SynthAxe: Difference between revisions

==The SynthAxe in interviews==

=SynthAxe quotes=

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==[[Allan Holdsworth (Guitarist 1985)]]==

==[[Allan Holdsworth: Synthaxe (Guitar Player 1985)]]==

Among the first to use a '''SynthAxe''', Allan Holdsworth has just released Atavachron [Enigma (dist. by Capitol), 72064-1], on which he uses the synthesizer controller extensively. A prominent display of the instrument under Holdsworth’s control, "Non Brewed Condiment," from Atavachron, appeared as a '''SynthAxe''' demonstration on the flipside of Guitar Player’s January 1986 Soundpage.

==[[HUMBLE GUITAR MASTER ALLAN HOLDSWORTH ALWAYS STRUGGLES TO PAY THE RENT]]==

==[[Castles Made Of Sand (Guitarist 1987)]]==

"That’s what I see with a complicated instrument like the '''SynthAxe'''. It’s still a tool. Music, the sound that it makes, is what’s important. What makes it is completely irrelevant.

“You won’t find me playing '''SynthAxe'''s much anymore, either. I quit playing one because the company went bust and I worried about owning a dinosaur that I could never get fixed. So I sold everything, including two '''SynthAxe'''s and a bunch of synthesizers. But then a few months ago, I started missing it, so I traded a guy I know two guitars for his one. It has some problems, though. I also don’t use guitar synth live anymore. It was getting more expensive to tour, and the biggest expense of all was transporting equipment, especially if we were going to a different country. We’d spend more money on that than we’d make at the gig. Plus, at one point I was using the '''SynthAxe''' for 50 percent of the material, and if it didn’t work for some reason, there went half the show. So it became a liability, even though I love the instrument. On Hard Hat Area, I only used it on the title cut and a solo in “Postlude”. I haven’t tried any other guitar synthesizers, either, like the Roland. I think that making pitch control a synthesizer is completely wrong. I’ve heard people do really great things with that approach, but it’s just not for me. I like the '''SynthAxe''' because it’s a controller that I can drive a synthesizer with, but when you stick a pickup on a guitar, the synth responds to all the tuning problems, and that gets to be a real pain. And overall guitar players seem to look at guitar synthesizers as a novelty, whereas for me – who never wanted to play the guitar in the first place – it was like a way to escape from it. And with the '''SynthAxe''' I could hook up to a wind patch and play chords on it, which was really great. I really love the instrument, but unfortunately, it didn’t last. People even used to leave notes on my amps between sets telling me to go back to playing regular guitar. Now I get notes asking me to go back to guitar synth!” (laughs)

AH: I tried the early Roland synth and loved the idea of the sounds, but it didn’t really work for me. Tom Mulhern at Guitar Player magazine recommended the '''SynthAxe''' and that was where that relationship started. Also guitar-wise, I played Charvels for a while, and later discovered the Steinberger. That was it. I just thought it was amazing. It was real hard to switch back to any other guitar. I became friendly with Ned Steinberger. He would send me the guitars without any frets, and then I would send them to a luthier by the name of Bill DeLap and he would flatten the fingerboard, and take out the relief. I like the neck to be absolutely straight. We would put Jim Dunlop 6000 fret wire in it. I had quite a few of these. Also, Bill built me a few baritone guitars. He made me a regular length wooden Steinberger and basically I’ve been playing that till I hooked up with Carvin for this new custom guitar. I play about 80% of the time now on the Carvin and 20% on the Steinberger. It’s still nice to switch back and forth. I love headless guitars. I think the new Carvin is an excellent guitar.

The '''SynthAxe''' was a particular favorite tool for Holdsworth through the ‘80s in that it helped him get closer to the legato sax style that he had been emulating since hearing Coltrane recordings for the first time back in the ‘60s.

I don’t know. I haven’t seen anything. I’ve never seen anything that came close to it. Nothing. Having the keys on it and just the whole way the whole thing worked was just really amazing. I felt like I could get inside it, it felt like part of me. And most of the other ones you know, they don’t work. You have to make it work with a guitar sound, mix the guitar sound with the synth sound and half the notes are missing, you know. With the '''SynthAxe''', that doesn’t happen.

OF: Allan, since the eighties you have been the greatest Ambassador of the '''SynthAxe''', but it is only now you decide to make a complete album with it... Why ?

AH: In the past I had thought about it, but I was focusing on Group projects, so although I wanted to do it, I just never had the opportunity. When I found myself with the time to do it between projects, I went for it.

==[[Patron Saint (Guitar Player 2004)]]==

Yeah, the '''SynthAxe''' made me think a whole lot differently about the guitar, and at one point I was considering not playing guitar at all. I initially wanted to play a wind instrument, and when I used a breath controller with the Synth-Axe, it allowed me a certain amount of expression that I was unable to get from the guitar, particularly the ability to make notes loud and then soft and then loud again, and to change the sound of the note after it had been struck. On the guitar you can shape notes a little bit, but not as much. When the '''SynthAxe''' company went out of business, however, I decided that I’d better go back to the guitar.

R.V.B. - You toyed with electronics a lot and eventually started using the '''SynthAxe'''. It enhanced the sound of the guitar but did it change the way you approached playing the guitar?

People used to write notes on my amp, asking me to stop playing the '''SynthAxe''' and play the guitar instead. But now people often ask me, “We’d love to hear you play the '''SynthAxe'''—did you bring it?” I rarely play it onstage anymore because it’s too costly to take on the road and it requires a lot of equipment.

Early on in your solo career, you became very closely associated with the '''SynthAxe'''. What piqued your initial interest in that instrument?

Briefly, but it was a few years ago. But it was like a step backwards for me; if I have to go from the '''SynthAxe''', the thing is going to have to be absolutely, incredibly remarkable for me to want to make a jump.