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 Connor Selby.
When did you start guitar playing and do you remember your first guitar?
When I was 8 years old. I don’t remember my first ever guitar, but I still have my first electric guitar. It’s a bright red Squire Stratocaster. I learnt quite recently after taking the neck off that the guitar left the factory on my birthday, September 10th! I guess it was written in the stars that this guitar should end up with my hands.
What are your influences and which guitar players are your faves?
My biggest influence on the guitar is probably Eric Clapton. He was the first guitar player who really inspired me when I was young and starting to learn. He also opened my world to all the original Blues masters like BB King, Freddie King, Otis Rush, Buddy Guy etc. To this day I would say he is still my biggest influence. Other than that, I love players of all styles. People like Cornell Dupree, Kenny Burrell, Grant Green. All sorts of different stuff.
How many guitars do you own and what are your favourite models?
I have 6 guitars. 3 Les Pauls, a 1959 reissue, 1957 reissue and a 1954 reissue, A Fender Stratocaster, a 1955 Gibson Es 125, and an Atkin 000-37 Acoustic guitar which is basically a 000-28 Martin. They’re all great guitars in their own way and each have a very specific sound. I gravitate towards Les Pauls as my main guitar, which is why I have 3 of them. I need guitars with a lot of sustain because of the way I play- I tend to play a lot of long singing notes. I also play with a lot of attack and Les Pauls can get quite aggressive sounding when you want them to.
What do you think makes the perfect guitar and amp?
For me it has to have the sustain I was talking about before. The instrument needs to sing. You can tell pretty much straight away whether it has that or not and you don’t even need to plug it in most of the time. I also love guitars with a lot of sonic and dynamic range, which is to say that you can get a lot of tonal and dynamic variation from just the pickups without having to rely on pedals. It’s important that the guitar retains its tone and clarity when you turn it down on the volume or tone control for instance. Some guitars can change a lot when you use the knobs, you can lose high end and get a muddy sound if you turn the volume down for example. It’s important to me that it doesn’t do that. As for amps, I like a simple straight forward amp with as few dials as possible. I want an amp that gets a nice amount of saturation without being too compressed or “flubby”. I like quite a dry sound most of the time and I like my amps to be very direct and straightforward.
How do you feel about the question of modeler or tube amp?
Personally, it doesn’t really appeal to me but I can see why people use them. It really depends on the use case. For me it makes no sense because I rely so heavily on having “my sound” and that is based on an old school approach. If you’re a session guitarist or you play in a wedding band and you need a lot of different sounds at your fingertips with as little fussing around as possible then it makes complete sense. Also, there’s the fact that they’re portable and you can just plug them straight in to the PA. Generally, though when I have used them in the past I really miss the feeling you get from a tube amp. There is a certain response that you actually feel that affects the way you play.
Which guitars and amps were used on the new album or for recordings?
I only used a couple of guitars. My 1957 les Paul reissue and my 1955 Es 125. I used a Lazy J40 on pretty much all the songs I think
When you only can choose one guitar, which one will you take?
Probably my 1959 Les Paul reissue. That guitar has a lot of sentimental value to me it’s the guitar I’ve had the longest. I played it pretty much exclusively for 6 or 7 years.
