The Guitar Is The Thing

There are many famous guitarists in the world. The ones that are most familiar are British and they gained their notoriety during the late 1960s and early 1970s. I'm speaking, of course, of Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck, Richie Blackmore, and Eric Clapton, and let's not forget Jimi Hendrix, not British but gained most of his success while in Britain. If you throw in notable American rock guitarists such as Duane Allman of the Allman Brothers, Aerosmith's Steven Perry, Slash ex of Guns n' Roses, and Stevie Ray Vaughn and the list is a virtual who's who of rock guitar. Their musical accomplishments are well documented, but aside from the famous riffs they have composed and the songs they have written, the one element that defines each of these guitar players is tone.

What is tone? For a rock guitarist it's a kind of Holy Grail. It's a combination of the type of guitar, the model of amplifier, and effects such as distortion, compression, and delay (echo). Every guitarist manipulates some or all of these elements to create an identifiable sound or tone that distinguishes them from other guitarists. The primary factor in a guitarist's tone, though, is the guitar and every model of electric guitar sounds different than the others.

The electric guitar has been around since the 1930s and three models have become the most popular and most prevalent in rock music. Fender's Telecaster and Stratocaster (left) and the Gibson Les Paul (right) have, in a lot of ways, become the de facto instruments for playing rock music. However, the Stratocaster and Les Paul have an edge over the Telecaster, particularly in rock.

The guitarists above are also identified with the model of guitar they play. Beck, Clapton, Blackmore, Hendrix, and Vaughn are known for playing the Stratocaster. Allman, Page, Perry, and Slash are known for playing the Les Paul. Largely because of the fame of these guitarists, other guitarists want to capture the same tone and seek out the same kinds of guitars. As a result, some guitars have become as famous as the guitarists that play them.

Mike Campbell plays guitar with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. A master of musical understatement and purveyor of killer tone, Campbell plays a variety of guitars. He recently purchased a 1959 sunburst Les Paul. He calls it "the classic Jimmy Page, Peter Green, Eric Clapton-era guitar." Campbell is alluding to the tone of this particular type of Les Paul. In fact, the sound of this guitar is so influential that Tom Petty based his newest album Mojo around the sound of it. An entire album based on a guitar's tone. As far as I know, that has never been done before. The album is a testament to the tone of the 1959 Les Paul. A sound found in no other instrument. Campbell says, "There's just something about the harmonic overtones in it when I picked it up and plugged it in, it immediately had that classic British blues sound. It was kind of eerie." So to capture that eerieness, Campbell bought the guitar.

Recently the band Chilliwack had a 40 year reunion. From 1978 to 1982 Brian "Too Loud" Macleod played guitar for the band. As a side project when Chilliwack was not touring, Macleod formed Headpins. Like other well-known guitarists, he was known for his tone and it became an integral part of the sound of both Chilliwack and Headpins. The opening guitar riff in Headpins' "Don't It Make Ya Feel" is Brian's Stratocaster. Sadly he died of cancer in 1992 and the whereabouts of his Stratocaster was unknown for years. The guitar was eventually tracked to Calgary musician Al Barrett, its present owner. Barrett allowed the long-lost Stratocaster to make an appearance on stage during the Chilliwack reunion show as a tribute to Brian Macleod. The next best thing to Brian Macleod actually being there was his guitar. Even though Brian is missed by fans and the band, the tone of his guitar is missed even more.

So the next time you hear "Whole Lotta Love" or "Smoke On The Water" or "Walk This Way" or "Welcome To The Jungle" think about the guitar making that sound. You can't get that sound without it.