mentoneman
Well-known member
from about 2:45
-Steve Hunt [keyboardist] plays a much larger
role on Wardenclyffe Tower than on Secrets.
AH: I think it depends how long someone's been around in the band. Also, I was using the Synthaxe a lot more back then, which almost negates the role the keyboard player has. After all, he's gonna be doing something similar with textures. Back then with the Synthaxe, I was able to do that on my own, and that's basically what happened. And this last album, I only used the Synthaxe on two tracks. I didn't use it much.
-Why did you decide to abandon it?
AH: There's a number of reasons, but the most important reason is that I was getting to a point where I was going to abandon playing the guitar altogether and only play the Synthaxe. I thought it was closer to what I wanted to do musically, in my head—sonically, the whole thing. With the Synthaxe, I could use it as a wind instrument. I used to use it with a breath controller—I could use it as the wind instrument I had always wanted to play since I was a kid. I didn't have to deal with distortion and shaping a distorted guitar sound into something musical, which is a real challenge. It's been one of the problems I have all of the time with the guitar—I want to make it sound more like a horn. But at the same time, the fact that you have to use any sort of distortion to get sustain is a kind of a catch-22. You have to use something you don't want to use to get something that you want to use. I didn't have any of those problems with the Synthaxe. It was really clear and really easy.
The fact that is has the keys as well as the strings —that was a stroke of genius for me. What I got afraid of is that I tried to keep in contact with them [Synthaxe Inc.] about any future things that they wanted to implement and Ideas that I had about modifications and improvements. The barrier broke down and in the end and right as it is—this moment—they don't exist at all. There's maybe two or three guys on the whole planet that could probably fix one. That got to be a really dangerous position to be in. If I quit guitar and got rid of them all and played only Synthaxe right now, then I'd be in real bad shape right now. And my worst fear came true, because a couple of months ago I sold both of my Synthaxes and thought "Well geez, I just have to get rid of them." And now over the last few weeks I've realized that I really miss them. I hooked up with this guy that bought one he never uses. He inherited some money and spent it on a Synthaxe and he decided he didn't want to use it, so he knew that I played it and he tracked me down and he offered to sell it to me. I borrowed it from him to try it and there were two bad frets on the neck and I called some of the people that used to work at Synthaxe and try to find out what the possibilities of getting this malfunction fixed were and I'm still waiting to hear from one of the tech guys. So you can see, that's a scary situation to be in if that was the only instrument I played!
-If there was an amp you'd used in the past that you would use again, what would it be?
AH: : The original Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier. It's probably one of the best sounding amps I've ever used.
one of my faves
-Steve Hunt [keyboardist] plays a much larger
role on Wardenclyffe Tower than on Secrets.
AH: I think it depends how long someone's been around in the band. Also, I was using the Synthaxe a lot more back then, which almost negates the role the keyboard player has. After all, he's gonna be doing something similar with textures. Back then with the Synthaxe, I was able to do that on my own, and that's basically what happened. And this last album, I only used the Synthaxe on two tracks. I didn't use it much.
-Why did you decide to abandon it?
AH: There's a number of reasons, but the most important reason is that I was getting to a point where I was going to abandon playing the guitar altogether and only play the Synthaxe. I thought it was closer to what I wanted to do musically, in my head—sonically, the whole thing. With the Synthaxe, I could use it as a wind instrument. I used to use it with a breath controller—I could use it as the wind instrument I had always wanted to play since I was a kid. I didn't have to deal with distortion and shaping a distorted guitar sound into something musical, which is a real challenge. It's been one of the problems I have all of the time with the guitar—I want to make it sound more like a horn. But at the same time, the fact that you have to use any sort of distortion to get sustain is a kind of a catch-22. You have to use something you don't want to use to get something that you want to use. I didn't have any of those problems with the Synthaxe. It was really clear and really easy.
The fact that is has the keys as well as the strings —that was a stroke of genius for me. What I got afraid of is that I tried to keep in contact with them [Synthaxe Inc.] about any future things that they wanted to implement and Ideas that I had about modifications and improvements. The barrier broke down and in the end and right as it is—this moment—they don't exist at all. There's maybe two or three guys on the whole planet that could probably fix one. That got to be a really dangerous position to be in. If I quit guitar and got rid of them all and played only Synthaxe right now, then I'd be in real bad shape right now. And my worst fear came true, because a couple of months ago I sold both of my Synthaxes and thought "Well geez, I just have to get rid of them." And now over the last few weeks I've realized that I really miss them. I hooked up with this guy that bought one he never uses. He inherited some money and spent it on a Synthaxe and he decided he didn't want to use it, so he knew that I played it and he tracked me down and he offered to sell it to me. I borrowed it from him to try it and there were two bad frets on the neck and I called some of the people that used to work at Synthaxe and try to find out what the possibilities of getting this malfunction fixed were and I'm still waiting to hear from one of the tech guys. So you can see, that's a scary situation to be in if that was the only instrument I played!
-If there was an amp you'd used in the past that you would use again, what would it be?
AH: : The original Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier. It's probably one of the best sounding amps I've ever used.
one of my faves
.
