This article series is about the tools of popular guitarists. What are their favorite guitars and how is it related to them? This time with Tommie Paxton (Big Country, Restless Natives).
When you start guitar playing and do you remember your first guitar?
1980, when I was about 16. I borrowed my first guitar from my aunt, and it was a nylon strung acoustic. My first electric was a Korean made Satellite, not the best but I learned how to replace pickups, do fretwork etc by working on it to improve it. It eventually fell apart after all my tinkering!
What are your influences and which guitar players are your faves?
All the classic influential players, like Hendrix, Van Halen and Blackmore and Gary Moore especially, so I’ve listened to them and been moulded by them a lot over the years, and of course Big Country and Stuart Adamson, who were doing something a bit different with the guitars compared to other bands, and felt accessible, unlike the guitar “gods”. And like me they were Scottish!
How many guitars do you own and what are your favorite models?
Around 20-25 I think. Most of them are Stratocaster type guitars, but also others like a couple of Gibson Les Pauls. For tone and power the Les Paul is probably my favourite, and they also look great (which is also important), and in fact I judge guitars as much on look as anything else. I don’t obsess over the weight or neck profile, as long as it looks good, sounds good and I’ve set it up to my own liking, I’ll be happy to play anything!
What do you think makes the perfect guitar and amp?
A guitar that I can play all night without having to swap for another to suit different songs, so it has a variety of sounds. In that respect the “superstrat” configuration with a humbucker in the bridge for heavier sounds, and single coils in neck and middle for cleaner stuff is an ideal option. The guitars I put together to play with Big Country are set up like that, one of them gold, one of them black, with gold hardware for looks and locking tuners for practicality on both of them. For logistical reasons (especially flying to gigs), I’ll just take one guitar, and always have fresh strings on it, to reduce change of breakage. The perfect amp would be something with good clean and dirty sounds, but not necessarily two separate channels – an old Marshall turned right up can produce great clean sounds just by rolling back the guitar’s volume. Doesn’t have to be like 100 watts or anything, 20 watts is usually enough to sit alongside a live drum kit. I have an 18 watt 2×12 Marshall Reissue combo that I get told to turn down – it has one glorious sound that only comes out when it’s turned up to 10!
How do you feel about the question of modeler or tube amp?
I was a Marshall tube amp aficionado for years, and have had dozens of them (still have a few) but I’m happy to play anything that sounds good. I’ve recorded through modelers, but never used one live however. For live use I would prefer a simple setup like a few pedals I can switch in and out when needed, and a clean / dirty amp sound I can select on the fly. Multi effects units or modelers like a Kemper can save all the built up combinations and sounds/effects as one patch, but they become a nightmare to pre-program and keep track of which footswitch button is which when playing and singing!
Which guitars and amps were used on the new album or for recordings?
We haven’t done any recording, but live I’ve been using the black and gold “superstrats” I described earlier, through a solid state Fender Showman combo from early 80’s. I use the drive channel with a light crunch sound as opposed to totally clean for the lighter stuff, and an overdrive pedal for the heavier songs. There’s also a Boss DD500 delay with one patch per song (delay time set to song tempo) and a Digitech Mosaic for high octave sounds, and a Digitech Luxe for detuned chorus. When we play abroad we’ll hire amps rather than fly out our own, usually a Fender Twin which we use clean, with our pedals for overdrive.
When you only can choose one guitar, which one will you take?
The gold superstrat. It has a Seymour Duncan Alnico II humbucker (the Slash pickup) in the bridge, and two Mexican Fender single coils in nek and middle. One volume and one tone control and a nicely shaped 22 fret maple neck with locking Sperzel staggered post tuners. Pretty much covers all the sounds, stays in tune and looks good!
