The Captain Meets Tim Pierce

[Music] [Music] hey guys welcome back to anderton's TV what a pleasure uh we are flying home from Nam 24 today um and Tim Pierce here who you know we all know and love from watching his YouTube stuff listen to his music uh doesn't live too far from uh the airport that we're going to fly out from and he very very graciously said well you know if you're coming through come and see the studio so this is where we are well it's a thrill for me I watched to edit that leave me hang in there but no thank you so much for inviting us yeah it's a thrill for me I am subscribed to your channel so watch a lot of you guys videos and uh certainly your output at n was uh Herculean uh is it we're going to sleep well on the way out yeah good I'm glad you're going right back to work when you get home I'm sure so great job at now thanks man well look so this is a a captain meets video so we're going to talk about life the universe and everything um I've seen loads of videos from in here which is great but you know there's some amazing guitars and pedals and stuff sitting around that you don't normally see on camera so it's great to be able to see those but let's you know let's let's go back I mean you you you're um born and raised in Albuquerque um moved to LA in the what late 70s or 1979 so my love of music comes from 60s top 40 radio it's a great you know my timing was good because I was born in 58 and by 1963 I was 5 years old and the songs on the radio were amazing The Beatles showed up you know by' 68 you had Hendrick and Clapton and Billy Gibbons and all these people and I even saw some of these people they would tour through Albuquerque so 1970 uh you know I I just I started playing in bands and started dreaming of moving to California and uh at the age of 21 I was able to move here and get a foothold it was a huge music industry in 1980 when I moved here and so it was easy to just show up and be another guitar player and uh started working started being able to maintain a few hundred in my bank account and even start buying gear so basically 1980 I moved here there were two really forces of Music there was the heavy metal side which Van Halen represented and there was the uh um New Wave side which The Knack and bands like that my shirona represented okay uh and so the 80s were a really creative time but in La there was the really heavy Rock side and then the more pop side and I was involved more in the pop side I did Rick Springfield records I toured with Rick Springfield that got me my foothold and then I decided I wanted to plant my feet and become a studio musician so what age was was that decision made because you you think you know guy in his mid 20s probably the the the upside of touring that I would have thought was pretty high wasn't it it was but I was more the person that would make you know I was I made friends with the ladies on tour and the other guys did better not making friends that makes any sense so you know somebody being somebody you want to talk to you don't get the opportunities that the guys you know who are players get so not guitar players but anyway I digress anyway I I was too nice of a guy to get the opportunities on the road that some of the guys got and I really I dreamed of being in the laboratory being in the studio so I got a taste of touring and I made some great records in the early 80s I made uh Bon ji's Runway just by chance so I'm a massive massive Richie Sora fan Bon that was my you know that that Slippery When Wet was one of my sort of seminar and I was reading your bio and I was think I was thinking what what state must have that band been in you know just like they was so rock and rolling that that you end up having to do pretty much all the guitar parts on a on a on a bon jobi track it's just well it was it was a demo I was in New York and I had done John weight's record with NE Neil Geraldo which was another great record I was in New York back to do Carnegie H with Rick Springfield we did like five nights in a row and tacked on to the end of that we did some recording sessions for John and he put together this band he was living upstairs at the power station his uncle owned the power station and we did Master demos one of those was runaway and I end end up doing all the guitars on it and it just they I guess they maybe they tried to record it they couldn't beat it so it ended up on the first record fully credited and it was great in a sense it was kind of funny to watch Bon Joy become the biggest B in the world and you go well I was at the train station the train was there but I didn't get on it did you did you did you feel like that you feel like that in in another parallel universe yeah you you were going to be that sort of you know 80s rock God massive hair and but I didn't have that and that was part of it and you know so I was not the right guy right and Richie Sora is and was the right guy great guitar player great singer yeah we had the image you know his band of brothers from New Jersey it had to be that but there were moments when I go wait a second what happened have my ticket right here it didn't work out too bad though did it no yeah I found out you know I had a good working man's career in the music business now some of the session guys successful session guys that I've met from London that were on that sort of at80 scene seemed to dominate it's like that there were so many good songs coming out from that time and and yet actually a relatively small number of musicians playing on like all the songs was that the same kind of thing in La yes historically until now that's what it always was The Wrecking Crew in the 60s they did all the records and then they got displaced by bands and then in the 70s there were guys like Larry Carlton uh players you know and then Jeffer Caro these people and in the 80s those people continued new people showed up Dan Huff showed up in the 90s my start of busy session work really happened in 1990 and because it was all analog there were no cell phones cell phones started to show up and there were no computers yeah there were there were very few computers Protools was like a two trck thing it was called sound tools yeah everything was analog so you had to hire people who could get it done in tune more than that who would create an idea and be able to repeat that idea and develop it and move on to the next idea to be able to like oh that was good do that again okay here it is and then simplify it refine it so it was Specialists the people who had the gear had the motivation had the skill to show up and play in tune and get the job done so and who were were were there guys that I don't know you did was it competitive did you feel like oh you know and are are you sort of almost auditioning sometimes for these things or a producer saying I'm going to get three or four reviewing to this but I'm just I'm going to choose the one I I'm interested of was there always a guy that Dam you he got this gig and yeah I mean you you you wanted those gigs and they would hire the other guy they were loyal to the other guy then they were loyal to you and everybody was so good the great thing about being a guitar player is that you would sit next to people I got to sit next to Steve Luca I got to sit next to Dan Huff I got to sit next to Michael Thompson who was one of the busiest guys so you would learn from them one day in the studio with some of these you know ringers and you would go oh that's how they do it I need to be more like this more like that so it was it was really a great learning experience there couldn't be two drummers but there could be two guitar players so it was awesome very competitive who was the other guy going most of the time who was the other guy the guy that got gigs that you want well it was Dan Huff right I mean he took over he moved here and was so good at what he did he got recommended the first time and basically became a maid man because he could deliver every hour I mean that's really what it's about you show up and you deliver it's it's kind of like what you guys did at n no that that funny enough I mean that that's the consistent thread to every successful um I've even met I had one guy that I W I won't say who he is but one guy who played on a ton of British pop records in the 90s um and I knew him quite well through the store and I never even really thought he was that good a guitar player like you know as in right maybe that was maybe at my age I was perhaps he wasn't as flash as I thought he might be yeah but I guess what I've begun to appreciate now he must have just delivered that's the word well it's orchestration deliver you're orchestrating guitar parts that are serving a different Master they're serving the singer and the song So it to me I would take a simple part make it simpler make it simpler again and that would be the part so you don't end up you know dominating the world with your flash in your your chops it's about orchestration and they people don't realize how quickly you actually build up all those parts and deliver them on a song move to the next song do it again next song do it again maybe three songs in a day maybe 10 songs in a day I mean there there were sessions like that you just deliver guitar orchestration and you never you never get tired you never falter you never there's no doubt it's probably then I suppose that session element requires probably that just that greatest degree of professionalism then of all the different to a touring I mean obviously you know Pete and I have talked a lot you know touring there's being on time being easy to get on with all that kind of stuff but I guess yeah it it the output is different you know there's there's a gig for two hours that night and that's what it is but if you're like you say if you're in a studio it's like the difference between getting two songs done in a day and 10 songs done in a day is makes a massive commercial difference presumably to the to the production of the of the music yeah you really have to pull yourself up constantly with enthusiasm before dinner after dinner before lunch after lunch even if the song like you pour yourself out on a song and go that was amazing okay next song what yeah yeah well tell I mean at that time as well I was surprised that you hadn't done more of your own stuff you know that I I might be wrong but again according to the internet there are only two Tim piss solo albums there's only one there's only one oh what are they saying then okay so guitar land a compilation something that was a dream I had because I had played on a Whitney Houston uh soundtrack The Bodyguard and it out sold everything else in existence and and my name didn't end up on it because on soundtracks there wasn't enough room to put the music you know it's like different artists for each song they would put the producer the writer but the musician I had no credit on the record and I thought okay I got to do my own record because this is just being this Anonymous is not right so I spent two years in my spare time coming up with stuff and I found a wonderful little label and got a traditional record deal was able to pay my friends to play produce and and I used songs that I had written with songwriters so the guitar became the melody yeah and it was a dream come true it really was but ultimately I felt more at home helping and being a session player of course if the record had done Gang Busters then I would have gone out and maybe toured on it and it was an instrumental guitar record but I got it out of my system M you know what I'm trying to say and I really enjoyed it but you find what your calling is and my calling was to be a session guy it really was it's an interesting one I I I wonder is the your personality is coming across as someone that didn't feel like they needed to be in the Limelight no I did not yeah and and again well I don't want to jump forward too far because we're you know I I always think these things flow better if you can keep a timeline but what what's the drawer of YouTube for you then if you're not really that bothered about being in the Limelight okay so I'm sitting here uh at age 50 and going okay the music business has changed uh I was in a Heyday where we were celebrated it was very prestigious now it's getting more like anybody can do this job no judgment in that it's great that anybody can show up and play guitar on a record but the specialist thing started to Wayne and even if you're the top guy I've been doing it for three decades you're going to age out no matter what so the budgets are smaller they don't have as much money as they used to have to pay you to do this thing that's fine but so I'm going to make less money I'm getting older and they're going to make the choice to have the younger guy eventually so this is all natural and then I met Marty Schwarz and he and Justin sandco had dominated YouTube with lessons and were selling educational products I said to myself if I can do 10% of the business that Mar Schwarz does I'll be fine I'm off the street for the rest of my life so for a decade I did sessions full-time and then in my spare time I built my educational business built my YouTube channel and I was a little bit of ahead of everybody else yeah and we sold our first educational product and I went oh this works right after that I hired a full-time film editor I started building my subscription which is how I run the business now I have four employees and uh a bunch of members and the YouTube channel is designed to get people to take a look at the subscription the online master class it's 150 hours of lessons almost 2,000 videos I tried to make it so big that would it would really have a lot of value for people and I keep adding to it so it's it's become the love of my life where is I mean you know I'm I'm in my I never work out if I'm 50 am I in my sixth decade on the planet or the fifth decade I think I'm in I think I'm in the sixth decade aren't I and I've only recently felt like I want to go back and learn as somebody described as a a Scottish guitar player out there called Ross Campbell who does teaching stuff he described it as the he's been here right great guitar he describes it as the intermediate plateau and I've been on the intermediate Plateau for probably the last 20 years so by you definitely haven't and and so he's talking about I really love this well I I'm I'm dreading it but I'm also excited about it actually doing this I'm going to go back and unlearn and relearn some of the things that I never learned in the first place so I'm looking for Justin is a dear friend so I'm going to do some stuff with Justin but I'm looking for other stuff where where would your how would you describe what the the type of guitar player that your tuition is aimed at your course is aimed at okay so a big part of the master class is m soloing right basically David Gilmore meets Larry Carlton you know just some fast playing but but being able to play understand how chords work and play the sweet notes over chords melodic melodic solo I've added a beginner's course that I expand all the time I have late beginner so you can jump from the beginner to late beginner I added that later but it's a a big part of it was being able to solo over changes and play melodic guitar over pop rock R&B soul country the forms of music that are basically simpler I can describe it another way if you watch me play and you want to learn to play up to my level it's perfect for you but that's with any teacher really right yeah oh I I may that sound you know where you picked Larry CT and David Gilmore and you know who wouldn't want to be a to play like some sort of concoction of the two of those so well look I mean please do we'll put links uh to where you can go and find out stuff about Tim's um education stuff in the description below but let's get back to um '90s session playing 2000 presumably the biggest change was um when you just didn't need to turn up to the studio anymore yeah and keyboard players have done that forever they were always they always had massive rigs that were both at home and they bring those rigs to the studio to do the records and then guitar players started to do it and I did that pretty early myself and for me the amazing part of this the most amazing part of it is might not be what you think as a session musician you were constantly losing work because you couldn't be there on the day when they were doing the thing I lost a 10day record once because I couldn't do the first day it's heartbreaking ah you can't be there the first day we got to have something exactly and so scheduling you couldn't be two places at once or sometimes three places at once you would literally lose two gigs on a Thursday CU you could only be one place what the home studio solved was scheduling because you could become like a doctor in other words if somebody needed your guitar Services you could say I'll see you I can see you on Thursday morning oh well I'm working all week I can see you on Saturday morning so it and because guitar Could Happen anywhere in the process people began to realize well we can't get guitars on the tracking date or we'll get some of them but then we can go to Tim's house and finish guitars on Monday when he's available so the greatest part of the home studio was you didn't lose work because of scheduling people would say yeah I can come on Tuesday yeah I can come on Saturday and I would even book sessions on Sunday mornings because everybody was so busy during the week including me that you couldn't get to it you didn't lose work anymore that was the best part of it has does it is there still a sense that I've never you know I've not been not experienced the the the sort of you know the life that you have and the work you that you have but I I've I wonder does it very much change the dynamic of having a band or you know several musicians in a room in a studio with a a sort of we need to get this done by the end of day thing rather than everybody remotely has that changed you know is it better worse different I can weigh in on that uh really completely the records that I love the most have been crafted outside of the tracking date okay you chose Joshua Tree they did not track those guitars live off the floor I understand the satisfaction of saying hey we tracked it all live off the floor and there are parts that happen live off the floor that are magical but go through all the records that you think were the greatest records of all time and I think most of the guitars were recorded in the control room David Gilmore after they get the basic track tell me if I'm wrong I just think that great records have been built that way through history so and it's part of it is because when you're going live off the floor have to get it in in that moment you're relying sometimes on stuff that you know is going to work you're not taking the same amount of risk right and if you're in the control room in the studio a week later if you're at home a week later you're not charging for the studio time money is not being burned up you can give them a free extra hour or three hours give give them a free extra day if you want you can try and fail you can try new stuff not the obvious stuff that you know is going to work in the moment on the tracking date so I have to say that my favorite records I think the greatest records of all time have been done more in the laboratory where things are built they're built on the basic track you can keep those guitars you can keep some of those guitars but when you go in afterwards and start exploring you can try and fail you can experiment you can reach for stuff that's maybe not typical I'm not I was I'm not I'm I'm not sure that was the answer I was expecting I I I I think I live in this idea this dream that there's like an energy created when everyone's in the room together and it's that brings something out so it's interesting that you have a different perspective on that yeah I mean all the Motown records that we love were done that way but all The Wrecking Crew records were done you know my favorite record of all time just made a video about it is witch all Lineman by Glen Campbell and those were all live records and you can hear them live so I'm not negating that that it's just as things moved forward the records of the 70s and the 80s and the '90s and the 2000s were more built during the tracking date but also after the tracking date I want let's I'm going to sort of try and move a little bit sort of gear wise now but but I think in the context of um you know the idea the work that you do as a session player where how important is it to F to to just have a vast selection of gear to just inspire you I mean what's the thought process if somebody says here's here's a track and I assume you've got some license within that track to put your flavor on it um is it is it something that you'll go you know what I've nothing I'm not feeling it with this I'll try this I'm you know is it like takes five or six different guitars and until you and and then something connects with that guitar or it's exactly how it always was with me I would bring we have cartridge companies who would bring our gear and I would bring maybe 40 guitars to a session when when they yeah when when I wasn't moving it myself when I moved the gear myself it's a different story but I still would bring 12 to 18 guitars when I move it myself and the way I would do that the backseat of whatever car I have if you put your guitars into soft cases you can actually they'll packed like sand so I would always bring 12 15 even 18 guitars when I would do my own move my own gear because they would pack like sand in the backseat of whatever car or truck I own then the other gear would go either in the trunk or the back area the reason you bring all those guitars is it's there's kind of a magic to it it's like certain guitars in certain situations the person sitting next to you somehow they may not want to see the PRS in your hand so you have to pick up the Gibson or they might go you got something that's a little more you know ret rro or you know funky and you go oh yeah I got the old Gretch I'll I'll get that it doesn't tune as well but that's what they want so when you're in the heat of battle and then certain guitars I would cycle through five or six of them just to find the guitar that was right for the particular part or even the person sitting there you Intuit what their their dreams and prejudices are and sometimes it takes a few different instruments to find that for them and maybe you pick up the 335 and use it for the whole thing cuz that's the one that they really connect with and the sound that they feel represents them the best so yeah it's it's that being said one of the great things about today is you can be a guitar player and they maybe they don't want to see a lot of gear I have found that happening too as a certain point we bring in this massive amount of stuff pedal boards amps speakers guitars and they kind of look at you like I just want the guy who's going to come in with one guitar and throw it on the heart you know so it has changed for the better in that you can have a bring a fender bring a Gibson bring a quirky guitar bring an acoustic what about from a personal level though because I think you've sort of said it's about waiting till the producers may be happy or the or the or the artist is Happy themselves if if you're writing your own material or even just searching for inspiration for something to do is there a do you have like a go-to or is it always a journey of going it changes all the time I mean I think that's the beauty of it you know it's your ears hear something you go get a cup of coffee you come back they hear something different it it's constantly changing and uh I use a lot of different guitars and there are seasons I have with guitars with amps and that season might be a week it might be a month might be a year it might be 10 years stuff you go back to all the time it's constantly changing I think that's the beauty of it really and is it always the guitar cuz I I think I you know to a much lower degree I think I'll perhaps find that I'll pedals will change for me and and it's the pedal that kind of just goes oh yeah okay that's a but is it is it for you is it the tactile guitar yeah is it the tactile nature of the guitar that really at its root is what inspires you to try something different it is and and sometimes buying a new guitar will trigger two months of creative activity wow and you know it's it's I I don't want to seem like I'm materialistic but if if you do this for a living and you are professional the money comes in you end up spending a lot of it on the gear and the great thing about a guitar you buy a guitar you still have the money because the guitar you might lose a little money but you ride it off if you're a professional yeah and you get most of the money out of it so it feels good I mean it really does it also feels good to to buy guitars from small Builders and I do that a lot and you feel like you're helping them put food on the table and you buy this thing that they've bled for with a lifetime of you know trial and error you buy that thing and you still have most of the money you paid for it because it's in the guitar it still has its value and you've helped these builders that I really love that these days like you know with the small Builders I I mean your session credits are prolific through the '90s and the naugh and even more recent than that it at the moment what what sort of are you scaling it back just to focus more on the education stuff so what what's a typical week look like for you now right now the sessions are for family and friends basically I still have a few very small group of people that I'm loyal to that when they call that I will do a session for often I don't charge for that session uh because the business is my FOC Focus now the web business and so now it's it's kind of best case scenario because if I do a session it's it becomes a celebration for me and the person who's hired me right and money rarely changes hands wow so it's really fun now what about the I I know um you've got a Grammy's performance coming up so I mean do you do you play Live even just for fun or occasionally yeah I sat in with a friend at the baked potato this year Wow and his band and it was really fun Andrew cwick he's like the busiest Studio guitar player in LA right now you'll interview him eventually uh and the Grammy thing I tried to talk my way out of I actually gave it to Andrew for the last two years because it takes so much preparation that I didn't have time to do the prep this year the musical director specifically said hey I want you to do it this year and I said he said what do you need I said you give me 40 songs a month in advance another 20 3 weeks in advance then the other 20 a week in advance and I can do it because what would happen we would do n it always works this way and get really busy and I have all these songs to learn before the Grammy Awards and because I'm the only non-reader in the group I have to learn stuff in advance not only did he get me 40 songs uh a month in advance he got me about 55 of them a month in advance so I'm I'm pretty well learned already and we still have a week to go so you guys I'm talking to Justin dere we mentioned I think that was before we started filming we were talking about him and his Shabbat guitars but met him last year and again I don't know how you do this because he's doing the voice yeah that is and even I would fold on The Voice I would fold I bet you wouldn't but I'll tell you your story you go first I'll tell you just I think I think Justin was saying you know it's like you are you are learning I forget now 70 80 songs per show two minute versions of them because what because and the reason it's that many is because each artist has probably got six or seven songs that they haven't decided which one they're going to do that night until the day of the thing so you've got 10 contestants seven songs per contestant whatever to then find out on the day that these are the one of each we're going to do and I was just thinking how do you but again who the we met Dory um yeah Dory I saw the video yeah who i' not met before but he's obviously doing the voice as well and I don't know what can't remember what we filmed with him on how much was off camera but he was just going let me play you this Brit pop medley that you know and just off the bat yeah he just takes 10 Brit pop songs Works them into a medley that are all recognizable like that and just plays this thing and you're just going like oh my God this is another level you know it's just yeah it takes a certain kind of person some musicians do have photographic memories I had never have had that I'll learned the Rain Song by Led Zeppelin which is their most beautiful acoustic thing I've learned that song three times and and I couldn't play it for you now it just you know the certain people we know have photographic memories so that helps I've never really had that but the voice is the epitome of that they're on the floor long days learning constantly and trying new stuff I would get hired on The Voice every December so that the guys could sleep because that's when they would make the actual records the iTunes records for the voice artists and they were working so hard that there were I would go in and do overflow sessions for Bill appleberry who was producing all this stuff and he would play me some ad Justin stuff and I would just do a few songs so the guys could sleep a that's it this I think it's I do and I hope this isn't sort of off-putting for aspiring session players but it really is a small poll yeah it is you know and and I don't know how you you especially the last 20 years or so when you you've had this massive um growth in music colleges I don't know you know I know in the States you got a couple of famous ones but you know in the UK we we've probably had enough new music colleges in the last 20 years to be producing two or three thousand new guitar graduates a year and you're going if there's only 10 people in the pool it's like it's pretty cutro it was always hard to get into and it was you know if your skill level gets into the 97 percentile you get no work cuz the guys in the 998th percentile get all the work I mean it's one of those kinds of careers but what I say to Young Musicians is this is I mean those of us who did sessions every day it was a little too much it's you can be a little fresher if you don't do it all the time so that's a a benefit and the thing you need to do is find people who be loyal to you I would invest in composers um who an artist who I thought were going to maybe do better like I would do really low paying sessions for people that I thought would have better work in the future well this guy's going to be a film composer I can tell so you can build loyal relationships early on uh for people who might not have the money to pay you that's one way to do it but also do everything play Live make an educational product uh do music for television and film do Jingles do everything you possibly can as a musician in the other you know lanes and make session work part of it cuz I think that's what you have to do you have to you have to do everything these days and in a way that's almost better I think you know to do a little bit of everything it's is a I could do this all day but I'm sort of conscious of the fact that we've got a plan to catch and you probably got better things to do would you mind if we sort of get up and just doing a little bit of a and if there's a story going on this was on this record or this was this you know it would be great absolutely so we're we got a rack of guitars around the room so yeah let's this is a James Tyler guitar that I got I think in the '90s would that be right yeah yeah and I love it super wide neck has the mid boost which means when you play a solo you press this button and you can make the the high notes on the solo really fat you know it's basically great for landow huff style playing and the 80s never goes away now it's kind of like back Forever at this point you see that fretboard is seeing some action so this is obviously must have been this has been a few a few Tunes absolutely and I might even use it on the Grammys in a week this guitar you know when you're saying about I mean isn't that a great example because that wouldn't have been a cheap guitar you know but you know you've had that now we maybe talking 25 plus years uh it's made you money using it and you could sell it tomorrow for probably what you paid for it I mean how many other trades people can say the tool the tools of my trade you know don't ever really cost me anything and this one I could sell it for more than I paid frankly not all of them are like that in fact few are but this is a bill Nash Bill Nash is a really good person and this this guitar is super loud has lawers it's great for Stevie rayon kind of stuff and I've played this for years too it's it's been on a lot of records and a lot of videos let's move on what have we got down here this is a reissue of a 1960 Les Paul the neck shape on this was perfect for me I had it refretted with jumbo Frets this has my signature pickups in it which uh Arcane yeah oh cool yeah Rober Arcane makes these and we developed the pickups with this guitar so I'm really really really like it okay we move on I've always been in love with Tom Anderson do you know there's a there's one of the guitars that you've just let's hope that wasn't please put that in the video they're not precious they're not precious oh no I was one of the guitars we we skipped there yeah and I'm always intrigued Pete's the Pete's the same I I always feel like I'm I don't want this to be unfair but there's session players often need to have something that's a bit quirky not necessarily the greatest guitar ever I mean Pete has a Dan Electro that he pulls out every soft and I'm was like really and it's like yeah but sometimes you need yeah awful yeah no it's really true I'm not suggesting that this guitar is awful but it's of it's but it does that thing so well the story behind this one is Mark ler got me this guitar because he was playing one and raving about it because it's got the short scale so it's a baritone but you don't have to stretch as much to play it it sounds amazing but your to your point I got asked to do a jewel record once you remember her yes um and the producer said she only wants the cheap sounding guitar so I went out and bought four of the early like you know the supro Dan Electro guitars from you know early days and there is something to that they they have a character that polished fancy guitars don't have and the new harmonies do that for me now Harmon and then it's kind of like a secret weapon because it plays in Two and and do you know what funny enough that's that's again we're talking about the Shabbat thing yeah and that um Jos Sonic that he had on the stand which is and this was crazy and this is you'll have to go and see the the the video for that this was a really expensive probably $4,000 copy of a guitar that you could just go and buy for probably $500 and even get an original 60s one but it was sort of it's got the cheap sounding Vibe but on a guitar that's just Immaculate to play so it's a a weird you know I I must admit I'm I think I'm talking myself into phoning AV and buying I want it too if you're going to get it I want to get it too but put my order in I I'll wait for it I'm fine to wait for it you're absolutely right about that what I've done in the past is I'll take a guitar that's kind of a newer version of the cheap character guitar and if it plays in tune I'll sneak it in I won't exactly say that this is basically a Ferrari yeah yeah yeah so yeah I do the same thing so come on we gonna talk about this the Tom Anderson I played his his guitars a lot in the 9s and this is an amazing guitar that I don't know if he makes anymore never seen this sh the before and I'm keeping it CU it sounds amazing and looks it kind of disappears when you play it it's nice I love the color this guitar I bought at norms I think it's like a 2012 it sounds incredible and I think this era was known to sound really good and play really good um I don't know I just again so very it makes me play different Firebird is probably one of those uh one of those the most unusual Gibson guitars you've ever made it doesn't naturally for me it's a statement guitar it's like I'm in a rock band I'm going to stand at the front and people are going to go who's the dude with the call but as a session guy what what I get what's the song you know where's this where's this I don't I don't mean specifically but what do what do you think like if you had a job came in today what kind of job would it be for you to go hm maybe the firebird I think like a 60 kind of rock song you know it really it really excels at that it sounds throy yeah yeah it sounds throy yeah yeah and the wide neck and this big slab in these pickups it it sounds incredible okay I've got to talk about this it's not actually a mandolin is it but it's sort of what is it like a sort of a and these have been around for years in different forms this is a new one a company in Canada they still call it a hammertone uh but it's really an incredible sound I mean it's just do you think that the re the reason I ask about this do you think that your mandolin playing on iris is is is like if is that the your most iconic piece that you've ever played on a record yeah that's probably the the best song I ever played on and you know the the song that everybody wants to hear still to this day because it's it's not like a rhythm guitar part that's in the back it's like that you take the man thing out of that song and it's not that song Anymore well yeah it it's part of it and the slide solo the electric solo is me too so I I that was a funny story I didn't want to walk into the the session with just a mandolin case and be the guy so I brought my gear and they got irritated I found out later they were mad at me for I brought a truckload of gear and the producer said well let's let him try an electric guitar part and I played a solo and they liked it but I they were annoyed that I brought my big electric rig but I wanted to try and force the issue okay so that solo again which is so iconic in that song are you just told right here's the bit where the solo goes Tim play something in that situation everything I did on that song I made up basically yeah yeah CU that I mean I said that's all improvised I I'd be amazed if anybody whether you're 10 years old watching this video or 99 years old watching this video I'd be amazed if anybody can't literally hear that solo and hear the mandolin intro hear the Solo in their head now and there's not many you know there's not many songs where it's just so instantly yeah that's why I that's I saw that I know I know it's not mandolin but thanks for bringing up the story it's it's uh that did you know when you when when like do you know as you walk out of a a session like that going like I killed it or you still waiting to see like you never know right you never know because there's so much objectivity after you leave when you're there doing it in the moment everybody is so excited but then the objectivity sets in and they live with it yeah and then it might you know the song might get built up another way so no you never know I'm just trying to think they weren't massive were they that was their breakthrough that was a breakthrough they were like a sort of sort of established Rock punk rock band and that was a song for a movie on a soundtrack that just for 18 months it was like the most played song Everywhere nice so that paid the rent for a few months then I'm guessing yep it did yeah and this is a 58 Gretch that looks brand new this is I think I got this for that Jewel record uh but it's not a cheap guitar but it was it was something I needed and didn't have and it's a little bit hard to play it doesn't tune that well but boy it sounds it makes you play different guitars when you're a polished player any guitar that takes away your polish is actually an asset and that's what we're talking about any guitar that makes you less polished that you have to fight a little bit makes you a different player and it's really valuable this is essential fernandz sustainer ah uh I do ambient Parts with a volume pedal and endless delay I can create keyboard sounds that just float above the track and they can fly around having a Fernandez sustainer guitar is essential it really is so find one get one it's really in I mean if you can this I think this is where you know you're in a proper player's house here because every guitar you've shown me so far the wear on the fretboard it's like none of these guitars are for show these are all being used well some of the ones have come new because of just doing YouTube videos and stuff like that but here's an example this is the Anderson that I played on tons of records and when I got it I was very very tired of all the fancy finishes and I said just give it to me unfinished and yeah it needs to be cleaned but it looks great yeah I'm glad I this is this all the stock pickups it came with or well this assembly has been traded out probably five times you know I've had this guitar for 30 years so yeah this is this has been changed out many many times but the guitar has stayed the same please tell me about the blue Gretch just because so it looks so cool this showed up at norms and Norms is 5 minutes away from here okay so which is dangerous uh this showed up at norms I think I saw it in an Instagram photo and the in Instagram it looked even Bluer and I thought wow that looks amazing I went down I picked it up and it feels like a 59 Les Paul I have never in my life played a Gretch this has got a basically a Les Paul neck on it and okay I I always try and make a sober decision when I'm in a music store and I see the thing I want I go okay you're drunk right now with desire walk out of the store and sober up and in this case I and I always try and actually walk away and spend the night away and I always try and wait a day but sometimes at norms when something comes in it goes just like that yeah luckily I went back the next day sober and it was still there he had waited like a year for this guitar and it showed up and I'm very lucky it didn't sell immediately I brought two guitars to trade I brought cash so Steven Stern Masterbuilt I I'm going to keep this guitar for the rest of my life it's it's amazing sounds amazing yeah I saw you really like them too we've had two or three Steven Stern Master builts through the store over the last five years or so and I get every time I have to say no these are we're we're a business here we need to buy these to sell if I keep these I can't you know pay the bills so but there's they're just in actually I have to say I think that's the best one I've ever seen the coolest one I've ever seen yeah thank you I uh I we've done a just before we've been waiting four years I think now we have a we have a Steven Stern Purple Penguin that we've basically that was like a custom and I you know it's like I just can't wait to you know I mean we're all going to have to go don't buy it don't buy it don't buy it but there I mean they're crazy expensive aren't they but the trade was not favorable for me when I look back on it I went I I really kind of blew it there oh man that's okay it's nice to have bright looking thing it's really nice I am friends with Jo bamasa um and I I found this in nor Norms also it's his um you know signature that they did a few of these you'll remember when and it's a great uh 335 and I see you got a couple of 335s yeah this they both came from Norm this is the most expensive guitar I've ever bought you go and it's it was $99,500 I'll go ahead and say it and the reason it was only 9500 it's a 62 335 but it does not have the original pickups it had a refret uh there may be some other things that are not original but uh it's I love it and is that people often say the 335 is is you know the most verstile guitar us it's a I guess Larry cartton has sort of made it sort but do you find is there a actually I would say maybe some of your Andersons feel more like but is what what's their type of guitar that you think that that's the one if I you know like my desert island guitar I don't know that I have one um maybe not desert island but if if I said to you okay um over the next 12 months you're going to get 50 sessions and for whatever reason there's there is only one guitar that you're going to be and it's like I I take away all the fact that it'll be you'll you it'll it'll be a pain in the ass because you won't have the inspiration and you know all the reasons as to why you need more but I don't I'm just I'm intrigued as to like what would it be for me it's a Les Paul okay so I have had Les Paws made by different MH makers this is my Les Paul that Paul made me and this was custom made it was expensive CU i i i Custom ordered it I had dots put in rather than Birds yeah for me it's the Les Paul absolutely the guitar that I need primarily to make my sound whether it's for me or for you or an artist is a less Paul now that could be a Gibson Les Paul but for me it's hard to find the right Gibson Les Paul you know I have a couple that come close so with Paul and this guitar and with Heritage I am chasing My ultimate L well I guess Heritage is probably the the the closest yeah you know if it's just a straight out and you know if if it's a a Les pole but not a Gibson it's it's probably and I've had lots of Gibson Les Pauls I have three right now that are all very good but this by Heritage we designed this guitar it's chambered but it sounds amazing even though it's chambered it has the neck that I like which is the 60s slim taper neck has the exact Frets I like the pickups sound great getting closer so yeah it's it's a boutique Les Paul that's the guitar that I is this the Arcane set as well no it's not it's theirs yeah I'm totally open this was a project I did with Rob I met Rob through Jo bamasa we were hanging out together and Rob said let's do this and I said yeah I'll tell you what I like because I like these pickups that I have that were made by Tom Holmes and he told me oh I used to work with Tom holes and I made a bunch of pickups for him so he knew exactly what to do yeah they're they're really bell-like and open sounding I'm I am quite surprised that you picked Les pool yeah as in you know it's it's push me into it it's the truth it's a guitar I mean that funny enough I think I'm pretty sure that was my you know I've got an R8 which I've put some different pickups in and I'm exactly the same as you I hate the desert island question yeah because that it would torture me to only have one guitar to play but it is come to sh it would be like probably that one then yeah I mean when I play live I mean the heritage is a new thing we worked on this for a year and a half the first one they sent me I rejected because it wasn't quite right and it was kind of heartbreaking because it has one of the most beautiful tops I've ever seen we gave it to John Thompson at cat he has it now uh this the single cut PRS does it for me they delivered these to me without any build sheets got to get sheets for did you ask cuz I don't think I've ever seen Paul do the Abalone thing inside the reveal binding puring it looks great and I love it yeah I love it yeah I just there there's it's so I think you can tell a lot about the character of a person from the guitars that they draw to and it's like somebody that just has a black guitar isn't is again it's someone just going I'm confident in my own ability like that but I don't need to shout about it yeah it's not I I've played this more live than any other guitar having a one piece Bridge my favorite thing so any version of a Les Paul but these days it's usually kind of a boutique version made by somebody and not made by Gibs where's the uh where's the Jazz Master that's on the front of guitar land that was a rented guitar for the photo shoot so it's not he never even got played on the album but I do have this which uh I've used a lot and this qualifies as that fun guitar you were talking about yeah and it's a real 62 short scale yeah they round round wounds must just be yeah there how did you how did you know you saw that these are flat flat is yeah it is flat wounds yeah flat wounds on a on a Jaguar yeah it's great I mean everybody should have flat wounds on one or two of their guitars definitely it's a different sound so there are other guitars I have you know lots of PRS lots of U different strats I I buy more guitars these days because they end up in videos right but yeah it's kind of the and what about I mean pedals wise is it is it okay to shoot in the hall here and just look at oh totally yeah yeah but this is this is the kind of the graveyard I mean this is this is what everybody every guitar player aspires to uh you know which Drive pedal shall I use today well well for me it the drive pedal that changed my life was Tom bukovac sent a a odr one to John Shanks MH a number of years ago and so John got a couple more and John gave me one of these the odr one from the early 90s and I connected with it and have used that constantly ever since I ended up sourcing some New Old Stock ones of of my own years ago I forgot you did this yeah sounds good I just put one on my pedal board it's quite a good pedal it really sounds you know I again you would I would think that you should have more sign gear you must get Brands asking you every day don't they to do signature well the truth about that is I like to be independent and there's an obligation when you do that and you know I like to use everything and the business I have is selling education and it's just a much bigger uh you know a bigger thing to sell rather than a a pedal so where you've got where you've got multiples I don't think I've ever even heard of this pedal yeah that was a YouTu thing John Shanks espoused that John is a guitar player and who became a big producer who he has his own pedals and stuff but that's that's something The Edge used early on oh wow yeah is he a big inspiration for you the edge back then I think so yeah not the most popular guitar player in the world but for the record making people he really gave us a lot of colors to to you know to inspire us you know we played uh the verm stuff is amazing they've got two they had two new pedals at the show as well it oh man oh man look at this this is actually this this is almost like home from home now this is what it's like at Anderson's every day so saying like you know what pedals shall we use today but you've got some cool stuff here but you're saying it's a bit of a graveyard so you're not once you've got a border you kind of these yeah these are not being used right now but they're always ready like you know what there's no better univi you know there's no better organ sound you know there's Chris would be so pleased if you just said there's no better univi than the pedal one I don't think so I Chris will cut this out and relentlessly repost that comment on Instagram now I like him I respect him but the so this is the board I built for the Grammys but it'll be used beyond that so I'm going to just roll through this really quickly I mean so okay so Grammys is you've got 80 songs and presumably that's the ultimate challenge for a pedal board because what are you going everything from potentially Metallica Through to some sort of 50 skiffle kind of thing exactly exactly so how do you put a board together for that well if this has eight loops on it and you can program presets this is the ding bat and so this is a clone of the od1 this is a clone of the most tortion they're both dead- on clones okay I have compressor on CA pedals you will they're they're they're getting out there they're doing well um I just did this for a lark I want it's got a good high gain sound and a good mid gain sound too this I'll use for really heavy delays it's sounds beautiful I like dark modulated uh you know dotted e8th quarter delays this is a great Leslie and it has to be right there so you can change the speed for me the whole thing about a Leslie is changing the speed constantly that's the emotional part of it slow to fast and then it's a great delay LBX a great Reverb that's convenient to use and then these kind of these are like uh jack of all trades you know the new line sixes can get every you know if I need a phaser it's there if I need a ring modulator it's there if I need bbr it's there so a really really practical pedal board the great thing about this s the switcher along the front is that are you is that sort of midi programmable switching or are you just is it much simpler than that just it's much simpler than that it you you could use midi but I don't really bother with that what it does is it allows you to program different scenes so you can have different combinations of pedals you go from verse with clean chorus and compression to Decor us with heavy Distortion just with a press of a button so it's like you know it's just you can program scenes but the great thing about this I have the Reverb and delay on expression pedals so I can go from dry okay let me just get this [Music] right [Music] I'm really wild about being able to press on I have a an expression pedal for the delay and the Reverb I can do them both at the same time I don't think I've ever seen that um I I've seen it done by accident before but I'm not sure I've ever seen it intentionally done that it's very [Applause] [Music] clever so if I'm in doing a solo I can dry it up or just as an event make it [Music] [Applause] [Music] wet it's really fun so that's what I love about and you're set on this now this will be your Grammy your Grammy board will it and then beyond too it'll it's it's ready to go for sessions too because if I do a session now I'm just carrying the gear in my car it's no big deal for me you know it's just throw this in the car it's always I think it's quite nice as well for for you know the the viewers to see this because you know does not every board has to have the most expensive Reverb the most expensive delay the most you know you got some the you boss compressor and the trem the tremolo is just a basic tr2 just yeah boss when I first met Tom bukak we did a record a Rob Thomas record together and I thought you know we were together and I I thought this is the greatest Studio guitar player I've ever worked with that's another story though and you know know he was he he was like man I love boss pedals I love boss pedals he would say you know it's like Tommy's is Pete's been getting into Tom I think it's I mean obviously great great player but it's it's his um view it's just his worldly view on you know music and guitar playing and stuff he's so forthright in just saying you know that's what I'm going to say yeah just honesty yeah just honesty with his iPhone yeah but yeah he's a great and still I think refuses to be on Instagram he can just it's like yeah he's just like this is not his thing is it it's just anyway great player so this will be at the Grammys I mean can we do another little like yeah you need to do that because that that's where you know I really have a lot of stuff obiously everything that you guys have been watching now is not normally where you see Tim yeah I'm not going to be the first person to say this but do you feel like uh uh Captain Kirk now who was was it who was the who was the main driver of the USS Enterprise was it Zulu or I do and it is it is designed to be a spaceship and a cockpit and I'm just going to really really quickly run it down for you let me plug in and I get a chance to use this really fancy PRS there's the oh there you can so you can yeah you can see yourself yeah so this is the film studio now and then it's also a studio for I when I have clients here now I turn that around great name for a booster okay so you talked about yeah so George trips at way huge is we are making a signature Drive pedal so yeah you it it's happening okay so I'm playing through real amps and real cabinets the cabinets I have 6 412s in My Vault downstairs four of them are active right now each cabinet has two mics on it the two mics go into these mic PR so when I I I'll show you just as an example if I want to play through right now I'm playing through 19 1968 127 celestions I'm using a let's see which I'm using a 57 and a Royer combined now I'm going to go to another set of speakers this is another cabinet there's a 57 and a Sony C800 in front of it I just have to switch over here these are more high-fi they're 65 watt speakers so they're good for some [Applause] part and then I can switch all the heads and go from one head to the other with this kayen app switch over switcher over here so I've got like nine heads or 10 heads hooked up and four cabinets right now and then these petal shelves are activated with these buttons right here hit this [Music] button and to get control of [Music] it this Echo Park is the greatest infinite delay machine ever invented it's just so musical the way the delay is Decay so just you know try it out if you want these are great that's great I I love analog delays I experiment with them then the second shelf down here has all this stuff going squeeze on in H h90 [Music] and then the third shelf is this ebo Reverb which bukak recommended I get I love [Music] it and then lastly if your amp has an effect slop the H9 sound great so I have my h9s through the effects Loop of this badcat hot [Music] [Applause] cat [Music] so a lot of cool stuff just you know within reach distortion pedals here drive pedals volume pedal timebase pedals amps speakers microphones I'm guessing you've been asked this many times before and you are without doubt a man after my own heart with the kind of rig that you've put together but wouldn't it just be massively easier to just have a cord cortex or a helix or a keer well I love those boxes I'll switch quickly to this fm9 for some sounds because the way I look at it they're still artificial sounds but I love them and I love the nature of an artificial sound I have a dream box sitting right there that I use for guests that came last week those boxes they put the sound right in your face they're getting better all the time I still hear the difference so yes it would be easier and I did a big video on the quad on the the tone X quite yeah I did a big video on the tonx which I love yeah uh I I you know I've used the keer a lot I've used I used to have an ax3 up there now I have the fm9 I love these devices yeah I welcome them but I can hear the difference particularly in the top end between the real amp the real cabinet going through the real converters the real microphones and the actual you know yeah these artificial devices I love them though yeah I I love them I mean I think it was it was it I wasn't asking the question to try to convince you to change anything cuz I I think again whether it's I'm I'm not sometimes I wonder how much of the difference I can actually hear I I just it's the tactile nature that I still you know I still like pedals and amps to just you know um but it's I mean this is incredible it's how many years has it taken you to sort of put this little um control you know well it changes all the time and it gets upgraded all the time but I started this 20 years ago basically this cockpit started about 20 years ago and a lot of the components have been changed out over time you just make little improvements all the time you know um I mean I think we're sort of drawing to a to a close here so um I mean it's been just such a pleasure to to come and see you and wonderful to get to to hear a bit more about your life and um but yeah what can I say thank you so much for your hospitality ladies and gentlemen you see you in England oh please do that would be a joy all right well look thank you so much man take it easy yeah you [Music] too [Music] [Music] [Music]

Channel: Andertons Music Co

Views: 189,455

Keywords: Andertons, Andertons Music, Andertons TV, tim pierce, tim pierce guitars, Tim Pierce, guitar, electric guitar, guitar interview

Id: SiqzmiOdbUo

Length: 65min 16sec (3916 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 02 2024