Billy Duffy Interview - Sweetwater's Guitars and Gear, Vol. 103

hi I'm Mitch Gallagher welcome to Sweetwater's guitars in gear we were on location in Los Angeles where at center staging where Roland boss have opened up their a in our office and we've come together with Billy Duffy from the cult I think you appreciate you come down it's a pleasure to see you so so much great music through the years all the stuff you've done with a cult and thank you our projects are going on their things and we have a lot of gear stuff to talk about sort of hell's a thing so let's take a step back you're from Manchester originally yep not just doing one that's where I grew up all right how did you get started playing guitar and it was kind of like did the normal high school band obsession happened to just sit next to a guy first day in class and we both had music magazines like newspapers that were a big deal in the 70s and right kind of just randomly it was just a kind of a random thing where we were put together in class became friends and he'd already had drum lessons and he said I'm into music and editor and you want I've got no bass player at lives in the same street but do what you wanna be in a band and that kind of was like oh I guess you need a guitar player then right so that was how it happened it really was just like circumstance right we are already playing you not really no no I wasn't playing oh no I just so then I had to go back no I had to go back to ask my father so I want to get a guitar so my dad bought me my first guitar and I said you know I forget when this was I think that it was more in the mid 70s I tend to get within a bit mixed up timewise but I think it's like 74 right right whatever you like we enjoyed the time very much into rock you know I went through some stuff I found in the old days and you know like in your high school you write in your books and all that so I apparently from what I wrote down I was into Mott the Hoople queen early Queen nothing at status quo my house was into the who free mmm-hmm bad company free that was that was out seeing them I'd seen Slade supported by thinly see when they were a trio the whiskey in the jar' era before they kind of blew up right and I like Slade I was in a Slade fan club right because I'm still quite proud of nice I want to see them play so that was kind of it you know it was it was I wasn't really old enough to have gotten to more sophisticated stuff like Zeppelin and Black Sabbath and Pink Floyd and I just gravitate guitar music that was fairly immediate that kind of you know that was always my thing right right so who were the nosebleeds the nosebleeds with a local sort of punk band who in my neighborhood in South Manchester is a place called within sure which is a big I guess you'd call it a housing projects in the United States it was it was owned by the city and everybody that lived there rented off the city you didn't own where you lived you rented it from the city as long as you lived right so basically we all there was a whole thousands and thousands of sort of people from central Manchester got relocated in the 50s and early 60s to this beautiful garden suburb called Whidden sure and in would ensure there was a lot of bands and it was a lot of a guest Manchester's a lot of Irish you know type people you know Irish descent and there was just a few bands and nosebleeds was one of the bands they were originally called wild Ram because he was an interesting period that in the UK where you know 1976 and 77 was kind of a watershed in terms of when punk rock happened right and it had such a big impact in the UK that it really sought basically drew a line in the sand between the types of people who embraced it and the people who said no it's a fad it's never going to be anywhere I'm going to still have long hair and wear Flair's and listened to Pink Floyd and it was kind of the dividing line in the sand and the nosebleeds original were called wild Ram and they were kind of a rock band and they were in my neighborhood and I just aspired to be I was just was hope be their guitar roadie right right and because I was playing a little bit in a high school band and that type of thing rehearsing in my friend's garage a fatty wasn't a garage didn't even have a garage it was like he's like a little shed thing on the side of house anyway long story short punk happened I got into punk so did the guys in Y around they changed their name to Ed Banger in the nosebleeds really released a single one single and that they were part the punk rock scene a peripheral part of it right right you played with them yeah briefly well yeah yeah well actually what actually happened was they they split up and the lead singer went off and the guitar player went off to do something because he was kind of a bit of a hippie and the punk thing didn't suit him so he went into this avant-garde thing and became quite famous in England for do music under the name the dirty column from factory records from Manchester as members vini Reilly and he was kind of progressive he was in asti Village sure so anyway whatever but so to Cole long story short they he left in the single left and the rhythm section who knew me asked me if I could play and they gave me a task of if I could play the intro to the one single which was called I ain't been to no music school right and if anybody can dig it up it's a you can find it there's a weird like harmonic thing going on it wasn't just slight straightforward the songs kind of a straightforward punk rock song right but there's actually some tricky guitar stuff so I took about a week to figure that out got the gig and they said oh you're great and now we need a singer do you know anybody and I just said that I know this guy I've been going to concerts with his name's Stephen mm-hmm it's not he's not very Punk he's a little bit eccentric he's into like the New York Dolls Patti Smith a lot of an American underground you know the the Stooges that kind of stuff right and they said oh well we'll give him a shot as a singer and you know he turned out to be Steven Patrick see right who has had a reasonable career of his own absolutely so we wrote some songs together into two gigs and that was the whole nosebleed story in a nutshell it was a year period in Manchester just post-punk right right then it was a lot of fun it's a great time to be in England because England was kind of it was a great place to be in the mid 70s and I think that's why punk that was the the breeding ground for punk okay and I just happened to be I'm of the generation when we left high school punk was you know a national big deal right right there was a nosebleeds Yeah right it's great story two shows only though no I think there was one cassette of one of the gigs yeah and I don't away even that is ident they never had it right I'll be fun to dig that up that'd be weird yeah yeah so you mentioned Patti Smith you know there is a story that there is a connection between a Patti Smith gig and you and Johnny Marr and Morrissey and the Smiths yeah that's yeah that's yeah true and I was reminded because Johnny Miles has remained a good friend of mine and I knew him from back in that era he reminded me that I introduced him to Morrissey at Ramones gig right or a Patti Smith gig nobody can quite remember whether it was a Ramones Giga Patti Smith gig and but I definitely introduced them but it was a very quick hi how you doing right they got together later and were reintroduced but that was their initial time I think when they clapped eyes on each other at a moment of history yeah was it I think was at the Manchester Apollo right right so tell us about the the founding of the cult how did that come about and the cult basically well that was that era were referring to it was like 78 79 and then I moved to London and was just kind of hustling trying to a guy in a band in another band in Manchester who offered me a job in London with a record deal so I kind of had to leave the nosebleeds in pursuit of what I thought were better circumstances ie a record deal somewhere to stay in a move to the capital right so I kind of went for that I had to leave Manchester behind and then I kind of struggled for about a year or two just doing job you know the usual thing that musicians do and right formed my character and then I I ended up getting a gig in a band called Theatre of hate who were a tremendous band and I totally recommend anybody checking out their staff if you like kind of post-punk alternative music and a joint third of hey spent a year on the road with them and in that year there was a support band on one of the tours in 1982 and they were called the southern death cult right they supported ever the opening band they were the hot new band coming up in England they were put on tour with it of haters like special guests and it was like a whole big deal and I just became friends with them and grabbed where they were from the north of England like me so we kind of gravitated on that basis and we I became friends with all of the band and and especially the singer Ian Astbury who was from kind of near near to me in the northwest of England originally and we just sort of stayed in touch I ended up getting fired slash leaving theater of hate for being a little bit too opinionated which was very true I was because it wasn't my band that was the guitar player was another guys band really great band and I I kinda was unemployed for a little bit was just hustling and southern death court would kind of continuing and doing well and then one day I got a message from Ian's brother who was sent to look for me that Ian had decided he didn't want to play with sudden death call anymore and like the way I played and looked and kind of on a lot of levels we wanted to know if I was interested in doing anything within musically you know so having been particularly impressed with his vocals it took me about a second to go yeah right you know I can start working in a clothes shop but but and we got together and wrote some songs and that was like 1983 mm-hmm and that was the basic how the band formed and then the name it was just literally me and Ian and we still looking for a bass player and a drummer and we'd written these songs together in E and kind of came to stay with me in my apartment in London and we were like what can we call the band and we we ended up just calling it the death call right based upon this southern death call but it's two different bands and I guess he in felt owned felt that he had a proprietary ownership of the name because he thought it up so he was like well I thought the sudden death call that's my name I'm going to take that we can use it but we don't want to call it that so I said well let's call it the death call and we started as the death call get about nine months as that and then we kind of felt that the the gothic thing was a little bit of a it was a hinderance like the whole name death and all that was a little bit kind of we felt we were going to get a lot pigeonhole and as the music develops and we started working getting a write in relationship we can start figuring that the music might expand out to be a little more rock a bit more mainstream not so indie right and we thought that death in the name might be a little of a hindrance so we just decided to just call it the call that was so in January 1984 obviously worked worked out yeah so nine albums ten albums since then I think so I'm not counting we've not been super prolific really you know there's been a lot of bands probably have done more I kind of lost count but it's somewhere near that you know right right so one of the watershed albums of course is electric yeah and you worked with Rick Rubin yeah now record he tell us a little about that experience and how you kind of worked with him now there was yeah well Rick what what had happened was we did the album prior so that was called love and that was was in Europe and Canada like a breakthrough record for us we had to hit a couple of hits on it and it taken the band to a whole different level so having toured that album and that the song a lot people know she saw sanctuary was on the heaven right I was kind of like dance rock it was a little bit light and we tried the album's a little bit psychedelic there's a lot of wah-wah and we tried to kind of with just a blend of stuff that I still really enjoy but we kind of went back to make follow-up album and I think a bunch of different things we weren't really prepared we were young men who just had some success and a lot of touring and we didn't really we weren't ready to record but people wanted us to so we plowed ahead regardless made the record and realized it was kind of a bit overblown and it had some moments and and it exists we ended up releasing it as piece but it's been out there in a limited form but there was a decision made that we wanted to kind of simplify the album it wasn't quite what we wanted and Ric was brought in he was a guy we knew it we'd met in New York and started hanging out with when we were going to New York collage we started visiting the states in the UK we'd always embarked from New York and right Ric was a guy was brought in to basically originally do one one song this is the genius of Rick Rubin and he said well I'll remix your whole album if you allow me to record one song from the floor with you guys you know from the ground up so everybody went great so we all show up to New York and the idea is we remix cut one song and what Rick did was he said to us so what's you know what don't you like about the album we said well it's a little overblown the songs are a bit long it's a bit indulgent we it's a bit too thick we were kind of because what happened was we basically haven't finished right in the songs and we were just layering parts and parts and guitar harmonies and all this stuff without the song substance being finished so it was a bit we finished it and make a mix there and it it was kind of addicts moments but it wasn't what you know right our instinct was not right good that it wasn't right so Rick came in and he said well what song do you hate the most and we picked a particular song which I think might have been the song peace dog and that one really didn't sound anything like we imagined it you know cuz meaning and write the stuff and write we so anyway but we that we caught that one first and he said we liked it so much and it was such a revolutionary approach that we did the whole album in 19 days we we cut everything from the floor 24-track old school to guitar tracks I mean everything was very primal and it was a very much the that was the first time Rick Rubin had produced the band with a drum kit mean he made records we'd like the Beastie Boys and stuff but it was all samples and right you know it's the early days of that kind of stuff so it was his first attempts and we he was always very smart at using really good engineers and we had Andy Wallace who stills a legendary figure in that world that selects it and he engineered it and recorded it and basically Rick's quo which is sums it all all of what I've just set up really eloquently and succinctly is I didn't really produce the call in so much as I reduced them and that's really in essence right get it down to the essential essentials of Rob let a lot more space and it was it was really necessary for us at that point I don't think we could write electric as it was you know people often say well why don't you well why don't you write another electric well first of all I'm not 24 anymore doing what I did when I was 24 so there's no there's not really any authenticity in trying to make pretending your son son that's one of the things I think it's wrong with rock music there's a lot of people pretending and writing songs about a lifestyle that they're not living right and I think in order for rock to be viable in the essence of all those rock bands that were gray they will live in it right and some were dying it and that was the authenticity of it and one of the things we've tried to do with the caller always and particularly cos of Ian really he can very much like it wears his heart on his sleeve as a guy is to to make the music because I don't think anybody can accuse us of being fake it's real and what it is is what it is and that's what we're feeling that's what we earnestly believe at that moment so that's kind of you know a process you go through to get to the truth your truth as an artist right and that's why I suppose meaning and get along is that we fundamentally whilst we have our differences on the surface as any two people would have deep down we have a some sort of unspoken beliefs about authenticity of music and the real is as opposed to you know all the other stuff right it goes on the top all the icing on the cake right so the essentials are you know RIT come take care of the real yeah you know all right so what's the writing process like for the two of you it's funny it's it's an interesting one because we've always been a very much like a 50-50 partnership there aren't any en songs or billy songs are just a spirito fee we get together since day one since we sat in in my apartment in London Brixton London and brought a few songs they the principle remains the same you know we both there's a creative tension and you know it's times it's difficult and times you know we that tension is a good thing and sometimes I think it's a hinderance but I think overall you know it's a bit like a three-legged race okay I mean that that's all right in process but I think ultimately there's a lot of stability and I think for the most part we've gotten you know quite good results from it absolutely but but we don't you it's not like I have a complete so I mean I'm really I don't know lyrics and nobody really want to hear my lyrics anyway even if they drag them I even I wouldn't want to but you know and and you know I you know I think we complement each other very well and I think that like Ian says his quote was you know where K me and him we're kind of ahead in the heart of the cult you know we need both right to make a whole thing and we function well as that team and I'm just very grateful that you know I found the guy and sure you know that the partner and that thing where it just works and I guitar his voice it just kind of works right right speaking of your guitar and things working we were talking to some of us who were talked a little bit earlier about your tone Headley your rhythm tone okay and Malcolm young came up right is that someone that you're have an affinity for that kind of a rhythm sound yeah yeah I like yeah very much so very much like Malcolm young I like Steve Jones and the pistols I thought I'd really good right hand right how about the right hand a lot of people I think spend a lot of time worrying about flourishes and all that kind of stuff and you know they don't they don't really dig in again it's about commitment and belief to what you do and authenticity and I think that you know I don't think anybody can really doubt a cdc's right their conviction yeah you know what I mean so you know nobody's faking it over there I think that yeah I liked I always was fascinated by Gretchen's as guitars visually you know I always start with some kind of mythical beast then it was great to see about the time actually we were talking about the 70s in the UK and when punk happened you know I saw ac/dc play with Bon Scott in 77 and they just started blowing up but nobody really knew what they were because they were kind of like at this schoolboy figure and everything was a little bit fluid and there was this new musical scene and nobody knew you know there was the old guys with long hair and Flair's singing about dragons and you know that was kind of not happening so but it was like angry and had short hair and was kind of making a lot of noise and getting drunk and having fun but they see what were ac/dc because they didn't really have long hair but they didn't have short hair they were definitely not phony they were very plain it was kind of a thing and what's up I went to see him and I loved them huh you know and I always loved any other white folk and I think you know and he just laid it down you know so right I've tried to do both that has been my quest is to try to try and combine part if Malcolm played anguses parts her hey that's what I've been trying to do that's the goal with some limited success but yeah yeah yeah they're great right right right now so you're uh you mentioned the White Falcon and Ling wretch and obviously that's an unusual choice for uh for hard rock and for a high volume situation yes yes correct it's a challenge how did you end up with that guitar it was based originally visually like I think basically in essence the fans of punk rock which I include myself in Ian Astbury and twenty million other people around the world one spawn could happen basically by 79 it was dead as far as we were concerned the original bands at all kind of settled into what they were going to be or split up the whole vibe had gone the pistols broke up in 78 and it was kind of like you were getting these second generation kind of like stick a safety pin through your lip and fit like it was all kind of fake and he didn't feel good and it didn't feel authentic so we with for me the quest was finding my own voice my own is a musician a guitar player instead of you know wanting to have a guitar like somebody in the Sex Pistols or wanting to be Johnny Thunders or you know in the Stooges or you know I wanted to like get my own thing and I was familiar with the white Falcon from Neil Young because pre Punk my high school band we were into crosby Stills Nash and young and I laughed as well as a bunch of other rock stuff that we talked about and so I was familiar with the guitar and when I joined Theatre of hey that band ironically the lead singer played a Gretsch and he had had a Les Paul and he still had a black Les Paul costume but he got this Gretsch a single anniversary with green thing with the pickup next to the neck right and he got a fabulous sound out of it but he couldn't sing in place so that's why I got hired to play all the parts and he said well if you get the gig in the band what guitar would you get because at the time I had a Les Paul Junior single double cutaway cherry you know 58 whatever had saved and slaved and I couldn't afford a yellow one like Johnny Thunders but I got a cherry one and it was a real Gibson and I was all excited and I said well I think I probably get one of those grich's and he kind of laughed because you know at that point I didn't know I was thinking about getting a Gretsch and I got a white Falcon right I think I think the stray cats might have had something to do with as well if I'm honest I've seen them play and Brian with the six 20 and they were amazing I mean that you know that is still a great ban now but you can imagine what they will like after Punk because they had all the punk energy but it's all different look and a freshness to them so right there was a few things it was image and then it was looking I was searching for a sound and you know people said to me well what why why why a Gretch between a Gretchen or less Paul or you know whatever and I said well if you think of a Gretchen SUV you wouldn't drive around a racetrack would you but you wouldn't drive a sports car off-road they do different things and that's why you know and originally the other final thing was I could only afford one guitar so you know Detroit that was the one yeah and it just became synonymous with the band you know you know we used it a lot that was that really right right so how did you deal with the challenge of the volume in feedback with the hollow-body well a couple of things I don't run I've always used two amps with it one of which is the juicy 120 over there which was one thing and I might have talked about out and over time but yeah that that was one part of the sound but I always had a valve amp as well and I kind of had the two of them together and kind of just blended the sounds and the valve amp I would have a nice and shiny you know like like warm but not basically Malcolm try go from alchemy on row and then I would use distortion from the front end and and that's how I could play with that you know I'd use echo if you if you run the amp so hard you know you can't really there's nowhere to go and it'll just uncontrollably feedback so right but that was one of the reasons it might have been more luck than good judgment on my part that that's what happened but to get the sound I was feeling and also I was the only guitar player mm-hmm so I wanted it to sound big and and have lots of hanging resonant notes and solos weren't a big deal when that that came a little later but in 83 really wasn't good far more good taste to be doing solos to be honest it wasn't what was going on in you could do melodic parts and you could do riffs but like actual lead blues-based solos we're not happening not cool so you know you won't find many from guitar bands new wave bands really right so that wasn't such a big deal you know for me so I was looking for sound and that's how I did it I kind of used the pedals more to give me a variety of tones and different horsepowers you know right right and there could you stuff the guitar a bit to it right black inside yeah a little bit with whatever you can get your hands on I've used all sorts of stuff right right did you modify the guitars no way did you have different pickups and yes yeah I I found the the back in England at the seventies Gracchus that I ended up using were very the pickups were very underpowered and I liked everything about the guitar like that everything about the way they played and the way they felt they stayed in tune they weren't super silly expensive they were reasonably available in the UK however the pickups were terrible they have no power so as soon as I got my that was the biggest problem really and I struggled with that right up until I got Seymour Duncan to make me up pick up I got introduced to him when I first came to the States and he made me a pickup which is ended up a version of it has ended up and migrated into my signature guitar mm-hmm he made me a pickup because I basically said to him I kind of want something that's light as the chunk of like a Les Paul at the bottom end so you feel like you're getting a percussive punch but you still get that high chime e Gretch that that signature Gretch thing and that and you know that's kind of where I think he that's what he tried to get I think he achieved that pretty well right right absolutely so you mentioned the JC 120 and again jazz chorus a little different choice for that yes tile we're using the chorus in the amp were using course from pedal never I've never used chorus on a pedal uh-huh always the only chorus I ever did was for my recollection was off the amp that was the signature and that was the signature teacher with those and just there's nothing there's no other amp that makes that and I've tried they did the pedal I tried the heads and for me I liked it in the tuba 12 with an open back that to me is the primary way but you know over the years there were many different attempts even by Rowland to make different versions and I have the 77 at home a little cute pocket rocket and but and they even made a 160 which had four tens in English ensures a very rare beast I'm ever using that once but I always had the most success with that because I'd use a closed back cabinet with that with the the valve amp right which is probably a master because they were the most easily available amps in the UK at the time so I'd always use a Marshall know I want I'm at an ampeg and just trying to be cleaner when you're a kid you try and be different yeah so I found an ampeg because nobody had and I think I'm I've seen David Johansson x'b and and they use an ampeg guitar combos I think they were called VT 22s and I do you know when you're a kid you just get very influenced by what you see chorus and so I think there was a little bit of that going on with you and and if you look at a lot of footage of the Bands in the late 70s in the UK in or the clash the Pistols nobody was really that stacks were not happening right at the best you'd put a combo on top of a four by 12 if you look around even you know bands and that was my experience you know theater of hey we opened for The Clash went on tour and they were the big headliners and we had a look I put my fender twin on top of a flight case with my Gretch in an overdrive and a delay and that was me and then the clash like oh they've got four Burt wells and their combos so a little light went off so when the cult got together right then I thought oh so put and anyway that's how that kind of stuff happens I know absolute was when he years old right then you have the serendipity of the jazz course it's also a great platform for pedals yeah you actually using that to check your tone can you tell us a little what how that's kind of evolved for you using the pedals to drive the front end of things um well I mean things kind of went full circle as the pattern spent more time in America we did the electric album and got a little harder edged and I put the Gretsch is away for a couple of years I didn't play him for a couple of tours because I just couldn't really the Bandit kind of gone more of a hard rock direction and so I sort of put them in storage I think like late 80s to early 90s and I was mostly using Les Paul's which original is my first guitar anyway it was a Les Paul copy and had Adler's Les Paul Custom and you know that was my go to Mick Ronson you know sure Les Paul customs were my guitar before the Gretsch so with the pedals basically I always it originally when the Colt got got together I didn't actually have any pedals add one overdrive pedal because I wanted out a Les Paul I remember one period a Les Paul want to overdrive in a combo and when the when the bass player joined the band a guy called Jamie Stewart was in the band for like ten years he originally was guitar player so when he got the gig and he was in in the handshake we done a like said well I guess I won't be needing these anymore and he handed me a boss overdrive DSD whatever that you know and some mxr pedal and something else and I kind of like that's how I started adding stuff in the delay pedal kind of came into the picture and I just added and added and then I don't offer them to put in a pedal board right so I ended up with one of those boss pedal boards a little grey plastic thing he says yeah yeah because you also have to remember that you know you used your all in the back of a van you know around Europe and even when we came to the states even with the coal in 84 everything got flown so I was carrying everything you know you imagine the Gretsch in a case carrying it sitting with your legs on a plane before I became like security-conscious right you know and everything didn't have to go in the overhead bin you know when flying was fun I used to carry that on and you know so minimalism is kind of what I'm getting at and then of course eventually as you get bigger and bigger everything gets big you have to have ever you see all the bands and that guy's got a switchable rack-mounted system I better get me one of those right and it just happens and I went through that period and that was all fantastic when the band was in this sort of state as where we could afford that kind of degree of staffing and luxury and all the good new you know that good period and you know it's come full circle where we've come back to I've gone back to sort of simplicity and the rig I use now I mean I could have still used a rack know anything but I actually like the honesty of the pedals again and I don't use that many that I need you know I'm not I'm not into science fiction so I don't need it to be too crazy right right right so you've been associated with and used many boss pedals over the years what drew you to those aside from being handed them back well well initially just being handy one he's like gift horse in the mouth favorite and then reliability availability and they their consistency and yet they literally are bomb-proof right I mean you know that Bell I don't recall everyone breaking and I'm very heavy on my stuff you know I always wear like a heavy boot onstage I don't feel I can't go work in like casual footwear so when I go on the stage it's like a stump on there and I feel like I'm you know making it real you know I don't want to be like you know skipping around a pair to plimsolls really so I'm so I stand on him and they take a beat and you know right right we were talking earlier before we were shooting the video about the new Wazza pedals yeah I got a chance to give those a try right yes I have I have was it I was one of the chosen people to go in and pre was and the great yeah they are they're basically somebody ever switch and it makes a good pedal better right they got a switch you should say better right right but it just is better yeah so we've got the video setting on yeah yeah yeah I mean it gives you everything that the pedals been known for but then it's just so much more enhanced right so I'm very excited to get my hands on a couple of those and rock another yeah absolutely you know yeah I still use old bus delays I don't really like rack-mounted stuff I like Pat you know I'd like three boss delays now in different settings and I'm not a guy it's going to be kneeling down in the middle of a show changing my settings and you know first of I can't barely see second of all I can't be bothered I need it like on/off and each one has to do a very and the combinations have to work you know on the pedals have never caused me any trouble you know they the boss pedals are very very reliable you know they don't give you any issues and that the joke I think I've done this probably before in a video was how that the intro to she sells sanctuary which is kind of a particular identifiable picked part was done because I was joking around in a studio and I had at that time probably six boss pedals and I was trying to emulate Jimmy Page and song remains the same when he does the thing with a violin bow because I found a violin bow on the floor and everybody was a little bored and I do heard check this out I was in the studio where Zeppelin recorded in London a studio called Olympic where a lot of the great bands recorded and we did sanctuary there on purpose because we're only channels some of that goodness even then right and in the digital age where were to be sampling we were like oh we want to go where Zeppelin did the first two albums tell us more stories what did Jimmy Page use in the like well use the Telecaster and a ac30 right said the engineer who claimed to be there so I was like oh okay anyway so I'm not joking around I just was doing that with my delays in the violin bow which was on the floor cuz it was an orchestral studio he's a big wooden room and they used to project movies and the orchestra would score I know in there it was old school you know yeah and it was and then so basically just to enhance the joke I turned every pedal on started doing the violin thing he was making his wacky noise and then I don't know what how it went from there but from that point to picking the intro to she soul sanctuary with all those pedals on and that's how it happened right that's awesome it was kind of like sort of organic right now right so the unfortunate misfortune of some violin player losing his bow yes yeah that was it yeah yeah yeah because it was the middle section of the song the song didn't have an intro it just started with the snare here and a kind of a riff and that was it I mean the JC 120 was a big part of that sound it was I you know out of the two amps I really had to have the JC 120 because that gave that spread right the chorus gives a real spread and I would always get the be annoyed panned in the PA so it would make this guitar song huge and if you think of the error you've got like the edge will Sergeant from a bank echo and the Bunnymen there's guitar play called John McGee ik doing stuff plates losing the Banshees and a bunch of people public image and we were all trying to you know do all that Johnny Marr was coming along you know he was just starting up right with Morrissey in the Smiths and you know a lot of echo was involved and to me I found my particular version of it my little thing as a combination of the Gretsch the JC 120 but I need a little more chunk from somewhere and I you know needed a valve amp with it but but I would not have sounded the same if I hadn't used the roll and then which is why I still use on today all right all right it works yeah it works so don't you know ain't broke don't fix it any you know go there you go so there's a rumor that there is going to be a giveaway with Sweetwater and Roland and Gretch well yes yeah what's the story there well I believe all the mandarins and wizards back there run everything in the Empire are going to do a comp some sort of competition where they get one of my signature guitars and and all you do which you know I'm not cheap I've got to be honest I'm kind of you know it's not it's not a cheap item or a Gretsch and you've just got to get I'm not exactly sure the details of it you've just basically got to get the kind of if you buy the boss pack of like you know Billy Duffy love pedals from the sanctuary sound if you get that pack I think he answers you to get in the drawer for that okay something along those mine's you know right it's my disclaim you have to read the small print there's some small print now goes ice Oh legal department right well we're still future casting yeah sometime I think coming up they'll have all the details about how you enter and how you can win but it's combination of is it six pedals or three pedals we've still got to get the actual details of it because at the time there's one debatable thing we've got to figure out whereas because back in the day I didn't use a boss pedal for one element of the sound mm-hmm so but I think I have used one since so that was the only difference because I want it to be as authentic as it can basically that's my keywords a day off they're never going to use the word authentic again but I put it to bed now that's awesome thanks so much for coming in the other giveaways going to be realized yeah it's really cool I'm very proud of my guitar guy was very happy I've never done a signature guitar before and I was very yeah we're going here so yeah they're English yes yeah and they really look it up good yeah yeah check that out yeah yeah gonna show that off of it oh yeah look at that knit lovely it is beautiful it's not about guitar really avoid photo it works pretty good yeah so I was happy with it did a great job the guitars gray I use them live all the time I don't you know I don't have to choose - alright you know I've got other great she's needs one sound killer and to be honest I mean they sound better than the original guitar that I recorded sanctuary on they sound better right I mean I literally had a sound guy so you know I know that you like original but rather on some and I'm cool with that you know that one's retired it's nice old folks home for a nice great cheese sure you know hangs out with Neil's young soul Gretch doesn't all Gretsch guitar reunion those refills isn't little the guy from Bow Wow Wow yeah so there is it's a lovely guitar so now we know the secret you need this guitar some bass pedals and a socks and so inside or t-shirt or you go friends make up whatever your pads whatever you could put it on wall balls it all works because what because the only feedback you get this bad is a really bottom end like your Gino mm-hmm and it's like looks like some kind of weird residents got some things yeah yeah he's kind of I mean you know it's not a horrible sound but it's kind of like when you usable you just gotta have it in the kiddo song yes yes all right every feeling gu lock there there we go so that she is that's awesome all right really thank you so much appreciate your being here cool and I'd also like to give special thanks to roll and emboss for opening up there in our office to us we had Chad we have Mark we have Gary we have Bob they even help us out here and we're very appreciative of that I appreciate you joining me for Sweetwater's guitars and gear I'm Mitch Gallagher you

Channel: Sweetwater

Views: 63,865

Rating: 4.9586563 out of 5

Keywords: Sweetwater, Sweetwater Sound, Music Production, Audio Recording, Fort Wayne Indiana, billy duffy, the cult, roland boss, guitars and gear, billy duffy interview, billy duffy rig rundown, the cult interview, duffy, duffy interview, ian astbury interview, ian astbury, altered images don't talk to me about love, billy duffy gear, billy duffy morrissey, johnny marr interview, 5h interview, billy connolly, billy duffy gretsch, billy duffy guitar

Id: 5H-QlbyT20M

Length: 42min 49sec (2569 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 10 2014