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 Neil M. Smith (Bravado, La Villa Strangiato).
When you start guitar playing and do you remember your first guitar?
I started to play around the age of 11 on an acoustic guitar, I don’t recall the make, it was medium size body, but I do remember that it had a nice tone – My first electric was a Sumbro Les Paul copy (I believe these were also CSL Guitars and manufactured in the same Fujigen factory in Japan where early Ibanez and Epiphone guitars were also made), nonetheless it was nice entry level guitar for it’s day.
What are your influences and which guitar players are your favs?
My musical influences range from rock, progressive, classical and jazz – if you take into account my age (I’m a 1000 years old…) then you may appreciate that I really turned onto music as a young teen in the early 70’s – there were many Pop/Rock and Progressive influences at that time (for example: T-Rex, Roxy Music, David Bowie, Procol Harum and Yes). As for Guitarists, this is obviously becoming more difficult as there are many fabulous players that I’ve come across over the years (and still do!). I have to cite Alex Lifeson as one of the predomient influences and there are so many others that have also been with me for most of my playing life, but there are even modern guitarists that crop up today whom I think are amazing and influencial, but I will always consider the following small group to be my main selection through the formative years: Zal Cleminson (Sensational Alex Harvey Band), Steve Howe (Yes), Trevor Rabin (huge fan well before he joined Yes), Rik Emmett (Triumph), Chris DeGarmo (Queensryche), Tony Iommi (Black Sabbath), Glenn Tipton (Judas Priest), Ace Frehley (Kiss), Paul Kossof (Free), Eric Johnson and Pat Methany. For a modern day example of who I think has a great deal to offer, then Pop Evil’s Nick Fuelling has some fantastic playing qualities.
How many guitars do you own and what are your favorite models?
I currently have around 35 guitars, predomantly Gibson, quite a number of them are Les Pauls and 345/355/356 series ES Guitars (but this does include a guilty pleasure Firebird and a re-issue Moderne), and Charvel (80’s 4, 5 and 6 model guitars). Like my children, I love them all…
What do you think makes the perfect guitar and amp?
Again, this is a very difficult question and there is no definitive answer. It’s a personal point of view for each player and we all have somewhere we call ‘home‘. I’ve tried various amps over the years with the variants of guitars I use, but it also depends on the material I play (or have to adjust accordingly to suit what I would be playing…). For me you wouldn’t go wrong with a Marshall 70’s/80’s amp, 4×12 celestion driven 4×12 convex cabinet and of course, a Les Paul Standard.
How do you feel about the question of modeler or tube amp?
To be honest, there is no definitive answer to this – I’m obviously having to use a bank of modelling units to provide the various tonal aspects of Alex Lifeson’s sound through the years (and he had many different ranges of tone depending on the period you associate your Rush taste with…), but you cannot ever replace the feel of a tube amp with a good guitar – and again in todays world there are many good mid range guitars with decent enough electronics to provide various tones, and as they say the rest is down to your fingers and heart!
Which guitars and amps were used on the new album or for recordings?
I occasionally session and have several DAW interface units, I tend to lean towards the Eleven Rack that easily sits with Pro-Tools but equally I‘ve used a Boss-GT1000 unit as well as my live Rack where applicable – it’s rare nowadays for me to record with an amp/cab and I utilise various types of guitars with the modellers, but Les Paul Standards/Traditionals are always a good choice on the rock material, whereas the Charvel model 4, or 6 suit the hybrid rock/pop/prog recordings.
When you only can choose one guitar, which one will you take?
Noooooooo! I can’t choose, please don’t make me… 😉
