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| Pat Metheny's Guitars, Amps & Effects | |
Pat Metheny's Guitars, Amps, and Effects
Gibson ES 175 Electric (1958) (Buy Gibson ES-175 Direct
This is the guitar Pat Metheny used almost exclusively for years, but it has gotten too rickety to travel with. Metheny uses "Pat Metheny Deadwound" D'Addario Strings (0.11 light gauge flatwound)
Says Pat Metheny: "To get my sound on the 175 I use flatwound strings and the tone control turned almost completely off."
Ibanez PM100 (Pat Metheny Model) (Buy Ibanez PM100 Direct)
Metheny started playing the Ibanez PM model electric because the Gibson ES-175 was becoming too rickety to travel with. Pat has since begun using the Ibanez on recordings, and bringing it on tour with him. The guitar has a single pickup and a slightly shorter body in comparison to the ES-175.
Says Pat Metheny: "One thing I really like about the Ibanez guitars is that I don't have to turn the tone control down too much to get a darker sound - those pickups are louder and much fatter sounding than the old gibson ones - although the vintage guitar purist types will no doubt continue to harp on me about how the 175 sounds "so much better" than the Ibanez; which honestly is just pure hogwash - and that is coming from the person who loves that 175 more than anyone on earth."
Roland GR-300 Guitar Synth
This is one of the older guitar synthesizers (circa 1979) which Metheny debuted on his 1982 release OffRamp. The guitarist has used the GR-300 extensively ever since then. Roland has unfortunately long discontinued production of the model.
Says Pat Metheny: "...the GR-300 was the first and, for a long time, only guitar synth that had a musical quality to it. Every little nuance and detail of what you did came out through the instrument, in terms of touch, attack, dynamics, etc. And this was because it had nothing to do with MIDI."
Linda Manzer Guitars
Pat Metheny is reputed for not only playing traditional guitars, but many unusual instruments like a sitar guitar, and a Pikasso (which has three necks - one a six string, the other two being 12-string unfretted necks for open string use). Most of these instruments have been built by Canadian-based luthier Linda Manzer. The guitar maker has also designed several more traditional acoustic instruments (one being Metheny's "Linda Six") for the guitarist.
Says Pat Metheny: "With Linda's guitars, something happened that made me hear things differently. They really fit with my conception of sound, and I can't begin to explain why. The necks were easily playable for me."
Amplifiers
"Acoustic 134" model
Pat used this transistor amp for 20 years from 1974 to 1994. Although it had the sound he was looking for, it was noisy, and tended to break a lot.
Says Pat Metheny: "That amp had the sound for me. flat, kind of midrangy-bright but mellow and LOUD without any distortion. a hard combination of things to find in one place."
Digitech 2101 DSP guitar preamp
Metheny switched to this pre-amp system when he could no longer deal with the unreliability of the Acoustic 134. The Digitech 2101 is apparently a product that the company has discontinued.
Says Pat Metheny: "With [the Digitech 2101], I could get the sound and some cool bells and whistles too, mainly pre-programmability... no more moving the barely-hangin-on-the-134-front-panel treble control exactly 2.3 centimeters to get the sitar on "last train home" to sound right and then in the 1.7 seconds before the next tune starts trying to get exactly back to where it was."
Effects
According to Pat Metheny, the output of the Digitech 2101 is run into two Lexicon Prime-Time digital delay lines. The unit on the left is set to 14 ms delay, and the one on the right at 26 ms delay. Both units are set to sweeping with a sine wave at a low depth and rate. Each delay has a very slight "pitch bend" controlled by the VCO (sine wave) inside the prime-time. This is what gives Metheny his patented "chorused" sound. Each of these signals is then sent into a Yamaha amp and power amp coming out of two speakers on the stage.
Boss has suggested how to create a Metheny-esque like that used on "Heartland" from American Garage: "When creating the Pat Metheny sound, be sure to pay close attention to the different control settings on the 2 delay effect pedals. In addition, take advantage of the amp's slight reverb effect and use a soft picking technique. Pulling-off and hammering-on techniques also be used often. Finally, use a full-acoustic type guitar with a front pick-up."
