I didn't own my first guitar until I was attending college many years later which was an Ibanez. I took it home and I learned simple little blues lines on it more like I was playing bass. Anyway, he got tired of it quickly and I asked to borrow it. I think the guitar was by Arbor or something like that. It was in the days of Dokken and it was hot pink. The first guitar I ever played belonged to my friend in high school. Enjoy.ġ - Tell me about the first guitar you ever played.
Do yourself a favor, save up some cash and get a guitar with a soul. Brent isn't some rich guitar snob making $10,000 clones, he is one of us - a guy who loves dark music and pointy guitars. All of those guys are as serious about their gear and music as I am. And if you don’t believe me just look to Scott from Neurosis, Will, or Mike from YOB. It is not some business arrangement, I don’t get paid to plug his guitars. Dealing with Brent is one of the best choices I ever made. Soon after that I got Brent to build me a custom model, and a year or so later I got the first Wendigo model with USX inlaid on the fretboard. A month or so later, I used it to record every electric guitar track I did on RTITN, and it produced the exact tone I was after. It’s ebony fretboard was actually solid ebony, not just a veneer. It was light, sturdy, and it played and sounded great. It was smaller than I thought it would be, which was great because it fit me perfectly. I dreamed about the guitar every night until it came, and I still remember opening the case. He had several, but I dug the Rapture model – the first one of that design. I am not one to pussy-foot around, so I contacted Brent, sent him a cd, and pretty soon he told me to pick out a guitar.
Robert, who graciously performed some emergency pickup surgery on Nathan’s guitar, was equally impressed with the quality. There were no corners cut, no half-assed anything. The guitars played beautifully, not dead-sounding and plinkey like a lot of high-end guitars. Nathan’s Witch had an amethyst stone embedded below the bridge, and a bizarre scrolled headstock. The BC Rich influence was apparent, but there was something completely foreign about them. They were completely hand-made, different than anything I had ever seen. My friends Will and Nathan (from Wolves in the Throne Room) both had some really cool custom guitars made by Brent Monson in California. My great guitars were bogged down with old energy, and there are no modern tools to fix that. But a few years ago I ran into a problem, and it is funny that in this interview Brent mentions the word “alchemy”, because that was the root of my problem. My good friend Robert spent hours modifying those guitars and making them solid. My old favorites are the one-of-a-kinds, my mongrel Fenders made from odd parts, my old one-off Gibson Flying V made from factory scraps, my 15 pound Les Paul Custom with the paint stripped off the neck. I don’t name them, but I know everything about them. I know which guitar I have used on every song and album I have ever recorded. They are all over my house, under my bed, on my couch like cats. I have been playing, collecting, and worshiping them for 20 years. If you have ever met me, you know that I am absolutely obsessed with guitars.