A CONVERSATION WITH LEO KOTTKE (continued)

PM: For you, are the Olson six-string and Taylor twelve still the main axes in play?

LK: Well, actually right now I'm playing the Taylor twelve and a carbon fiber guitar made by RainSong.

PM: Oh, I played one of those once. What's your take on that? Well, obviously, you like it.

LK: Yeah. I haven't had it in the studio to really hear it back, but other people have played it for me. And it has advantages, so many advantages before you consider how it sounds, that it's almost--I have to be careful that I'm not sort of accepting the sound because of all the other advantages. It's feather light. And you cannot hurt it. It's carbon fiber, and very hard to do anything to it. So the case weighs practically nothing as well.

PM: And you don't have to get a Colton case or something.

LK: Yeah, that's right. It's just hardly there. And it never changes. I was unaware, until this guitar, how much I'm adapting every night to the changes in the wood. It's certainly subtle, but I was unaware of how pervasive that subtle shift is. I'm surprised every time I pick this guitar up, because it's exactly what it was the day before. And that it's surprising is surprising. But you realize, "Wow, this is nice. I don't have to make any shifts. I don't have to get used to it tonight. It's just what it always is." So those are its advantages. The sound is good. And as a pickup platform, it's excellent.

PM: And how are you picking it up?

LK: I've been using the Sunrise for a long time. That's just the way to go, I think.

PM: Me too. That's just the one.

LK: Yeah.

PM: And you don't use any mike with it, just the Sunrise alone?

LK: Just the Sunrise. I've tried all of the internal, external blend approaches, and I just come back to this.

PM: You know, I never put one in, because I knew everybody was using all these mikes with the Sunrise. I heard it, and picked it up nice with the Pendulum and the Daedalus cabinet or whatever, and I said, "Hey, you don't need a mike in there. This thing sounds great."

LK: Yeah, yeah. And there is something, too, about the psychology--the psycho acoustic principals, whatever those are, because once you put that pickup through the stacks, in a way, you're really doing what you ought to do with a room anyhow. The microphone gives you the guitar as a room, so you're asking, I think, for trouble. You got cancellation, and it's sort of redundant. And there's something about how you can magnify a pickup signal, by putting it up in the stacks. And it will magnify. But a microphone, the more you magnify it, the shiftier it gets. You have to be very, very careful with it. I guess the accurate word is "amplify." It's harder to amplify a microphone signal.

PM: And a pickup will behave well in so many situations. You can just plug it into a guitar amplifier, at worst, and it behaves pretty well.

LK: Yeah, yeah. As a matter of fact, Mike and I are each using a little amp behind us, rather than monitors, so that we hear each other's signal. And that really wouldn't work for me if I were using any other kind of pickup.

PM: Are you using one of those little Crates, or what amp are you plugging it into?

LK: I just used what Mike had around his place that's easy to get. It's just in the rider, so the promoters are providing a Fender Deluxe. It's a one-twelve speaker. It's a little bright, so I just turn the treble all the way off, and it does the job. It doesn't sound quite right to me until the house is up, and then the house fills out that amp sound behind me.

PM: Yeah. I always thought little Fenders sounded great with the treble all the way off. [laughs]

LK: Yeah, I'm with you.  continue

print (PDF)    archives     puremusic home