because some guy who is friends with
Andy Partridge from XTC ordered one
from Dennis and they scanned the
cover of English Settlement to make
the color. So I was like, that green. I
have to have that green.
The other one I ordered is one that he
had sent to a store in Oslo. It’s the J
model, so more of a Jazzmaster style.
It’s Ice Blue Metallic and has the
Mastery Bridge. It’s funny, when people
were into locking tremolos and all of
that, I thought it was icky. But with the
Sectis, being so fancy it has these
Sperzel locking tuners and when
paired with the Mastery Bridge, it
never goes out of tune. Its mind
blowing, I mean it never goes out of
tune. It goes less out of tune than a
guitar without a wang bar.
PD: You’re beating the hell out of it
on some of those songs.
MS: I know, and it just stays in tune. I
mean, I’ll step on the tuner and there
44
TONE TALK //
might be one string that’s slightly off.
Maybe. So that’s one of the things not
stock on the Serus J, because I liked it
so much on the Sectis.
I was supposed to take delivery of
these two new ones in November. But
he e-mailed me the other night and I’ll
be getting them in the next few days.
We actually see him a fair amount
because we play a little theater in
Sellersville, PA which is near
Philadelphia. So he said “I’m going to
see you on Tuesday, and I finished one
of your guitars!” So we went back and
forth with about 100 e-mails, but it’s
the Ice Blue Serus J. You can actually
see it on his site if you go there (www.
novoguitars.com/guitar-gallery/iceblue-metallic). So now I’m going to see
it on Tuesday and I’m so excited.
There’s just nothing in the world that
makes me more excited than the things
he makes. So I’m going to see him, get
a guitar from him, and more. And he’s
up to things I’m not even sure I’m
From Girlfriend to Gear Fiend: A Chat With Matthew Sweet