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 Richard Hallebeek.
When you start guitar playing and do you remember your first guitar?
I started playing guitar at 10 years old.I was watching Top Of The Pops and there was a live performance of „The Talking Heads“. This was 1979 and I can’t remember the song, but I remember how impressive they looked and how the singer was moving around with his guitar and so I told my parents I wanted to play the guitar. My parents were really smart and said, sure, go ahead we’ll get you a guitar and all that, but then you have to take lessons right away! That turned out to be really cool because I did not have to invent the wheel for the second time, so to speak. I took lessons from a local teacher who taught me every song from The Beatles. I guess that was all he knew, but it was totally fine with me. After three years, it was time for a new teacher and my sister was in a relationship with a ‚real‘ jazz cat. This guy was living in the big city too, so I had to travel there to go see him. He played straight ahead jazz. This was around 1982, no internet and I didn’t know any other guitar players. So, I thought everybody else who played guitar was studying jazz. So, the first song I learned from him was „Scrapple from The Apple“ from Charlie Parker, and then „Mr. Pc“ from John Coltrane, „Night & Day“ and so on with the whole book of Jazz Standards. When I was 17, I was admitted to the jazz conservatory in Holland and studied there for 5 years and then went to GIT in Los Angels where I took lessons with Scott Henderson. My first guitar at age 10 was a simple nylon string acoustic. Then I moved on to a Hondo electric guitar, which was a brand that folded around 1989. Later on, around 1985 I got an Ibanez guitar and then a ton of different hollow body jazz guitars for my conservatory studies, like Ibanez JSM, Westone, and many more.
What are your influences and which guitar players are your faves?
I don’t really listen much to specifically guitar music, but I am much more into the great composers, like Pekka Pohjola or Ennio Morricone. I do enjoy it when a guitar player has the ‚total package‘; compose, arrange, play live, improvise. Like Frank Gambale, Pat Metheny, Allan Holdsworth, Scott Henderson and a few others.
How many guitars do you own and what are your favorite models?
I have currently around 30 guitars in my studio. I have a Washburn 8 string which is inspiring to use for composing. A baritone acoustic guitar that goes from a low (bass range) to a high A (guitar range) that is also really inspiring to play. I have an old Yamaha G10 guitar synth from the 80’s that uses fret scanning for pitch to midi, so it doesn’t have any tracking delays. That is really nice to play. Also, a Harley Benton Amarok baritone that plays and sounds really well. For most of my studio work and live playing I use my signature guitar that is built by Haar Guitars. It features a chambered body, ebony fingerboard and custom wound pickups. That guitar really suits me for my daily needs. It’s a joy to play and with the ebony fingerboard and the custom pickups, this is the sound that I want to hear from a guitar.
What do you think makes the perfect guitar and amp?
It’s all in the head. First you have to know what you want to hear and have a clear image in your head. The rest comes after that, so don’t turn it around like fiddling forever and not knowing what it is that you’re after.
For me, I like an even sound with no boomy low end and a smooth and thick high end. I like to play in stereo live because it sounds bigger on stage. I play quartet and the tone becomes more defined without having to turn it up.
How do you feel about the question of modeler or tube amp?
It’s all between the ears. The technology has come far. I think nobody can tell the difference in a blind fold test anymore. I did an article for Music Maker a couple of years ago, where we profiled a couple of players favorite amps, and then A/B’d between the real miked amp in the studio and the digital model and nobody could tell the difference in a band mix. I use a tube head now, because I like the sound, but in the past, i have used transistor heads too. I just have to find my sound in the amp and then I don’t really care what it is.
Which guitars and amps were used on the new album or for recordings?
I use my Hook Wizard tube amp with motorized faders and midi, and my Fractal Audio Axe-Fx III. For guitars my signature RH-1 guitars.
When you only can choose one guitar, which one will you take?
I would take my Tacoma baritone acoustic guitar because of its extended range. It goes from low A (like on a bass guitar) to high A (like on a guitar) and is really satisfying to play solo and it lends itself for composing really well.
