STEVETROVATO
You’re originally from New Jersey. How
did you end up on the West coast attend-
ing GIT (now the Musicians Institute)?
Like every guitar player on the East Coast,
we were always hungry for information
about the guitar. I used to get this magazine
and I saw an ad for this place called GIT in
California. I saw pictures of Larry Carlton,
Tommy Tedesco and other people that I
didn’t know, like Don Mock and Joe Diorio,
and they were starting this school. They
were sort of advertising it being for studio
specifically for recording don’t necessarily
sound all that good in the studio. It really
depends on the studio, the mics, and
everything else. I brought every amp that I
had down there – I even borrowed some
amps. I ended up with five or six different
amps and I had to just go through all of
them to find out which one sounded the
best in that studio – with that particular
set up of room and microphones. I wound
up actually using a boutique amp from
a company in Virginia called Talos. I love
those amps. It’s a 60-watt, one-twelve, and
thing is under a microscope. I found that
using different guitars expresses that better.
If I want to play a sensitive, sort of Chet
Atkins jazzy piece, the Legacy wouldn’t
work because it sounds too thin, but with
a loud phrase it will sound fine. For a quiet
passage, I decided to use a Gibson – a
Howard Roberts with two old humbuckers
that I had. Of course, for the Straty-sounding
things I used my red Legacy with a Kahler
on it, which I absolutely love. For the rest of
the stuff I used one of two Teles: a Fender
“Well, I think you’ll hear this from a lot of guys; it was the Beatles. I think I was six
years old, and I had been playing the piano. I did my piano recital and played ‘The
Blue Danube Waltz.’ Then I saw the Beatles on Ed Sullivan and I thought, Wow,
girls never screamed for me playing piano. So that was it and I started playing the
guitar. That was pretty much it, and I have never looked back. ”
musicians, and that was what I wanted to be. it just has two knobs on it, drive and gain.
Now that you already have one CD
under your belt, you’ve gone into the
studio a second time with some outside input. How are you achieving your
tones with the studio?
What about guitars? Did you find that’s
the same scenario to be true?
solid body Telecaster and a G&L semi-hollow.
None of them are stock. Seymour Duncan
custom built the pickups for both of them.
It’s something I suspected, but I never really
had the chance to put it to the test. I usually
use my G&L Legacy live, with the Kahler on
it because it sounds great. You’re playing loud
enough where if there’s a bass, drums and
everything cranking you lose the nuances
and the subtlety. But in the studio you retain
those nuances and subtleties because every-
What amps do you prefer for live per-
formances?
When I did my first album, I just took my
rig into the studio with the thought that if
it sounds good live, it will sound good in
the studio. I’ve found that not to be true.
I also realized that amps that are made
I play rock, I use my Dumble. That, of
course, is Alexander Dumble. It says “Built
to win” and it really does, it’s just really
something. I put a pedal in front of it to
make sure it’s got enough overdrive. In
the country bands I use a ‘ 65 Pro Reverb,
which Dumble rebuilt for me.
What do you use on the jazz side?
I use my Talos.
Throughout your time as a guitar
player, you’ve been labeled as the chameleon of guitar. Do have a huge arsenal of guitars at your disposal that you
have hiding in the back room to take
out whenever you need to?
For the live work I pretty much grab whatever is nearest to the front door on the way
out. I was never really one to take ten guitars to a session because I figured that one
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