(picture by
<3 Melissa on Flickr)
Vintage Guitar Magazine has a new
interview with Brad Paisley. Most of the interview focuses on Brad's most recent album,
Play, which is predominantly an instrumental album. I salute anyone willing to name a song on their album "Cluster Puck" and invite James Burton, Albert Lee, Vince Gill, John Jorgenson, Redd Volkaert, Steve Wariner, and Brent Mason to accompany them on the track. In addition to reading the interview, check out Peter Vogl's lesson on playing
Brad Paisley Style Licks
Country music tends to go in phases where Tele playing is more in vogue and out of vogue. Do you think Tele is out of favor right now?
That is certainly the case with a lot of what's on the radio. There is some Tele playing on the radio, but even my friends who are session players in Nashville will tell you there was a time in the late 1980s and early '90s when you could show up to a gig and if you had a Tele with a Strat pickup in the middle you could pretty much cover anything they needed. In the early '90s, Brent Mason could just show up with his Tele and have everything he'd need, tone-wise, though I'm sure he brought more guitars to the gig.
Tell us about some of the incredible amps you've been using?
I never stop adding amps to my collection, and it's certainly past the point of being excessive...
How many do you own?
I'm not even sure. We have at least 10 heads out on the road, and I have at least 10 more at home. That doesn't include amps I have lying around, like that little Vox [points to the amp] or the Fender that James Burton gave me. And that's also not including the amps in my music room, or those I've loaned out. Steve Wariner has one of my Dr. Z Maz 18s.
Live, I am still using a Z-Wreck by Dr. Z. It's a great AC30-type amp based on the Trainwreck Liverpool 30. Dr. Z and Ken Fischer collaborated on it, and I can't confirm this, but I believe it was the last amp Ken worked on. It's a beautiful piece. I've also been using a Tony Bruno Cowtipper, which is based on a blackface Fender Twin but with a better-sounding reverb circuit. It's a very clean amp I use for certain patches live in conjunction with a Vox-style amp. He also makes a great Vox-style amp called the Underground 30, which in my opinion is one of the great amps of our time. He modified one for me to have an old-style Vox transformer, and I have what you'd call a "standard" Underground 30. But that's a bit of a misnomer in that there is really no such thing as a standard model for him. He tweaks each amp for the customer. I also have a Fender Vibro-King that I love that sometimes takes the place of the Cowtipper. [Mike Zaite at Dr. Z] is making a couple of interesting things, like the Evan, which is his take on a Fender-type amp. And then there's my Trainwreck Liverpool 30 I took off the road for a while, even though it's pampered out there - it's treated basically like a person. It travels on a padded bunk on the bus! I pulled it out because I missed it. I use it for the distorted sounds live on songs like "She's Everything," and the high-gain stuff, plus the B.B. King duet we do live. It makes such a great blues amp because it's so responsive. It's hard to live without.
Labels: brad paisley, country guitar, interview
