Equipment Picks from Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Jackson Browne, and Dusan Bogdanovic.
is partial to Gibson guitars, maybe because the first guitar he ever bought was a Gibson Southern Jumbo at the recommendation of Earl Scruggs. "I eventually wore that one out," he says, laughing. But thanks to an endorsement deal with Gibson, he now has a koa J-200 (which he keeps at home) that's his pride and joy, as well as another J-200 with a Fishman Matrix pickup his uncle Derrah won in a raffle at the Kerrville Folk Festival, which he takes on the road. Gilmore recently began using his Takamine EF-341C for live shows as well, and he also plays a Gibson Chet Atkins model solid-body acoustic on some songs. For long tours, he'll take along his Trace Elliot acoustic guitar amp, which he sets up in front of him like a monitor. For shorter trips and local gigs, he'll plug into the PA through an L.R. Baggs preamp. He uses GHS light-gauge bronze strings and occasionally a Kyser capo.
--Rob Patterson
has always retained an acoustic guitarist's sensibilitiy, even when playing a Strat. Mixing electric and acoustic instruments and searching for the ultimate amplified acoustic tone are at the core of the Jackson Browne sound. When he finds something that works, whether it is a particular instrument or new pickup technology, he digs in deep to understand what makes it tick and how he might be able to replicate the results.
Browne has recently gone through a metamorphosis concerning his attitude toward guitars. "In the past," he says, "I always liked loud guitars. I always wanted the same things in guitars, but eventually I realized that each guitar has its own voice and helps me to play and write differently. And I'm fortunate that the guitars I love are not really expensive ones."
One of Browne's favorite guitars is a Takamine that's undergone some major surgery. "I got it in 1980," Browne recalls. "I had always wanted a guitar with a white face. The folks from Takamine said, 'Did you like that koa wood guitar we gave you?' I said, 'Yeah.' So they said, 'OK, we'll just paint one of those white.' Then about a year later, it didn't sound nearly as nice. David Lindley said that chances were that the plywood face had gone bad, that moisture had gotten in between the layers. That was his theory. So I had the face replaced by John Carruthers. He called Lindley, and Lindley gave him some spruce. Then sometime after this happened, Lindley called me and said there was a [guitar] top he was looking for and he couldn't figure out what he had done with it. He'd given me a 40-year-old Sitka spruce set!"
One of Browne's recent acquisitions is an Epiphone Troubadour with a wide fingerboard. "It's incredibly in tune," he says, "it's loud, it's got all kinds of bottom, but it's got this sort of rubbery quality. I'm discovering a whole new set of qualities I really like."
But if Browne had to choose one guitar, he would probably make it a Gibson Roy Smeck. He originally found a wonderful 1935 Smeck that had been converted from Hawaiian- to Spanish-style setup. He decided that he needed a backup instrument for stage use and proceeded to find seven more '30s Smecks and a modern reissue. The '35 has an original FRAP pickup system installed, and Browne keeps it tuned a half step low ("It just sounds better there," he says). "The Smeck reissue is the way I want to go with subsequent attempts," says Browne. "I'm gonna stop trying any other guitar. The wide X-bracing is part of it and the short string scale [12-fret neck] . . . It's what sounds good for me as a player."
For amplification, Browne experimented with many mics and pickups before discovering and falling for the FRAP system and its modern-day descendant, the Trance (from Trance Audio, PO Box 256, Santa Cruz, CA 95061-0256; [408] 684-0422), which he describes as a FRAP without all the bugs. "They're consistent," says Browne, "and they bring out what the guitar really sounds like." He runs the signal through a programmable Klark-Tekniks equalizer. "It's an analog EQ, but it's got digital control," Browne explains. "It makes sense if someone's going to play more than two guitars on stage and wants to have the guitar signal coming out of the same stereo with two lines. The two pickups are not exclusively stereo pickups; one's on the high side of the strings and one's on the low side. You program a balance between the high and the low pickups." The Klark-Tekniks unit can also be programmed to store EQ settings and overall gain for high- and low-side pickups for each separate guitar.
--Rick Turner
plays a cedar-top classical guitar made by Walter Vogt--a fairly standard instrument even though it features an unusual, oval-shaped soundhole. Bogdanovic pushes this instrument to the limit by using every tone color and all of the percussive effects found in the vocabulary of the modern classical guitar. In addition, he has invented some new effects. By joining two pairs of strings with staples he is able to produce a metallic, percussive sound that amazingly resembles the southeast Asian gamelan. This transformation of his instrument is something he calls "gamelitar." Bogdanovic explains, "John Cage's Preludes and Interludes inspired me to experiment with different types of guitar preparations. Finally, I settled on gamelitar, a prepared guitar sounding like a cross between African marimba and gamelan metalophone."
To prepare a gamelitar, Bogdanovic joins the high E and B strings with a staple and does the same with the G and D strings. He uses this prepared guitar on "Gamelitar Music," recorded on his Worlds CD, and in the trio jam with Miroslav Tadic and Marc Nauseef on Keys to Talk By.
Bogdanovic also experiments with the tuning of his instrument. Although most of his works are composed in a standard tuning, he does make use of scordatura often enough to make it worthwhile to consult the score even if you like learning things by ear. Examples include tuning the low E up to F in the title track of his Mysterious Habitats CD and a wild re-entrant tuning he calls guitarp because of the open, harplike sound it produces. Used extensively on the CD In the Midst of Winds, the guitarp requires the performer to string the entire guitar with treble strings.
--Anthony Jesse
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