Rig Rundown - Larry Carlton

[Music] this rig right down is presented by the yamaha DX r series everybody I'm John Bollinger with premier guitar we are with Larry Carlton in his studio in Nashville Tennessee Larry thanks so much for joining us today nice to see you man this is great it is great seeing you and great hearing you play thanks man can we start just talking about that guitar that's the one right yeah this guitar is the one that I played it the majority of my sessions on and my solo records the choice to get the a 335 was actually a very practical choice for me you know I play them a lot of different styles of music and for me I wanted to get a guitar that could cover a lot of bags so I didn't always have to switch to a bebop guitar for this blues guitar for that and this one covers most of the bags that I want to play or was called on to play so that's how I ended up picking the 335 and a little store I went to in 1969 to buy a 335 it had three 335 s hanging on the wall and I chose this one out of it because it sounded the best to me and the rest is really history is history yeah so literally that was brand-new when you bought it brand-new Wow yeah an owner guitar yeah 1969 suddenly beginni was just kind of a pragmatic thing about not wanting to schlep a ton of gear to you yeah yeah although I ended up carrying everything but this one seemed to cover most so I didn't have to keep pulling a new guitar out yeah yeah over the years have you done many modifications to it not really obviously either stop tailpiece because it came with the trapeze same original pickups a number of fret jobs over the years because I played it so much and we put it in the graphite nut a long time ago Mike McGuire said you gotta try this man there's no stick and it won't ever wear out and it doesn't stick and it doesn't wear out no other than that you know replace the tuning pegs when it needs it but Wow nothing else great and on your your Gibson has released a signature model yeah copied this guitar and it's it's really cool they came out really good really so is it just identical they've they've I mean more are they do they relegate to look like it or is it just basically copying the later well they copied everything and even the color they call this a carlton burst and so that's the label on it you know wow what an honor and uh yeah for sure yeah very fitting tribute now you've got a another 335 that you've I do the your backup can we let's look at that guy oh and this is Rick wheeler friend and technician this 335 this is a 1968 I got a letter from a fan and basically it took six months for the letter to get to me you know went through the offices and people filed it away anyway this guy said you're my favorite guitar player and this guitar that I have is a 68 335 that's been not played and was it 17 years yeah 17 years and he said I would like to give it to you as a backup guitar if you like it and if you don't like it please don't keep it well he sent it and it's just just great so this was a gift from a fan how great does it feel a lot like like your number one yeah it does it really does and the tone was very very similar and so what I what I did though is I wanted to experiment so I put PAF pickups old matched PAF pickups in this one so I wouldn't try to sound exactly right so yeah it gives me a whole different world when I play this one tone wise wow how cool what a nice gift times yeah incredible well yeah yeah incredible I mean but you've got I mean you have so many loyal hands when we we mentioned on Facebook and we're interviewing you it's the most response I've ever had about with questions and Wow cool and shout out some yeah it's nice thanks guys okay it looks like we've got another Gibson yeah these are guitars that are just in my arsenal that over the years I've played this is a 57 Les Paul special and I haven't done anything to this guitar since I bought it it's got the p90 s obviously it's just a great sounding guitar I remember in the early 90s when I went on tour with Stanley Clarke and Billy Cobham and we did the jazz explosion I used this guitar for that tour just because and we recorded live at the Greek so that's the guitar you would hear on that record yeah Wow so how long have you had that guitar mmm since at least during the 80s yeah back then like a vintage well for since the early eighties you think about say 57 yeah 57 so it was so it's the equivalent like a guitar from the 90s today then amazing what a great piece yeah yeah it's just you know over the years a lot of guitar players have 50 or 60 guitars I have just kept the ones that get me off when I play I'm not a collector and I I have friends that have many many many guitars and I say man what do you what do you want with all these guitars I don't he said I just like looking at so that's my friends do that for me I want to play oh yeah yeah do you still when you're touring all the time do you still travel with with you know like your number one I do I do it needs to be played I need to be the one playing it it would be to me it would not be proper for it to sit at home just because it's old yeah yeah your fans I mean I'm sure they get off just on like seeing they didn't get our yeah they do yeah awesome okay hello looks like we're getting into a Fender land here yeah this is a 51 Telecaster the tech that worked for me in the 80s Dave rouse he was with me at least three years full time at my studio and on the road and his best friend Dave's best friend Pierre du Bois was Keith Richards Tech and the stones were gonna go out on the tour and they wanted to add another guitar tech Pierre called Dave his best friend Maya tech and said can you go out for the year with the stones and Dave came to me Larry can I go out with the stones for a year well he stayed with him 20 years but what I'm getting at is that one of the stone soundcheck somebody showed up at soundcheck with this guitar to show it to Keith and so they gave it to Dave and said would you show this to Keith it's for sale and Keith I have enough Telecasters blah blah blah so Dave said that I have a buddy who might be interested in it so they shipped it to me it screams this back pickup this back pickup tells the story when you're cranky so yeah I'm happy I have this and I've actually done some bebop gigs with this - really mmm the Montreux Jazz Festival 1997 if you go to the if you go to youtube and check it out and plan so what on this guitar really yeah well I'm at freak people out yeah yeah yeah and you're just on the neck pickup the whole time yeah yeah did you have to adjust your amp to accommodate that no no just roll a little off find a sleep yeah is that basically stock that oh yeah yeah it's my understanding that the neck is stamped 1951 and the body is stamped 52 so it was put together sometime during that transition probably yeah not uncommon in vintage guitars right all right so no I haven't done anything to it just a special tone wow that's great yeah okay and following in the Fender land uh-huh thanks Rick I think we decided this well I thought this was a 63 strat but I think George Gruen actually evaluated and said 64 did me yeah so it's a 64 strat gosh I got this in the 80s also I was living in Los Angeles and for some reason was looking for a strat you know got in the mood and there was a music store on the Sunset Boulevard I think it was called guitar circus something like that and they were very nice they would let Dave my tech go down to the store and bring three strats to the house to my studio and I could check them out with my gear in my studio send them back and this is the one that my ear caught my ear know at the time you're playing valley arts strats yeah back then yeah I remember that seems someone view in like the hot potato and the hot licks video as well that's right yeah that's right that was a great season to being affiliated with Valley Arts Mike McGuire was making great guitars back then yeah did they'd I mean this one kind of feels similar to that or a whole different no I did this this sounds more authentic yeah yeah yeah I mean that's it's the real deal that is the real deal yeah so no I might happen to have this and my son Travis you know he's a professional bass player yeah right now wages you've been in Japan for two months with Talk Matsumoto and he's doing something with Scott Henderson coming up in a few days Oh granny tours with me yeah anyway he's trav said dad whatever you do when you pass away thank you I want the strategy and he's a bass player but he loves the tone of this guitar and let's take a look at this acoustic yeah this this is my Valley Arts acoustic that I've played since the 80s and I fell in love with the little Martin d-28 and so I went to Mike McGuire at Valley Arts and I said I love this guitar but when you put pressure on it while you're playing it didn't stay in tune the little Martin really so soft huh but I said I love the size and the feel and that Tom so we copied the body obviously but reinforced with bracing everywhere so the insides it won't and won't budge on the pitch if you put some pressure on it and that was the motivation for it and this is the one I played smiles and smiles to go and discovery and all those turns on so was this commercially released as like a Larry Carlton mother no I've never seen one no he made five of these and let me choose and then I think Carlos Rios has one maybe Paul Jackson jr. you know the guys that were hanging out during that time in LA they got to choose one Wow so well that's a good friend to have yeah so yeah with me a long time perfect and that's your go-to acoustic on yeah the kiss of death how cool yeah yeah I designed this with Mike McGuire I wanted a very very small neck I built it for speed I built it so it'd be just fast to play and at the time we did it the newest pickups out were EMGs with the mid-range boost and if you look at the the album last night live at the baked potato it's a valley arts guitar that's playing all those beautiful harmonics on emotions boom does so so yeah have we've kept this one all these years I got I bet I haven't played this really yeah if it looks good then it yeah it looks great yeah I love that kind of Gibson II mixed with a telecast mmm yeah it was cool guitar yeah very cool well there it is there you go the coolest guitars in the world let's talk about your amps since we're this is our here sure I will start here with the Tweed and I've talked about this before on my website that's the amp that I used for the Steely Dan sessions and I don't even remember why and how I brought the tweet in because I didn't use it on any other sessions only the Royal scam aja and Donald's nightfly album so yeah I got damn that with my 335 on the back pick up was the kid Charlemagne and don't take me alive and no no effects you know that's straight in how loud because it's I mean you had we did a bit like cranked all the way open during that or well I don't remember the exact setting but obviously you get a play and you just keep moving it until it's starting to bark yeah but not sounding too trashy yeah yeah but it's true it was just luck man I don't know how I ended up taking that one for the solos yeah that's great so you literally you just plug your 335 into this yes and record all those legendary yeah I think it this is part of a cool story too when Donald Fagen was doing the night fly he flew me to New York to do some overdubs and I took my 335 in a suitcase I didn't take an amp I thought well I'll rent an amp and got there and we're visiting in the control room and he said oh and where's your aunt I said well I didn't bring it I thought we just rent one they sent from my amp and on the night fly it's that amp mic 335 I didn't have been a number of years you know so I thought he really remember Yeah right that tone that's right what what yours this I don't really know what year it is 50s yeah yeah yeah yeah the cigarette burns are those from you know there's somebody else yeah so yeah I'm really pleased that I've kept that all these years yeah that's like a museum piece yeah yeah awesome okay so that's that's a bit of history and this is a newer bit of history yeah the Bluto tone Wow wonderful wonderful open sound I described what I liked about my dumbbells yeah - Brandon Montgomery the maker of this amp and he said I think I can find something that you would really be aged with and he knew my sound from over the years sure so he went to work and designed it and it's right in the sonic arena that I like to be in so it's worked out great this is my fifty and a hundred watt rig which I play on the road in the States I have the same thing I have one in Brussels so we can pick it up and then tour Europe and I won in Tokyo so I don't have to ship one there and a pedal board and talk you also so I'm covered and I don't have to fly them every time Wow it's just tickler yeah I'm just tickled with the tone of this amps and for my studio when I'm in here actually this is for the road the 5100 and he made it 25 watt 50 watt for me for my studio over I could get the same to home but you don't have to play as loud sure so yeah killer happy and planted a number of years now and when you're are you getting most here overdrive from the amp or we're in a combination of pedals or most of it's from the amp III like you know over the years I set my preamp to where it just once when I hit it hard it just wants to talk it just wants to say something different yeah and then obviously there's the overdrive section which is very similar to my dumbbells before and it's just a sweet sweet sweet tight oh we're driving yeah yeah well then it's like really how they always say tones in the hands but with you it really is because you're so you'll you'll dig into it and it'll change so much and you're letting up and and I guess that's why it's been such a good marriage of you and and Dumble and sharing with these guys too because they're so responsive ya know it has so much what I call a head room that the transients just keep going through even when you play softly yeah man when I play harder it doesn't compress like a lot of the amps will and stops the sound stays stays open yeah and it's funny because you don't really mess with your volume control so much it seems like it's not about your attack yeah like magic mmm awesome awesome and how many watts did you say this is a 1500 watt you know it has this switch and if you have to choose when you're running live say it uh you know one of your one of your shows where do you usually keep it 100 more open yeah yeah especially on the big stages you know it yeah it breathes them sure yeah I bet that is loud and proud mm mm-hmm correct you run it through the monitors too or just so you get that true am right Wow killer so Larry this is this rather modest pedal board is money used for fly dates it is when often times I can't take my own amp if it's a one-off and sometimes like in Spain they won't even take an ample on the airplane because it's so small I have to back line sure a number of dates what's your back line of choice like when you're lose Deville works in most situations and they have those everywhere pretty much pretty much it's hard sometimes in foreign countries it's hard to find a good one we we ordered a back line and always ordered two and often brick has to send both of them back and make them bring another set cuz they're just tired amps yeah yeah but somehow we make it through the gig and yeah this is the pedal board that I take when I'm gonna use backline amplifiers very slim down very easy right yeah that's obviously sho-bud volume pedal which I started using in the early 70s it is what we did you gravitate towards the show but it's at the just the throw of it or the the feel or the sound well at the time I don't know of another volume pedal there was it available but I do know that the greatest deal guitar player buddy Emmons he used showboat pedal and we were comrades in the studio so I when it came time to get one I thought I'd get the show but that's what but he's using you know okay so after the show bud volume yeah next we have it's just a crybaby wah wah nothing special about it I like having it there for the once in a while time that I might do that yeah but it's one tonight maybe yeah if that if that but it's one color that I'm used to and sometimes I go there yeah yeah but now we are up here on the chorus you know this liquid chorus I opened my show with the Lord's Prayer every night and so I like to get the beautiful chorus going and some delay and really create a solo guitar atmosphere for the audience for the very opening of the show yeah so yeah this has been clean and sounds wonderful same with the Providence delay I like it it's got the tap yeah I can tap tempo to whatever song we're playing so that it drives me nuts if it's not in time right right so well so we used to begin your show it's just you onstage and the band comes in after that yeah yeah great yeah I've heard you do that on acoustic guitar but I haven't and I try to create that beautiful ambiance yeah for the opening of the show and then this TC electronic reverb it pedals sensed the bluto's don't have reverb built in it's nice for me to have some reverb available sure and depends on how dead the stages and all that stuff but yeah that's going down here looky here we got a an overdrive pedal Zen Kudo that's a Japanese maker obviously and been using that for a number of years now on my pedal board when I'm doing backline yeah that becomes my overdrive to get a little more out of the amps that I'm borrowing sure for the night and it's sweet it's really sweet it's tight now with the 335 it works I've tried to other overdrive pedals that other guys like but it seemed to not work with the 335 hmm so this one does in my opinion so are you are you getting pretty close to your because normally with your like blue tone you're you're getting the drive just from the AB so can you get pretty close like that well I could get the same character yeah to where it makes me I'm feeling what I want to feel I'm playing it's not as open as an amplifier would be but it's it doesn't have any of the ugliness that a lot of other pedals have this one's just sweet in the center yeah yeah yeah great yeah yeah and you've never been like a real effects guys or do you when you're on a normal gig how much are you actually running during the course of a night I mean do you step on everything at one time or another or or the reverb stays on once it's said yeah and then the chorus is just for the beauties yeah the slow ballad things you know or the intro to Josie yeah right red gotcha but no I'll use the delay I've never owned a number of tunes just when I'm in the mood yeah there's pretty much guitar straight in to the am great yeah pretty simple okay so this is your bare-bones fly pedal board now let's look at the Cadillac pedal board the big boy alright so Larry this is your your bigger pedal board right tell me tell me about this this is this is the one that when I can take it it's ideal for me tone wise and convenience wise if we start on that side where it says acoustic electric well that's turn the electric off turn the acoustic on this volume pedal would be for the acoustic guitar and then this one would be when I'm playing the electric guitar and obviously I have my wah-wah on that on this thing and then just and on off for the chorus which we'll get to that in a second and their place so I could tap my delay as I mentioned earlier drives me crazy when it's not in tempo right so that's pretty simple and this was an overdrive that that was access to the overdrive of my Dumble before on and off and yeah this tuner is just perfect for when you're playing big gigs you know you can see it all the time yeah a great big display as you miss it yeah yeah and very accurate so yeah and a little visor to keep the keep the light off yeah so pretty simple setup if you notice now there's a 57 on my speaker cabinet there will be when I'm playing live to 57 s on my speaker cabinet one 57 is for the house mix the other 57 the tone of my speaker and my amplifier it's that 57 and that tone is what ends up hitting my effects just like when you're in the studio you have your dry guitar sound but you want to put some effects on it you have a send and a return right but it's getting the source from the microphone on your amplifier so that's the conversion that I did because the tone I want my effects to hear is the tone that I'm sending through my yeah right right so you're just going straight from the guitar into the amp and effects or after effects are a spa that's because of that tone it's so obviously we have a little mixer here and these effects are on a send and a return that's perfect yeah this you know the delay the reason I like the Roland is because of the tap yeah sounds great but the tap is convenient do you have it set to like quarters or eighths or 16 usually quarter notes uh-huh because I can always get aids just double right do you ever mess with like dotted stuff or just keep it snowed no I'm not that sophistic but like my simpler pedal board you know it's just delay chorus the TC chorus which sounds great because we're running stereo onstage for me oh so I really get the warmth of it's not the mono backline guys right right yeah and then some reverb just to have it in line and then up here I can just adjust the sins and returns to my two stereo speakers do the sound I want to hear but the output of this is also going to the house on a separate faders so they can adjust how much of this they want in your house well that's perfect so you've got your your dry signal and your effects coming out through those and your hearing and you can adjust exactly what you want yeah yeah wow that's a great way doing this a lot of years just set up it came about because I was so frustrated things weren't sounding right is supposed to be stereo but it doesn't sound good I said one day at soundcheck this a long time ago just put a mic in front of my amp and I said now run that to the just like in the studio yeah and it worked great so we we open it up to Facebook asking our audience what they'd like to ask one guy says tell us about the magic recipe for the Josie intro sound wow that's obviously two guitar parts Donald and Walter wrote that I really come up with that that was built into their song huh geniuses those guys hear such great stuff yeah Wow no idea I've told before that often times we would cut with Steely Dan a song and two weeks later come back and cut it with a different drummer same song different drummer well this particular intro I don't know how many of us they had play the intro but it ended up that that's not me playing the intro sounds like a Fender so it might be Walter you know really I did play it at one time they just ended up changing sounds going different direction Wow but yeah but I'm playing all the background stuff yeah well that I did not expect that at all okay great let's see the next one tell us about this setup what is your strength or what is your string height yeah I'll let Rick he's been doing my setups for so long now he can cut to it just like that Rick do you want to come in here and yeah yeah this is Rick wheeler guitar track tech extraordinaire okay talk about the setup it's actually very straight ahead Larry likes a little release in the neck not too much in the string height at the 12th fret is 1/16 of an inch on both sides and base sides well it's not that difficult but sometimes there I'll hand it back to him thinking it's just perfect and he'll play it nil though I can't get under it just right so we'll have to finesse that just a little bit with the relief in the neck so there there's some times when it's when I think it's just right and it's almost just right you know but certainly I know after all these years what he's but what he wants and so I always give it my best guess and most of the time it's yeah well Nevin using ten through fifty to gauge strings forever now so well it's this earrings and sixteenths so pick up I would actually a preset a very solid and every once in a while maybe if he's hearing something a little differently we might try doing some things but it's been that same way since I've come into the scenes yeah very much Wow and what gage picks to use heavy heavy mm-hmm there's one of jazz urban using that little jazz picks for quite a while years and years but as a teenager I used fender medium this kind of size you know - yeah but I played with the rounded edge because I like the tone better yeah and within the last two years is it been now I've gone to back to the full circle playing the full not the sharp point but the rounded part with that size and it's a tone to tone thing ya know so made out of dehl racks a little easier to hang on to and they're one millimeter thick who's that yeah that's that's pretty stiff but not yeah Thank You Ricky Bob okay although there's a ton of questions from facebook just one more we ever do a straight jazz album no overdubs on a Joe Pass or tau Farlow yeah you know I've thought about it for 30 years because I do love bebop and Joe it's my favorite yeah he's your guy right then but I've always told people it'll never be done by me as good as Joe Pass did it so there's an intimidation factor there of the man has set the standard and why would I do something to make that presentation but over the years there have been times when my chops got pretty together and I thought how to do people so you'll see it's what I'm saying yeah yeah but usually in the past it's like oh I don't live that world all the time I don't want to make a statement that's not of the highest quality Wow but I mean you know being Larry Carlton intimidated that's that's unexpected I'm sensitive to those things man I saw you somewhere and Steve looking through his backstage and saying that's my sensei man that is my sensei he's a brother you know yeah and what an amazing player a songwriter player wonderful singer yeah credible singer but he's like he's like he was saying yeah that's my sensei that's uh yeah so what can you I know anyway so that's a good closer so this so Larry thanks so much for joining this man just a pleasure and what do you coming up next which you're next just to her and I'll be in Europe starting on the 8th of July I'm not sure when this will be posted no this is a year for concerts yeah and then next January of 2015 Steve Lukather and I are reunion you know just in Japan for two weeks Wow so we're looking forward to that that would be awesome well this is John Bollinger with premier guitar thanks so much peace out don't forget to sign up for PG perks your all-access pass to exclusive gear giveaways and discounts on premier guitar calm

Channel: Premier Guitar

Views: 728,045

Rating: 4.9119902 out of 5

Keywords: Larry Carlton, Larry Carlton (Musical Artist), Gibson ES-335 (Guitar), Mr. 335, 335, Gibson Guitar Corporation (Musical Instrument Company), Fender Musical Instruments Corporation (Musical Instrument Company), Fender Stratocaster, Fender Telecaster, Rig Rundown, gear, pedalboard, effects, Premier Guitar, Rig, Rundown

Id: rcfZwva-v64

Length: 33min 28sec (2008 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 15 2014