Welsh slide blues slide guitarist, Troy Redfern.
A minute’s all it takes to discover what makes a great guitarist tick. Before he jumped into his limo for the Airport, we grabbed a quick chat with Welsh blues slide guitarist and bandleader, Troy Redfern.
GT: Do you have a type of pick that you can’t live without?
TR: I do! I exclusively use Dunlop Sharp 1.35mm picks, the dark grey ones. I’ve been using those picks for years now. I love the length of the drop on them, that point really helps my accuracy and I find them super comfortable with zero slippiness. I really find it hard to use regular shaped picks now, you get used to that sharp point, even though it’s only a couple of millimetres longer than a standard pick. I’ve got a heavy right hand so using the 1.35mm gives the pick an extra bit of longevity.
GT: If you had to give up all your pedals but three, what would they be?
TR: I’ve got quite a collection. They’ve all got their own personality and function so it’s hard to whittle it down two just three. My Hermida Distortion would be one, it’s such a versatile pedal and it’s been on pretty much every one of my albums. It’s got the Dumble thing going on, but it has a tonne more gain, and has sweet spots everywhere. Another pedal I’d keep would be my old Mutron Phasor II. To me it’s hands down the best sounding phaser ever made. It’s a bit on the large side, but it’s worth the real estate. I think it must be something to do with the photocells used from that era that gives it that extra sparkle. The last pedal would be my Ibanez DDL10 Delay II. It has its own personality and is such a great sounding delay. It’s been on my board for years.
GT: Do you play another instrument well enough to be in a band.
TR: I play bass, keys, drums, saz, banjo and drums. The saz is a Turkish seven-stringed instrument, with the strings divided up into courses on two, two and three, and the octave divided up with extra quarter tones. It’s got a really distinctive tone, very Eastern sounding. I’ve played bass once or twice live, but it’s mainly in the studio that I’ll play bass, I love locking with a groove. It’s the same with the drums. I’ve played every instrument on all the albums that I’ve released up until now but on my brand-new record, which was recorded at Rockfield Studios in Wales, I got the incredibly talented Darby Todd (The Darkness, Robben Ford, Paul Gilbert, Guthrie Govan) on drums.
GT: If a music chart were put in front of you, could you read it?
TR: I can read a basic chart, but if you’re talking complex jazz charts then that would take a bit of time. I usually write charts for my own songs, and if I’m touring and playing with guys for the first time I find it helps to send them charts too, along with audio versions of the songs.
GT: Do guitar cables really make a difference?
TR: I do. It’s a scientific fact that the longer your cable, the more capacitance gets added and the more noise you’ll get. This can lead to a drop off in treble. It’s not something that you’d want. I’ve used a lot of different makes over the years, like Planet Waves, but my go-to cables are the Mogami Gold Series. They’re fantastic, great build quality, and sound brilliant.
GT: Is there anyone’s playing (past or present) that you’re slightly jealous of?
TR: I’m not jealous of anyone’s playing, but there are so many players that I find inspiring. If I hear a great solo or song it just makes me want to pick up the guitar and play.
GT: Your house/studio is burning down: which guitar do you salvage?
TR: After rescuing the family and pets the first guitar I’d save would be my 1929 National Triolian.That guitar has become such a part of me since I got it that I’d be absolutely destroyed to lose it. It’s one of those guitars that you pick up and feel immediately inspired; songs seem to pour out of it. It’s worn to perfection, the original brown finish has almost gone, revealing the white undercoat. It’s got so much mojo. I came across it on Reverb and fell in love with it, so figured out ways to raise the funds to buy it. When I looked the next day it was gone, and I couldn’t believe I hadn’t acted sooner. Fast forward a month later to my birthday. My girlfriend came out with this big guitar box. I opened it up and there it was. She’d secretly bought it for me. I was ecstatic.
GT: What’s your favourite amp and how do you set it?
TR: I’ve got a few favourite amps, one of them being a 64’ grey panel Vox AC30. That amp with a Strat and a reverb pedal is so 3D sounding. You didn’t need a tonne of pedals with that amp, it’s just so musical, and when you wind it up, man it’s something else.
GT: What action do you have on your guitars?
TR: On my resonators I have a medium high action. Using a lot of slide so I don’t want the action too low else you’ll end up hitting the frets, but I also need the strings low enough to be able to play fretted too. I’ve had the resonators set up well which is so important with that style of guitar. The neck angle is everything. On my Gibsons and Fender Strats the action needs to be a bit lower, but not so low that you can’t dig in. I
“There are so many players that I find inspiring. If I hear a great solo or song it just makes me want to pick up the guitar and play.”
like to be able to get under it, else you find it can slip from under your fingers easily. When I first started playing guitar, I was all about low action. As my style developed, I realised that I wanted a guitar action that I had to fight a bit. If your action is too low that can make you sound smooth, and if you’re not careful, shreddy.
GT: Who was your first influence to play?
TR: Brian May was probably the first guitar player that I became aware of and really sparked my interest in the instrument. Queen’s, A Night At The Opera had a huge impact on me. I remember listening to Good Company and being astounded by the way Roy Thomas Baker EQ’d Brian’s guitar to sound like a New Orleans jazz band. It was around the same time I discovered Jimi Hendrix and Son House, two blues guys that totally changed my musical landscape. When I first listened to Son House it was like hearing
something from a different planet. It was so raw and visceral, and to me it felt like the most honest musical expression I’d ever heard. Son House was the reason I learnt about open tunings and bottleneck, and as soon as I did, I knew that slide guitar was my calling.
GT: What was the first guitar you lusted after?
TR: Maybe it was Zappa’s yellow Strat. I wore out my copy of Does Humour Belong In Music. His guitar looked and sounded so great on that video. These days I’m usually lusting after vintage Nationals, Silvertones or Harmonys. I’d love to get a vintage Gibson P90 Goldtop one day.
GT: What was the best gig you ever did?
TR: A couple of years back I was out in Poland playing a festival. At the press conference I’d met Ron ‘Bumblefoot’ Thal and we hit it off straight away. Later he asked me if I was coming to the jam on the encore of Anthony Gomes set. I went along and ended up playing the encore using Ron’s double-neck guitar. That was a blast.
GT: And your worst playing nightmare?
TR: I’ve played shows where amps have done down literally just as I’ve gone on stage. That’s a complete nightmare. Another nightmare thing is breaking a string early in the set on a guitar that you don’t have a spare for. In the moment it’s more stress than you need.
GT: Do you still practise?
TR: When I was in my 20s, I practised a lot. I really got into modes and scales, I really wanted to get a complete handle on intervals so in an improvisational situation I could add any melodic flavour at will. These days I do a lot of writing so don’t have as much time to focus on that type of practice. My practising now is generally relearning guitar parts for recording or working on improving solos. If I have a solo to record, I’ll spend time working on scale and fingering options so when the time comes to do the take, I can be free on the instrument.
GT: Do you have a pre-gig warm-up routine?
TR: I spend a good half hour playing, just to make sure my hands are warmed up. It really helps to free up your muscles and tendons. It’s never good starting a show cold.
GT: If you could put together a fantasy band with you in it, who would the others be?
TR: Vinnie Colaiuta on drums, Trilok Gurtu on percussion, George Duke on keys and Bruce Thomas on bass. His bass lines on Elvis Costello’s Armed Forces are absolutely phenomenal.
GT: Present company excepted, who’s the greatest guitarist that’s ever lived?
TR: There are so many great guitarists that have added to the evolution of the instrument. Jimi Hendrix obviously is someone who redefined the electric guitar and was a real innovator, taking the blues into the stratosphere. Then there’s Wes Montgomery and Django Reinhardt, both so distinctive and hugely influential. If I had to pick three of the greatest, they would be Frank Zappa, Chris Whitley, and Allan Holdsworth. Zappa had such a unique, creative style and was a master of tone across his sprawling output of records. He was unbelievably inventive as an improvisor. Chris Whitley’s playing was so stark and raw. It sounded like pure emotion, a guy with his own personal vocabulary on the instrument. Then you have the peerless Allan Holdsworth. That guy was an alien, so far ahead of anything that was being done on the instrument, evennow.
GT: One solo you really wish you had played? TR: Frank Zappa’s Watermelon In Easter Hay from the 1979 Joe’s Garage album. To me it’s the ultimate guitar solo. The main theme has so much vibe, that clean Strat through the Space Station echo, it’s timeless. Being in 9/4 you’d think it would be jarring, but it’s quite the opposite, and the Mixolydian flavour, the way Frank uses it is just beautiful.
GT: What’s the solo or song of your own of which you’re most proud?
TR: I think I’m most proud of the material on my new record. I worked hard to focus on writing good songs, good solos and cut away all the fat. The album was recorded at Rockfield, my dream studio, with the best musicians and is a huge step up in production. Making this record really showed me that if you get the right team, you can get amazing results.
GT: And what are you up to at the moment?
I’m focusing on promoting my new album ...The Fire Cosmic! I’ll be releasing singles from that this year, then dropping the album at the back end of the summer. I have a few festivals booked for this year, then a two-month UK tour next year in March and April with Wille & The Bandits.