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From: Donald
O'Connor
Do you think that we can ever hope
of having another progressive album, something like RELAYER
or TALES or ... ? You're our only hope!
"I can only think that that music's
going to keep reoccurring; I'd certainly like to think that I'm
going to do other things that do have that kind of feel to them."
From:
Paul
Czerner
That second picture you took shown
at the bottom of the HOMEBREW web page. Is that showing a
ley line in the middle of the photo?
"Funny enough there is a noticeable
sort of pathway, and it isn't actually a pathway; it's in my garden.
But you've made me wonder if it is, so it's funny when people
ask questions."
From:
Wind
Do you use flatwound or roundwound
strings on your Gibson ES-175 D and ES-345 TL?
"On the Gibson I use roundwound
strings on both guitars.
"The gages on the 175 are: 12,
12, 16, 26, 42, 52: using two twelves is unusual; the heavy top
and the bendy second.
"On the 345 it's 11, 12, 19, 26,
40, 50."
At what point in the production
of "Hint Hint" did you become aware of the telephone ringing
in the first solo?
"I've never mentioned there is
a telephone on 'Hint Hint'; what you're hearing is guitar distortion.
At the time on TURBULENCE on some of the Stratocaster tracks
I was using a Marshall and a Rockman, and the Rockman had an inherent
sound; on any of my tapes, even HOMEBREW, if you'd look
through there you might find a few places where you might think
it was a telephone ringing.
"Oddly enough a telephone bell
seems to have a very similar sound to guitar distortion at certain
times, and that's what it is: it's inherent in the Rockman, especially
when you do eigths on them, it tends to go 'ding ding ding ding
EEE ding ding EEE', and that sort of 'EEE' noise seems to be exactly
like a telephone; I've done the same thing here, I thought the
phone was ringing, and it was the guitar. That's one of the things
you have to be careful if you do use processed distortion is not
to get that sound. But I will listen very closely to 'Hint Hint'
and let you know if there actually is a real telephone on it;
I don't think one would have escaped me but I'll be intrigued
to know if I do hear one myself but I tend to think it was the
distortion."
I've been a loyal fan and student
of yours for over 2 decades and after all this time I only have
ONE suggestion for you and that is: please find that 12-string Richenbacher
and play IT on "Awaken"; I'm afraid the Steinberger "12"
is, sonically, just too un-inspiring.
"I use the Steinberger 12 string
because I like the sound of the Rickenbacker but they don't stay
in tune. So it's either an in-tune sort of techno guitar, or an
out of tune dead-right guitar. I may get back to the Rickenbacker
at another time, but the Steinberger sounds terrific on the new
mix of 'Awaken'. I think it's very much in the EQ, because the
guitar just sounds unbelieveably good on 'Awaken', on KEYS
TO ASCENSION."
From:
Mauro F. T. Vassovinio
I want to know if there exists a
new publication of your pieces for acoustic guitar later than 1980,
after Steve Howe Guitar Pieces, and how can I buy these tablatures.
"There is going to be a music
tablature of ten flat top guitar tunes and I'm going to do it
pretty soon, and it's going to be done through TAMT in Japan.
They will have it first and I'm looking toward distribution for
it in the rest of the world."
From:
George
Ajjan
I was wondering if Steve could provide
any more info on the bass duet which he performed with Chris Squire
on some early Yes tours? Of what exactly did the duet consist? How
long did it last? I read about it in Steve's Guitar Collection book
and have always wanted some detailed info on that duet.
"It was based around the song
'A Venture' but in fact it didn't really bear any resemblance
to 'A Venture'. I was playing a Fender Telecaster bass that Chris
had as a spare and we used to go into this with some sort of weird
abandon. It was tremendously exciting to have just two bass guitars,
a drummer, and keyboards, it was like, wow, what is it? What we
used to do was we used to jam a bit with some fast riffs in G
Minor but then I had a jazz tune that I used to play, and it was
a guitar tune that Jim Hall used to play, it was a blues tune,
I think it was called something like 'Walking Carson Blues', one
of those things, and it was a lovely guitar line. I played that
on the bass and I think Chris harmonized with me and we'd get
into kind of dueling improvising, Chris would use his little technique
and I would use mine. It was really kind of put together show
piece that most probably we should do again, because I still play
bass, in fact I've played bass consistently over the years, and
play bass on KEYS TO ASCENSION, on 'Be the One' I play
a five string bass below Chris' piccolo bass. I'd love to do it
again; I'd most probably want to use a Danelectro now, make it
really twangy. You got Chris Squire on one side, I'd like to be
John Entwistle on the other because he gets a terrific sounds,
I love his sound, I love his approach at playing the bass as well,
it's rhythmical and it's dynamic. So I think I was into a bit
of an Entwistle, 'People try to put us down' [twanging] do-ing
do-ing, do-ing...!"
From:
Daniel J. Donnelly
What tuning(s) do you use on your
lap steel? I have tuned mine right now to G B D G# B E low to high.
The strings for the G B D are the same gauge as the upper G# B E...I
did this so I could get many chord sounds in the same registers
without slanting the bar. I can get Maj, dim, minor, 7ths and some
others...I have tried some open E7 tunings and such but would like
to hear your thoughts on the subject.
"My main stable tuning is that
E Major tuning: how it goes top to bottom is E B A flat, E, B
and then an octave of the middle E, so you don't go down below
E on my main steel. But there again I have a four neck steel by
Fender that I have diminished tunings, minor tunings, and of course
pedal steel, I use traditional E9th, what they call Nashville
tuning. But on the little lap steels it's usually E Major, I start
from that point, so it's not the traditional tuning, the main
tuning is usually A for most people."
One other thing...do you know how
the sympathetic strings on the electric sitar works...I do not own
one yet but I was playing around with one and I was trying to get
the drones to work...no can do...
"The sympathetic strings should
be tuned chromatically, from one E to another: E F, F#, G, all
the way up to the next D. And if you have them on about half or
quarter volume they usually sound pretty good. Use them as an
additional sound, play them, play little things on them run up
and down, but don't expect a lot; in fact, I don't encourage or
advise people to turn it on at all when you're actually recording
the guitar. I think they're a bit of a -- other than as an effect
to add to it, so they're not really doing a lot for the sound
and if you have the pickup off it doesn't help the sound generally.
So I tend to not have the sympathetic strings up when I'm on stage
other than little bits I do on them for a gimmick, like a big
crescendo [strumming the strings from high to low]."
From:
Jim
McLaren
I was just watching the 1976 concert
from Q.P.R. of the RELAYER tour on videocasette, and there's
something I just can't figure out on "Soon". I think that
you're playing the doubleneck steel and I assume that the two are
in two different tunings because I see you changing necks for the
different chords before the first melody starts. My question is,
what are the tunings of the two necks?
"Yeah, different tunings. There
are two reasons why I would change the neck. One is that usually
with Yes unless there's any C tunings like in KEYS TO ASCENSION
this year that I had to use a quite different twin neck setup,
but in those days the front neck was tuned to E major and the
other neck is tuned to the same as a guitar, or E Minor, but quite
often it was the same as a guitar so that I could play chords
on the front and play parts of minor chords on the neck that's
furthest away from me. But there's another consideration, which
is that I prefer the sound, for certain things I would just change
to the front neck because the sound is different, and it's not
so thin. I have the neck nearest me with a very treble setting
and then the neck furthest away with a slightly warmer setting
and for some reason that front neck has got a thicker body than
the closer neck to me, it has a deeper and a more penetrating
sound, so when I play the instrumental section in 'Soon' when
the tune goes in millions of different keys then I go to that
neck because it's in a different position and it sounds different
and it was more effective. Though it could be because of chords,
if it's at the beginning of 'Soon' when it's going in a chromatic
chord way then I would change to the front neck for a much warmer
sound. So it was partly sound, partly tuning."
From:
Chris Puglisi
I am currently studying arranging
and composition as a part of my music performance certificate. I
was wondering if you may have any advice concerning approaches to
compostion and inspiration. I find it extremely difficult to come
up with any ideas, without sounding similar or exactly the same
to something I have heard before. How should I begin my first steps
into composition?
"When you're looking you don't
find them. Ideas aren't there to kind of pull off the shelf, get
out of the book; they tend not to happen when you sit down to
construct them. So ideas come at moments of freedom, of improvisation,
so the more you improvise the more you write. You've got the tape
the improvisation and then listen back and pick out the good bits
and then develop them as musical ideas. Not everything you're
going to play is going to be great, and you have to be clever
to pick out the good things, and then relearn them and write them
into a piece of music. So you have to get ideas that way.
"As far as inspiration I don't
think you can look for that. Life is inspiration and you can't
expect to take inspiration from somewhere else. Obviously I've
found that getting drunk is completely uninspiring. It might be
fun mentally but I don't write music in a stupor. I tend to improvise.
But I think you also need to think about music on another level:
you've got to let music happen but you can draw influences by
obviously listening to great music but also getting in touch with
other art forms, having a place in your house that's the way you
want it, that you can work in, and that's pretty important. And
also loving people, and that's a good subject to draw from; when
something happens in your relationship write some music, think
about it as your way of enhancing what you do. If you want to
be a musician you better be a good one and you've got to let love
pour out in it. But how it all happens is totally unknown and
there's no real advice.
"But as far as coming up with
ideas that again is your own potential and looking hard you don't
see anything but just sitting back and listening to your music
and thinking, wait until you like something, build from that.
Certainly some people get it from reading books, watching television...I
don't know, you've got to have a work space, and you've got to
have a work time that's flexible, so it's not the same time every
day, it's just when it happens, so I think you got to let yourself
be spontaneous...maybe try meditating; if you meditate sometimes
after that you feel you put the day aside and you can maybe just
play some music. A lot of New Age people are doing that for their
music, so why don't, I suppose, you try it?"
From:
Tom
Wheatley
I bought a guitar case today via
mail order from someone who obtained it from the Hard Rock Cafe.
I received the case today, accompanied by a certificate of authenticity
that indicates that it is from the Steve Howe Collection. Do you
recall owning a case that looks like this:
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Black exterior and bright pink
interior.
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Made to fit a Les Paul type
guitar (well mine fits anyway).
-
There are two pieces of masking
tape affixed to the case: one located on top of the case, the
other on the side. "ARTISAN #1" is handwritten (very
legibly) in bold letters on each piece of tape. The tape appears
to have been there for a long time (years).
-
There are two red stickers with
white lettering affixed to the case: one located on top of the
case, the other on the bottom. Printed on each sticker is the
word "Virgin," printed in a font that makes me think
of Virgin Records. Below the word is a picture of a cracked
wine glass. Below the picture is the word "FRAGILE"
(as in breakable, not Yes FRAGILE!). On the top sticker,
someone hand printed "Steve Howe."
Sorry about this inane post, but
I'd really like to know if this case housed one of your instruments
in its previous life.
"Yeah, I'm a bit mystified. It's
unusual for anybody to buy just a guitar case. Thanks for the
vivid description although I must say even though it's vivid it
doesn't actually ring any bells in me. I'm trying to think of
how many Les Pauls I've sold in my life, and I think I sold a
gold top Les Paul about ten years ago. Certainly there's two things
that sound very uncharacteristic about it. None of my guitar cases
have the words 'Steve Howe' and none of them have the model number
written on them, like it says 'ARTISAN #1', that doesn't look
like me at all. A, I've never had a Les Paul Artisan and B, I
never ever write the model name on the case. So if I had to guess
blind I would say this isn't a case of mine, or I don't know how
this case got 'ARTISAN' and all that stuff on it. If it had a
number on it then it might be mine. If you can find a number that
might be interesting.
"I never sold a case, I've sold
guitars, but it makes me wonder, where's the guitar that was in
the case? A lot of guitar cases have the bright pink interior,
in fact that does make it sound a bit like the old gold top case,
and somebody may have parted witht he case and given it another
home, and you bought it. So I don't know if a case is really so
identifiable, it's really like identifying a suitcase. This word
Virgin on it kind of rung a bell at first, I wondered if I did
ever have a Virgin sticker on a case but I really haven't been
flying Virgin in the time period that [I owned the gold top Les
Paul]. So mostly I'm saying I think this is too vague."
From:
Paul
Gorrell
Do you do anything to regulate the
humidity where you store your guitars ? Or protect them from dryness
(from heating system) in the winter?
"Originally when I stored the
collection in a house I had heating and humidity running based
on some rough ideas of keeping an average. Every environment is
different so if the guitars are going to be somewhere just try
to get them used to that environment. Obviously I try to keep
the temperature between 60 and 70 degrees, and the humidity around
between 40 and 50, which may not be the best thing but that's
the way I kept it. I wouldn't recommend the humidity, it's just
the humidity of my room, really, now I really don't bother with
the humidity because I've got lots of moisture in the house itself,
I got a new wall in fact so that's very moist, I've had a lot
of moisture so I have to mind it to drying out a bit of the guitars
after that. To encapsulate it I take an easy route, I keep the
room warm and I gage how things are based on how the guitars are,
and they've been fine so I've obviously been doing it right. In
England not generally do we need a lot of moisture added to the
air, it's not very dry here, so I think I've got them in a balanced
environment and I keep it pretty static; the lowest it can go
is 50, the highest it can go is 70, so I keep it on that and I
periodically check my guitars and sort of see how they're doing.
If I notice one guitar is sharp, then I see a lot of them might
be sharp I take action and alter things. So it's getting something
that's workable."
From:
Gonzo
How did you come about to working
on Queen's 1991 album INNUENDO. Your Spanish acoustic piece
on there is short but it really defines the title track.
"I was in Geneva working with
Paul Sutin and we had a day off or something, something else was
happening. So I got in the car and drove to Montreux and I was
just wandering around and thought I'd stop and have lunch. So
I was in this restaraunt that was a little bit below the pavement.
I was sitting there and then this huge guy walked by called Martin
who'd worked for Yes, Martin Groves, and he saw me there and I
saw him and we kind of lept up and he says, 'Well, look, the guys
[Queen] are in the studio,' and he was only down the road, 'Why
don't you come in?' I was going to come by and see if anything
was going on because Queen took over Mountain Studios which was
originally a studio build built to record Montreux jazz, a terrific
studio. So they invited me down.
"Well, I walked in and Freddie,
Brian, and Roger Taylor were sitting there messing around writing
stuff and they were friendly, 'Come in, sit down, and listen to
the album which we're just making.' So they started playing me
all these tracks like 'I'm Going Slightly Mad' and 'I Can't Live
Without You' which has been in my mind ever since, I still play
it, it's such a powerful paradoxical description of life. And
then they played me 'Innuendo' and I go, yeah, heavy metal flamingo!
And then Brian says, 'Look, I'd like you play on this,' and I
said you're joking, it sounds great, leave it like it is, and
he said, 'No no no, I want you to play on it, I want to you to
play really fast, I want you to run around the guitar a lot.'
So within a couple of hours I tested some of his Gibsons, Chet
Atkins classical solid body guitars, and found one that I helped
balance the strings because he wasn't sure how to balance the
volume between the different strings which is the important thing
to do on those guitars. So I got up and running, we did a few
takes, we edited it a little bit, we fixed up a few things, then
we went and had dinner. So we went back to the studio and they
said we really really like this and I said fine, let's go with
it. So I left very happy. I'd worked with people who were diehard
Queen people, and a funny thing happened a little while later,
I was on a ferry going to Holland and on this ferry which takes
a long time, five hours, were the Queen fan club, all going to
Rotterdam to a Queen event, and a couple of them saw me and they
came racing over and they said, 'You're Steve Howe! You're on
"Innuendo"!' And they all came out of the room, sitting
around talking and things...and my memories of Queen will always
be emotional because they were a great band and it was just great,
it really was a thrill to be part of that, and thanks for asking
me."
Did you know the band prior to this?
"There was a certain studio in
London called the Townhouse, it was actually a Virgin studio,
and they were there a lot, we were there, and we'd meet them,
and run into them, and Freddie liked my roadie a lot, and of course
Freddie was a friend, so they were always in and out of the studio.
Brian has always been most polite and a sort of dedicated guitarist
so we've always had a great deal of respect for each other. So
there's always just been some friendship between us, and it's
important to me, it's quite important."
From:
Conall Gallagher
A long time guitar player and admirer
of yours, I'm thinking of taking up the mandolin. (Traditional southern
string band stuff, e.g., Norman Blake, is right after your music
and Yes's in my mind.) I am wondering how you tune your mandolins.
Is it in the traditional G-D-A-E or more in line with the standard
guitar tuning, E-A-D-G? It seems that going with the traditional
tuning would be like learning a new language--very difficult. When
I ask this, I'm thinking about your 6-string guitar/banjo.
"Traditional tuning. The fact
that it's a little bit difficult at first is outweighed by the
results that you sound like a mandolin. But when I got the mandolin
I decided I was going to keep it in the same tuning and since
then I've had the pleasure of playing with David Grisman, with
Martin Taylor in a hotel in London, and two guitars and a mandolin
it was pretty amazing. I think you've got to understand that mandolin
needs that tuning, it's part of the violin/mandolin good connection
and it just have to be that say. I wouldn't advise anybody to
tune it like a damn guitar, I think it loses a lot of the sound
of it in that way so I would really stick with the proper tuning."
From:
Keith Buckley
Over the past few years, I've been
collecting guitars similar to those in your collection. I was wondering
what amplifier or amplifiers you used for the Les Paul Junior on
TALES FROM TOPOGRAPHIC OCEANS-- my Marshall just doesn't
seem to do the instrument justice.
"At the time I used Fender Dual
Showmans with JBL speakers. I had two when I was using the stereo
guitar on side one and then the rest of the album was cut on the
Junior. On side 2 I used the Pignose for certain sections, so
the Pignose is towards the end of side 2, there's quite a bit
of Pignose amp. Most probably there's some Gibson Explorer, because
that's an amp that's on a lot of records that I've done, including
"Heat of the Moment" and stuff like that, it's an amp
that I just like, it's just sounds vintage, so that's one of my
vintage amps that I use. But as far as that time I mainly remember
seeing the Dual Showmans, I was a bit of a purist as far as the
amps went and used things I know, because in the 60s I used to
use stuff that people threw at me like Wenn, Marshall, I'd get
on the stage and there was 300 watts of amps, and I didn't like
it much, I just liked a little amp sitting on the floor, that
was going to work. But that was really because when I toured with
Delany and Bonnie in 1969 they all had Dual Showman amps, so as
soon as Yes got some money I said I said can we get some Dual
Showman amps because they were just so good."
Also, is there any kind of special
strap you used with the Gibson doubleneck, or any certain way your
wore the strap? I spend an inordinate amount of time wrestling with
my doubleneck, and wanted to know if you have any suggestions for
making this monster a bit more manageable.
"I like a leather strap on most
guitars, just a plain weather strap, without a buckle if you can
get them, something that's just the right size, no buckles. On
a twin neck everybody finds the same trouble. I've tried moving
the body part of it around, you use the end fin and get somewhere
between the two necks to try to make it better. But my best advise
is a wide, padded strap, something that's wide so you've got plenty
of width to take the weight and make sure it's padded, either
with a bit of sheep skin under it or something that's got some
support, and you'll find that better. Definitely the height is
the thing that's difficult to get right, if you get the height
right it's like a balancing a chair, if you've got to carry a
chair, it can be held, you try to carry it in front of you. So
finding the point of balance of the guitar is the best thing.
So the height of it and the accessibility of it but there's no
twin neck that's really, really comfortable except the hollow
body Gibsons are surprisingly more comfortable than the solid
body.
From:
John McGann
The double six steel tunings used
on the section after the solo on "Sound Chaser"- one neck
sounds like a 6th tuning. Were both necks on all the time? The tone
is great, and I've found that having both necks on usually dilutes
the tone. [Was it a Sho-bud?]
"The only I'm sure about is that
I didn't use that in melodic stuff, I don't need to use two necks,
so both were not on all the time. The tuning that I use is just
E Major. The guitar was the Fender steel."
Is the live version of "Perpetual
Change" (YESSONGS) played on the 175 or Switchmaster?
The soloing on that piece is fantastic!
"It was played on the 175."
Do you experiment with lots of different
amps in the studio, or pretty much stick to the 'stage sound'?
"I've tried different amps in
the studio, as you do, and you just find an amp that seems to
be right at the time, it doesn't mean to say you're going to stick
with it forever but I do usually use Fender Twin Reverbs. I don't
often dabble with other amps; I've used Marshall amps, and Gibson
Explorer amps, a few other things along the way, but mainly those."
From:
Paris
Kelley
I have followed your career as a
musician since 1973 and have been quite interested in your use of
effects. What where the effects in the pedal board used during the
ABWH and UNION tours?
"The same pedal board that I used
with GTR. When we formed GTR I got a pedal board made and I used
it for GTR, ABWH, UNION, and then the ASIA tour. Basically
it was made by a guy called Pete Holmes, he had a company called
Quark, and they made pedal boards for Andy Summers. Brian May,
and people like that. But I designed the concept of that pedal
board, and it's basically got 24 switches with three volume pedals
and a wah-wah. It linked to an enormous effect rack, in fact it
was originally a double effects rack in the GTR days and then
after that I went to a single effects rack with no MIDI guitar
in it. So That is what the pedel board was."
Are the Ernie Ball volume pedals
stereo?
"Not on the big pedal board. But
on KEYS TO ASCENSION, that simple pedal board I made,
that had a stereo volume pedal. I use stereo volume pedals sometimes,
but not on those big pedal boards."
In The Steve Howe Guitar Collection
effects photo, there appears to be an Electro-Harmonix MicroSynthesizer
on a shelf... is it and did you ever record with it?
"I've got various Electro-Harmonix
Microsynths. That one that you saw I believe I used on "The
Silent Wings of Freedom" and possibly on DRAMA but
I think I used a rack mounted Electro-Harmonic Monophonic Guitar
Synththesizer, which is a bigger thing, that I used on DRAMA.
But that little one I used here and there, I used it on KEYS
TO ASCENSION as well; also on side one of TOPOGRAPHIC
OCEANS, possibly on the original and just recently on KEYS
when I did the first guitar solo."
Also, have you recorded guitar synthesizer
on any of the ABWH, UNION and/or Impending
ASCENSION tracks?
"Hardly at all, if at all."
From:
TKestle@aol.com
I've heard you say that you have
used the Korg A-3 in your guitar rig for a number of years. How
did you have it worked in?
"Basically I split the send from
the guitar and one of the sends goes direct to the A3. It goes
through a mixer and I decide whether I want it in or out and then
it comes out from there and goes to the floor monitors in front
of me, and they are made by Sound Projects and are called Master
Blasters, they're very small powerful monitors. And that usually
nowadays is how I hear the A-3, and then the send off of that
will go straight to the desk and that's how we recorded "Be
the One" and "That, That Is" by having a guitar
send to the amp but also a guitar send to the A-3, or other guitar
processors. That's roughly how I use it."
What were some of your favorite
settings and effects?
"That's a secret really! I do
use quite a lot of sounds from my own card, the Steve Howe A-3
card, which is available from Korg. It has original sounds by
me and they give names as well, like ABWH and things like that,
so it's quite a good start."
From:
John
Hamman
What exactly is the pedal setup
you used on stage with Yes to generate some of those synthesizer
type sounds.
"I don't really know which era
you're thinking of; every one had different guitars, different
amps, and different setups. If you're talking about synthesizers,
back in DRAMA I used a very wild gadget that Alan White
had a company that developed called The Survival Project. And
this was a box that was a rack mounted unit that connected to
an Eventide Harmonizer and you could control the steps that it
was harmonizing. And the Electro-Harmonix micro synths that I
mentioned earlier.
"GTR is when I really got into
the guitar synthesizer and I kind of got sick of it because I
also play keyboards so sometimes it's easier to play the keyboard
than to trigger it from a guitar."
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