St. Vincent: The Fender Strat is laboured with the “cultural baggage” of “a history of people trying to play like Jimi Hendrix and sucking”
With great history comes great baggage, and when it comes to the Stratocaster, the legacy of the most iconic guitar in the world looms large over those who pick it up today.
For St. Vincent, the iconic six-string, often revered for its association with legends like Jimi Hendrix, has become burdened by a history of players who so often try and fail to emulate Hendrix’s unique style.
It’s one of the reasons she was “too scared” to pick one up – until the latest St. Vincent album All Born Screaming, that is.
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Chatting in a new Guitar.com interview, the musician admits that she “never ever would have picked up the Strat”, let alone used it on her new record, if Mike McCready hadn’t gifted her one.
The guitar in question, one of the Pearl Jam guitarist’s signature Fender Custom Shop 1960 Strats, features prominently throughout the record, alongside Clark’s Music Man Goldie signature model – the latest iteration of a guitar she pretty much designed from scratch.
“One of the things that was exciting about making my own guitar, and starting from scratch with the shape and everything, was I was making something with no cultural baggage,” says Clark.
“Look at a Strat and you think of Jimi Hendrix, you think of Stevie Ray Vaughan. They’re some of the greatest guitar players of all time, of course, but there’s history to Strats. And there’s also a history of people trying to play like Jimi Hendrix and sucking.”
Clark adds that she has since learned to embrace the beauty of a Strat, having “never played them” before this: “But this guitar is great. It’s so playable. Now, I understand. I didn’t get it before because I was too scared to touch them.”
As the producer of All Born Screaming, Clark also emphasises the importance of being “intentional” with her use of guitars in songs, saying: “I love it so much but I’m also a producer who knows that not every song needs a guitar.”
“You’re either wrestling, trying to shoehorn a guitar into a place where it doesn’t need to be, or you’re going ‘Sorry, you’re gonna sit this one out.’ It’s a delicate thing. When it’s there, it’s really meant to be there.”
The post St. Vincent: The Fender Strat is laboured with the “cultural baggage” of “a history of people trying to play like Jimi Hendrix and sucking” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Source: www.guitar-bass.net
