Once again, Vertex Effects' Mason Marangella has worked a little magic and pinned down another great musician for another set of play-alongs and behind-the-scenes chat in a new video.
This time Marangella’s subject is guitarist Michael Thompson, the prolific '80s and '90s session player who at one time had his work on board six tracks in the US Hot 100 simultaneously.
Regularly hooking up with legendary producer David Foster and RnB giant Babyface through the decades, he was their go-to guitarist, producing his own unique clean tone on near-countless hits for NSYNC, All-4-One, Monica, Eric Clapton, Babyface, Gloria Estefan, Phil Collins, and more.
One such hit was NSYNC’s This I Promise You, which had been written by none other than Richard Marx for the then up and coming boyband. “It’s not going to be a single,” Marx advised Thompson, to his disappointment. “I was kinda bummed. It sounded great. It sounded like a hit to me.”
Nevertheless, Thompson put in a sterling performance on the track, with his “main [Fender] Strat, with a Kauffman booster which is always on zero but it adds some kind of glisteny shimmer to it,” he reveals.
The song would, of course, go on to become a US Billboard number one.
Interestingly, Thompson comments on how an inexperienced and green Justin Timberlake simply copied Richard Marx's guide vocal from the demo, note for note and inflection by inflection. “Justin copied it note for note. It was exactly like [Richard’s] vocal.”
"A little U2 thing in the chorus"
Next up, the pair remember Don’t Wanna Lose You from Gloria Estefan’s smash late-'80s scenesetting album Cuts Both Ways.
Engineer-turned-producer Humberto Gatica had taken on the track, initially recorded by Estefan’s Miami Sound Machine band member, keyboardist Clay Otswald, and set about stripping away the many layers of guitar that had already been applied.
“He has a good ear for what you need and what you don’t need. He heard all these parts and took ‘em down,” explains Thompson. And with a new, stripped-back sound Gatica gave Thompson the simple instruction to supply “a little U2 thing in the chorus…”
“And that’s what it is. It’s just the simplest, stupid little part,” explains Thompson, with the clean chiming tone of (once again) his main Strat being simply DI’d direct into the desk.
Next, working with production legend David Foster, Thompson was brought in by his old friend to play on Monica’s For You I Will, a prime component of the smash-hit Space Jam movie soundtrack of the day.
“We gotta make this sound more RnB,” advised Foster, prompting Thompson to fish out his Musitronics Mutron III envelope filter, for its warping wah sound.
Remembering the first time he heard the finished track, where Foster had left his part high in the mix – “They had it goosed, because David liked it” – Thompson fondly remembers that hearing his own guitar playing is like, “hearing your own baby crying – you can always tell it's you… There was always that ear perking up. ‘Wow, that’s me!’ kinda thing.”
Next up, Thompson talks about his part on All-4-One’s I Swear, one of the biggest hits of the 90s and a song written by songwriting genius Diane Warren, and reveals how Warren goes a little above and beyond when it comes to making sure that her songs receive the credit that she feels that they deserve.
After winning a Grammy for their album and getting a track on that Space Jam album, All-4-One were on the slide, with their second album's release in doubt, something that writer Warren, with songs invested in the band, wasn’t happy about.
“She was known for putting her own money into promoting her songs. She’s a real go-getter. If the label wasn’t putting enough behind it, she would take money of her own.” And Warren’s investment paid off. “It ended up being a great record and was 11 weeks at number one,” remembers Thompson.
Getting Thompson's clean tone
But what about that sound? With Thompson invariably using just one guitar, how does he get that clean tone that just works?
The secret leans heavily on that much-loved, much-used ‘main Strat’.
“It’s one of those things where you plug in, you have this sound, and people go “Yeah!” It’s a sound that on pop music – it just fits,” Thompson explains.
“All Strats aren’t equal. Finding that one that really gives you that thing? You can get ‘em off the rack and they sound like that.
"I have the [Kauffman] booster built into this one, but it’s basically a good sounding Strat and then compression – for sure,” says Thompson before revealing his secret weapon… Or weapons…
“There are so many compressors out, and I’m always being turned onto something if someone says it’s good.
"A friend turned me onto the Compadre pedal from Strymon, which I use along with the ThorpyFX The Fat General and the MXR Dynacomp – those three comps.”
“On at the same time?” checks interviewer and Vertex FX owner, Marangella. “Yeah,” confirms Thompson, demoing the sound with and without his trio of trusty comps and showing the order in which the signal passes.
“With the Dynacomp I’m not really boosting it, but it just grabs… It has the short attack. Then the Thorpy has this nice treble knob which adds a nice presence to it… Then I put the Compadre on in the Studio mode and it just boosts and fattens the thing up”
“Then I have the [Boss] VB-2 [Vibrato] in the unlatched mode, and you can obviously set the depth… Then I use the Chase Tone Secret Preamp which I got years ago and then my Vertex Clean Boost.
"The idea of having a volume pedal that isn’t sucking any tone is great. I use a little bit of boost, but it’s colourless, as you know… I’m telling you about your own pedal!” he jokes. “Then I have a TC Chorus on too.”
“Then it’s how you smack it, or zing it or strum it, and how close to the bridge…” he helpfully explains. “A lot of it is that too.”
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