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 Joost De Lange.
When did you start playing guitar and do you remember your first guitar?
I was about 10 or 11 years old when I started taking guitar lessons. I started on a smaller guitar; it was a 3/4 spanish/classical guitar with nylon strings and learned to read simple melodies from notes.
What are your influences and which guitar players are your faves?
There are many guitarists/bands that have influenced me. As a child I listened to a lot of bands like: Dire Straits, The Rolling Stones, Nirvana, but also a lot of blues artists like: John lee Hooker, Buddy Guy, Stevie ray Vaughan, Jimi Hendrix, Alvin Lee, Rory Gallagher. At a later age I also started listening more to rock: Metallica, Iron Maiden, Ozzy Osbourne, Dream Theater, Led Zeppelin, ZZ Top, Steve Vai, Jeff Beck, Jo Satriani, Zakk Wylde, Jo Bonamassa etc. but also jazz artists like: Wes Montgomery, Pat Metheny, John McLaughlin, Kenny Burrel. There are many more of course, but these artists have influenced me and still do.
How many guitars do you own and what are your favorite models?
I have about 14 guitars. a number of classical guitars (nylon strings) a number of acoustic guitars, four Fender Stratocasters a Gibson Les Paul and a Fender Telecaster. The guitars I like to play the most are the Fender Stratocasters. Certainly, for blues rock. I also think the telecaster is a fantastic guitar and for real rock and Hardrock the Gibson of course has the perfect sound.
What do you think makes the perfect guitar and amp?
That depends on the style I play. For Blues Rock I like to play on a Fender Amp with a nice clean sound in combination with a Stratocaster. For Rock I also like the combination Gibson on Marshall! If the amp has a nice clean sound and a nice reverb i complement this with a tube screamer or an OCD overdrive pedal. I never use the effects of the amp itself, only reverb from the amp has to be good.
How do you feel about the question of modeler or tube amp?
What they can imitate these days is unbelievable to me. I think you can hardly hear the difference anymore. But I still prefer a real old tube amplifier. The heavier the better haha. and since we usually have to load and unload the tour bus ourselves, I don’t bother anyone with it haha.
Which guitars and amps were used on the new album or for recordings?
On the ‚hypnotized‘ album I used a Marshal lJCM 800 with V30 and greenback speakers in combination with a Koch multitone vintage series amplifier with warehouse speakers. There were problems with my Fender, so unfortunately i couldn’t use it.
When you only can choose one guitar, which one will you take?
Then I would go for a Fender Stratocaster and preferably a real old one from somewhere between 1954 and 1965 with 011-56 strings. But the most important thing is of course that it is playable!
