SIXTY seconds with...
A minute’s all it takes to find out what makes a great guitarist tick. Before he jumped into his limo for the airport we grabbed a quick chat with UK blues sensation,
Ben Poole, a British blues player who’s setting the circuit alight with great songs and playing.
GT: Do you have a type of pick that you can’t live without?
BP: I’ve been using Dunlop Jazz III XLs for many years now. I like to play pretty hard so a solid plectrum is essential and there are none that are plastic and firmer than these. I used to play the smaller versions which apparently are good for improving your string hitting accuracy but I kept dropping them so the XLs are perfect. I do a lot of finger picking as well and these picks seem to be perfect size for tucking away under my second finger.
GT: If you had to give up all your pedals but three, what would they be?
BP: Seymour Duncan Pickup Booster. I’ve been using this pedal for many years since one was first given to me by Bruce Dickinson who co-founded BIMM (the Brighton Institute of Modern Music) where I was a degree student; an awesome pedal as a very subtle boost that just seems to slightly fatten and warm up your tone. I take this pedal everywhere with me. Tube Screamer 808. Obviously one of the most famous pedals in the world, and there’s a reason for that. You just can’t really go wrong with them. I’ve had mine since I was very young, and it still works perfectly and sounds great. I’ve been through tons of great overdrive pedals but always seem to come back to the little green box. I bought it after finding out that it was one of SRV’s secret ingredients to his tone and have never looked back.
GT: Do you play another instrument well enough to be in a band, and if so have you ever done it?
BP: The truth is no! Which, considering that my dad was a multi-instrumentalist and played a huge array of things from banjo, ukulele and guitar to flute and piano as well as being a professional singer, is perhaps a surprise to some people. I guess I was always so OCD and focused purely on the guitar all of my life - even when there was a beautiful baby grand piano sat in our house since I can remember! One day… haha!
GT: If a music chart were put in front of you, could you read it?
BP: Yes. I studied classical guitar very intensely for several years and did all of my classical grades when I was in my early teens. Then I had to pass reading exams when I was doing my Music BA (hons) degree at the Brighton Institute of Modern Music. I’m a little out of practice now as I’ve not been put in a position where I’ve had to read in many years, but I’m sure I’d pick it up again pretty quickly - having had so much experience in the past.
GT: Do guitar cables really make a difference? What make are yours? BP: I’ve been endorsed by Cordial Cables, based in Germany for the last few years. They make strong, high quality and very reliable leads, which has been awesome as I found myself going through so many in the past. Also, Rolf Pedalboards based in Switzerland who helped me get my board together made a bunch of bespoke, high quality patch leads. I think people often
overlook the benefits of having great quality leads. Since replacing all of my leads with high quality ones, my signal and tone have cleaned up and I now have almost zero noise from my rig.
GT: Is there anyone’s playing (past or present) that you’re slightly jealous of? (And why?)
BP: Derek Trucks. Not only his lead playing which is always SO emotive and beautiful, but his groove. When he sets up a song just on guitar or is just playing a rhythm part behind for example Susan Tedeschi or Mike Mattison from the Derek Trucks band, his timing and his pocket is just unreal and I’m always drawn to it. It’s this combination of being an immense lead player (which I think most people can agree on) as well as an amazing rhythm player which makes me envious of him.
GT: Your house/studio is burning down: which guitar do you salvage?
BP: My old battered two-tone sunburst Fender USA Tele. She’s been everywhere with me, all across the world throughout Europe, America and Russia. If I only take one guitar on a fly-in show it’s this one. In fact, I’m flying out to Italy this weekend to play a festival and will only take this guitar. Fitted with DiMarzio pickups - Chopper T in at the bridge and Tone King in the neck and thus all the electronics have been changed from 250k to 500k and there’s a coil tap in the tone pot. Bought from new in mint condition, all the wear and tear is natural and just happened over the years from being used and abused on stage and thrown around in tour buses and aeroplanes.
GT: What’s your favourite amp and how do you set it?
BP: My 1974 Fender Pro-Reverb, modded slightly by Chris Rift at Rift Amps and fitted with Screaming Eagle Eminence speakers. It belonged to my pal Aynsley Lister and I’d borrowed it initially from him when recording my previous album, Time Has Come. I ended up using it on pretty much every guitar part we recorded on that album so after we finished recording I begged Ayns to sell it to me which thankfully he eventually agreed to. It’s really nice and open sounding and, unlike a ridiculously loud Twin, you can wind the volume up without it being deafening, pushing the valves and getting some grit. It starts to break up nicely from about 5/6 on the volume, so I usually set it at 7/8 where it really starts to blossom.
GT: What kind of action do you have on your guitars? Any quirks?
BP: I’d say it’s a medium action - not too low and not too high. I think it’s good to feel a little bit of struggle in a guitar. By not having a perfectly low action you have to work a bit, which personally I think brings out a fire and aggressiveness in my playing. As a fan of Gary Moore, Slash, SRV, Hendrix and Jeff Healey I do a lot of bending so having a stupidly high action would be a killer now that I’m playing so many shows every year.
by not havin g a perfect ly low action yo u have to work a bit whic h brin gs out fire and aggression in my playin g
Hats off to those guys who have a high action and heavy gauge strings and manage to still play with 100% intensity and for a full show.
GT: What strings do you use?
BP: I’m using Ernie Ball ‘Light Top, Heavy Bottom’ 10-52 right now. I’ve been endorsed by Ernie Ball for the past few years and the strings are great. They feel slick and are strong. I always used them when I was younger too based purely on the fact that I had a poster with Hendrix on advertising them. With the likes of Eric Clapton, Slash, Jimmy Page, Joe Perry, Angus Young, Jeff Beck, John Mayer and many more using them I feel I could not be in better company on this front.
GT: Who was your very first influence to play the guitar?
BP: My guitar teacher Andy Larmouth.
GT: What was the first guitar you really lusted after?
BP: Gibson Les Paul .
GT: What was the best gig you ever did?
BP: Tough one. Either Glastonbury festival, Download festival or Playing With Fire festival in the States.
GT: And your worst playing nightmare?
BP: Not being able to play! I actually sliced part of the end of my fretting-hand third finger off midway through an intense 12-date tour of Spain back in 2016, on a piece of metal sticking out of my guitar case during load-in. The piece of skin was just about hanging on so my tour manager had to superglue it back on, then put a plaster on and then a small piece of gaffer tape to secure it. For another seven nights straight we played and by the end of each show my hand was covered with blood. It was tough tour, but the show must go on!
GT: What’s the most important musical lesson you ever learnt?
BP: After I played with Gary Moore we chatted at length and he gave me so much great advice about timing, phrasing and listening to the greats which in his mind were Eric Clapton and Peter Green. He said to me it’s more about the space you leave than the notes you play. To this day I couldn’t agree more.
GT: Do you still practise?
BP: Being so busy makes it difficult. When I do get time to grab a guitar, 99% of the time it’s an acoustic, and I’m focused on writing or singing a song than running scales or licks.
GT: Do you have a pre-gig warm-up routine?
BP: I’ll sometimes run some spider exercises just to stretch the fingers and get the dexterity going while warming up my voice at the same time. And while also supping on a glass of good bourbon or a single malt of course. Multi-tasking I hear you say?
GT: If you could put together a fantasy band with you in it, who would the other players be (dead or alive)?
BP: Buddy Miles on drums, Andy Fraser on bass. That would be a killer rhythm section for a three-piece. One of the first albums I owned when I was around 11 was Hendrix live at the Fillmore East and Buddy is out of this world on that. Then the inimitable Andy Fraser from Free on bass. But saying that I also think Free were one of the coolest bands ever so I’d just effectively love to, in a fantasy, join that band as second guitarist. Each member was so talented in an understated way but collectively they had such a big impressive sound and amazing songs, so I’d just effectively just like to have joined that band! With Paul Rodgers on vocals who still sounds incredible to this day (if not even better than ever), the powerhouse Simon Kirke on drums and of course who can deny that Kossoff sound - his phrasing, tone and that vibrato!
GT: Present company excepted, who’s the greatest guitarist that’s ever lived?
BP: Hendrix. I know it’s probably the most common answer but I think that’s for a good reason. He changed the face of the guitar world completely. What he was doing at the time when he burst onto the scene in the ’60s was incomprehensible. He was so ahead of his time and such an innovator of not only the way the guitar could be played but also his work with effects and studio techniques.
GT: Is there a solo by someone else that you really wish you had played?
BP: Voodoo Child.
GT: What’s the solo or song of your own of which you’re most proud?
BP: Either the song Time Might Never Come which I co-wrote on my last album and was inspired massively by Gary Moore, or the guitar solo on Anytime You Need Me which is the title track from the new album and was a first take solo.
GT: What would you most like to be remembered for?
BP: Making great music and putting on great shows - always with a smile on my face.
Ben Poole’s new album Anytime You Need Me is out now on Manhaton Records. It features a cover of Dirty Laundry, written by Don Henley. Ben tours the UK in November and December. For further info go to: www.benpooleband.com.