Question 1 From BlueBuddha
Is there a question you never get asked, but really want to answer ?
Answer 1
Yeah, I wish someone would ask me if I wanted a million dollars. My response would be, yes, I'd love a million dollars.
Question 2 - From BlueBuddha
What do you get sick of answering (hopefully not the first Q!) ?
Answer 2
How do you pronounce your last name?
Question 3 - From BlueBuddha
What do you want to do tomorrow?
Answer 3
I'll probably be working on some new songs tomorrow.
Question 4 From Junior 88
What made you want to start playing guitar?
Answer 4-
My dad used to play some acoustic guitar when I was really young. I just fell in love with the sound it made. there's nothing better than rich and full sounding chords! Shortly after I had my own acoustic and I was taking lessons.
Question 5 From Junior 88
Do you play any other instruments?
Answer 5
I LOVE playing bass guitar. I've got this other side project that's really aggresive and fast so I'm trying to do a lot of power chords to thicken up the sound with it. The fingers on my left hand aren't used to the big bass strings so I always leave practice with a huge blister. I bought a drumset a while back but living in an apartment (2nd story) isn't really suitable for playing drums, I'll be in a house shortly so I think I'll be spending a lot of time in the pocket. I also enjoy playing piano as much as possible
Question 6 From Cornish Boy
Hi Phil, what music did your parents listen to as you were growing up??
Answer 6-
I remember my dad listening to a ton of Tom Petty, The Eagles, and some Pink Floyd. I used to LOVE Free Fallin' and Don't Come Around Here No More. Tom Petty and Mike Campbell are genius songwriters. Hotel California is one of those songs that I remember always loving too. That song is just so epic when the guitar harmonies all come in at the end! Money by Floyd really stands out when I think back to the earliest time I remember hearing and appreciating music.
Question 7 From funkymunky
WHAT is your funniest (family friendly) spinal tap moment.
Answer 7 -
I couldn't tell you how many Spinal Tap moments we've had, the list goes on and on. There was this one time (it's in our DVD) that our bus driver looked at his GPS and it told him to take this short cut through a dirt road, and it would save us a lot of time driving from like Utah to Nevada or something. Well. I wake up in the morning to the bus rumbling and tilting all over the place. I was too scared to get out of my bunk when all of a sudden the bus just starts drifting backwards down hill and makes these jurassic park sounds, and then we stop. I get out of my bunk and notice that we're right on the edge of this huge steep hill and we stopped cause our trailer jack-knifed the bus. If it hadn't we probably would've fallen down this hillside and died horribly. We ended up having to unload the trailer and do all this other stuff to get the bus over the hill. Eventually we made it over then we got stuck in the sludgiest of all muds and that consumed another few hours of our time. It was probably one of the stupidest days of my life. Worst bus driver ever. The DVD definitely gets more into detail about the adventure. Once, I fell off the stage in Milwaukee. I've tripped and fallen over onstage numerous times. My hair's gotten stuck on my tuning pegs before. There have also been MANY occasions when I really didn't know how to get to the stage! Oh yeah, one time YEARS AGO I tried a guitar swing and the headstock went straight into the brick wall beside me and shattered it. That was pretty stupid of me.
Question 8 From the_high_number
What made you choose washburn???
Answer 8 -
I decided to stop playing Les Pauls because they're too nice/ pricey of guitars to withstand the abuse of touring as much as we do. Jody from Washburn hit me up and he sent me out a couple of guitars and they were able to stay in good use and any time I had a problem on the road, I was able to send it back to Washburn and they'd fix it for me. It's always good to have a company that really supports you as an artist. It goes a long way for guys like me that constantly have issues with my rig.
Question 9 From the_high_number
what models do you play?? is there anything you wish those models have that they don't??
Answer 9 -
I play the Preacher mostly. Paul Stanley's model has a real smooth feel and look to it and its closest to the style I'm more used to, which is a single cutaway. I also play the newer V model that they've been putting out recently. It has the best feeling neck I've ever played. I really like the way it sits and balances while I'm onstage too. The V also sounds the best in my opinion.
Question 10 From thatninjadave
First off i would just like to say that you are the most incredible guitar player i have ever seen. i was speechless when i first met you at warped last year. anyway, i was just wondering how you learned to play the guitar so well? i mean the way you move your fingers around is incredible.
Answer 10 -
Thanks a lot! I started playing guitar when I was 10. I started off on acoustic and did lessons right away. My teacher taught me a lot of classical stuff as well as a more rhythmic style of playing. Once I got good enough to figure out other band's songs, I would just sit there for hours picking apart all the guitar parts. I used to listen to a lot of Fat Wreck and Tooth and Nail punk bands that had really good guitar players. They always incorporated a lot of fast single notes and harmonies, octaves, the list goes on. If those bands hadn't existed, I wouldn't be anywhere near the playing level I'm at now. In high school, I used to play acoustic guitar for my church too and that enabled me to really get my rhythm playing down.
Question 11 From seattledude1108
Hey phil your one of my favorite guitar players, I was wondering what is your current rig(guitars,amps,pedals,strings,ect...),favorite piece of gear, and how do you get such an awsome guitar tone?(maybe your amp and pedal settings haha)
Answer 11 -
Here's the rig:
Washburn Preacher w/ EMG 81 in bridge, EMG 85 in neck
Washburn V w/ EMG 81 in bridge, EMG 85 in neck
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Line 6 X2 Digital Wireless
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4 Line Whirlwind Multi-Selector
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Voodoo Labs GCX
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Feed Thru to Korg DTR 2000 Tuner
Loop 1 Maxon OD808 Tube Screamer
Loop 2 ISP Decimator Noise Suppressor Channel 1 (PRE)
Loop 3 ISP Decimator Noise Suppressor Channel 2 (POST)
Loop 4 Line 6 M13 Pedal
GCX Runs Midi cable out to Voodoo Labs Ground Control Pro Midi Footswitch
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Randall RM100
ULTRA XL MOD
BLACKFACE MOD
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Randall 4x12 Cab
Vintage 30's speakers
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Monster Pro2500 Power Conditioner
I hope I didn't forget anything? Probably did.
My favorite peice of gear is the Line 6 M13 pedal. I like making weird sounds and blending delays with a little bit of chorus and reverb so it does all of that in just the press of a single button.
To get a good tone, you have to condition your ear a lot. It has taken me years to get my tone where it is today. A lot of the time you have to think about how well your amp is going to sound at front of house as opposed to what's coming out of the cab so I have my sound dude helping me out with what he needs more of at front. It's always nice to have your sound guy tell you that he didn't even touch the EQ for your guitar after a show! My best advice is to listen to records that have the guitar tone you want and try to model your tone after it. Knowing what gear some of your favorite players use definitely helps and gives more hope in achieving a tone similar to theirs. For metal, EMG 81's and a tube screamer are pretty crucial. GOOD LUCK!
Question 12 From Pike
Hi Phil, what's your favorite Washburn?
Answer 12 -
My favorites are Paul Stanley's Preacher or the V model. Both equally as awesome depending on what style you're mostly into.
