Nels Cline Outtakes: A Special Gift Just For You!
(Originally Posted: 12/21/15)
Happy Holidays from your pals at Mike & Mike’s Guitar Bar. Have you been good? We think so. Here’s a gift just for you!
Just before mother’s day of this year, Fretboard Journal sent me to New York City to hang out with the inimitable Nels Cline to discuss his taste in gear and how he stumbled upon the pieces that really work for him. It was an amazing day, and even though he wasn’t feeling too well, Nels was welcoming and excited to chat. You can read all about it in my article entitled “Almost Stuck” in the latest issue of Fretboard Journal.
As you might imagine, quite a few bits and pieces hit the cutting room floor with about seven hours of interview recordings. A few of those nuggets of wisdom––let's call them Special Features––have been rolling around in my mind since we printed the article, and I’d like to share some of them with you now.
On His Disdain for Treble
Two of Nels’ first amps were an Acoustic 150 and a Music Man 112 combo, but just like the rest of us, he had no idea how to get a good sound at first. The only thing he did know was that thin, wiry sounds were not his thing. “I didn’t know anything about tone production for a really long time. So when I finally played an amp that didn’t have too much treble––that had low-mids––I realized that was what I wanted! It was harder to achieve than I expected.”
Like Nels, I’ve always gravitated toward deeper, thicker guitar tones. For as long as I can remember, I’ve been turning off brightness, regardless of the amp I’m playing. These days, amps seem to be getting brighter and more strident, and when I mention this, Nels lights up.
“Strident! That’s it. All these boutique, point-to-point, hand-wired amps, they’re so glassy. I think they’re made for classic Rock-N-Roll players that play with fingers with triads and popping strings, this kind of snarling sound that’s not me. Of course, lot of these British-style amps have a cut knob, thank God.”
Calling himself “an errant Jazz dude that uses a lot of distortion,” he goes on to emphasize how important low-midrange and headroom are to his sound. “Generally, when I play a chord that’s closed-voiced, I don’t want it to fuzz out. I want it to sound clean, and when I want it to fuzz out I’ll just turn on a pedal.”
On His Association with the Klon Centaur
Nels’ first encounter with the fabled Klon Centaur was during a recording date for Henry Kaiser’s “Yo Miles!” project, a series of tributes to Miles Davis’ electric music of the 1970s. Very much in-character, Henry showed up to the session with a tub filled with pedals and strongly suggested Nels give the Klon a shot. “The Centaur, it just totally lit me up. I thought, ‘Man, this thing’s unbelievable!’ It was everything I wanted in an overdrive but didn’t know I was looking for.”
For Nels, the Centaur was the answer to what his Boss Overdrive sorely lacked: “It had plenty of gain, wasn’t mushy, and could be used as a clean boost.” Acknowledging the million or so “pointless adjectives” created to describe effects pedals, Nels waves them all away and confesses, “I just completely loved it.”
Lucky for him, this was before the pedal’s price shot up toward obscene heights. “I saved up some bread and bought one, I think it was like $325. And now they’re like, what, $2000? I mean, there’s no pedal worth that, I’m sorry!”
These days, Nels has a few of them in his collection, and both gold and silver versions are in-use on his various touring boards. His only complaint? Stage reflections. “That Silver one is blinding in certain live settings, it’s a mirror almost! So I covered mine in black gaff tape.”
On Internet Forums
When I bring up forums and his popularity as a discussion topic, Nels seems to wince, shifting in his chair uncomfortably. Concerned that I’d said the wrong thing, I offer, “So you’re not a forum guy, then?”
“I just don’t see them,” he shrugs. “If I got up in the morning and thought, ‘A lot of people are thinking about what I’m doing,’ I wouldn’t be able to get out of bed!”
I think this sounds completely reasonable. Being a creator, there’s only so much of the clatter and din of social media that one can take. There has to be freedom in the creative act, and while critique is a healthy part of that act, the internet age supplies an endless stream of hot takes and reactions. Nels has no problem with opinions, but he’s also happily disconnected from hearing the entirety of what comes at him on a daily basis.
“What people think about my clothes, my guitar choices, how I move on stage, it's not gonna affect what I do in a positive way. I need to do my job. My job is to play the best I can.” When I press him further about the need to know, to stay on top of reviews and the like, he jokingly admits, “I know a handful of people that read everything, they kind of feel like it's their job to not be couched in ignorance. Not me, baby."
While reviews and interviews make up a not insignificant part of being a working musician, Nels remains focused on his craft, which he continues to hone and refine with as much dedication and joy as when he was making loud noises with his brother Alex on drums all those years ago, before he had any of his big breaks. “All I wanted to do was make a living playing guitar. I just want to have my life to be pretty much the same, but not broke."
This strikes me as refreshingly pure, and when I tell him so, he laughs and fires back. “Well, whatever it is, I don’t know what’s pure at this point. I’m a fusion guy, nothing pure about that!”