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 Wille Edwards of Cornwall-based blues-rockers, Wille & The Bandits.
Slide guitarist supreme, Wille Edwards of Cornish blues-rockers Wille & The Bandits.
GT: Do you have a type of pick that you can’t live without?
WE: I have never used a pick as I started playing on acoustic guitars and various slide guitars such as Weissenborn and Dobro. I developed a fingerpicking style and over the years began to apply the technique to electric guitars as I wanted to develop my own style and sound. In place of a pick, I do have my signature Ben Harper Slide which I can’t live without.
GT: You have to give up all your pedals but three: which ones stay?
WE: First choice would be my Tube Screamer as I just love that creamy drive and how it pushes the tubes in my amp to create that overdriven sound. Second, my Stymon Timeline; I really love this pedal, especially with an expression pedal (sneaking an extra pedal in!) and on the tape delay setting you can go from Floyd to GOAT to Hendrix and really lose yourself in the ambience. I have always been a huge fan of tape delay and on this pedal, you can change the deterioration of the tape which is a fantastic parameter to be able to play with. Lastly, my Ernie Ball Stereo Pan pedal - this pedal is vital to my sound and especially when overdriving my acoustic. It splits the signal into two and I send one to my J48 Radial DI and the other to my overdriven valve amp; the pedal then lets me blend them together creating great control of your tone and feedback.
GT: Do you play another instrument well enough to be in a band; and if so have you done it?
WE: I play piano and trumpet to a very basic level and thought I couldn’t play it in a band, but then I heard a band that I won’t name that were so poor it has given me hope for a live performance debut at some point.
GT: If a music chart were put in front of you, could you read it?
WE: A what?
GT: Do guitar cables really make a difference? What make are yours?
WE: I used to think they didn’t make much difference, but then I started using Joe Bonamassa’s signature cables by Klotz and I think they really made a difference, especially in the lower-mid range, so now I am quite fussy with my cables and I do use a lot in my set-up.
GT: Is there anyone’s playing (past or present) that you’re slightly jealous of?
WE: I am in awe of Derek Trucks and the tone and intonation he gets on slide guitar. He’s always bang-on without any vibrato. I would love to be able to nail it every time like he can. I also have a big admiration for Kelly Joe Phelps and how great his right hand is; his picking techniques are phenomenal and the separation with his fingers is off the chain. If you could combine the two that would be some player.
GT: Your studio is burning down: which guitar do you salvage?
WE: Probably my Anderwood Electric Weissenborn that I helped build with Anderwood guitars. The guitar has a mahogany body and a koa top and like a typical Weissenborn is hollow through the neck. It then stays hollow throughout the body and under the pickups. This gives infinite sustain and with Seymour Duncan classic ‘59s it produces those never-ending notes which you want from an electric lap slide. I love it for my roaring lap steel solos which are up to the 24th fret holding the sustain into the next note: a very Gilmour thing.
GT: What’s your favourite amp and how do you set it?
WE: A Waring amp made by an amp builder in Devon called Richard Waring. These amps are 10w and have full valve warmth. There is no EQ: just roll it up to 5 and you’re away as the sound breaks up on 2. Richard is putting these into manufacture soon. Watch this space.
GT: What kind of action do you have on your guitars?
WE: I normally have a high action on my Guild acoustic as I play a lot of bottleneck and don’t want to be clipping the fretboard too much and bottoming out the note. On my lap slides there is no action, just a big, big gap, no frets and lots of sustain. I set up my Les Paul with a slightly higher action than normal, again for slide, but my Fender Telecaster is very low, so I can fly around the fretboard and hammer off and on with more ease.
GT: What strings do you use?
WE: D’Addario Phosphor Bronze light gauge strings (12-53) on all my acoustic guitars. I just love the sustain, even though the amp gives it a thick, warm tone. On my electric lap steels and Dobros I use D’Addario Resophonic strings which are 16-56 gauge and the reason is, the thicker the gauge, the more sustain you get and especially as the string doesn’t touch the fretboard. The more tension in the string the more responsive the sound is, and this helps with the intricacies and subtleties in slide guitar playing. On my electrics I am trying out different strings but am mainly using D’Addario NYXL at the moment and liking the balanced tone I’m getting.
GT: Who was your first influence to play the guitar?
WE: It had to be listening to Pink Floyd and those David Gilmour solos. I remember being transported to another place and having goose bumps all over. It wasn’t until I got older that I realised that he used lap steel for the solos and this may have been subconsciously why I was drawn to the electric lap steel and Weissenborn style guitar. When I get back from tour, I always play a Pink Floyd record with a nice glass of Glenmorangie as a welcome home treat.
GT: What was the first guitar you really lusted after?
WE: It was a white Fender Strat that Hendrix used to play, but unfortunately my parents couldn’t afford it so I had to make do with a battered old acoustic that I used to try and play like an electric. Hence my style, to overdrive my acoustic, creating a bigger sound with open tunings etc. I have moved onto electric now and play a Les Paul Custom and a Telecaster Classic ‘72 which I’m really enjoying as it gives me more tonal options on stage and in the studio.
GT: What do you think was the best gig you ever did?
WE: Either Cropredy Festival or Berg Herzberg festival; both these festivals are big audiences, but the audiences are proper musos and at both these festivals we got double encores. Not sure if the band on afterwards were very happy, but the connection with the audience was electric and fans still talk about these shows today.
my parents co uldn ’t afford a white st rat so i had to make do wit h a batte red old aco ustic
GT: And what about your worst playing nightmare?
WE: I can’t think of many, but one incident comes to mind, when we were playing a show. I was sitting down playing lap steel as I do on a lot of our songs and the stool got stuck in the gap in the staging and I fell off the back of it. The crowd were all worried I was okay, while Andy and Matt were in fits of laughter. I have taken to standing up more when I play, but when I do need to sit to play lap steel, I always inspect where I place my stool.
GT: What’s the most important musical lesson you ever learn?
WE: That the song is always the most important thing and that guitar solos, which we have a lot of, must have a melody that fits with the song or is an extension of it. I
never want to be a band who solos for the sake of it or to show off; it must complement the melodic arrangement. Writing songs is what I love the most and the more texture, guitars and styles you have the deeper your writing can go.
GT: Do you still practise, or are gigs your practice ground?
WE: Yes I always practise. I’m always looking for new inspiration, whether it be different tunings, different slide guitars, different techniques or just jamming with different musicians. I’m really enjoying the electric guitar at the moment and am practising most nights for two to three hours.
GT: Do you have a pre-show warm-up routine to get you prepared for the gig?
WE: Just to relax and do some vocal warm-ups and a few noodles on the guitar. Maybe sink a pint of Tribute and eat a pasty.
GT: If you could put together a fantasy band with you in it, who would the other players be?
WE: Drums, Michael Barker (Split Enz, John Butler Trio); bass, Danny Thompson (legendary folk musician); guitar, Jeff Beck; keyboard, Don Airey; vocals, Chris Cornell; guitar and vocals – Me!
GT: Present company accepted, who do you say is the greatest guitarist that’s ever lived?
WE: It’s either Derek Trucks or David Gilmour.
GT: Is there a solo by another guitarist you wish you had played?
WE: High Hopes - Pink Floyd.
GT: What’s the solo or song of your own that you’re most proud of?
WE: Angel. It’s a 14-minute instrumental that I wrote for my mum when she passed away. I say wrote but it just happened, it was just letting out all the emotions that I felt in the most difficult period of my life. The song moves through different paces, themes and styles which I feel follows the journey of her life. Her memory expressed through music.
GT: What would you most like to be remembered for?
WE: Being innovative in the way we write music. Not being a band that has a formula to our writing but pushing our sound in different directions and keeping the listeners guessing. I want to be a band that plays on the edge. I never want to be comfortable in what I’m playing; I want to be pushing myself, always from a musical perspective and a personal one too.
i’m always loo kin g for ne w ins piration , be it ne w tunin gs, di fferent guit ars or just jammin g wit h ot her musici ans