to have vibratos on them, but they haven't quite been perfected yet.
Have you used those guitars in the studio yet?
Do you have a favorite guitar?
Do you usually compose on guitar?
Let's say you were going to record a tune with six or seven overdubbed guitars. In what order would you lay down the tracks?
How do you use the Harmonizer? Do you double the instrument an octave higher than where it's being played?
What other gear do you have in your studio?
You play a lot of different instruments.
Not yet, no. But I probably will, because they sound better than my other guitars. I also have an Alembic that I use when I want a very present, clean sound. I take it direct into the board.
No, not really. I don't feel that I like any one in particular. There are people who look at all different guitars and can play only one of them very well, in a certain style. Sometimes someone else can play his own guitar, but you won't be able to handle it at all. It's a matter of getting used to whatever you're playing. You usually get attached to one if you use it long enough. Now, I'm probably attached to the guitars I'm playing because of habit. 
It varies depending on the song. When the melodic and harmonic content is a little more complex, I'll do it on piano. When it's something with a single strain, I'll do it on guitar.
Well, I'd lay down the bass and the rhythm guitar together with the drums. Of course, that varies with the tune-If there are no free sections in it-if it's just a straight rhythm from one end to the other, then I'd lay the rhythm guitar down, double it, and then add the lead part or parts. You can even do a double lead, though you don't necessarily have to play seven guitars to get that sound. You can use a Harmonizer or something.
No, I would never do that. It sounds too electronic when it's an octave higher. I just use it mainly as a delay line doubling the pitch of the incoming signal.
Aside from the graphic equalizers on every channel, it's pretty much a normal studio. It's a custom-made board with complete echo send/receives, panning, and stuff like that. It also has a Stephens 16-track recorder with DBX noise reduction.
Yeah. I fool around on them, but I couldn't get a gig on any of them.
In what order did you pick them up?
Well, the guitar was first. Then I fooled around with piano. Then maybe came the drums, saxophone, other reeds, and things like that. I don't really devote a lot of time to developing my technique on all of those; maybe I will eventually. I just picked up the saxophone again after not playing for awhile. Right now my mouth is collapsing, because I'm just getting used to it again. When I work in the studio, I usually know what kind of sound I want, and I'm capable of getting it. But if I need somebody more professional, like for a sax solo-I would never touch one-I would rather get someone good like Edgar Winter.
Have you found that playing all of these different instruments has affected your style of guitar?
No, I actually have a different style on each instrument.
So playing drums hasn't helped your guitar playing?
Oh, no. Guitar is mostly fingers; drums is in the wrists and arms. Piano-I don't play piano that well, I just play the changes on it. The only reason I really play those instruments is so I can have an understanding of what they do.
Do you find yourself wanting to get into different timbres on the guitar because of your exposure to the synthesizer?
The concept intrigues me, you know, as applied to other instruments, but I'm not trying to duplicate sounds that you can get on the synthesizer. The problem I am finding with guitar synthesizers is that if you want them to work properly and also to sound like real synthesizers, then you have to completely relearn the guitar. You might as well just go and play the keyboard and not mess around with any of that other junk. I like to have effects that more or less retain the sensitive nature of the guitar as compared to keyboard.
What kind of stnngs do you use?
Ernie Ball Extra Slinkys, with the .008-gauge first string.
Do you have a preference for picks?
Just the conventional plectrum-in the conventional shape. Hard. I wear them down a lot and go through a lot of picks in a night.
Are you a structured player?
For purposes of live performance, I'm a limited guitar player. I only know how to deliver. I never get down to a real structured type of playing, probably because I never practice. Deep down, I don't want to play the guitar. I want to do other things. I know that if I want to be really ostentatious on the guitar, I can learn the technique to do that. But it's just more or less a tool that I can develop-it's not necessarily some projection of my ego.
What would you rather be doing?
I'm getting more into the visual arts. Video. I'm just exploring another aspect of experience. I have always played music that's visually inspired, and now I'm getting into the actual expressive
thing of the visual.
