Signature Electric Guitar Tone – Fender or Gibson?


We Recordingologist / Guitarists pride ourselves — among other things — on our ability to identify instruments based on tone alone.  Stevie and Jimi teach us the variety of sounds that can come from a Strat.  Page and Perry played their Pauls with aplomb.  But an interesting thing happened when Elvis Costello kicked it up a notch for extra power and distortion in the Chorus of his tune “Kinder Murder” from the album Brutal Youth.

So where’s the Chorus?  The words of the title, “Kinder Murder,” accompanied by a simple, hooky melody provide a clue.  Here are the lyrics:

Here in the bar, the boys like to have fun
There’s a wager lost and an argument won
There’s a stone-washed damsel on a junk food run

It’s a kinder murder

There’s a ladder to heaven from a battered stiletto
Spitting out the words that he put into her mouth
See her in silhouette going down south

It’s a kinder murder
It’s a kinder murder
She could have kept her knees together
Could have kept her mouth shut
It’s a kinder murder
It’s a kinder murder

Jimmy took her down to the perimeter fence
He was back in half an hour. He said he left her senseless
Then he went back to his regiment

It’s a kinder murder

The officer said it has to be denied
There’s a tear-stained would-be teenage bride
All the family pride in the little ram-rider

It’s a kinder murder
It’s a kinder murder
She could have kept her knees together
Could have kept her mouth shut
It’s a kinder murder
It’s a kinder murder

(Break)

The child went missing and the photo fit his face
Dishonored Jimmy just read about the case
He said that he was just taking up space

It’s a kinder murder

Jimmy took his best friend’s keys from the pile on the table
In a flash he was dreaming of the pigskin seats and the walnut dash
The knickers in her hand-bag and the one false eyelash

It’s a kinder murder
It’s a kinder murder
She could have kept her knees together
Could have kept her mouth shut
It’s a kinder murder
It’s a kinder murder
It’s a kinder murder
It’s a kinder murder

(Outro)

We admire the unique song form in this raw, punkish tune.  The False Chorus (singing “It’s a kinder murder” only once and returning immediately back to the Verse) is not a typical punk songwriting gesture.  The repeated line, “It’s a kinder murder.  It’s a kinder murder.” signals the full Chorus.

In our search for great guitar tone, we focus on the ‘intra-chorus’ where the cracking vocal declares, “She could have kept her knees together, could have kept her mouth shut,” followed by an electric guitar lick with a distorted and heavy tone and a return to the rest of the Chorus.

That tone — rich with low end power — feels like it was launched out of a Gibson Les Paul, or SG, but it wasn’t.  It’s Elvis himself, playing a Fender Jazzmaster of all things.  He must have been using heavy strings and strong gestures to get that sound.  The same tone sizzles in the Break and in the Outro.

That a fat Gibson-like sound comes from one of the less famous Fender models — the Fender Jazzmaster is known, less as a lead guitar, and more as a rhythm guitar with interesting tonal variety — is a good reminder that tone comes from the player first, and the instrument second.  In the tune, Elvis needs a guitar lick to support the shocking line he has just screamed with full-body angst, so he creates it with the instruments at hand, from his heart and soul to the amp and into the mix.

We were skeptical at first, so we looked at — and listened to — performances supporting the album’s release back in 1994.

He’s clearly playing a Fender Jazzmaster and seems to be achieving nearly the same tone live on the Late Show with David Letterman

 

 

and in the second half of this video from BBC 2’s Later … with Jools Holland (at about 4:48)

 

 

 

Can you confirm or deny that these are Jazzmaster riffs?

What does this distorted electric guitar tone tell you?

More on guitar.

 

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