A six-string master someday said that a good guitarist must hold a Gibson guitar on one hand and a Fender guitar on another one.
Aficionados will recognize here the two major families of the electric guitar : Humbucker pickups guitars on one side, single-coil pickups guitars on the other side.
Although I agree that a good guitarist should play both Gibson and Fender, I’ve always played guitars with Humbucker pickups.
The fact is I really love that kind of sound, with warm overdrive and long sustain.
Now I’m searching for more acid, crunchy sounds. Considering the possibility of buying a Fender first, I renounced because of the neck (familiar to the classical guitar, I dislike thin necks and have a preference for large ones). That’s the reason why I recently moved to… Gretch, (and not to Fender)!
Electric Guitars
Aria Pro II double neck 6/12 (1984)
My interest for the double neck electric guitar came first from Philippe Cauvin, who was playing at the time with Uppsala on a Jacobacci model (6 & 12 strings), and was very impressive. In 1984, we called themselves Concept and I was searching for a good looking guitar that could fit with the music that we were trying to play at the time: a weird mix of jazz-rock and progressive music. I guess I was pretending to walk on the steps of John Mac Laughing & Jimmy Page, but I was obviously less talented!
Anyway, I bought this beautiful Aria pro model then realized that it was very heavy to play on stage for my weak elbows! Moreover, I was not very satisfied with the 6 strings guitar sound. That’s why I moved to a Yamaha SG 2000 in 1989.
Looking back now, I think that I should have explored a little bit more the 12 strings guitar sound, which was pretty good for sure. Later on, with Vital Duo and recent Minimum Vitals’ albums, I really got involved in 12 strings guitars, early guitars with multiple courses (cittern, lute, mandolin…).
But I was not so skilled at the time and our music was less “medieval” oriented. That’s why I decided to sell this Aria, witch I regret now, because it was a really beautiful guitar…
Electric Guitars
Gibson Les Paul Custom (1993)
It’s probably one of the best electric guitar in the world. For those, like me, who are not great fans of the sharp sound of the Fender, the Les Paul yield a warm and hot sound with a great and unique sustain and a precise intonation.
For me, it’s on the album Esprit d’Amor that this guitar was featured the best. I recorded it while plugged in a giant Marshall tubes amp, mixed with the direct sound of a Zoom effect processor.
The Gibson Les Paul live in “Modern Trad”
Electric Guitars
Gretsch G5420T-Electromatic (2013)
Since we decided to reform Minimum Vital in a trio format by 2011, I had left for a moment the electric guitar, just to enjoy the pure delight of exclusive acoustic playing.
But when the time came to work on a new album, I felt I was to play the electric guitar again (because, after all, we are a progressive rock band, are we?). But I didn’t want to move to the Les Paul Gibson because I needed a serious change in sound.
So I tried this Gretch Electromatic in a guitar shop… then immediately felt in love with her! This guitar is not good only for rocking fifties, as you may think first, but it can take his place in every kind of music, even progressive or electric / Celtic stuff!
The sound of this guitar is very versatile and keeps a natural “acoustic” flavour, even in distorted sounds, which gives the guitar a true “living” presence. It’s very sensual, can be soft in a jazzy way first, then roar like a lion the second after. I really like the delicate “sour” sound of the two microphones, as only Gretch can provide. And God, what a beautiful lady!
Jean-Luc Payssan with the Gretch G5420T-Electromatic (photo by Delphine Payssan)
Electric Guitars
Harley Benton RB-612CS electric 12
Jean-Luc with the Harvey Benton
It’s sometimes not necessary to pay a lot bunch of money to get a good guitar. Here’s the proof with this electric 12 strings guitar that I bought in 2014 for the modest sum of… 220 e. As I wanted to play electric guitar again in the band, I began to think about buying a 12 strings electric guitar, in order to counter balance with my Gretch G5420T then to enjoy the natural harmonic richness of double strings, but in an electric context.
However, a friend of mine gently loaned to me a superb 12 string electric guitar just for a show, nothing less than the famous Rickenbacker 620/12 FG, that I used with great pleasure in the tune En Castille. I surely couldn’t afford to buy a Rickenbaker at the time (its price approaching… 2000 e), so I simply looked for the cheapest 12 string electric guitar ever on the marked place, and founded this nice Harley Benton. Quite honestly, it’s hard to get a better value for money than this model !
The sound is very good, both in clair, crunch and large satured sounds.
Moreover the neck is very comfortable, the instrument very light and pleasant to play. As an added bonus, this guitar, with a touch of malice, looks very much like the famous Rickenbacker 620/12 FG (to the point that you could mistake it !).
So, was it all OK ? Not really, because I must admit that at first, this guitar was simply impossible to play : out of tune when trying to get to the octave, strings attached to high from the fingerboard, bad pull of the strings… but don’t panic ! A correct setting by a guitar builder just cleaned up the whole thing.
At the same time, I considered that it would be fun to increase the tonal range of the guitar, so I decided to place a capo on the fourth fret, with gives it a special sounding colour and makes it a good substitute for my mandolin.
Now I play this guitar a lot in rehearsals and it seems to work. Besides, this guitar had some nice parts in the Pavanes album and sounds very complementary to my Gretch I think.
To conclude : if you want to play a nice 12 strings electric guitar for only 220 e, get this Harley Benton… but don’t forget to bring it first to a guitar builder for complete setting !
Electric Guitars
Yamaha SG-2000 (1989)
One of the best electric guitars of the 80’! This Yamaha model is the proof of Japanese guitar maker’s skill. At the end of the 70’, people of Yamaha didn’t want to satisfy themselves anymore just with copying American guitars.
So they decided to build their own electric guitar models and created the SG series that became in the 80’ the main instrument of great guitarists such as Carlos Santana for example.
This one is really comfortable to play, sounding a little bit like a Gibson one, with great high frequencies. I really had a good time with this guitar of the Sarabandes album, and it has great leading parts on tunes such as Le Chant du monde or Cantiga de Santa Maria.
