Townshend/Entwistle Interview

[Ty Conner <wthyo@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Here's an article on the up coming tour that I don't think has been posted
yet: http://www.guitarcenter.com/interview/thewho/thewho_FRAME.shtml

GC: Since JBL is sponsoring your summer tour, tell us about your past
experience that connects you to them.

Pete: The first memory I have is of an audition with our post-school band
The Detours. We were hoping to get a summer season with Butlins a holiday
camp circuit in the UK. The Tremeloes were at the audition with Fender
guitars and amplifiers they hauled on stage quickly and played
expertly--they would get a job. We didn9t, we were just kids, really. But
afterwards I spoke to them and asked about the amps - The Shadows used Vox
amps. They told me that these amps had JBL speakers, that9s why the sound
travelled so well.

A few years later I bought my own first Fender amp - a Fender Pro with a 15"
JBL. John McLaughlin sold it to me. I was a Steve Cropper fan, and getting
his sound was my main aim. JBLs were legendary then. There were other good
speakers, but JBLs looked good, and sounded extraordinary. The treble
penetration was so good.

At The Who9s first studio, Ramport (where we recorded Quadrophenia), I used
twelve JBL 4350 speakers set up in 6 pairs for a kind of 5.1 sound (long
before 5.1 sound was invented). They were devastatingly loud, and great!
Playbacks at Ramport were orgasmic.

Today I use JBL speakers everywhere in my life--at home and in the studio. I
still have several sets of 4311s, and lots of smaller speakers that I like
to use rather than those funny Yamaha things everyone loves. I use big
modern JBLs for my cinema set up at home (I use the cinema rig as a test bed
for my 5.1 mixes as well).

GC: What were the motivations behind doing this tour?

Pete: Friendship, keeping our hand in, keeping Roger from going nuts,
keeping John supplied with houses, and keeping me supplied with JBL
speakers! We will play a wider range of stuff. We want to include difficult
songs like I Can See For Miles, Go to the Mirror Boy, Eminence Front and
Love Reign O9er Me.

GC: How's your hearing situation and does it affect what you'll be doing
live this time?

Pete: My ears are just fine. I stopped early enough to prevent trouble.
Remember, I stopped touring with The Who in 1982. Since then, I9ve had to
accept a lot of sneers because of this, I9ve been very careful to slowly
work up to where I think I am safe to play live again.

GC: What instruments will you be playing on tour?

Pete: I play Fender electrics and Gibson acoustics. I use Fender amps now.
Mixed speakers: three 10" JBLs in the top box and two 12" JBLs in the
bottom.

GC: What are your plans for recording in October? Are you writing material
for those sessions?

Pete: I am not sure yet how it9s going to work out. I am not writing yet,
though. I think we have to be very careful not set ourselves up here - we
need to make a good record, but I do not personally have time to f--k around
making a record we may not put out. I won9t waste my time with too much
experimentation.

GC: What9s in your home studio?

Pete: I have an 8-track Studer A820 1" analogue machine, an old Neve board,
and some valve compressors made in 1967 by a friend. I can still get my old
sound. Since 1985, I9ve been using Synclavier and I still love it. But I
also use RADAR and sometimes a Mac running Digital Performer (DP3) for when
I work with outsiders. When I record people in my studio they weep with
frustration that they can9t just live and work in there for life, like I
can. I9m good, my kit is good, and I feel so lucky to have enough space for
such great - but space-greedy - equipment.

I also have a big studio still with several rooms that has the last
remaining old Focusrite board in the world, 48-track RADAR and analogue
machines. I have a video post-pro suite with a Sony DMX-R 100 digital mixer,
RADAR and Mac stuff for 5.1 mixing. I also have a Mac mastering room using
Spark XL, and an editing suite for video using a Mac with Final Cut Pro and
a Matrox card.

I still like to fiddle around making films, too - so the studio is rigged
for low end MiniDV video shooting. It9s fun from start to finish. I really
hope I work with studio kit in the next life; I never get bored with it.

Music though, I wouldn9t mind leaving behind sometimes. I just can9t get it
out of my head.

Guitar Center Interview with John Entwistle.

GC: Tell us about your current bass rig.

John: I9ll start at the bottom and work my way up. Rather than use a cross
over type system, I use three separate amplifier systems: one for bottom,
one for the mid and one for top.

At the bottom end I use an Ashdown signature model, ABM RPM1 (my signature),
which is a Klystron Bass Pre-Magnifier powered by an Ashdown PM1000 power
amplifier. This is running two Ashdown 8 x 10 cabinets. At the mid range, I
use a Trace Elliot V-Type V8 valve amplifier going through two 2 x 12"
Ashdown JE cabinets. On the top end it gets even more complicated: to obtain
treble and sustain at low volume, I use a Line 6 POD Pro programmable
pre-amp or a Digitech 2120 Artist Valve Guitar System. These are powered by
another Ashdown PM1000 power amplifier going in stereo into another two 2 x
12" JE speaker cabinets with Ashdown Blue 12" drivers.

My guitar plugs into a converted Alembic input module with an A/B guitar
switch to enable smooth guitar changes. The input module has 4 outputs, one
to each amp system and the forth to a Korg DTR Digital Tuner. This is the
current system I use with The Who. With my own band, JEB (the John Entwistle
Band), the system is pretty much the same, only the bottom end speakers are
four Ashdown JE ASS 15" cabinets powered in mono by two Ashdown PM1000 power
amplifiers. I carry two spare speaker cabinets for each system and two spare
racks for both the pre-amps and the amps. A spare for the spare--just to be
safe. Guitar wise, I carry four Status Buzzard four-string basses totally
made of graphite to my own design and two Status Buzzard eight-string
basses.

GC: You9ve gone through quite a few makes and models of amps over the years.
Can you take us through the high points of your amp history.

John: I started out with an 18" speaker, which lived in an open-back
cabinet. The rest of the band (we had no roadie at the time) objected to the
heaviness of the cabinet with the 18" inside it. So we had the idea to hang
the speaker on a six-inch nail and carry it in a separate cardboard box.
Consequently every time I played a low E note the speaker would vibrate off
the nail and fall on the floor behind the cabinet. I guess I learned how to
play with just my left hand in this way - as I needed the right to hang the
damn speaker back on the nail!

After that, I went through a whole collection of different 50-watt amps and
different speakers until, contrary to popular belief, Marshall made the
first 4 x 12" speaker cabinets. I bought the second, fifth, eighth and
ninth. We insisted to Marshall that we needed a 100-watt amplifier for more
power. They insisted it was impossible, but made one anyway. Pete and myself
bought the first four.