Two Pints of DiMarzio and a Packet of Tetleys, Please
Two Pints of DiMarzio and a Packet of Tetleys, Please...
Beat Instrumental (February 1981)
By Ralph Denyer
Tempest, Lifetime, Gong, Nucleus, Jean-Luc Ponty, Soft Machine, John Stevens, UK, Bruford. Allan Holdsworth's been there, seen it, done it. Confessions Of A Guitar Hacker was told to Ralph Denyer, who took his camera along.
Yorkshire-born guitarist Allan Holdsworth is currently living in Kingston, Surrey. When I arrived at his home I found him hovering over a DiMarzio Stratocaster-style guitar body with a hefty electric hand drill which he was using to increase the hollowed-out section which accommodates the pickups and electricals. The object of the exercise was to increase the recess to make room for some custom pickups which had just arrived from the States. The parts will eventually make up a complete Stratocaster style guitar with humbucking pickups. None of the parts will actually be made by CBS/Fender or Gibson.
Allan first came to the attention of guitar fans as a member of Jon Hiseman's band Tempest. Stunning technique, fingerboard fluency, musicality and creative ability are the qualities he went on to display with bands like Soft Machine and Tony Williams' New Lifetime, soon elevating him to the position of being a guitar hero's hero. He spent a year working in the States with Williams before returning to Britain to work with Bill Bruford and UK.
The climate prevailing throughout the British music business has not been suited to Holdsworth at all. He has no interest in such things as the fashionable aspects of music or street credibility and all the rest. He's just extremely interested in playing his guitar as well and as creatively as he can. We'll probably lose him to America soon.
Over there they are far more appreciative of his abilities and the work possibilities are proportionately increased from zero to considerable. In a last ditch attempt to resist the call of the New World he has formed a trio with two young musicians and is currently seeking the usual business deals. He is excited about the group which has yet to play in Britain. His bank balance may be low but his spirits are high on the new group and a feeling within himself that he is playing better than ever.
"The connections for live work on home turf have not yet been made so the trio has only played in France.” Hopefully by now some British dates will have been set up. The trio is made up of Paul Carmichael on bass, Gary Husband on drums and the axerman himself. They don't call themselves the Allan Holdsworth Trio but the guitarist describes the combo as 'My team'."
"Gary is absolutely incredible, inspiring to work with. He's just a monster. Very young and full of fizz. He's a monster piano player too. One of the big problems is the management thing and trying to get people in the business interested in what we are doing. Another problem is that the music is very original – that's my own opinion of course – and people are scared to take chances now with the way the record business is screwed up. If it's fashionable it's OK. A fashion usually lasts for about two years in popular music and when you look back often you think, God, that sounds almost hilarious!"
"The thing is I want to play music that can stand up a little longer than that. I also think there is a very good chance we're going to achieve that too. But that seems to terrify record companies. The silly thing is that our music doesn't fall into the jazz/rock category which I think has got to be very Noddy over the past few years.
"In fact jazz/rock has become a very Noddy kind of music. Now it's become jazzak or funkak. It's really weird and I know that record sales for that kind of music are not happening and that's probably rightly so because most of it is pretty has been.
"I think the music that we are playing with the trio is new enough for it not to fall into that category although there is a large amount of improvisation involved, obviously. I don't think it falls in as what people call jazz/rock at all. So I'm really sad that the record company people in particular feel that our music falls into the jazz/rock bag. At the same time, this is by no means an attempt on my part to be commercial. If I wanted to do that I could have kept on doing what I was doing with UK, if I thought in commercial terms. I just decided I had had enough and that it was about time that I got something together of my own. I've spent five years playing in other people's bands playing other people's music. And the last two bands – especially UK – that band brought me to my knees, really. I hated it. They were good guys but the music, man. Oh God, I found it really horrendous."
Now this is an unexpected turn, UK was a supergroup which came on the scene long after the public at large was interested in such ventures. The group comprised Allan on guitar, Eddie Jobson on keyboards and violin, John Wetton on bass and Bill Bruford on drums. Their music fell somewhere between jazz/rock and improvised rock. As it was generally presumed that they were playing the kind of music they wanted to, Alan's attitude surprised me. I asked him to explain why UK had been such a bad experience for him.
"It was the first time that I have been money motivated in my life, ever. I think the first mistake I made was getting interested in the thing in the first place. You always live in hope, you always think that although something doesn't go too well to begin with it may yet get better. But usually what tends to happen is it gets worse and it did. So it was good that it ended up the way it did. Then I joined Bill's band (Bruford) 'cos I like him."
Asked to qualify his statement in musical terms, Allan had no hesitation in telling me that with UK there was 'no spontaneity about the music at all. The most creative things I ever played with that band were on the album simply because they did everything in bits. They recorded the bass and drums, the keyboards and then the guitar. So I'd just get called in to do the guitar solos and some guitar parts."
"When I heard the track it was like hearing the tunes for the first time because they were nothing like they were in rehearsal. I was hearing it for the first time so all I had to do was play to the track. I found that quite creative but then what happened was it had to be like that on every gig, the same solos and things like that. Obviously I couldn't do that anyway. It was just a horrendous experience all round. I'm glad it happened because I learned a lot from the experience and it won't be happening again, folks!"
Still at least playing in the band had brought him to a wider audience? "I suppose it did but that's a downer as well because I never played with that band ever. I was always pissed because that was the only way I could keep from picking up a plane ticket and disappearing. We'd go to a gig and I'd get on stage and think, oh, here we are in America. Great, I love coming here to play to all these people. Then I'd think, well, shit. I'm not playing."
"I felt so bad about what we were doing that I just wanted to hide, man. Just crawl away off the side of the stage. So in that respect it was a downer as well. I probably made a few enemies. I probably lost a few as well as gaining a few. You never know what is going to happen with a band like that."
"I'd played on Bill's solo album before UK and that was the first time I'd experienced going into the studio and played parts without playing them all together. On just about all the recording I'd done in the past, the guys played at the same time. Then if there was anything that was tracked on afterwards to the main recording then that was cool, there's nothing wrong with that approach. It was just that UK took it to the extreme and made it so that eventually I couldn't stand working with Bill either. If I hadn't experienced UK then I would have probably been able to keep my head together in respect with working on Bill Bruford's solo records."
During the period when Allan was still in UK he had a chance meeting with drummer Jon Hiseman with whom the guitarist had worked in the band Tempest. They spent time together once again and stayed in touch. Hiseman phoned Allan one day to say that Jack Bruce had been on the blower and wanted to have a play. Did Allan want to go down to Jack's place and steam along a little?
"I went down to Jack's place to have a play with them and I enjoyed myself so much not only because of the musicians but also because it was the first time for years that I'd actually felt the electric thing that you can get from people when you actually play with them, that magic. Even though nothing came of it and it fell away, it let me see again what it actually felt like. Because the last time that I felt that way was when I was working with Tony Williams which was about four years ago. That band was really great. I really enjoyed it. After that, like I said, I changed. When I played with Jack and Jon it reminded me of what it is actually like to play spontaneously. We were playing tunes of mine and some of Jack's. But it was just the empathy, the spirit thing came back and as soon as that happened to me, I knew I couldn't go on with Bill any more. Like I said, if UK hadn't come along I probably would have stayed with Bill because his own band wasn't as bad as UK in that department."
"The trio with Jack and Jon didn't work out for various reasons but I had seen the light and decided to try and find musicians I could get this thing with. I'd been told about the drummer, Gary Husband. We tried a few bass players but we couldn't find the right guy. We couldn't find anybody who didn't impersonate Jaco Pastorius and we don't really like impersonators very much. Eventually we came across Paul Carmichael and he got on well with Gary. They're both great players, so there we are."
"We did a couple of weeks in Paris – we've been there twice – at the Riverboat club. The last time I was in France playing was for the seven weeks just before Christmas when I was playing with Gordon Beck's group which I really enjoyed. I thought it was going to be a real pair; as it was so long but it was good. But now I'm really concentrating on the trio thing to see if we can get it off the ground. I think it's called perseverance."
"I've nearly swallowed it all twice now. Twice I've thought that things were getting so bad that I should just give up. The thing that has depressed me 's that I've had lots of calls from American magazines and companies who want to assist and want to know when I'm going over there. In England I can't get anyone interested in the music that I want to play at all. Yet in the States it seems that they can't wait for it."
On the subject of management Allan said he could "just about manage a pint of Tetleys. That is the frustration, trying to find the right guy who can find a door to gigs and working in America. From everybody I know in the States people are saying, 'Where is this Holdsworth guy?'"
"I'd love to go there and play but here I am doing nothing. If I was getting a negative response everywhere I would probably cope with it better than knowing that there's a thing going on over there and I can't get there. I can't find the door, they're all dummy doors."
Whoever it was who first put a Gibson humbucking pickup on a Fender guitar sure started something. The habit of taking bits off guitars and putting other bits on 's growing all the time. Would he guitar chopper-uppers would do well to study the following précis Confessions Of A Guitar Hacker before plugging in the chainsaw.
With his face partly shrouded in darkness Allan began to speak haltingly in a quiet voice. "When I first started experimenting with guitars I was always intrigued by the idea of sticking Gibson pickups on a Fender. When I was with Tony Williams I bought a Fender Stratocaster. They were very cheap then because CBS had just taken them over. I think it was about 150 quid including the case. I didn't like the neck so I took it off and sold it and got Dick Knight to make me a new one. He built the sides up because I wanted the fretboard to be pretty wide. I like quite a lot of fingerboard each side of the E strings. I don't like the E strings to be too close to the edges because I tend to roll them off. I like guitars with a big chunky neck. It's just a feel thing."
"So I hacked the Strat up and put Gibson pickups on it. I liked the sound but realised that the pickups didn't make the guitar sound like a Gibson at all. I started to understand that there is more to guitars than just pickups which should have realised a long time ago. The scale length is greater, 25½in as opposed to the Gibsons which are I think 24¾in. The extra string length of the Fender seemed to give more harmonics in a note. There is something more bell-like. When I play my Gibson SG Custom – and I love the guitar – I know that with the shorter scale when I play the low notes, they start to choke a bit. They sound more strangled than on a Fender or another guitar with the longer scale. The other thing is that the bridge on the Strat does a lot for the sound as well."
Allan feels that the fact that the strings on a Strat are anchored to the bridge as opposed to passing over the bridge and then being anchored to a tailpiece is a major factor in terms of the sound achieved. Also he likes the modular approach with Fenders, something which facilitates customising and recurring repairs such as re-fret.
"Then I noticed that the neck affects the sound. I used to have a couple more Strats that I had done up. The one I play now 's the original one which I hacked away at and it is pretty tatty as you can see. On the next one I got, I had the same things done but by Dick Knight so it was very neat."
"It was a nicer neck and a nicer body, I just generally refined all the things I'd learned about the first one but it didn't sound as good as the first one, I thought. There's summat weird 'ere."
A trifle confused, Allan put the difference in sound down to the fact that the first guitar's body was made from aider (birch family) and the newer one was maple. He bought another Strat and tried the neck from it on the guitar Dick Knight had customised.
"I was absolutely amazed by the difference the neck made to the sound. But absolutely none of the guitars sounded as good as the first one. Some of the Strats that I've had – even when I took off one set of pickups from one guitar and tried them on another – sounded terrible. So there is no way that it will work every time, it's just like a freak. I don't know if the first one sounds good because I've played it a lot. I decided that none of them sounded as good as that one even though it's been hacked away and looks dreadful. And it's not particularly nice to play either. I decided to sell all the others because I don't really like having a lot of guitars. So I just got rid of them. Now I've got just the one Strat and an old Gibson SG Custom."
Allan has a loose agreement with DiMarzio to endorse their products and they use his name for promotion purposes, but mainly in the States. The guitarist liked the fact that people from DiMarzio came along to a couple of gigs and having sussed that he used their stuff anyway, asked him to endorse the product. Moving on to the subject of pickups Allan had quite a few enlightening things to say as a result of his own considerable experience.
"I don't like the sound of hot pickups, there's something in the sound that I don't like. There's only so much you can do with a coil and a magnet. If you make the pickup self-inductive you lose the treble and so on. It goes on and on. If you put big magnets in, they stop the strings from vibrating. One of the pickups on my Stratis an original Gibson PAF but there is hardly any magnetism in it at all. It doesn't affect the way the strings vibrate, it's absolutely marvellous. I remember once that DiMarzio sent me two Super-Distortion pickups. There was nothing wrong with the pickups if you like that sort of sound but for me the first thing I noticed was that when I played the guitar just acoustically, the strings were sort of choked. I thought that was really weird.
"I plugged it in and of course there was twice as much power as usual and the amp was distorting away merrily. I just didn't like the sound because it was too nasty. The actual sustain of the guitar had been taken away. When I put the old pickups back on the strings started singing away again. So I learned that I don't like hot pickups and that pickups with really strong magnets really do affect the vibration of the strings. So you destroy the efficiency of the thing which is giving you the sound in the first place, that is the string vibration."
Allan has also found that the lighter strings he uses, the more these problems are accentuated. "I use a D'Addario Rock'n Roll set of strings with gauges from .008 to .040. I've tried all gauges and experimented so much with strings that there's no way you could say I use one particular brand. I've found that a slightly heavier string is easier to play. You can feel them under your fingers more but I don't like the sound as much. I find that there is a kind of singing quality with the thinner gauge strings that I really like. I put up with the fact that they feel maybe a little bit too slack, especially the D string – but they really do sing."
"It's the same with that guitar. I don't really like playing my Strat but when I listen to it I forget that it is uncomfortable, and you can pick up the most beautiful guitar that is physically great to play but when you listen to the sound it'll put you off playing the thing. So I put up with the way my Strat feels simply because of the way it sounds."
On the subject of the art of the luthier Allan agreed with me on the fact that although great skills and much thought have gone into guitar construction, it is not a complete science and in many cases people have done the right things for the wrong reasons. A certain amount of mystery remains as to why one guitar should sound much better than another.
"I think they're getting closer to finding out why but originally they had all the wrong ideas about which type of wood would sound better than another. DiMarzio have just sent me this neck and (inc fretboard) and I'm sure it will sound different again."
One name hot on the lips of everyone with an interest in guitar customisation is that of American Seymour Duncan. He specialises in making pickups and after reading an interview with Allan in a magazine, got in touch with him. Allan had mentioned in the article that he was still looking for his ideal in pickups. The guitarist was unhappy about the fact that as Gibson guitars have the strings closer together than Fenders, the individual polepieces on a Gibson pickup do not match the string spacings on a Fender. He wanted the design to be based on the vintage Gibson PAF pickup with no extra coil windings or extra big magnets to pull away at the strings. In other words he wanted a pickup similar to the vintage Gibson humbucking PAF but with polepieces spaced to match up with his Strat.
"Also I still can't get used to pickups without adjustable polepieces. I've seen a lot of pickups where they don't have any polepieces whatsoever. They try to tell you that the magnetic field is such that it picks up all the strings evenly. It doesn't. It really doesn't. I notice it because of using thin D and E strings. Have too much trouble with loss of sustain due to string bending because I don't bend notes very often nowadays. I just use vibrato (side to side) now."
Allan is currently using a Hartley Thompson amp for single note playing and uses a Pete Cornish custom-made routing box which has a footswitch which allows the guitarist to switch the guitar output to two Lab Series amps in stereo for playing chords.
"Both amps are good for different things. I like the Lab Series very much for chords but the Hartley Thompson is the best amp that I have found for single note playing. I'm not saying that the Hartley Thompson is no good for chords – 'cus it is fantastic or that the Lab Series are no good for single-note playing. It's just that this is the particular combination I've been using and I like it a lot."
"With the Hartley Thompson, the only time when the sound suffers is when the volume is below a level at which the speaker can work efficiently and the guitar is not hearing itself back. It has two separate channels. I use the red one for single-note playing. It also has the advantage in that the second (green) channel is extremely clean. With for instance a Boogie amp I could never get a good sound until the volume was so high that it was unworkable. I found it even more oppressive than Marshall. I didn't get a good sound until the master volume was up to about number 8. So working with an amp that has to be loud to get a decent sound: if you have the master at 8 and the pre amp at around 5 or something like that, when you change to the chord channel it is going to be just as distorted as the single note channel. With the Hartley Thompson you don't get that because the two channels have their own individual amps. It's a great amp, really expensive but very good. Also it's got separate EQ for each channel, which is something I haven't seen on any other amp. Also the EQ is very wide with low bass, high bass, low mid, high mid, low treble and high treble controls so it is a really comprehensive amp."
"The Lab Series absolutely knock me out as far as using them for the purpose that I do. They are absolutely superb, they're really clean. I wanted an amp that would give me as strong a sound as I was getting with the Hartley Thompson on single note playing. I had used Marshall and found that I could put anything alongside the Marshall when it was fairly well cranked up and no other amp could ever compete on chord work. I've found that the Lab Series sounds just as big and beefy as the single note sound on the Hartley Thompson so I'm highly delighted with Lab Series amps as well."
The main routing box also houses a couple of noise gates and an EQ facility. His number one system is completed by a foot volume control and a digital delay unit, currently a Yamaha. Allan seems to be getting more and more into sound and has various plans and ideas which he's still working on and keeping on the secret list for the time being.
"I'm very interested in some more ideas that I'm still working on. That's another reason why I like working with the trio, it leaves me room to do all that kind of stuff which I wasn't doing before really in bands with keyboard players. When you get the heavy denture mob in you get into trouble. In a lot of respects it is always difficult with piano and guitar because they always want to use different chord voicings. Unless you are two very careful and sympathetic guys you can get into all kinds of trouble."
