To broaden our perspective on instruments, we decided to invite an experienced guitarist, one of those some of us were already trying to learn from on our first electric guitars: Max Sunyer. No further descriptions are needed, and he has graciously accepted our chat and our communication with all of you with great kindness and courtesy. So, first of all, thank you very much, Max, for taking part.
Our amplification special this month comes with an impressive roster of guitarists who span very different styles, backgrounds, and paths of learning and evolution. I think that is undoubtedly enriching for all of us, since we can “drink in” experience on the guitar from varied and always professional points of view.
Dear Max, many of our readers are working to improve and sculpt what will one day be their own style on the guitar, so I'm sure they will welcome your comments and experiences as a feast of which nothing should go to waste.
How and when did you get started?
My first contact with music was at age 6 (my father is a musician and taught me solfège and violin until I was 10), and with the guitar in 1963. We started a band with three members of our group of friends from the neighborhood. I began with my grandfather's Spanish guitar, which my parents kept in the village, a very simple method book by Joaquim Llobet, a portable suitcase record player, a lot of playing by ear, quite a bit of patience, and an iron will. At the end of 1964, my parents gave me my first electric guitar, a solid-body Framus with three pickups, which, by the way, I still have. I plugged it into my first amp, a repurposed tube radio. The band was called LOS TUMBLERS.
For all those guitarists who struggle to make their way professionally, what would your recommendation be?
A lot of patience and persistence, along with the best possible preparation, passion, intensity, seriousness, and honesty. You have to set a goal and sacrifice everything for it.
As a guitarist, what has your path been in your recordings and musically, and where is your personal and professional evolution taking you?
On records, setting aside the albums of my youth, you can see two strands: one is the groups I've been a member of, and the other is the albums where I did whatever I wanted on every level: composition, arrangements, production, performers, and so on. Perhaps those are the most representative, but in everything I've recorded I've always tried to be very personal.
Musically, I've always tried to have a personal language that satisfies my desire to communicate and manages to express intelligibly what I want to convey. That means continuous effort in both study and synthesis and analysis, a deep introspection. You have to love the profession a great deal to keep going, because the road is quite hard.
My personal evolution is taking me to an unknown state that I always wanted to reach without knowing what it was, a state with a great deal of experience and the surprise of seeing new things every day. I feel mature and childlike at the same time. That holds true for the professional side too. Perhaps that is where I see my future most clearly: I'm happy when I can, and manage to, transport the audience to the particular universe I invent at every concert or in the music I record.
As for gear...
Guitars: Gibson L-5 (with a floating Gibson Jazz pickup) and IBANEZ GB-20 (I replaced the original floating pickup with a Bartolini, also floating), with flatwound strings (.011 to .052) for a warm sound; GIBSON LES PAUL ELEGANT with roundwound strings (.010 to .038), for almost everything. I also use a beautiful guitar (narrow body, rounded cutaway, center block, and a Bartolini humbucking pickup) built for me by luthier and guitarist Rafael Bazaga to my specifications, as well as a YAMAHA AES1500, both strung like the Elegant.
For acoustics, I use an OVATION ANNIVERSARY 1992 (electrified, mid-depth body) with phosphor-bronze strings, .011 to .050, an electrified Spanish RAMIREZ C-86 MARCEL DADI (splendid), and a REPISO Selmer Maccaferri-style guitar built for me over 5 years by the late Argentine luthier based in Mallorca.
Amplifiers: Fender DE VILLE (60 W), Mesa Boogie Mark III (100-60 W), Mesa Boogie Caliper 20+ (20 W), and GALIEN-KRUEGER 206 (60+60 W).
For effects I always use the ZOOM 507 and ZOOM 9050-S, as well as the E-BOW. In the studio I use a SANSAMP preamp.
What do you look for in an electric guitar, and what is the latest guitar you've been working with most consistently?
I look for a guitar that feels good to me, that expresses exactly what I intend, one I can feel as an extension of myself. Naturally, that means the most perfect construction possible and maximum reliability from all its components.
Lately I've been working with the two Gibsons.
And in an acoustic?
The same, plus lots of harmonics and maximum resonance from the instrument, always in a mellow register (I don't like treble), and also volume.
As for amplification, what do you ask of an amp, and what is your advice for musicians who are now trying to define which type of amp is best for their playing?
An amp has to be an extension of your guitar. It should be light, powerful without overdoing it (50 W is enough for me), rugged, and it doesn't need to be very versatile; tubes are better.
My advice is that anyone looking to buy should try amps out thoroughly, not only in the store but in different spaces, because the same amp sounds very different depending on the room. Perhaps a versatile first amp is better, so you can experiment and look for what you want.
To wrap up on gear, what are your favorite effects?
E-Bow, reverb, delay, chorus, overdrive.
Do the sound, through guitar, effects, and amplification, make the style, or is style independent of your sound?
Sound may or may not be part of a style, but it doesn't make it. You can play a jazz tune with a rock sound or a rock tune with a jazzy sound. They're independent, even though we tend to link them.
Do you prefer studio or live?
Live, although the studio is fascinating.
Which guitarists, Spanish or international, do you find noteworthy?
Spanish: Jordi Bonell, Vicens Solsona, Dani Pérez, Ximo Tébar, Joan Bibiloni, and a long list of others, present and absent.
International: Metheny, MacLaughlin, Stern, Pat Martino, Tuck Andrews, Jim Hall, and another long list of others, present and absent.
What are your most imminent recording, studio, or other projects?
An album with the Max Sunyer Trio (with Benavent and Niebla), another with Pegasus, and one more with the fabulous Guitarras Mestizas.
As with all the musicians who devote a large part of their lives to the guitar, we show you our respect and kinship, and we thank you again for being with us today at ISP Música. Thanks to Max Sunyer.
