instrument is a gorgeous 1935 Martin D-18 that he convinced a collector to sell him. "It has the red spruce top and the big vintage neck on it," he says. "I pretty much sold everything I had to get it." His other main instrument is a new mahogany dreadnought built by Randy Lucas (Lucas Custom Instruments, PO Box 1404, Columbus, IN 47202; [812] 342-3093). "This Lucas guitar is something else. It's the best old-sounding new guitar I've heard," Smith says. The guitar is a meticulous reproduction of Smith's '35 Martin, right down to the use of an original Martin steel T-bar instead of an adjustable truss rod for neck support. Lucas even air-brushed the modern ivoroid tuner buttons to age them and custom-ordered synthetic tortoiseshell binding material that perfectly matches the pattern of the binding used on the original guitar. One variation is a lack of scalloped braces. "It has that broad sound because there's more tension on the top," Smith reports. The unscalloped bracing also gives the guitar a more balanced voice, eliminating bass wolf tones and overtones that can occur when the guitar is played into a microphone on stage or in the studio. Smith strings his instruments with D'Addario medium-gauge phosphor-bronze strings and uses a stiff natural tortoiseshell pick, although he recently experimented with a pick made from the material used to create false teeth. "I'll try anything that gives you that sound," he says. On stage, Smith uses whatever mics the sound crew uses and plays without supplemental pickups. In the studio, he prefers an old AKG tube microphone placed directly in front of the soundhole, with an AKG 460 "off the soundhole angled back toward the bridge." --David McCarty |
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Carol Elizabeth Jones plays a Hanslin and Henry guitar with a deep rosewood body, a spruce top, and a shape similar to a Martin OM. Hanslin and Henry guitars are no longer available, but one of the partners, Jeff Henry, has gone on to build instruments under his own name (Jeff Henry Guitars, 75 Bennett St., Suite D-1, Atlanta, GA 30309; [404] 351-9255). As of this past summer, Leva is the proud owner of a Jeff Henry Jumbo Deluxe (a smaller-bodied guitar with the jumbo shape) with a rosewood body and a spruce top. On both Jones and Leva records, Leva played a 1949 Gibson J-45. Both Jones and Leva use GHS phosphor-bronze light-gauge strings. "We've just switched over to playing acoustically in front of one Audio-Technica 4033 studio mic," says Leva of their stage setup. "We use it to pick up everything: guitars, vocals, fiddle, banjo. We first got the notion when opening for Del McCoury last March and using his. We're developing a choreography to use the mic to best advantage, but we like the way it reduces the need for monitors, multiple EQs, and mixes." "We occasionally play in an electric honky-tonk band for weddings and such, and that's the only time we plug in any more," says Leva. Jones uses a McIntyre pickup with or without a Baggs preamp direct box when she has to plug in. Leva's new Henry guitar has a Highlander pickup installed under the saddle. His J-45 and banjo are equipped with homemade piezo pickups, and both fiddles are fitted with Baggs bridges complete with pickups. With his J-45 he uses a rack-mounted Rane AP-13 preamp (Rane Corp., 10802 47th Ave. W., Mukilteo, WA 98275-5000; [425] 355-6000; www. rane.com) and an A.R.T. effects rig (A.R.T., 215 Tremont St., Rochester, NY 14608-2366; [716] 436-2720; www. artroch.com). "I used to use that effects rig with the Freewill Savages [an electric band] for both fiddle and guitar," says Leva, "and I still use it when we play with the honky-tonk band. Until recently, I was using it on Jones and Leva gigs for fiddle, guitar, and banjo, with a three-way switch box. But the EQ changes between instruments were too radical, so lately we've been playing into mics." --Rani Arbo |
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Beck's main acoustic guitar, seen in the photo on page 50, is a Martin HD-28VR (VR for vintage reissue). According to guitar tech Andy Wolf, Beck fell in love with a vintage D-28 but thought it was too pricey to be a real road guitar, so the HD-28VR was the perfect alternative. Beck also has a standard Martin HD-28 (seen in the photo on page 52) and a 000-18. For stage use, the HD-28VR is equipped with a Sunrise soundhole pickup and stereo FRAP pickups, which are mounted under the guitar's top. Beck tracked down the FRAP (which is no longer made) after going on the HORDE tour with Neil Young, whose spectacular amplified acoustic sound has converted more than a few pros to the FRAP system. Larry Cragg, who installed Young's system in the '70s, also wired up Beck's guitar (see the August '97 Dear A.G. for Cragg's description of Young's rig). Beck's FRAP runs into a FRAP preamp and his Sunrise into a Sunrise preamp. He uses an SWR California Blonde amp as a stage monitor. When Beck records acoustically with the HD-28, he removes the Sunrise to unplug the soundhole. --Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers
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The only steel-string acoustic guitar Nick Drake ever recorded with was a small-bodied Guild M-20. It is pictured on the cover of Bryter Layter. The M stands for mahogany (back and sides), and the top was burgundy-stained spruce. The advantage of smaller-bodied acoustics (as opposed to dreadnoughts) is that they're generally easier to record, with a nice balance across the tonal spectrum. Drake's guitar never required compression in the recording studio. He also recorded several pieces with a nylon-string guitar, but its identity is unknown. Most likely it was a borrowed guitar. He accompanied himself on piano on one recorded song: "Saturday Sun" (Five Leaves Left). All of Drake's sessions were recorded at an eight-track studio in London called Sound Techniques and engineered by John Wood. Five Leaves Left and Bryter Layter were produced by Joe Boyd, Pink Moon was produced by John Wood, and Time of No Reply was produced (after Drake's death) by Frank Kornelessun and Joe Boyd. In a BBC radio special broadcast in June 1998, "Fruit Tree: The Nick Drake Story," Wood commented that after Drake's death, scores of acoustic guitarists asked him to engineer their recording sessions in the hopes of duplicating Drake's sound. Each of them would leave the session frustrated. As Wood said, the best mic in the world is not going to make you sound a better guitarist than you are. Drake had all the talent and ability, and reproducing his "sound" was quite easy. It all came from Drake. --Scott Appel
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Although Woody Mann has a number of instruments, his search for the ultimate guitar continues. In the '70s, he owned a D'Aquisto flattop, which he wishes he had never sold. His current road guitar is a Lowden 0-23-C with walnut back and sides and a spruce top. He also owns a one-off wengewood Franklin, which is sized between an OM and a jumbo, and an '84 D'Aquisto Excel archtop. Most of Mann's guitars are strung with medium-gauge John Pearse strings, although he sometimes uses a light set for all but the first and second strings. Mann used a combination of a Sunrise pickup and an external mic for some time, but he recently began endorsing Highlander pickups and internal microphones. He is waiting for Highlander to introduce a blender box and is using a Fishman Blender lent to him by Stefan Grossman in the interim. Although he's looking for something more lightweight, he has also been using a Lexicon LXP-1 to add reverb to his live sound. For shows where he provides his own amplification, he brings an AER Acousticube amplifier. --Teja Gerken |
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