Barnstorming Around Guitar Player, 1975 Joe Walsh plays with the grace of George Harrison and the vehemence of Pete Townshend, a combination which earmarked his playing as lead guitarist of the James Gang. Raised in Ohio, he was weaned on the Beach Boys and the old rock and roll era (Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry) and grew up during the magical times of the Beatles and the Sgt. Peppers days. Quite oddly, Joe first began playing bass in high school (he attended Kent State also) because it was easier - it only had four strings, and for the simple reason that the only hot band in town needed a bass player and not a guitarist. After this first experience with the Nomads, he soon developed an awareness of the actual structure of songs (I listened to the radio four hours a day) and channeled his playing into a more technical arena. It wasnt until Joe was in college that he seriously picked up a guitar. His stay at Kent State lasted three quarters, after which he became a part-time student and occupied himself with classes like electronics, music theory, and welding. I became the phantom of Kent State, he recalls, taking all these weird courses that nobody could quite understand. Though Walsh was versed on the six-string before his university days, after his first nonproductive year at Kent, he was supporting himself with music. His first instrument was a Kay, which was powered by a little Fender amplifier with an 8 speaker that he says went razzzzzzzz. While in college he fluctuated between Fender and Gibson guitars, and when the Beatles grew to prominence went through a Vox amp and Rickenbacker guitar stage. The Rickenbackers were lousy guitars, Joe says, but everybody had to have one because the Beatles used them. Slowly Joe started turning his attention to the new wave of British guitarists. Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck were two great influences on his playing, and it was listening to their records for hours each day that formed the basis of his style. In 1966, he was able to put his perpetual practice to use when he replaced Glen Schwartz as lead guitarist for the James Gang. At that point he was using one 9f the newer model Flying Vs and a Fender amplifier (from which he has rarely changed). Realizing the potential opportunity to display all his months of solitary labors, he furthered his playing by bringing to the fore his college courses on electronics, wiring, soldering, and the like. What Joe refers to as hot wiring was an important part of his sound and included the reworking of guitars and amps. I removed the tone condenser and capacitor in Telecasters, he explains, so as to make the forward pickup hotter. I made the Telecaster pickups stronger by winding wire around the magnets and made them more sensitive by winding smaller wire (and consequently more of it) around the pickup. I also took the chrome covering off the humbucking pickups on Gibson guitars and put different tubes in amplifiers to make them louder. He adds that even the basics are important in altering sound - how the neck is joined to the body, the bridge design, what type of strings, wood type of the guitar, and how the tone and volume circuits are wired. Id experiment with stuff like that, Walsh says, and I found that it not only changed the volume, but it also changed the sound. You put the pickup right up under the string, and itll be louder. Just little things like that. The guitarist recorded four albums with the Gang on ABC Records: Yer Album (ABC 688], James Gang Rides Again (ABC S-711], Thirds (ABC 5-721], and In Concert (ABC SX-733J. After that, Joe became tired arid decided to stretch out on his own. He subsequently recorded his first non-Gang LP with his new band Barnstorm and called it The Smoker You Drink, The Player You Get (Dunhill, DSX50130], and a year later recorded his second (and most recent album), titled So What [Dunhill 50171]. Joe has consistently demonstrated a penchant for a range of guitar sounds which, coupled with his chunky-rhythm funky lead style, are instantly discernible as his own. I like to switch guitars, he confirms, and consequently uses a two-year old Telly and a 1954 Stratocaster for recording, and a 1959 sunburst Les Paul (pictured on the inner sleeve of So What) for performing. The Telecaster is unaltered and is used for its pure, undistorted sound (this is the model right before Fender started putting Gibson pickups and f-holes on them). The Strat is the same type as the guitar featured on the back of Eric Claptons Layla album (neither has a tremolo bar). The Les Paul is (amazingly) untouched, and - due to its consistent performance and Joes thorough knowledge of its neck and action - has not required any reworking. On stage, Walsh amplifies his Paul with a beefed-up Fender Twin. Fender puts in little things to make it sound nice, he says, and I took some things out to make it sound not nice. In the Fender tops with a bright switch, Walsh continues, there is a yellow capacitor (sometimes red) which goes between the bright switch and the treble control. By taking the capacitor off the normal channel and putting it in parallel with the vibrato channel, the result is a much boosted gain and hence, greater highs. The capacitor is simply unsoldered from the normal side and put in exactly the same position as the bright side capacitor. The wires are soldered in the same fashion as the part already there. The reason for this setup (besides stronger highs) is to compensate for the loss of gain in an amp, which is first noticed in a decline in highs when longer guitar-amp cords are used (especially when they are run through a wahwah or echoplex or some other auxiliary device). What that does, he explains, when you hit the bright switch, is whappp! There is also a resistor from the jack opening on the Fender top to the tubes which, when removed, produces a stronger signal. Joe says that this process may be performed in a short twenty-minute period. Walsh uses a variety of appliances on stage including a standard Leslie, Fender echo, and a Maestro Phase Shifter. The echo employs a shielded cable, which is an inner conductor grounded by wire to stop hum. Originally, the cable was in a foot switch, but Joe found that hooking it up to the phaser creates a brighter signal and a greater phasing of sound. Also, even when the echo unit is not switched on, he runs his signal through it because it adds a slight boost and fuzz to the sound. A Vox wah-wah (and/or a Cry Baby) is also employed. It just all depends on what sound I want at the moment, Walsh says. I might run through a Leslie and an echoplex, or a phaser and a Leslie. I might hook up something that sounds good, and then hook it up again, and it wouldnt sounod good. I like.to keep changing. During his constant metamorphosis, the inventive musician has stumbled upon other gultar and amplifier arrangements worth noting. One such reworking involves the Pignose amp. Besides the constant wearing out of batteries, the Pignose power supply is vastly sufficient when required to transmit signals. Joe explains how he solved the. dilemma: I secured a work-bench power supply (found in any radio television fix-it shop) which includes a meter so as to adjust the voltage. Then I cut the cables on the existing Pignose unit and removed it. Next you shear the two wires of the exterior plastic and attach the workbench (or lab) The new power source should be a 9-volt package --Heathkit (The Heath Co., Benton Harbor, MI 49022] makes an especially good one, and administers one to one-and-a-half amps of regulated power. The sound is no longer mushy, nor does it break up when the amp is turned full on. In fact, Joe went one step further and found that by pushing ten volts through it (twelve volts is a little much, he admits) the sound is even stronger. Another device he came across, is growing ever more popular, is the wah-wah bag or talk box. Heard on his solo in Rocky Mountain Way from the Smoker album), this arrangement t was first introduced to Joe by Bill West (husband of the country and western singer, Dottie West). What is required for this process, Walsh says, is the driver (or horn) from a speaker. This is the unit screwed on the back of a speaker and can be found on the back of various amplifier speakers and on outdoor speakers such as those found around swimming pools and tennis courts. Dismantle the driver from the speaker (a 30-watt driver is more than satisfactory) and by either stapling, glueing, taping or epoxying (do not screw on) attach to the horn a plastic tube which can fit in your mouth. This entire assembly is then hooked up to the speaker jack, so - instead of a speaker - you have this cord going to a horn, a sound coming from it, and the signal finally emanating from the speaker itself. When you put the tube into the mouth, a process of modulation causes the distorted sounds to be heard. Do not talk into the tube, just move the mouth in simulation of talking and allow the tube to act as the larynx. The signal is too weak to be used without amplification by means of a microphone or P.A. system. Also, before inserting the tube into your mouth, make sure that the grounds on the amplifier and driver unit are in synch. [Ed. Note: This is very important. You may electrocute yourself if the grounds are not correct.] Fender Rock and Roll strings (150s) are Walshs choice (regular gauges ranging from .009 to .042), and he adjusts his strings close to the pickup to get more sustain (For that Eric Clapton sound, you know?). He feels that Fender strings last and dont break, and for slide he also chooses Fender, but the heaviest gauge. He uses both a glass and metal slide, but - because his hands are so large - he cannot use the mini-slides and small glass bottles used by other slide players. Duane AlIman used to use a Coricidin bottle, Walsh points out, but I cant use them because I cant get my finger in them. E-and G tunings are both used, and for both-slide and regular guitar Walsh uses Herco medium picks. I just go into a store, he says, and see what they got - whatevers around! For a while he was experimenting with pedal guitar (some attempts can be heard on James Gang Rides Again) after listening to Al Perkins. Other pedal players Walsh likes are Sneaky Pete Kleinow, Rusty Young, and any other instrumentalist who can relate country to- rock. Joe occasionally dabbles in acoustic music, and for this he uses Gibson and Martin guitars. Ovations are eccch! he exclaims. Ive never found a good neck yet, and they keep slipping off my lap. Because of its superior sound, Joe says he would ultimately choose a Martin over a Gibson, though he dislikes the difficulty of repairing a damaged neck on a Martin, since its truss rod is non-adjustable except at the factory. With regard to playing, Joe offers some ideas. He explains that, since. all sound is a question of resonance; of wavelengths, you may increase the sustain of notes- by positioning yourself at various distances from the amplifier; lower notes demand different distances than higher ones to resonate. Tunings are another way to expand ones playing, and oftentimes simply using a non-standard tuning can take a player down an avenue he would not have ordinarily found. Also, the use of quarter tones (listen to the break in Funk 49 on Rides Again) can help to add variety. Joe has elevated himself (via years of study) to such a level that he says he no longer needs to capture every note on a Led Zeppelin or Cream album, or to listen to other guitarists for ideas. His technical skills have developed enough so that he is now able to express himself, and he states that People are listening to me. I just listen to myself play now. Joe advises new guitarists to play your ass off all the time, play in front of people, and experiment. Go back five years and listen to all those guitarists, the Yardbirds, James Burton with Ricky Nelson, Albert King. Learn all their licks, find out where they learned them. You got to start at the beginning, get your left hand doing what your brain wants it to and then after a couple of years youll get that. Once you get the technical end down, express yourself; teach yourself. Its a long, hard trip, but if somebody starts, and does what I say maybe in two or three years hell play some hot licks. And I hope they do because then I can copy them.
Posted on: Wed, 19 Nov 2014 22:35:00 +0000
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