Carl Verheyen

Carl Verheyen is an American guitarist. Allan contributed a SynthAxe solo on his album "No Borders". Verheyen also played guitar on Chad Wackerman's album "The View", although he and Allan do not play on the same tracks.

Allan Holdsworth - An interview (Atavachron 1994)

KK: Is there a commercial... I mean, do you think... I’m just interested because of all these exotic guitars... and the tunings that you use. Do you feel that you’re operating in a world that the average guitarist [could make use of this]?

AH: Yeah, I do. I do. For example, because I...

KK: Is there anything beyond it? Because you hear these things in a very special way, and you have these special instruments tuned to your sensibility. Do you think there’s a larger audience...?

AH: Yeah, there is.

MP: Is there something to offer more musicians about it, other than just your little "nook" that you’re...

AH: Yeah, I think there is. Like for example, like one of the first C-guitars I had, that was tuned originally to C, was actually too short for the way I wanted it. I wanted it to be-I can’t remember the scale length-it was a little short. And I sold the guitar to Carl Verheyen, and he loves the guitar, and he’s using it-a lot, apparently. And he tunes it lower than I did; he tunes it down to a low-A, where for me the concept of the design was that it had to be correct at 25-1/2" to play an E. So in other words, that guitar, for me, was no good beyond C. But he tuned it down to A. So, I mean... there you go. You can take that as a good example of it; for me, the scale length was too short to tune to A, ‘cause I would have to put big, thick strings on it, and then I would have lost the character of the tone that I was trying to get. But for him, he didn’t. It was enough, you know... ‘cause each guy’s different-it’s a personal thing. So I’m not saying that they would be of any use to anybody used in the same way, but I think for example like, a C guitar? A C guitar could be used by someone else, tuned a lot lower, you know, instead of an A guitar.