Start Guitar & Bass Special Guitar Special Vol.336 with Janne Stark

Guitar Special Vol.336 with Janne Stark

220608 Musik, artist, Sweden Rock Festival: Janne Stark, Overdrive. Foto: Rickard Nilsson © Rickard Nilsson Bild AB

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 Janne Stark.

Started

I started playing guitar when I was around 9 years old. My mother had an old acoustic Bjärton I „wrote“ my own songs on. When it got a bit more serious a few years later, I actually started playing bass and bought an old Hofner bass (Strat shaped with brown fake leather coating), and in my first band I played bass. I soon wanted more strings and bought a Sakai, a cheap black Les Paul Custom copy, which I later painted white. In 1979 I bought my first Marshall 100 watt amp (a 1972 Super Bass) and my first real Gibson Les Paul Studio, a tobacco burst. The amp didn’t have a master volume, so I used a J&J Distortion pedal. The Les Paul was however a bit too heavy for me so around 1982 I switched it for an Ibanez Destroyer. This is what I used for the two Overdrive albums. It was just a stock thing with Dimarzio Distortion pick-ups. For some reason I decided to “modify” it with a chain saw and ended destroying the Destroyer…

Influences

My older cousin got me hooked on The Sweet back in 1972 and only a year later he introduced me to the first album by Montrose, which really got me into guitar oriented hard rock. When I started playing guitar I used to play along to records by Montrose, Mountain, Black Sabbath, Pat Travers, Nazareth, Thin Lizzy, Yesterday & Today and more obscure stuff like Sir Lord Baltimore, Bang, Stray Dog and Captain Beyond. I’d say my main early influences are guys like Ronnie Montrose, Snuffy Walden, Leslie West and Pat Travers. Then I’ve picked up some stuff later on from people like Gary Moore, Brian Robertson, Paul Gilbert, Randy Rhoads and Ty Tabor.

How many guitars do you own

I have around 20 guitars, and I do use all of them. They are all in my studio, ready to be played. I have a couple B-tune guitars for heavier stuff, one Danelectro, a Jackson DK2S with Sustainiac and one custom built Eugene Strat type guitar with True Temperament fretting system. I also have two of my VGS Eruption Pro model with True Temperament and Evertune which I used a lot live with Grand Design. My favorite go-to guitars when I’m writing and recording are a red 2000 Gibson Les Paul Studio (retrofitted with True Temperament), a white 2004 Gibson Flying V and a yellow 2000 Gibson Les Paul Junior DC which I bought in Japan. I also have another white 2017 Gibson Flying V, a 1972 Les Paul Custom, a ESP Eclipse with Phil Lynott on it, a Gibson les Paul Shred (my Japanese guitar) a 2006 Gibson Explorer 1976 Re-issue, a couple Fender Strats, a custom-built Telecaster model with True Temperament (my Funder Teleblaster), A Gibson Les Paul Standard, a Burny John Sykes model, and two custom built guitars by Mazzeguitar and one by Sonnemo Guitars. I recently bought a Brian May Red Special, which is really cool. I also have an amazing acoustic guitar with True Temperament, a JK8-TT-M, built by Michael Sandén, plus some other stuff. I also have a Peavey T40 bass and a Ltd 5-string I use for recording.

Favorite guitar

If I have to pick one favorite guitar, it would probably be my workhorse, my red 2000 Gibson Les Paul Studio. It wasn’t expensive at all, but I just loved it from the start. Then I found out about the True Temperament fretting system and they put on a True Temperament neck on one of my Strats and I just loved the way it was perfectly intonated all along the neck. So, then I had them put on True Temperament frets on the Les Paul. They machined off the fretboard, saving just half a millimeter on each side, and then glued on a new fretboard and put in the True Temperament frets. I changed the hardware to black and put on locking Groover tuners. The pick-ups are a Lundgren Heaven 57 in the neck position and a Rio Grande BBQ in the bridge.

Another go-to guitar is my yellow 2000 Gibson Les Paul Junior DC which I bought in Japan. I hadn’t really planned on buying a guitar, but I went into this shop in Ochanomizu, picked it up and it was just – yes, this one’s coming home with me! This was my main guitar on the new Merryweather Stark Wackerman album and I’ve used it on several other albums.

When I played live with Grand Design, I almost always used my VGS Eruption Pro with True Temperament fretting system and Evertune bridge. It was the perfect touring guitar since it was always perfectly in tune and perfectly intonated. I mean, when you can pick up a guitar from the case after a flight to Japan, strum a chord and it’s perfectly in tune, it’s really something! I didn’t even have a tuner in my pedalboard. I do use it when recording as well, especially clean parts that require that the guitar is perfectly intonated and in tune. I used it a lot especially on all the Constancia and Grand Design albums.

What amps

My first amp was a cheap FBT 40 and I used an Ibanez Fuzz for distortion. In ’79 I bought my first Marshall, a 1972 Super Bass. It originally didn’t have master volume, but a friend modded it and added master volume. Later on, Thomas Larsson made his Gaywhore (yeah, I know) mod on it, but I was never really happy with the amp after that. I sold it and bought a Peavey 5150 around ’98. Through the years I’ve also had Randall, Fender, Orange and Hughes & Kettner amps, until I tried out the Marshall JVM410HJS (the blue Satriani model) and I was totally hooked! That amp can do anything, and it sounds just amazing recorded! I have it set up in my studio running through two cabs, a Marshall 1960 cab and a Hughes & Kettner cab, with one SM57 in front of each of them, ready to punch “record”. It always delivers and it’s so versatile! I also have a Marshall DSL40 combo and a Marshall Origin50 which I run through a Palmer 1×12″ when I play with my Thin Lizzy tribute band Falling Hazard. I also have a Marshall Super Lead 1978 which I bought from Bernie Tormé. The one he used live with Gillan and also with Ozzy Osbourne. It has Gillan sprayed on the back of it. It’s one loud mother!! It has no master volume so I’m using a Hot Plate. I do have a Kemper as well, but to be honest I’ve only used it a few times, once for a Toto tribute album where I found a pretty good Lukather sound, but I’m really a tube amp guy.

Pedals

When I’m recording, I usually just run the guitar straight into the Marshall JVM410HJS head for rhythm, but to get some extra edge for solos I use a Xotic Effects BB Preamp with almost zero gain, just a bit of mid boost. I do use some other effects when needed, such as a Ventilator (Leslie simulator), a Pigtronix Distnortion which is a combined distortion, fuzz and octavia, a The Toad Univibe and a Dunlop Slash model wah. For my Marshall Origin 50 head, which I use live in smaller clubs, I use a Himmetrutz Fetto Distortion, a Lunastone Three Stage Rocket, and an Olsson The Spell Booster in the loop for solos. I alo have a bunch of pedals I use now and then for various sounds and effects such as an old Octavia, a Power Pedals Mini-Scrambler and various overdrives, phasers, chorus pedals, delays etc.