“A good amp will make almost any guitar sound good”: Jake E. Lee picks a side in the great rig debate
The search for tonal nirvana never really ends, but strip away the pedals, plugins and endless tweaks, and every electric rig still hinges on two essentials: the guitar and the amp. Which matters more, though, is a debate that’s rumbled on endlessly for decades. Now, Jake E. Lee has thrown his hat into the ring – and he’s firmly on Team Amp.
If the question sounds familiar, that’s because it’s divided players at every level of the game. Yvette Young of math rock band Covet has previously argued that a great amp can elevate even the most budget-friendly instrument, while Bon Jovi guitarist Phil X insists the guitar itself is the foundation of your tone.
READ MORE: Charvel recreates Jake E. Lee’s Bark at the Moon/Ultimate Sin-era Blue Burst guitar
Speaking in a recent interview with Guitarist, Lee doesn’t hesitate when presented with the classic rig dilemma, even if he’d rather avoid it altogether.
“Oh, no! Not this question,” he laughs. “I’d rather have a good amp. The shitty amp will make any guitar sound shitty, but a good amp will make almost any guitar sound good. I have some really cheap guitars that I love, where the action is high and [they’re] kinda funky-sounding. But I don’t have any amps that are shitty. The amp is more important.”
It’s a perspective shaped not just by decades onstage – including his tenure with Ozzy Osbourne – but also by a lifetime of gear hunting, where amps have often delivered the biggest surprises.
Recalling his time touring England during the Bark at the Moon era, Lee tells the story of stumbling across what might be the ultimate vintage bargain: an overlooked Marshall combo gathering dust in a small shop.
“I used to go into every mom-and-pop shop and see what they had. One day, we were in Northern England and I went into this one shop and an older gentleman in his 60s was behind the counter.
“I see this old Marshall with the plexiglass logo, covered in dust. I said to the guy, ‘How’s that Marshall? Where is it from?’ He says, ‘I don’t know… it’s been here for the last 20 or 25 years.’ I was like, ‘What? Does it work?’”
“It was a 45 with the cream back panel and the gold, square plexiglass logo on the front,” Lee continues. “He picked it up, dusted it off and even though it had been sitting there for years and years, it was brand fucking new. Not a scratch. He said it had been there since maybe ’64 or ’65, and I was like, ‘Are you kidding me?’ He said, ‘No. Why? Do you want it?’ I said, ‘I’ll take the chance if it’s cheap enough,’ and I got it for around £60 [approx. $80].”
“For that amount of money, even if it didn’t work, I’d have figured it out – but it worked. I went to soundcheck, plugged it in and it wasn’t the kind of sound I was looking for with Ozzy – really creamy and sweet and smooth and compressed, with a little sag. That was my greatest find.”
Guitars, however, are a different story. Lee admits one of his biggest regrets isn’t a bad purchase, but rather, one he didn’t make.
“About 20 years ago, I was in a local guitar shop… there was nothing new but this ‘67 Telecaster. And I don’t like Telecasters… But I picked this one up anyway and it felt really good, so I plugged it in. It sounded really good and I had a connection with it.”
“But I put it back down and said, ‘I don’t really like Teles… I don’t even know why I picked it up,’” says Lee. “Two days later, I went back in there because I couldn’t quit thinking about it and it just felt right, but they’d sold it already. So that’s a different kind of buyer’s remorse, right? Maybe we’d call that no-buyer’s remorse [laughs]. I still think about that Tele every once in a while… there was just a connection there. I really wish I’d bought it.”
The post “A good amp will make almost any guitar sound good”: Jake E. Lee picks a side in the great rig debate appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Source: www.guitar-bass.net
