of that is a necessity of duplication, because
I spend so much time with Wilco in Chicago.
But I live in Los Angeles, so I’ve had to amass
amps, pedals and guitars in both places so I
don’t have to fly with all this stuff.
What are some of your standout pieces,
besides the Jazzmaster?
I’m kind of drawn to what I call these “ugly
duckling” guitars or strange ’60s flights of
fancy and rather odd instruments—and also
inexpensive instruments. I find the couple of
swanky guitars I’ve bought from friends just
don’t work for me. They’re too nice or something [laughs]. Then there’s also my old Martin
00-17 acoustic, my old Taylor 12-strings from
the ’70s, and my Jaguars. I have a 1962 Jaguar
that I bought in the ’90s at Black Market Music
for $300. I had it painted with a picture of
[fashion model] Kristen McMenamy. I kind of
adored her whole vibe at the time—I liked that
she was older than all those other girls and
just came along with this androgynous look. I
played that on “Hummingbird” and some of
the more country numbers because it has a
nice twang. My 1969 Jaguar is my most “rock”
guitar. It’s silver with a mirror pickguard, and
it has a Charlie Christian pickup in the neck
position and a Seymour Duncan Antiquity
wound especially to compete and blend with
the Charlie Christian pickup in the bridge position [laughs]. It’s hilarious, but it has this beefy
sound because of the pickup configuration.
It was an eBay guitar, and it was a complete
mess. I had no idea it would be so good. I use
that on rhythm parts where I need more gain. I
also have some Jerry Jones electric 12-strings
and baritone guitars, including a double-neck baritone that I played on “You Never
Know,” the George Harrison tribute. There’s a
descending, diminished-chord slide part, and I
solo on one neck and then play rhythm on the
other, which is such a ridiculous solution I came
up with to play that song more reverently to
the record. But I joke that I don’t know why
I have so many electric guitars, since I could
really get by with just the Jazzmaster and be
perfectly happy.
How many Jazzmasters do you have?
I have three. The main one is a ’ 59, and I have
a spare onstage that’s black—that’s a ’ 59,
too. And then I have a ’ 59 in Los Angeles.
What’s the story behind your main
’ 59 Jazzmaster?
The main one I bought from Mike Watt in 1995.
I was playing a Jaguar for many years, and I
started playing with Watt in ’ 90, but even more
in ’ 94 when I recorded on his first solo record,
Ball-Hog or Tugboat? I played my Jaguar, but
I was fascinated with these Jazzmaster guitars after hearing Tom Verlaine of Television
and Sonic Youth using these guitars. Also,
I wanted the strings behind the bridge. It’s
funny, they were joke guitars when I was a kid,
so I didn’t really consider them—but I should
have, because they were affordable. That’s why
INTERVIEW
Sonic Youth played them: they were cheap.
When I realized the Jazzmaster had not just
the different pickups but also a slightly longer
string length, I thought, “Wow, that could
really work.” Then, I saw my friend Joe Baiza
playing in Santa Monica, and Joe was playing
this Jazzmaster instead of his usual sunburst
Stratocaster. So I asked, “Joe, where did you
get that guitar?” And he said, “It’s Watt’s.” So
I asked Watt about it, and it turns out he was
lending it to Joe because Joe was getting his
Strat refretted. We were about to go on tour,
Wiring options for your
Stratocaster®: Choose
one configuration from
the many available, and
live with it. Or… buy
a ToneShaper, and
reconfigure your wiring
whenever you’d like.
Easily. Quickly. And
with no soldering, no
batteries, and no extra
controls or switches
on your pickguard.
Assign your tone
controls to the pickups
you want them
assigned to, and select
the capacitor values
that work for you.
Choose blending options
that allow you to combine
pickups in new and
tone-ful ways.
Maybe you’d like some
series/parallel options?
We thought so.
All of this, plus other cool
stuff, at your fingertips.
Time to be the boss.
You drive.
FLIP THE SWITCH
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