Zen Guitar for
the 22nd Century
. . . and Beyond
to the instrument. It’s a paradoxical position
from which to work. But as each of these artists
proves, it can be a fruitful creative process especially when you’re willing to put in the time.
“Players need to get sick of what they are playing and what they are listening to, and have the
will to do something about it,” explains Bishop.
“And it takes work. If you want to get different
or new sounds from the guitar—sounds that
you haven’t gotten before—then do things differently. Do the opposite. Alter your approach.
Try a little dissonance, use more upstrokes with
chords if you use mainly downstrokes, and create your own new chord forms. Train your ears
to hear things in a different way. Think about
what Thelonious Monk did with the piano—
there were no effects, just a unique combination of dissonance, harmonic oddities, and
whatever else he could muster. The same ideas
can be applied to the guitar, though it may
take your ears a while to process unfamiliar
sounds in a different way. But it can be done.
Just do whatever you can to come up with
something new.”
“Sure, we have those in stock.”
Guitars: Fender Lee Ranaldo Signature
Jazzmaster, Travis Bean T1000A, Fender
Telecaster Deluxe
Amps: 1963 Fender Super Reverb,
Fender Vibro-King
Effects: Klon Centaur Overdrive, Ibanez
AD- 80 Analog Delay, Digi Tech PDS 1002
2-Second Delay, BJF Electronics Honey
Bee Overdrive, Moog Moogerfooger
Ring Modulator
Nick Zinner’s Gearbox
Guitars: Mid-’80s “E” Series Fender
Stratocaster, First Act Nick Zinner
Signature Delia
Amps: Fender Hot Rod DeVille 212,
Fender Twin Reverb
Effects: Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler,
Digi Tech JamMan, Digi Tech Whammy, Foxx
Tone Machine, Electro-Harmonix POG
Ben Chasny’s Gearbox
Guitars: Fender Telecaster Custom,
K. Yairi orchestra-style acoustic with
a cutaway
Amps: Fender Twin Reverb
Effects: Boss DS- 1 Distortion
Sir Richard Bishop’s Gearbox
Guitars: 1960 Gibson ES-330, Dell’Arte
Dark Eyes Selmer-style acoustic
Amps: Various Fender and Vox tube amps
Effects: Boss RC-20XL Loop Station,
Line 6 Verbzilla
Chuck Levin’ s WASHINGTON MUSIC CENTER
