From: hughecl@okway.okstate.edu
I've noticed that through the years
your amplification on-stage has undergone some changes. In the early
'70s from photos I notice mostly stacks behind you, whereas nowadays
you have 2 Fender twins. Did you really start using the twin again
in the late '70s, when Yes began playing in the round, for (among
other reasons) their low profile appearance? It has a great tone
and is virtually hidden on-stage, in comparison with the stacks.
Thanks for reading my 'message,' and keep up the great work!
"Initially I accommodated the
in the round tours because the Dual Showmans wouldn't go on the
round stage although I could have had them in the floor. When
I got the twins on the ground I really, really liked those things
pointing up at my head so I got a better sound than I was getting
through the not so easy to angle speaker cabinet from the Dual
Showman. Then when Asia started off I thought I'd go back to Dual
Showmans, and I tried them and they really didn't sound right
to me, and the sound engineer hated them, and I stuck with twins
all that time. A lot of those old Twins are seriously good."
From: Don - Zchub
Steve, I recently purchased an ES-175D.
('64). Is your 175 a '64. I have read that you purchased it in '64.
"I suppose I remember it's a '64.
There was one story that the '64s that came to England were actually
made in '63, and that thought still confuses me a little bit,
I think I need to look back at that. But there is a story that
England didn't have any hardly. If there was one in the shop and
somebody bought it you had to reorder it. Well, that's what happened,
I went into a shop, said I want a 175, they said we don't have
one but we'll order it. So it came, and it may have actually been
a '63 but delivered in '64."
If so, are the volume/tone knobs,
bridge, and tuners original?
"The bridge isn't original because
I've been through a few bridges in the 34 years I've had the guitar.
And the key heads aren't original…the knobs aren't original
because I found the ones I had on it were too small so I put larger,
earlier sort of vintage guitar knobs on it...I changed a few little
things; the pickup selector switch had a personalized machine
head button job done on it, where the machine head filed down
miraculously to a small little thing, but it's bigger than the
normal pickup selector toggle switch. They're mainly the things
I've changed. Everything else is pretty much the same."
From: Daubresse Bernard
I've spent a lot of time trying
to play the marvelous song "Mood for a Day" but one thing
I would like to know is if you're sometimes playing on the 3 nylon
chords (G,B,E) of your guitar with your thumb or if you're always
using the other fingers (as my music teacher told me to do) to finger
those chords? Thank you in advance for the answer.
"Interesting question. I alternate
between fingers and thumbs at a remarkably inconsistent fashion.
Somebody said to me the other day that I always play things different
and that's partly one of the reasons that they do sound a little
different is that I don't always repeat the fingering on the right
hand. Usually I stick with the left hand fingering because if
you start changing that you're going to get into trouble. So I'm
playing it down there pretty much the same, but the way I use
my right hand is much more spontaneous, and any way I can get
it to sound like I want is the way I play it; I don't formulate;
like a lot of people who have been taught the guitar or to play
by reading music formulate certain things, like up and down strokes,
or in this case thumb and finger. Sometimes I play with the thumb,
other times if it feels like I want to play with my finger I just
play it with my finger."
From: Fabricio
Mendonca de Carvalho
Hi Steve, how do you do? I want
to know if you are still using analog effects in your guitars? If
YES, why? Thank you, you are the best!!!
"Yeah, I'm still using analog
effects. In fact Danelectro brought out a quite nice range of
little boxes that make wonderful sounds, very analog, and very
true to the idea of what a guitar is which is fundamentally analog.
I still use the Big Muff, I think that's an incredible fuzz box
of almighty power, and I use a very old Korg wah wah pedal called
a mutlipedal that does three things and also works manually or
automatic. I've got a huge collection of really nice boxes. Obviously
sometimes they're not as practical as what we get now but I must
say they stay pretty much the same, they've stayed true to form,
analog effects I have, and they're very, very good."
From: Stuart Allison
I am a great fan of both Yes and
yourself. Could you tell me want you used to get that "roar"
from your guitar on "On the Silent Wings of Freedom".
Especially on the those screeching chords! Is Yes going to tour
Australia soon? I'm itching to see you guys!
"It was my 175 through my amp
and also through an Electro Harmonix, [I think] a Magic Man, it
might have been that. There were a few boxes around at the same
time that I was using for chorusing and Leslie like sounds. I
think you describe the sound like that is because in a way it
sounds like it was through a Leslie, it has a very funny high
end in it. But really I think it was one of the range of Electro
Harmonix pedals…I can't remember."
From: SAlg774
Your music now has gone full cycle
for my family as my 8 year old son is listening to "Close to
the Edge" over and over again. My son asked me a question about
the beginning of "And you and I" that I couldn't answer
for sure. Please tell us if the solo guitar at the beginning of
the recording was written and intended to be on the final recording
or was it impromptu and possibly a very melodic warmup that you
used.
"When I'm playing two string chords
that was a written part, a known quantity, it was the intro to
the song. But what precedes that is a short, as Jon sometimes
called, tuning bit where I'm playing different harmonics, and
I suppose that was semi-unintentional. Certainly we wouldn't go
out of our way to keep that off the record, we liked it. Whether
or not at the time we purposely did it to sound like that I can't
quite think, but we may have done, we may have said, 'Let's make
this sound like you just warming up,' because it's too long ago,
because I even say to Eddie during that 'are you rolling'. So
maybe we had trouble. The other scenario could be that we couldn't
actually separate that sound from the incoming, the main part
very well because if you do that in recording and play something
just before the bit you actually want to start on then obviously
it doesn't always sound right, because there was another bit of
music, another chord, another bit of sustain from another string
or something. So it could have been on those technical reasons
almost. But I think we would have just said, 'Hey we like that,
let's leave that on.' At the end of every Beatles song you got
[outro of 'Hello Goodbye'] 'Ay lay, ay la wa wa', or something;
Yes were more into doing that in the front, having silly bits
at the front."
From: Tom Michels
Steve, I just want to tell you you're
the best guitarist there is or ever will be. I'm not even a guitar
player myself and I know this to be true! Steve, could you set the
record straight on the reason you left Asia in 1984 and clarify
what happened between you and John Wetton that prompted your exit
from the band? Also, did you write anything that eventually became
a part of ASTRA and would you ever consider working with
Geoff Downes again? Thank You.
"Bands have to accommodate change.
Sometimes that's getting on course with things like changing,
and Asia were a bit off course with the second album, and we needed
to get on course. The pressure that came on meant that John left
the band, because in a way I suppose he felt sort of responsible
for that album, and it wasn't the right album. Even though it
sold a lot of copies it didn't sell like four million. Well that
wasn't too important to all of us but it was certainly disruptive,
and something that undermined the way were working together. John
left, and Greg Lake came in, and then after doing 'Asia in Asia'
[for MTV] Greg Lake left, which was really based on the fact that
Geoff [Downes] and Carl [Palmer] and I weren't sure about going
on with Greg, but at the same time John Wetton decided he wanted
to come back. So we had two marvelous weeks which quite honestly
I won't forget, and I don't want to forget; two weeks in John
Henry's rehearsal room, in London, and in that time we mapped
out the ASTRA album including the song 'Rock and Roll Dream',
and we played all those songs, and we would kind of work my music
into them a bit, and for two weeks it just seemed to be great.
I was excited that Asia was back together, and it was the real
group, and then suddenly John called a meeting and said he couldn't
work with me. And I felt then I would never be ever to tell this
story any different any different, that that's exactly what he
said: 'I can't work with you.' I thought, well, that's disappointing
because we were just doing so well. So I just stood up and said,
'Well, we've done it the other way around where you left,' so
I kind of said with a half-baked smile, 'Well it's just time to
go then, isn't it?' And I left.
"The interesting story is that
after that something happened which was they worked on that album
for a while--and not many people know this, but now lots of people
will know this--and that is that I was asked by a record executive
called John Kolodner to come in and do some sessions on the record,
and play guitar on it. I had already formed GTR with Steve Hackett
and I said, 'I don't need this project but I'll tell you what,
I'll give it a try. I'll do it, send me a tape.' And they sent
me a tape of very underprepared songs, and there were yards and
miles of these songs just soaking up this cassette, and they all
seemed to be rather lovey-dovey batch of sad songs about broken
love and all this, and I called them back and said, 'I'm really,
really, really, really sorry, but I'm not doing this, I just can't
do it,' musically I couldn't do it, I couldn't find my feet. Of
course when I heard the finished album I think if they had presented
it to me like that I could have played on it. I just heard all
this music and went, no, pass. So maybe somebody really didn't
want me to do it but I don't know what. But anyway it's funny
when you get a call back from a group that didn't invite you to
stay. But that's the same with Yes, same thing happened with Yes
after UNION, there was like Rick and Bill and I weren't
suddenly needed, and a part of me says, 'You just wait, there'll
be other times.' There you are, I can say that not with hindsight
now, but reality. They asked me edit 'Rock and Roll Dreams', I
did, I sent them some edits, I don't know whether they ever came
out but gave them some editing ideas to get the song down. I did
that kind of thing because I've always been very friendly with
Geoff, and we've always gotten on great, and I like to think that
Geoff and I aren't finished in any way at all; together or individually,
we definitely have something that we can share. I have no hesitation
about working with Geoff again."
From: J. Sujo
Steve, thanks on behalf of many
fans like me who grew up listening to yours and Yes music in Argentina,
without really understanding the lyrics...To me the melodic quality
of the music is almost of divine inspiration. Quick question about
a Fender Twin Reverb amplifier I used with JBL speakers in it. Have
you ever replaced you amp speakers, and if yes, why did you? Thanks
for your candor and music
"Yeah, they've been replaced loads
of times. Almost like every time I get going with one, speakers
can show signs of wear, they can start breaking up and things,
so I've replaced speakers many, many times. It's easier on the
Twin Reverb because the back is open, so you just unscrew it a
bit and take it out. If you have trouble in a Dual Showman cabinet
then you've really got a headache because you use an electronic
screwdriver to get the back off then you've got to take the foam
out. So both cabinets are remarkably different."
From: Harry Klunder
Being a friend of many Dutch gypsies
for a long period now, I learned to listen to Django Reinhardt many
years ago. I started collecting recordings of Django and have a
huge collection now, including some very good quality videos on
which Django is playing. Some of my friends started a trio in the
Django style, many years ago and became very famous here in Europe
as the Rozenberg Trio. From one of them I got a D-hole Maccaferri
guitar which I think is a beautiful instrument. Although it is a
bit hard to play. I love the sound of it, being a copy of the Django-sound.
I know You possess a Macaferri guitar also. Can You tell me what
You think of it? Thank You for answering.
"I don't own a Macaferri, but
a few years ago I played a played a couple of them owned by Scott
Chinery while I was recording MASTERPIECE GUITARS, a
record with Martin Taylor that will come out this year. On that
record we do a track called "Thank Heaven for Little Girls",
which Martin plays exclusively. I produced the record and on may
of the tracks it's all Martin and he played them, and he understood
the guitar quite well having played with Stefen Grappelli, and
Dix Diddly who also plays a Macaferri after Stefan went on playing
the same kind of music but without Django Reinhardt. One of the
particular guitars that Scott has is really remarkable, it's a
tenor Macaferri and that sounded that really, really good. Martin
plays that as the lead instrument on this version. What I thought
of them was that they were very much Django's guitars, they were
very much the sound you associate with Django. They weren't altogether
pleasant or stylish to actually play, they were rather heavy,
and hard, and kind of tough, you have to go to them with determination,
but of course their collectibility has increased."
