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Guitarist
Interview
with Peter Bingham of Sendelica May 2013 Name: Peter Bingham Bands: Sendelica Websites: sendelica.bandcamp.com, facebook.com/pages/sendelica/191174294239796 QRD – What was your first guitar & what happened to it? Pete – An unbranded Telecaster copy that I painted bright orange!! QRD – What’s your typical set-up from guitar to effects to amplifier? Pete – Live: Les Paul or Tokai Strat into tone pedal/multi fx/Roland Space Echo into Epiphone So Cal 50w valve amp into Marshall JCM 900 speaker cab. QRD – What’s the most important part of your rig - guitar, amplifier, or effects? Pete – My fingers.... Without them.... Nothing!! QRD – What’s your main amplifier & why? Pete – Currently using two main amps.... Epiphone So Cal 50 which I like as it has a good high volume clean headroom.... & a Marshall JCM 900, although it is very hard to get a “clean” sound with this amp, it does have this amazing heavy sweet spot where solos just sing.... QRD – What’s your main guitar & what are the features that make it such? Pete – Gibson Les Paul 25th Anniversary.... Amazing sustain & has coil taps.... Very versatile guitar. Live I also use a custom Adam Black & a 1980s Japanese Tokai Strat.... QRD – If you had a signature guitar, what would it look like & what would some of its features be? Pete – LOL.... A Gibson Les Paul 25th Anniversary with a Floyd Rose Tremolo. QRD – If you had a signature pedal, what would it be & what would some of its features be? Pete – Something that makes me sound like Dave Gilmore in 1971. QRD – How many guitars do you own? Pete – Five. QRD – How & where do you store your guitars? Pete – Racks & cases in a secure environment. QRD – What do you wish guitar cases had that they usually don’t? Pete – Built in amplifies like the 60s budget guitars had. QRD – Do you change your rig around often? Pete – In the studio I chop & change a bit, but live I basically use a similar rig. QRD – Are you after one particular guitar tone & locking into it, or do you like to change your tone around a lot? Pete – Again in the studio I do tend to experiment a lot with sounds, but live I stick to a few pedals & one or two guitars. QRD – What are some effect, amp, & guitar brands you particularly like or dis-like & why? Pete – I love Gibsons & Tokais, my favourite delay is Space Echo.... Love Gibson & Epiphone valve amps, but occasionally like to delve into Fender amps for something a little different tonal wise.... Different sounds make you play differently.... QRD – What’s the first thing you play when you pick up a guitar? Pete – “Spaceman Bubblegum” or “Standing on the Edge.” QRD – How old were you when you started playing guitar? Pete – Thirteen QRD – At what age do you think you leveled up to your best guitar playing? Pete – Always improving QRD – Do you see your guitar as your ally or adversary in making music? Pete – It’s a love/hate kind of thing. QRD – Do you think people anthropomorphizing their guitars is natural or silly (e.g. naming their guitar)? Pete – I get worried when people take them to bed with them!! QRD – What do you do to practice other than simply playing? Pete – Listen to lots of different types of music... & look after your hands... always moisturize!! LOL.... QRD – How many hours a week do you play guitar & how many hours would you like to? Pete – I play for a few hours every day. QRD – What type of pick do you use & why? Pete – Med gauge... I like to feel it working against the strings. QRD – What gauge strings do you use & why? Pete – Super slinky. QRD – How often do you change strings? Pete – Quite often. QRD – How often do you break strings? Pete – Very rarely.... Once in the last year I think.... QRD – Do you set-up your guitar yourself or send it to a guitar tech (or not set it up at all) & why? Pete – I have some good friends to do that.... QRD – Do you prefer tablature, sheet music, or some other notation system for writing down your own ideas? Pete – Tablature, but I tend to record any ideas I have on a little recorder... in case I forget them.... QRD – How high do you hold your guitar when playing (strap length)? Pete – Medium height QRD – What’s a guitar technique you’d like to master, but haven’t? Pete –You are always learning.... Every recording session, every practice, every gig.... It is all adding to your experience & technique.... QRD – Did you ever take guitar lessons & if so, what did you learn from them? Pete – I had lessons from a friend at school.... Chords, few basic riffs.... Then I learnt a lot from just being in bands from a young age.... QRD – What would you teach someone in a guitar lesson that you don’t think they would generally get from a guitar teacher? Pete – Improvising from your heart, not your head.... Feel it... don’t analyze it. QRD – What’s something someone would have to do to emulate your style? Pete – Have fat fingers!! QRD – What’s your take on tremolo systems? Pete – Don’t use them a great deal.... Just a couple of songs.... I know a lot of people like them. QRD – How often do you adjust your tone knob? Pete – Never on my Gibson or Adam Black, but I do fiddle a lot with the Tokai’s controls. QRD – If a band has good guitar work, can you ignore the rest of the band not being good? Pete – No, off course not.... A band is the sum of its parts.... QRD – What famous musician’s guitar would you like to own & why? Pete – Paul Kossof’s Les Paul, Mick Ronson’s Les Paul, Dave Gilmour’s Strat, & Roy Buchanan’s Telecaster.... Yep, that will do me!! LOL.... QRD – Who do you think is currently the most innovative guitar player & why? Pete – Acid Mothers Temple’s Kawabata. I just love his “attitude.” QRD – Where can people hear your best guitar work? Pete – With Sendelica & Doctor Locust. QRD – Anything else? Pete – New Sendelica album The Kaleidoscopic Kat & His Autoscopic Ego is out mid July on FRG Records.
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