I’ m using, no flavor all-original. But on the Tele especially I like the strings to be real dead, and light ones so it’ s changier sounding.
[ CG ] What about your latest guitar acquisition?
[ J. D.] The Tiesco Kingston? I had started looking when we were on our last European tour right before the end of the year, because I really wanted one. I was wanting the four pickup one like Hound Dog Taylor once used. I didn’ t find one, but when we got home I saw one on Reverb exactly like what I was looking for. It was at Fanny’ s House of Music over on the East Side. I’ ve got the Kingston tuned low and it has real heavy flatwounds on it, like 13 gauge. I wanted it to be kind of like a Pop Staples sounding guitar.
[ CG ] What acoustic guitars are you using currently?
[ J. D.] I kept running into the Waterloo’ s out on the road, and I didn’ t realize that they were Collings guitars initially. I thought they were just some new brand, and I thought they were great. I ended up picking this WL14 guitar out of a whole bunch of them and it has been all over the world with me. It’ s kind of modeled off of an old Gibson pre-war L00, or an old Kalamazoo. They’ re probably the best acoustic being made right now, and they’ ve got so much character. I have an old DeArmond soundhole pickup from the 50’ s that I put in that and I run it through the amps. I gotta ChapStick those strings, they’ re too bright. I’ ve gotta Burt’ s Bees that thing up.( laughing)
[ CG ] What are your go to amps and pedals now?
[ J. D.] I’ m playing through old Super Reverbs’ these days. It suits me. I use the reverb and the tremolo, and I turn them on and off a lot. The majority of the time it’ s just straight in. The other two amplifiers in the amp booth are the Epiphone Futura, which is an early 60’ s amplifier that I fell in love with; they’ re great with a very unique sound. They are over compressed and don’ t have much projection, but for certain things I think that’ s cool. I’ ve got a little 50’ s Fender Harvard in there that I’ m going to use some. On tour I’ m using black face Super Reverbs because they do what I want. My footswitch is like the most important part of the rig really. Pedal wise I’ ve got a Wah Wah that I use frequently … a Clyde McCoy that Dunlop is making now. I always used old ones, then the pots in them become microphonic like a pickup. My friend Bryan at Dunlop hipped me to Dunlop reissuing the Clyde McCoy and the thing sounds great. I’ m also using a 70’ s Jax fuzz, which is an old fuzz wah, but I don’ t use the Wah Wah in it, just the fuzz. I’ m obsessed with Isaac Hayes album“ Hot Buttered Soul.” Michael Toles, the guitar player on there, has become a hero of mine. The Jax fuzz sounds like him. The other pedal is the Bass Microsynth. I like the bass one because it tracks for bass frequencies, so if you’ re putting guitar sounds through it, it kind of sputters. Then there’ s a latency problem because the frequencies aren’ t set for it, but I like that.
[ CG ] Did plugging straight into your amp and using onboard effects develop because of your Lower Broadway gigs?
[ J. D.] The easy answer to that is yes. When I was playing with Don, that was when I became more of a minimalist, and it happened over time. When I first started with him I had a board as big as a coffee table, and then I got smaller and smaller, then it got to two or three things. Then one night I wondered,“ What if I use nothing for the whole night … what would that be like?” After that, I never really went back, because I liked it so much. I liked the way it sounded.
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20 Mar � Apr 2017 CollectibleGuitar. com