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 27