GORDON KENNEDY
er, it’ s not as pleasing to my ear as a Gibson neck pickup. I think that the body itself contributes to the performance, and to me, the Telecaster body doesn’ t seem to like having a humbucker in the neck as much as a Gibson does.
And yet, consider Elliot Randall’ s iconic solo on Reelin’ in the Years, played on a‘ 63 Strat with a humbucker at the neck, played through an Ampeg SVT, which is a massive 300-watt bass amp. It’ s insane. But just listen to it.
Yeah. And wow. There’ s a place for everything. People ask,“ Why do you have to have so many guitars?” Well, why do you have to have so many clubs on the golf course? You can’ t play 18 holes with one club, or even two. Everything is worth experimenting with. Somebody like B. B. King could get away with having one signature sound, but I defer more to what Geoff Emerick said. We had him come and speak at a NARAS event, and he said that every time The Beatles were ready to do a guitar solo, they would give him the exact same instructions:“ Geoff, it can’ t sound like anything we’ ve ever done before.”
So, you think about all these guitar magazines asking players,“ Have you found your signature sound? Have you found your signature tone?” And they will analyze their signal chains. And then I’ m reminded of The Beatles. They weren’ t looking for their signature tone; they were looking for what was next, what they hadn’ t done before. In that case, yeah, get a Telecaster and put a humbucker in the neck. Get a Stratocaster and put a P-90 in the bridge. Do all these different things, because it’ s always about“ What’ s next?” and“ What hasn’ t been done before?”
Well, then, I won’ t ask about the signature Gordon Kennedy sound!
Ha! I think the best way I can respond to that is with the best thing I ever learned from my dad. When people ask me what it was about my dad, what made him a great player, a successful session player, it’ s that he knew what to play, and he knew what not to play. If there were a movie about session players, he’ d be among those guys that were the“ Right Stuff.” He wasn’ t a technical virtuoso. YouTube is crawling with technical shredders who do amazing things. But my dad just knew what to play to make the record work. And so, I subscribe to that, too.
But regarding players in search of some special, unique tone, I ask, how much money are you willing to spend to gather all this stuff just to sound exactly like you sound right now, with whatever you’ re using? You can go out and get 20 guitars, but there’ s something in each of us that we’ re trying to dial in. And so, if you were to pick up a guitar and plug into a different rig, you’ d be tweaking until it sounded like you! So, I ask guys, how much money are you willing to spend to sound exactly like you do right now before you spend all that money? That’ s worth asking ourselves these days.
Paul Yandell once told me,“ When you hear good advice, take it!” I’ m still working on that.
28 | SUMMER 2026