GET THE SOUND

Everything you need to know before playing ‘Hold The Line’

By the time Toto had formed in 1977, the band members were already seasoned regulars on albums by Steely Dan, Boz Scaggs, Sonny & Cher and several other popular artists of the time. Having played many sessions together, drummer Jeff Porcaro and keyboardist David Paich brought in bassist David Hungate and guitarist Steve Lukather, who had played in Scaggs’ band.

Soon after, Paich began composing their eponymous debut album, which features this month’s track, Hold The Line. According to Paich, the writing process was fairly straightforward: “It started out with the piano riff that is in the intro. I started playing this riff and I just couldn’t stop playing it. I played it for days, and I started singing, ‘Hold the line, love isn’t always on time’. It was a phrase that just came into my head...

It was a blessing”.

Turn the page as we take you through Lukather’s parts as well as a guitar arrangement of Paich’s blessed keyboard part!

Although best known for his signature Music Man guitars (now in Luke III incarnation), Lukather actually played a Les Paul Goldtop on Holdtheline, plugging into a Paul Rivera-modified blackface Fender Deluxe Reverb for amplification. Humbucking bridge pickups and rich valve distortion are your ballpark tone for the choruses, with less gain in the verses. Dial in plenty of distortion in the solo with plenty of delay for a rich ambience.