“I’m working with Paul to get fight out of a guitar designed to give no fight and effortless play”: Keith Urban is working on a new guitar with PRS
Keith Urban has revealed that he’s working with PRS to develop a new Tele-style electric guitar.
The collaboration marks a significant shift for the country star, who has long been associated with Fender guitars throughout his career. Known for his iconic 40th Anniversary Fender Telecaster ‘Clarence’, which he’s played since 1989, Urban says that the search for a guitar that “sounded a little bit better” than Clarence was what prompted the collaboration with Paul Reed Smith himself.
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“John [Mayer] had Paul build a guitar for him for the Dead & Company run that he did [the ‘Dead Spec’ Silver Sky], and he wanted one guitar, like, ‘Can I just play one guitar all night?’” Urban says in a new interview with Guitar World. “I thought, ‘Let’s see if I can get back to a bit more of that.’”
“I can play anything on Clarence; I just wish it sounded a little bit better,” the Fender stalwart explains. “It’s a frustrating thing. So, that was really the beginning of the search with Paul and the people up there at PRS. I want to see if we can create something modelled on the feel of Clarence but with a better tonal range.”
The new project will see Urban putting his unique spin on the classic T-type design: “I like a little bit of a hollowbody, so it’s got a little bit of that in there. We have a customised f-hole shape that is modelled after the phoenix tattoo on my forearm. And it’s got these pickups that are specifically Paul’s design.”
“They’re humbuckers but have an amazing, almost Dumble harmonic range. I can get squeaks and squawks out of them; unlike any other guitar I’ve got. And the playability is just beautiful.”
Custom features aside, Urban also reveals a rather unusual request he’d put in for his new axe, which is for it to have a bit of “fight”.
“My struggle is I like a little fight out of a guitar,” he says. “I’m used to it, and I’m a bit more of an aggressive player. I’m trying to see if I can get Paul to help me get a bit of fight out of a guitar designed to give you no fight and effortless play.”
“It’s like, ‘Good God, what are you asking for?’ I’m like, ‘I’m just asking for a little struggle!’ I do better when I struggle a little bit with the guitar, if that makes any sense.”
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Source: www.guitar-bass.net
