“What is this entire piece-of-s**t setup?”: Josh Homme once showed his Peavey/Yamaha bass rig to John Paul Jones – this was his reaction
When it comes to gear, Josh Homme is known to opt for the “underdog”. And in a new interview with Guitar World, the Queens of the Stone Age frontman recalls the time he showed one of his rigs – a Yamaha hollowbody bass into a Peavey Decade practice amp – to his Them Crooked Vultures bandmate, former Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones, and his reaction that followed.
“I showed the Decade to John Paul Jones when we were in Them Crooked Vultures,” Homme says. “I have this Yamaha hollowbody bass with flatwounds on it, which I call Lame-aha. Instead of a pickup switch, it’s a volume knob, so you’re on the spectrum of which pickup you’re using. I said, ‘Try that with the Decade and a Coles ribbon mic.’”
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Jones was bewildered. “He laughed – and I love that, because the looks are deceiving,” Homme explains. “You’re like, ‘What is this entire piece-of-shit setup?’ Then he played it. It was fun to see him go from giggling about how shitty something looks to complete joy. It’s fun to do that to people and it’s fun to do that to yourself, too.”
Homme embraces the ‘shitty’ look, because he knows how good he can make ‘shit’ sound. It’s a mindset that keeps his sound unique, as well as intriguing audiences and peers alike. “You’re looking for any way, visually and sonically, to do something that nobody else is doing,” he explains. “Getting shit from people is the best thing that could happen. It made me think, ‘Never again will anyone ever say I sound like someone else…’”
As Homme puts it, his goal was that “within three seconds, you know it’s [him]”. The approach has been a constant through the Queens of the Stone Age’s three-decade run, even spanning back to his downtuned guitar work in Kyuss.
Employing quirky gear helps the process, and Homme has worked his way through countless pieces of rogue gear. “Anything is an amplifier to me,” he says. “I love playing out of old stereo tuners, old tape machines; anything with a speaker and a jack. With a Les Paul and a Marshall I know what’s going to happen there. Music is about matching your own evolution.”
“It’s hard not to want to get behind the underdog, because music is about being an outcast,” he continues. “All I need is insurmountable odds and I’m in. Give me your worst guitar, a boutique amp made in someone’s mom’s garage, and a pedal that’s not supposed to be there, and we’ve got something. When you do that, you instantly feel like these things are yours.”
Now, Homme has worked on reviving the Peavey Decade. The Peavey Decade Too “revives that voice and makes it accessible again” while removing the need to “hunt for vintage originals”.
Back in 2022, Acorn Amps transformed Homme’s Peavey Decade into a nifty pedal. The Solid State pedal serves as a “full circuit recreation” of the compact 10-watt practice amp.
The post “What is this entire piece-of-s**t setup?”: Josh Homme once showed his Peavey/Yamaha bass rig to John Paul Jones – this was his reaction appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Source: www.guitar-bass.net
