The EM Poll

Peter Frampton: The Guitarist

Feb 6, 2007 7:56 PM, By Gino Robair

           

Do you know ahead of time what mics and preamps you'll choose for each guitar setup?
Again, there are no rules. If I was doing a straight mono rhythm guitar or riff guitar, slightly distorted — say it was with a 20W Marshall head through a 4-by-12, which is a nice sound with a Gibson — there are two schools of thought that would generally work. Use a Shure SM57 up close, possibly with an AKG dynamic mic. If I want a room mic, I would probably use a Neumann U 67. I have a matched pair of 67s, originals. And they are phenomenal. That's one way.

The other way would be go with the 67. Where, in the previous scenario, the Shure SM57 would be right up close in the center of the paper, not the cone (so it wouldn't go straight in, but to the side), the opposite would be to have just the 67 about 18 inches away from the speaker. That's a richer sound, if that's what fits with the track you're doing. It all depends on what the track's like.

If it is a guitar solo, where it would be a more fully blown, flat-out sort of sound, I might put stereo room mics further away and use the 67s for that. And then put the dynamic mics up close.

What' s your mic preamp of choice?
It would have to be either the Neve 1073 or the Vintech X73. I love the Neve sound, and all the Vintech gear is like having Neve stuff, really.

When you were tracking drums in your studio, were you using your mics or does Aaron bring his setup?
A combination. He'll bring some bass drum mics: I don't have any of those at the moment. So he'll bring up a complete set of mics, but ends up using half mine and half his. Sometimes he'll use the 421s on the tom-toms. Sometimes he'll use something completely different. I never know what he's going to use, but it always sounds great. He's always experimenting, too, with different mics.

What made you decide to record "Souvenirs" with John Jorgenson?
Ever since I first heard guitar in the house, it was either my record, the Shadows, which I bought when I was young, or one of the ones my parents listened to — Django Reinhardt and the Hot Club de France. I didn't like it, but I heard Django Reinhardt in the house all the time.

I suddenly realized, after listening to it for about two or three years (I was only about 13 at the time), that there's this other guitarist that sounds incredible — this guy called Django Reinhardt. I enjoyed his technique, but I just couldn't get into the music. I've always said how melodically influenced I've been by him, although not necessarily technically. But you aspire, obviously, to greater things when you hear someone like that. [Laughs.]

Even going back to the Frampton Comes Alive-era, you're soloing has a jazzy feel to it, rhythmically. Not necessarily a rock-and-roll feel.
My style is definitely a hybrid, yes. It's never been straight blues. I guess it's just a mixture of all the different styles of jazz and blues I've listened to. I have to say I've listened to more jazz than I have blues.

I definitely hear it in your melodic writing. Your melodies have an extension that goes away from minor thirds and flat sevens. It crosses into other modal areas.
Well, I try. [Laughs.] I love playing guitar and I love melodies, and putting melodies over chords. And that's what writing music for me is all about: the effect of a melody over what's underneath it, however sparse that may be. If it's the right collection of notes, you've got magic.

What keeps me going musically is to find that new triad with this note that works, and all of a sudden a melody comes immediately, because it's such a turn-on. And that's what it is: it's just a search, for me, constantly looking every day for that new little phrase that will melodically go with this chord or whatever. And then you're off. It's called inspiration.

Take me through your songwriting and demoing process, if you will.
Say the tune "Grab a Chicken," with Gordon Kennedy and I. I had this rhythm part that is really the intro there.

The part you created in Garageband?
Yes. I had the top and bottom Es of the acoustic guitar tuned down to D. I just came up with that acoustic-guitar rhythm. Then we found the Garageband loop, and then Gordon and I set about writing the rest of the piece.

I log all the little bits that I like into iTunes now. I've got all these little digital recorders, like the M-Audio MicroTrack. I've got the Nagra one, and I've got the Edirol one as well. I have them in different rooms in my house, so that I can capture the little 15-second to 2-minute bits whenever I feel like sitting down and playing. Later, I go through them to find something where I say "wow, let's work on this." Even if that part gets trashed, I've started somewhere and there is an inspiration point. Gordon will play me bits, too, and we might start on one of his bits.

On "Grab a Chicken," we put a couple of guitars down over the top of those rhythms. We did the whole little demo track, the funky guitar parts and everything using Garageband.

When it was time to do add [drummer] Chad Cromwell, we decided to just do it from the demo. So we put the Garageband tracks onto Nuendo, and everybody else played to that. I think [bassist] John Regan and Chad probably played at the same time. Then we started overdubbing: Gordon and I replaced a few little bits, making better guitar sounds. So really, Garageband was like a sketch pad.

"Ida Y Vuelta" shows another way we worked. When I would see Stanley Sheldon, the original bass player from Frampton Comes Alive, I'd say "Do you want to do a track?" He's into Salsa and South American music. Every time I'd think about him, I'd think in that vein, and I came up with the opening lick of "Ida Y Vuelta." [Sings the lick.] That little chord sequence there. And, so, again, I put it on Garageband and put down the solo.

When it was time to actually do the track, we used the same tempo and everything. But the opening of the solo was so perfect, with the mood, because I had just written the idea: I hadn't even finished writing the melody yet.

I recorded the solo using two Audio-Technica mics into an iMic interface in my living room. We lifted the solo and put it into the track. And because the arrangement changed and the solo got longer, I had to then pick up where I left off. We only knew we needed to do this when we finished the tracks and did the solo. I tried redoing it from beginning to end, but I said, "What I want is on the demo." You know, demo-itis. So we just lifted it.

Once I went all the way through to the end, obviously there was a sound difference. Same guitar, but different mics and all that sort of stuff. Aaron had this plug-in that took an audio snapshot of the sound of the recording from upstairs in the living room on Garageband, and imposed that on the new guitar track, which was recorded with the more expensive mic, in the studio with the better sound. And bingo, we got the new track to sound like the old one. We had to tweak it a little bit, but not much. I've asked engineers if they can hear where it switches over, and no one's caught it yet.

It all goes to prove that vibe, performance, and inspiration far outweigh any piece of recording gear. Even if you record it on a cassette: no, it's not going to have the sound it would have on a digital or analog multitrack. But you've got an idea there. And if it's recorded decently, you can do a lot to save it.

The vibe is what counts. It's all about the moment. When the moment is right, it doesn't matter what you recorded on. If it sounds half-way decent, it'll work.