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Excerpted from Acoustic Guitar magazine, August 2000, No. 92. EVERLY BROTHERS | NICKEL CREEK | SERGIO AND ODAIR ASSAD | JODY STECHER | ALEX DE GRASSI When it comes to the unmistakable acoustic sound of the Everly Brothers, size matters. For their live work, the brothers lugged around a pair of mid-1950s sunburst Gibson J-200s, although Don says that a 1953 Gibson Southern Jumbo powers those ’50s Cadence tracks. "That was my first guitar," he notes, "the one my dad got for me in Knoxville. I’ve still got it right here." The SJ’s extra big box was especially handy for all those low-tech, one-mic affairs. At the height of their popularity in the early ’60s, the Everlys designed a guitar in conjunction with Gibson that addressed some of the most persistent problems they’d encountered. First introduced in 1962, the Gibson Everly Brothers model—featuring a trend-setting black finish—was slightly smaller than the J-200 (16 inches wide instead of 17 across the lower bout), but its maple back and sides and X-braced top offered the same distinctive tone. To protect against the brothers’ vigorous strumming, Don devised double tail-fin pickguards that extended below the bridge. Meanwhile Phil, a perpetual string breaker, suggested a pinless bridge based on the string-routing system of Fender electrics. (Phil’s wire-busting habit would ultimately lead to his 1995 formation of the Everly Music Co., an enterprise dedicated to the production of longer-lasting guitar and bass strings.) Gibson stopped manufacturing the EB model in 1972 (although it was reintroduced in altered form as the J-180 in 1986), right around the time that Phil ran into a young luthier by the name of Robert Steinegger (PO Box 25304, Portland, OR 97298; steiny@aracnet.com). Phil had been dissatisfied with a repair job on one of his EB models and gave Steinegger the chance to undo the damage. The Everlys would split shortly after Steinegger delivered the refurbished guitar to a highly satisfied Phil, but a decade later Steinegger and the younger Everly would meet again. On the verge of the Everlys’ London reunion concert, Phil asked Steinegger if he could build a pair of new guitars based on the style of the Gibson EB. Steinegger obliged—and thus was born the Steinegger Ike Everly model. In the years since, Steinegger has cooked up some 50 Ike models (two of which currently reside in the homes of Paul McCartney and George Harrison—both recent gifts from Phil), as well as a one-shot D-50—a special version of the Ike Everly guitar made of ebony back and sides that features more than a pound of gold inlay. Phil presented this guitar to his brother Don on his 50th birthday in 1987. —David Simons Chris Thile of Nickel Creek used to play a Gibson F-5L mandolin, but he sampled a days-old instrument by Lynn Dudenbostel at Merlefest last year and bonded with it instantly (Dudenbostel Stringed Instruments, 3415 Ginn Rd., Knoxville, TN 37920; [865] 577-6294; www.dudenbostel.com). While he’s waiting for his own Dudenbostel to be completed, he’s borrowing the luthier’s mandolin number five. Thile also plays a Flatiron bouzouki and uses D’Addario Flat Top mandolin strings and 1.2 mm. triangle-shaped nylon picks. Sean Watkins plays two Bourgeois guitars—a Ricky Skaggs model dreadnought in the studio and an OMC cutaway in performance, and he strings each with D’Addario strings. The OMC is fitted with an L.R. Baggs Dual Source pickup system, but both he and Thile usually rely on external microphones for live amplification. —Craig Havighurst Sérgio and Odair Assad both play Millennium guitars by Thomas Humphrey (1167 Bruynswick Rd., Gardiner, NY 12525; (914) 256-0035; www.humphrey-guitars.com). Odair plays a 1986 spruce-top model, while Sérgio’s is a 1996 cedar-top guitar that he first saw the day before flying to Aspen to record with Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg. "I thought it was so much better than the other [Millennium] I was using," he says. "I decided in that minute to get it." The Assads both use hard-tension D’Addario Pro-Arté regular nylon strings. For their tour with Salerno-Sonnenberg, the brothers will use mics to amplify the sound of their guitars, something they rarely do when playing as a duo. —John Lehmann-Haupt Jody Stecher can pluck, bow, or claw great music from just about anything with strings. On Oh the Wind and Rain he plays a variety of new and vintage instruments including his trusty 1860s-era Martin 1-21 and a nearly new Santa Cruz 12-fret dreadnought with a shallow body and figured mahogany back and sides. The Martin is strung with GHS silk and bronze for the wound strings and D’Addario lights (.011 and .014) for the plain ones. He uses a D’Addario 80/20 Bluegrass set on the Santa Cruz. On the title track Stecher melds the sounds of an A-5L-style mandolin made by Stan Miller and an oud built in Damascus sometime around 1960. —Paul Kotapish For several years Alex de Grassi’s main road guitar has been a Lowden L32C with a Sitka spruce top and rosewood back and sides. He had it fitted with an RMC Acoustic Gold polyphonic pickup system (RMC Pickup Co., 1739 Addison St. #15, Berkeley, CA 94703-1580; [510] 845-9130; www.rmcpickup.com), replacing the guitar’s split saddle with six individual "mini-saddle" pickups. He runs the signal through a Pendulum SPS-1 preamp with a T.C. Electronic TC2000 multi-effects unit that he uses for reverb as well as the occasional chorus patch. On stage he combines the pickup signal with an AKG 460 condenser mic. When he wants a more natural, intimate sound, he uses a second guitar run through the mic only. When possible he likes to feature a "guest guitar" in his performance by playing a guitar that belongs to a friend or someone in the audience. George Lowden is currently working on an Alex de Grassi signature model, a maple guitar based on Lowden’s intermediate-size F series. At home, de Grassi employs an arsenal of guitars. In the studio he favors his Fred Carlson Sympitar (Beyond the Trees, 1987 Smith Grade, Santa Cruz, CA 95060; [408] 423-9264; www.beyondthetrees.com), a strange 18-string beauty that includes 12 sympathetic strings attached beneath the bridge and run through a graphite channel up the center of the neck. The sympathetic strings, gauged .006–.008, can be muted when a standard guitar sound is desired. The Sympitar’s asymmetrical body has a German spruce top, maple back and sides, and a maple neck. De Grassi is excitedly breaking in a new Jeff Traugott six-string with Brazilian rosewood back and sides and a German spruce top (Jeff Traugott Guitars, 2553-B Mission St., Santa Cruz, CA 95060; [408] 426-2313; www.traugottguitars.com). He also uses a Lance McCollum baritone with an Italian spruce top and padauk back and sides (McCollum Guitars, PO Box 806, Colfax, CA 95713-0806; [530] 346-7657; www.mccollumguitars.com); two Breedloves, a walnut C-1 12-string, a rosewood C-1 six-string that is set up in Nashville high-strung tuning; and a John Mello classical guitar (John F. Mello, 437 Colusa Ave., Kensington, CA 94707-1545; [510] 528-1080; www.johnfmello.com). He uses light-gauge D’Addario phosphor-bronze strings on the Sympitar and a customized set (.013, .017, .025, .032, .042, .056) on the Lowden and others. For recording, de Grassi uses a mix of Brüel and Kjaer 4011 cardioid condensers and Neumann tube mics. —Gary Joyner
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