In 2001, Coheed and Cambria guitarist Claudio Sanchez began unfurling the sci-fi saga that’s had a new generation of metal fans hanging on every word ― and guitar riff. It took Sanchez four albums to tell the whole story of Coheed and Cambria Kilgannon and their son Claudio, but only two albums for his New York-based band to chart on
Billboard’s Top 10.
"As a young songwriter in bands and in local scenes, I was always singing fictitious stories," said Sanchez of his sci-fi beginnings. "I mean, the stories have always had some truth but they’ve been embellished on. It wasn’t until about 10 years ago that I thought, 'These songs feel random. What if I took them all and tried to make them cohesive as one piece?'"
Sanchez acknowledges that the Coheed and Cambria mythos can be "very, very confusing" but vows that he and the band will iron out some of the details with their next record. And the fact that he killed off his main characters on last year’s hit record
No World for Tomor
row? That's not cramping his style either. The band's next album — which they're writing now — will serve as prequel to their previous work. Sanchez spoke with Gibson about his playing style, his gear and his Gibson collection.
You’ve been photographed playing a lot of Gibsons. Do you play them exclusively?I primarily play Gibsons and I go to Gibson first, but
I also play Minarik, which is a small company out of California.
I have a few Explorers that I use as my primary live guitars. One guitar that I’m very fond of is my 1980 E2 Explorer and I also have a few ’76 Reissues ― a red one and a black one that I usually go to most often. I also have an older white one that was my first Explorer. I’ve retired that one because it’s seen its day, and I don’t mean that in a bad way. I just feel like it’s been worked so much. Sometimes I get attached to the instrument and become kind of sensitive. It’s just seen so much action ― living in a van and having the weather conditions changing up and down. It’s been through so much wear and tear. It deserves a chance to just relax at home and become a studio piece.
You play a Custom Doubleneck too, right?Yeah, I play that pretty often. I also have a couple Les Pauls ― a nice, white Studio Les Paul that’s maybe a ’95. I’ve started using that in the live set. I also have
a VOS Les Paul that’s pretty much a studio piece as well.
So what do you like about the tone of Gibson? They have a warm feel. When you need to overdrive the amp, it’s never too much of one frequency, if that makes any sense. It just feels very round, like it’s the perfect mix of frequencies. It just gives a nice solid strike when you’re playing it instead of other guitars that can be a little heavy on the high end side or too gloomy-sounding. For me, Gibson is just the perfect blend of the spectrum.
And you find that true whether you play the Les Paul or the Explorer or the Doubleneck? The Les Paul is certainly a smoother sound than the Explorer, but what I’m going for live calls for the Explorer. Travis [Stever], his primary instrument is the Les Paul, and I think the two sounds complement each other. Rather than doubling what he’s doing, I go for something that’s a little different and that being the Explorer. So we get the best of both worlds.
What tips would you give other players who are looking to achieve your guitar tone?Usually all the knobs from the volumes to the frequencies are pinned at 10. I run my guitar to two amplifiers. Right now, it’s back and forth but my main amp is
a Bogner Uberschall, run through
a 4x12 cabinet by Mesa Boogie. Then I channel switch between that and
a Vox AC30 and sometimes
a Fender Twin Reverb. Obviously with the Fender Twin and the AC30 I’m going for a more mild tone; the AC30 usually covers, especially if I’m just going for a mild distortion, but if I’m running the Twin Reverb, I’ll usually put
an OCD pedal on it, which I believe is done by Fulltone. You know, just to give it some dirt.
If I’m looking for nice clean sound, I’ll probably stick to the Twin Reverb and I’ll push the toggle to the middle position or the neck position. To give it
that David Gilmour kind of warmth or Mark Knopfler. It’s more for solos, just to warm them up.
That’s pretty much it. I’ll run through an effects pedal board, but I’m not really even using a whole lot there ― just a few delay pedals. There’s an
Ibanez analog delay AD9,
Line 6 delay modeler and
a Bad Horsie Wah, that’s pretty much it. It’s not a massive pedal board. Basically I just rely on the guitar, the tone and the amps.