JB: Sorry I’m a little late. I kept telling my manager I had a 3:00 PM interview and he just kept going on and on and finally I said, “Dude, listen, I got to get off this call.”

GC: No problem Joe. I know you’re a very busy guy and we’re just pleased you’re taking the time to talk to us. In fact, as your probably know, Guitar Connoisseur wants to do a special issue with you on the cover – like the current Billy Gibbons issue.

JB: Hey that’s great. I’ve seen that issue.

CG: Excellent. You’ve seen the latest issue of Guitar Connoisseur and I’ve heard your latest album release, Blues of Desperation, which in my humble opinion and apparently the opinion of all the fans currently driving it to the top of the charts, is a superb piece of work.

JB: Thank very much. You know it was all original material and I was able to rekindle my love for song writing. I think that element took a back seat to performing for a while but with this effort I re-lit the pilot light so to speak.

CG: I liked the way you put in another interview. I think you said something like, “I wrote a new book.”

JB: Yeah, I only wrote one song completely by myself and the rest were done with other songwriters involved and I really enjoyed the process. It can be exasperating but totally fulfilling when it works. All great things seem to need a foil one way or another which highlights the need for others to get involved. I know artists who write all the songs, play them all, produce them all, handle the insurance --- ( laughter ) --- wash the dishes, take out the trash ---- ( more laughter ) ---- I mean where does it end? At some point how do you make heads or tails of where you are?

CG: In other words, true collaboration is a way to create great art while retaining your perspective and maybe even preserving a wee bit of your sanity.

JB: (laughter) Exactly!

CG: On some of this album you plugged a Fender guitar straight into a Fender Amp and let it rip. True?

JB: True, but I still predominately played my 59 Gibson Les Paul Standard for most of the album. But yeah, I did rekindle my love for the Fender Stratocaster. And as for the amps, this is the first album in which I didn’t bring my Marshall amp. I did have a Marshall Blues Breaker combo amp – a 66 – but I never plugged it in. The Fender flavor is the kind of music I want to make and the Fender High Powered 59 Tweed Twin in particular is the only amp I’ve ever found that bring out the natural quality of anything you plug into it. I mean, you plug a Telecaster into a 59 twin amp and wind it up – it plays the best tele sound you’ve ever heard. It’s like ‘wow”, that’s a Tele. Then you plug a Stratocaster into it and get the bellowing howl and so again, ‘wow’, there’s your quintessential Stratocaster. I mean it sounds like Paul Kossoff or something. Again, the Tweed Twin in particular has this magic. Personally, I think it’s Leo’s greatest amplifier by far – the genius and forward thinking involved – I guess you could say mass produced, but there were only 500 total and it’s all really pretty extraordinary.

CG: I know. Aren’t they still using the same basic circuits that Leo tweaked and perfected back in his Fullerton, Ca. garage a half century ago?

JB: Yes. 1000%. Every 100 watt Marshall is related to or derived from this Fender Amp. Here we are what, 60 years later and the genius of the guy was extraordinary as an amp designer and builder. It’s really pretty staggering. He was a true game changer and in many ways the musical equivalent of Henry Ford. I mean, Paul Bixby has to be in that conversation; Ted McCarty over at Gibson – he too was a game changer. The amount of invention that occurred between and among those guys like from about 1952 to 1960 pretty well defines everything we’ve used from 1960 to the current day. Their forward reach was amazing because yeah, there have been modifications, innovations, and improvements, but it all goes back to those guys in that one brief span of time.

GC: Incidentally, I currently live on Maryland’s Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake Bay about 25 miles or so of Paul Reed Smith’s place and he was kind enough to allow me to tour the factory as well as interview him and we went down much this same conversational path discussing that brief but magical time when pioneers like Rickenbacker – Fender – Bixby – George Beauchamp and McCarty were all pushing the sonic envelope and trying to catch lightning in a bottle.

JB: Ah yes – The Chesapeake Bay and Blue Crabs. Anyway, I know Paul came out with a McCarty model and admired Ted very much.

GC: Ted was a big influence and mentor to Paul and you’re right, he introduced the original McCarty Model in 94 or 95 I think it was, and then re-introduced it last year during the PRS 30th year anniversary celebration.

JB: Ted was Gibson’s research and development guy, in particular in their electronic division. They had predominately been an archtop company until about 1952 and then all of a sudden under Ted’s watch you get classics like the 335 and the Les Paul Standard, the flame top, the flying V, the explorer – you name it. Said differently, just imagine if it was a car company and the only thing they did was make re-issues of models from 1955 to 1960!

GC: Speaking of that time period, what’s the difference between your 59 Les Paul “Spot” and say Billy Gibbons’ 59 – “Pearly Gates?”

JB: Good question. I’ve never played Billy’s guitar, but first of all I’ve got nine bursts. I have four 60s and five 59s, but they’re all different in some way or other. The Les Paul I used on this record is a 59 called “Snake Bite” because at one time someone flirted with the idea of putting a Bixby Bar on it and in the process drilled a hole and so you know – it had a snake bite. “Spot” was on tour as of a few weeks ago, but I didn’t use it on this latest album. Still, “Spot” comes out regularly, as does “Snake Bite” as well as a 60 model that I love I try to rotate them on a regular basis including my Flying V.

Source: Guitar Connoisseur