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It’s a lost art, isn’t it, using the guitar’s volume control and the amp’s dynamics to get different sounds? It’s not like you have to turn on a pedal or something.” Y’know, if you’re hitting it a bit harder in the chorus, the sound changes. Let’s say with a Fender Deluxe: if you hit a bit harder, it breaks up if you back off a little bit, the playing just sounds cleaner. Raymond: “Yeah, I think you get a lot more dynamic connection. You get a lot more audio information when it’s just the amp, don’t you? Sometimes just turning the amp up sounds better than trying to do it with a pedal.” And you can get it all out of the amp by turning it up or down a bit. If you want to just turn it up, it gets your classic distortion. So that amp sounds really pure and chiming when you want it to be. I was lucky to buy it when you could still buy things like that without being a stockbroker. I’ve got a nice Fender Deluxe, a '50s one, that I’ve had for about 30 years. Raymond: “Mostly, the sound of the rhythm guitars is pretty much just off the amp. I switch it on, but then turn the volume down to zero, so it’s just going through the circuit, and it gives it a real richness. One thing I’ve been using a lot is the Xotic EP Booster. Norman: “I was playing through a little Silverface Fender Champ. Raymond McGinley, Norman Blake and Gerard Love onstage in '92 (Image credit: Martyn Goodacre/Getty Images)
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But I had that moment of thinking, ‘I think that guitar is over.’” Whatever happens, don’t worry about it.’ And when I went and looked, the taxi hadn’t actually run over it, just kind of mangled the case, and the guitar was fine. “And I was like, ‘Well, I’ve had a good run on it. We haven’t looked in the case yet, but it doesn’t look too good.’ And he said, ‘I’m really sorry, a taxi has just run over the case with your Epiphone Casino in it.’ I was like, ‘Was anyone hurt?’ And he’s like, ‘No, no. Raymond: “Once, we did a gig in London and our guitar tech came in to see me with a very worried look. Raymond, have you had any on-the-road guitar incidents you can share? That’s partly because we’re old and we’ve been around forever Norman Blake
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This was 20 years ago and the more I use it, the better it sounds.” People always told me, ‘Yeah, Martins get better with age.’ Well, blow me away – they do. Before that, I had a nice Taylor, and that was the only guitar I’ve ever had stolen, in Australia. For the acoustic parts, we’ve got a Martin 000-18. That’s partly because we’re old and we’ve been around forever. There was a little indentation where a guitar cable had been lying on the lacquer. We were always looking in guitar stores in these little towns and this 335 was absolutely mint condition, hardly a mark on it. I picked it up for $300, somewhere in the Midwest. Norman: “Pretty much on every track, I’d start with the 335 that I’ve had since the early 90s. It’s great sometimes to see a picture of me and Norman – before Teenage Fanclub, say, in The Boy Hairdressers – and I’d be playing the Jaguar and Norman was playing the Casino.” They’re the first guitars I got and they’ve turned out to be the best guitars I’ve got. And then a mid-60s Epiphone Casino: it’s a ’66 or ’67. I bought that in 1983 when it was 20 years old or something. My first main guitar is a ’63 Fender Jaguar. Raymond: “Over the years, I’ve had loads of guitars, but we keep coming back to the same ones. What were your go-to guitars for this album? He’ll always do something you’re not expecting Norman Blake When it comes to being creative and coming up with something interesting, we always turn to Raymond. And if I was doing a solo, it’d probably be a bit more bog-standard. He’ll always do something you’re not expecting. So he is absolutely the lead guitar player, and I take the odd solo, but when it comes to being creative and coming up with something interesting, we always turn to Raymond. “Raymond will always come up with a twist. Very often, a lot of Raymond’s songs are arpeggio-based, which kind of differentiates us as writers. Norman: “It’s like the Chuckle Brothers – ‘to me, to you.’ I think Raymond’s chord progressions are more unusual than mine, and I mean that in a positive way. Can you describe your dynamic as songwriters and guitar players?