Worship Musician Magazine April 2021 | Page 85

experience with others , which guitar do you miss the most and what happened ?
[ John ] Interesting question . I can think of two guitars that would be good to have now , but I can ’ t say they ’ re my dream guitars . One is a Gibson acoustic J-45 that I sold to Eddie Espinosa for $ 150.00 . It sounded great and played amazing … if my memory serves . I don ’ t regret selling it - he deserves ( or deserved ) it ! Another was a Gibson ES 330 . I sold it because if fed back if you just glanced at it . Again , no regrets really - it would just be cool to have it now .
Since this is a guitar player focused interview , I want to talk about my ’ 68 Les Paul Deluxe . It ’ s the guitar I played when we were in The Way and during the Parable years as well as when I played with the Benny Hester Band . You made mention of the fact that the Christian music universe was limited back in the ‘ 70s … which was true . Consequently , we played all the time . Multiple times a week , every week . Guitar parts and solos became second nature . Even solo breaks that were meant to be improvised eventually found their way into a set solo . So , after a number of years playing the same songs and parts and solos … it happened that every time I picked up my ’ 68 Les Paul Deluxe all I could think of were those same parts and solos . It was totally stifling , creatively that is . I was happy to sell it and again - have never regretted it .
[ WM ] Do you still have a dream guitar ?
[ John ] My SG plays pretty much unlike any guitar I ’ ve ever owned . It ’ s light weight ( woohoo ) and a very fast playing instrument . It needs help to sustain notes the way I ’ d like , but that ’ s what stomp boxes are for . My Telecasters are the guitars that I play the most , actually . They always sound good on any song . I entered the world of single coils about 15 years ago and absolutely love them . Having said that - it would be fun for me to come across a ‘ 50s double cutaway Les Paul Jr . that played over-the-top amazing . Not sure if I ’ d call it a dream guitar …
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