Interview: Rich Johnson

 

I found it hard to write songs on bass. I had musical ideas, and couldn’t really sing back then. So switching to guitar let me explore the relationship between chords and melodies. I suppose piano would’ve been better, but I was broke and living in a tiny apartment. Plus, a lot of my heroes played guitar (Frank Zappa, B.B. King, Jimi Hendrix, Tony Iommi, etc.)

 

 

Thanks. A lot of ideas come from jamming. Our songs are mostly group efforts. Scott Warner (the bassist) and I really know each others’ musical personalities. We can just start playing and exchange ideas. We invariably come up with parts that compliment each other.

 

 

The ValveKing can do a nice Fender-ish clean sound. That’s all I ask for in an amp. Believe it or not, I just use the clean channel. I love stacking dirt pedals to get different tones. It comes from using one channel amps for years and years. The top cab is a Line 6 with four Chinese Celestions (one of the best values in the used cab market). The bottom is a Crate straight cab with four Peavey Sheffields, which sound like Celestions.

 

 

My main guitar for Order of the Dragon is an early 80’s Hondo II Les Paul copy. I upgraded it with Grover tuners and a second-hand set of Gibson 490/498 pickups. The stock pickups were low output single coils disguised as humbuckers. I love old Asian copies like Hondos and Kents. I learned to play on those things. My guitar for non-metal stuff is an old no-name Strat. It may be from the fabled “lawsuit era” because the headstock looks exectly like a 70’s Fender, even though the bridge isn’t a standard size. It came with cheesy plastic saddles that were a pain to replace because they were narrower than any Strat saddles I could find. I had to buy the narrowest ones I could, and file them down.

 

 

A neck that feels comfortable and plays in tune and a body that provides adequate sustain. Everything else can be fixed or upgraded. But you can’t overcome a bad neck or body.

 

 

A full, balanced tone – not too bright or dark, with a medium output. I don’t seem to get along with active pickups.

 

 

My favorite is my Godzilla SG. It’s an Epiphone body with a mystery neck. As you know, I love old Godzilla movies. So I painted the big guy surrounded by fire on the front. One the back is the “Gojira” logo in Japanese. Next is my beaded Strat/Tele hybrid. The body and hardware came from a $69 Jameson guitar. The neck is from a company called Kmise. All of it was purchased with an Amazon gift certificate. I was influenced by a California artist named Larry Fuente, who decorated cars and motorcycles with beads and plastic toys.

 

 

My basic distortion comes from a Zoom Driver 5000 on the STACK 1 setting. Lots of pedals claim to be a Plexi in a box”, but this one nails it. Then I vary the tone by adding either a fuzz or overdrive in front of the Zoom. The fuzz is a Boss FZ-2 on the FUZZ 2 setting. It sounds huge. I use it to thicken single note riffs. It has a hint of an upper octave and a bit of a mid scoop. But the Zoom pedal fills in the mids nicely. For solos, I use a Joyo Vintage Overdrive. It’s a garden variety Tubescreamer clone. I use it to boost the mids and overall gain level. When I want a wall of feedback, I turn on all three dirt boxes. Rounding out the board is a Morley Pro Wah, an MXR Phase 90, and a Line 6 M5. I use the M5 mostly for it’s vintage delay models.

 

 

Something I’ve never had before. Maybe a hollow-body jazz box with a Bigsby.

 

 

I’ve been recording some instrumental songs under the name Dr. Zontar and posting them on YouTube. They’re getting more and more electronic since I’ve been playing with synths lately. I have a MicroKorg, a Kaossilator Pro, a Volca Bass and lots of drum machines. It’s a lot of fun.