Last year was a vintage one for the comeback kings with their new album, Sol Invictus (which Jon discusses at length in our in-depth interview). Here, Jon explains why his 2005 Les Paul has been a live workhorse for songs old and new...
Tuners
"I'm always in standard 440 tuning, there's maybe one or two songs in drop D. That happens on maybe one or two songs through the set. We don't use drop tuning in the band all that much.
"We have the stock tuners here but one [the low E string] is just about on its way out. It has about two more shows left before it's about to fall off, or so I've been told as of last night's show. But I'm very happy with the guitar, I don't make a lot of changes to it unless there's something drastically wrong with it. It's very consistent and I get everything I want out of it."
Back-ups
I haven't thought about the strap locks since so I guess they're working. We'll know when they finally don't!
"I have three Standards out here on the road. Sometimes we have certain fly dates and some guitars stay behind for another show. Basically, we always have a spare just in case, if we don't get to bring everything with us. But I pretty much play the majority of the show with one guitar."
Strap locks
"I don't think I had strap locks before. I probably had something simpler like a giant washer and a huge bolt going into the guitar. But with these [guitars], I didn't feel like losing them on the stage and having the headstock break so I put them on. I haven't thought about it since so I guess they're working. We'll know when they finally don't!"
Pickups
"I swapped out the bridge humbucker for a ceramic magnet humbucker - it's a DiMarzio, an old Super Distortion. It might even be a Dual Sound, but it's just wired up [normally] - it doesn't have any coil-tapping or anything.
It's basically a stock guitar but it felt a very comfortable and an ideal guitar for me
"It's just a straight up Super Distortion. For the Faith No More material, it lends itself pretty well to that. Mids seem a little more focused; it's not quite as open as one of those Alnico V magnets."
"The neck pickup is a Burstbucker Pro, I believe. I think that's what was stock in Gibsons, at least to a few year ago, but I'm not sure if they use them anymore."
Neck
"I tend to like guitar necks that are a little chunkier. I have one that's a thinner neck as well, but it just depends on the song. It might lend itself to more playability on the top [frets] so I might go for a thinner neck."
History
"I think I've had it about eight years, I bought it on Craigslist. It's basically a stock guitar but it felt a very comfortable and an ideal guitar for me. When our band got back together, I've been using it mainly ever since. I have a second guitar that's very similar to this one, they're basically interchangeable. The colours are so similar it's hard to tell them apart on the stage so we have them marked accordingly."
