Guitar Tricks Insider September / October Issue | Page 27
SOUND ADVICE
“Catch the Wind” by Donovan
I said, ‘Let’s have that limiting, and let’s have
more of that compression.’ That sort of sound
was good to my ear.” La Bella Silk & Steel, and that was the sound.
And, of course, it was soft and I liked the action
very low, so it buzzed a good bit.”
Donovan also began honing his microphone
technique. “I learned very quickly how to come
onto the mic,” he says. “There were different
ways of doing it, of course, but I learned a very
close-mic technique. I didn’t play the Martin
very much back then, but I played a Zenith I
had borrowed from a friend’s girlfriend, and
she never got it back! I realized later the Zenith
Model 17, from Boosey and Hawkes, was actual-
ly the first guitar Paul McCartney had played [at
age 14, in 1956] in his early skiffling days.” Just this past summer, Donovan undertook a
triumphant U.S. tour celebrating the 50th anni-
versary of the Sunshine Superman album (the
title track having topped the singles chart in
September 1966), and those shows were soon
followed up by some additional live dates in Eu-
rope. The troubadour’s goal for all of these gigs
was quite simple: to get his message, guitar,
and lyrics across loud and clear. “That’s why we
make records — we want people to hear every-
thing,” Donovan concludes. “And it’s unfortunate
today it mostly comes out of laptops and little
boxes. It’s really a shame.” The man is just mad
about his sound, you see, so they call him mel-
low acoustic — quite rightly. ■
The singer/songwriter’s guitar sound changed
once he got his hands on a Gibson J-45. “The
J-45 was quiet, and it didn’t have any mics
inside. We put violin mics and Neumanns all
around it, so it was all very acoustic,” Donovan
explains. “What I liked about the J-45 was it
buzzed. Joan Baez told me to try strings called,
SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER
Contact Donovan if you want to see more of
his amazing custom guitars. DONOVAN GIVES
MASTER CLASSES: [email protected]
DIGITAL EDITION
GUITAR TRICKS INSIDER
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