Name: John Trubee
Bands: Ugly Janitors of America, Zoogz Rift, Debt of Nature, Lozenge, Nude Women Blistex
Websites: Google my name

QRD – What was your first guitar & what happened to it?
    
John – It was a nylon string acoustic my Mom bought me for $40 from Ferrari’s Music Center in Princeton, NJ in 1970.  It was lost or thrown out after my parents divorced & sold our old family home.  I was long gone by then.

QRD – What’s your typical set-up from guitar to effects to amplifier?
 
John – 2004 Mexican Sunburst Maple Neck Stratocaster into 2 Dynacomp compressors into “The Weapon” by DigiTech (used infrequently to add a bottom octave) into a Peavey digital effect unit for a cathedral reverb, then into a small Ibanez practice amp. 

QRD – What’s the most important part of your rig ‘ guitar, amplifier, or effects?
 
John – The guitar, of course. Those compressors boost to sustain the naturally thin, trebly Strat sound which otherwise decays too quickly for my taste.

QRD – What’s your main amplifier & why?
 
John – The Ibanez. I own 2 Ibanez small amps, a Fender Deluxe Reverb, & a bigger Peavey amp.  I will only use the bigger amps when I play live, which is very rarely.

QRD – What’s your main guitar & what are the features that make it such?
 
John – The 2004 Mexican Strat. I carried around a 1972 Strat for years & was glued to it forever, but the newer Strat has lower action & a better tone & feel, so I use that more now.

QRD – If you had a signature guitar, what would it look like & what would some of its features be?

John – I dunno. I just like to play what I got.

QRD – If you had a signature pedal, what would it be & what would some of its features be?
 
John – Would like to get multiple effects like wah, Leslie effect, & reverb & echo effects.

QRD – How many guitars do you own?

John – Four. The two Strats that I mentioned, a black Telecaster with Maple Fingerboard, & a 12-string acoustic Takamine.
  
QRD – How & where do you store your guitars?

John – Why let the thieves know?

QRD – What do you wish guitar cases had that they usually don’t?
 
John – Tons of free cash to make my life easier. 

QRD – What features do you look for when buying a guitar?
 
John – How it feels & sounds to me.

QRD – How much do you think a good guitar should cost?
 
John – Supply & demand. Whatever the market demands & supplies. I cannot impose my infantile wishes upon that. 

QRD – Do you upgrade & customize your guitars or just stick with what you get?
 
John – I have so little free time to fuss with things. I am happy to have a few hours on my days off to play guitar. Forget fussing with & fetishing them!  

QRD – How thoroughly do you research or test a piece of equipment before buying it?
 
John – I play it & use it. If it meets my needs, I buy it.

QRD – Do you change your rig around often?

John – Nope.
 
QRD – Are you after one particular guitar tone & locking into it, or do you like to change your tone around a lot?

John – I lock into one, vary the pick-up combos & how I pluck the stings to change the timbre.

QRD – What are some guitars, amps, & pedals you particularly lust after?
 
John – Mesa Boogie Amp. Les Paul guitar, SG, Rickenbacker electric 12-string.
 
QRD – What do you think are some important features to be on a person’s first guitar that aren’t always there?
 
John – Good action, good strings. When I bought my first Strat it took a year for a guitar teacher to let me know I had incredibly thick, dull sounding, flatwound strings on it used more for jazz guitars. I promptly put some Ernie Ball Super Slinkies on it & it played much, much better.

QRD – What have been the best & worst guitar related purchases you’ve made?

John – I bought a Peavey amp I was stuck with for years as a teenager with no money. It buzzed horribly & had an electrical short problem with it. Also had a crappy tone.

QRD – What are some effect, amp, & guitar brands you particularly like or dis-like & why?
 
John – I hated those Kustom Transitor amps with that damn padding all over them. They sounded like shit. We stuck with them in a teenage band until we upgraded. 

QRD – What’s the first thing you play when you pick up a guitar?
 
John – Warm-up exercises of my own invention.

QRD – How old were you when you started playing guitar?
 
John – 13.

QRD – At what age do you think you leveled up to your best guitar playing?

John – I have not yet achieved it, I have so far to go, & I learn new things every day & am humbled by all I must yet learn.

QRD – Why do you think a guitar fits you more so than other instruments?
 
John – Because I got into rock music in a big way at 13. Guitar is the main rock instrument. I learned to appreciate other types over music over the years. 

QRD – Do you think guitar should be people’s first instrument as often as it is?
 
John – I don’t care either way. People ought to do what makes them happy. I’m not God. 

QRD – Do you see your guitar as your ally or adversary in making music?

John – Ally!  

QRD – Who are the guitarists that most influenced your playing & sound?
 
John – Clapton, Hendrix, Zappa. The biggies. 

QRD – Do you think people anthropomorphizing their guitars is natural or silly (e.g. naming their guitar)?
 
John – If BB King wants to name his guitar Lucille, who am I to tell him he can’t? I can’t anthropomorphize my guitar because I have a hard enough time even anthropomorphizing people! 
 
QRD – What’s the most physical damage you’ve done to a guitar & how did you do it?
 
John – One time (young & stupid) I ignorantly shaved the frets on my Strat with a metal file to get the action lower. It screwed up the harmonics, the action, & certain notes wouldn’t sound or just buzzed. I committed a guitar atrocity! Thankfully I had a pro fix it. 

QRD – What do you do to practice other than simply playing?
 
John – I invent songs by trying different chord patters & melodies against each other. I use the guitar to compose.

QRD – How many hours a week do you play guitar & how many hours would you like to?
 
John – Long afternoons on my days off. Would prefer 24/7. The reality of earning a living gets in the way. 

QRD – What type of pick do you use & why?
 
John – A small, heavy, teardrop-shaped Jazz style pick made by Fender. I love the pointy tip - let’s me scrape & create harmonics & color the tone with a lot of versatility. I hate & cannot & will not use soft picks. 

QRD – What gauge strings do you use & why?

John – Light to medium light gauge steel strings. 

QRD – How often do you change strings?
 
John – Whenever they need it. If the sound is dull, I can see the fret grooves in the strings, etc.

QRD – How often do you break strings?
 
John – Sporadically, mainly the higher ones. 

QRD – Which do you feel is more proficient, your strumming hand or fretting hand & how does that effect your style?
 
John – Both do their jobs.

QRD – Do you set-up your guitar yourself or send it to a guitar tech (or not set it up at all) & why?
 
John – I am not some rich rock star. I set up all the stuff myself.

QRD – What tunings do you use & why?
 
John – Standard tuning. Time does not permit me to experiment with esoteric tunings.

QRD – Do you prefer tablature, sheet music, or some other notation system for writing down your own ideas?
 
John – Prefer sheet music, just read the notes on the staves plus chord symbols.

QRD – How high do you hold your guitar when playing (strap length)?
 
John – Medium. I don’t get that slung low crap. How can they play with any proficiency like that?

QRD – What’s a bad habit in your playing you wish you could break?
 
John – Being more disciplined in learning actual songs to expand my repertoire. I go off on tangents to develop musical ideas all the time.
 
QRD – Playing what other instrument do you think can most help someone’s guitar playing?
 
John – Electric bass. 

QRD – What’s a type of guitar playing you wish you could do that you can’t?
 
John – Flamenco & classical.

QRD – What’s a guitar goal you’ve never accomplished?
 
John – Learn to play pedal steel. I have to buy one first!

QRD – What’s the last guitar trick you learned?
 
John – Well, I call them techniques. Working on a hand tremelo thing.

QRD – What’s your favorite guitar gadget (ebow, capo, slide, string cutter, etc)?
 
John – No gadgets, just my hands on the strings.

QRD – What’s a guitar technique you’d like to master, but haven’t?
 
John – Learning more obscure chord forms that I rarely use.  

QRD – Did you ever take guitar lessons & if so, what did you learn from them?
 
John – I learned the basics from teachers, pointers on practicing, making the pieces musical.

QRD – What would you teach someone in a guitar lesson that you don’t think they would generally get from a guitar teacher?
 
John – Dunno.

QRD – What’s something someone would have to do to emulate your style?
 
John – Lots of extreme vibratos, hitting the strings hard with a lot of passion - almost overplaying. All of life’s frustrations come out on the guitar. 

QRD – What’s your take on tremolo systems?

John – You mean those electronic tremelos in Fender amps or vibrato arms on guitars? Tremelo on amps has a use; someone show me a vibrato arm on a guitar that doesn’t screw the string intonation & I might consider using it!

QRD – How often do you adjust your tone knob?
 
John – Keep on high treble all the time. My high frequencies in my ears are gone, sadly. 

QRD – What do you see as the difference between lead guitar & rhythm guitar players?
 
John – I play both. One of them gets more girls, maybe.

QRD – If a band has good guitar work, can you ignore the rest of the band not being good?
 
John – Nope. 

QRD – What famous musician’s guitar would you like to own & why?

John – Brownie - held captive in that glass case in the museum in Seattle. Because the Layla album blew my mind at age 13. 
 
QRD – Who do you think is currently the most innovative guitar player & why?
 
John – Steve Vai. I also am amazed by Pat Metheny’s mechanical orchestra he connected to his guitar.

QRD – Where can people hear your best guitar work?
 
John – I will play live around Santa Rosa & San Francisco (& other locales if anyone will have me) sometime before hell freezes over.

QRD – Anything else?

John – If you want my band for live gigs, dead gigs, & have opportunities & cool stuff I miss by being a self-willed hermit, here’s my e-mail: johntrb09@gmail.com