The moment it all started...
“My relative owned a classical guitar, and
he showed me simple arpeggios and stuff
like that. I was about 11 or 12. He didn’t
really play it that much, so he asked me
if I wanted to borrow it. That was 40 years
ago, but I can still remember riding home
on the back of my father’s motorbike with
this guitar on my back! But then when it
came to change the strings, I didn’t know
the difference between steel and nylon,
so I just used the steel and one night the
bridge just popped off! But that made me
more curious about guitar!”
What’s the one piece of gear you couldn’t
live without?
“It’s hard! Currently, if I have my Kanji
[Kawabata] guitar, the sunburst one, that’s
all I need! Just because that guitar is a truly
amazing piece of work – every detail about
it is just what I need. Every time I hold the
neck, it’s so perfect!”
The one that got away...
“I’ve sold some stupid things. I had a Strat
that had very early EMG pickups, but then
when I came to Berklee I was really into
blues, so I was like, ‘I don’t need those in
there, they’re too modern!’ So I sold them
to a student and I wish I hadn’t, because
those were really, really early EMGs!”My signature guitar would be...
“I already have my own Kanji signature
guitar, which we’ve made a limited run of
25 of, so in a way, I’m set. But at the same
time, if Fender ever wanted to make me
one, I’d be so honoured!”The first thing I play when I pick up
a guitar...
“I usually play a really simple phrase or just
a bluesy melody – I don’t play two-octave
scales. I don’t touch that! That’s not a
great thing to teach people, either, because
students need to learn melody.”TALKBOX
TOMO FUJITA @TOMOJUSTFUNKY
INTERVIEW JOSH GARDNER
The Berklee tutor, sessioneer and all-round funk genius talks
dodgy batteries, the beauty of basic amps and why it’s always
important to know when it’s lunchtime...
The best advice I’ve ever been given...
“You have to do one thing really, really well,
before you can do three things. People often
ask me: ‘How can I become really versatile
like you?’ And the answer is well, yeah, you
have to listen to a lot of music, but limit
yourself to three albums a month. Because
that way, you’re forced to get deep with
one sound and not just skim the surface
of it. And it’s the same with guitar, I teach
chromatic scales the same way – no noise,
no picking noise, very clean, very difficult.
And you have to play everything with the
rear pickup, not the front pickup. But once
you can do that, everything else is easier.”My Spinal Tap moment...
“There’s this band called Pigeons Playing
Ping Pong, it’s a weird name but they’re a
really great jam band, really popular. And
they came to Boston and invited me to
play a song. So I decided to just bring along
my PRS Silver Sky and a Tube Screamer,
because it’s simple, right? Well, I checked
the battery with a checker before I left, it
was fine... but when I got on stage, there
was something wrong with it – I’m going to
have to buy better batteries next time!”My guilty pleasure...
“I have all these vintage Fenders, I have a
Two-Rock... but I just love my old Fender
Musicmaster bass amp for practice. Now,
this is not the greatest amp sound in the
world, but it’s very neutral tone-wise. It’s
nice and bright, so you can’t hide anything
when you’re practising. I wish in Berklee we
had this amp in every room, because people
would probably get 10 times better!”The first thing on my rider...
“I do a lot of gigs all over the world,
but I always try to eat at a very specific
time. So the first thing I ask is: ‘What time
is lunch?’... It’s important!”If I could just play one thing...
“Van Halen is the one, the guy who took
rock guitar to the next level. Now, I play a
lot of technical stuff, but I’m not really good
at how he does those pinched harmonics
with the whammy – I’d love to do that!
But I just don’t have the time, and it’s really
different to what I usually play. Maybe I
should buy a Charvel and a Marshall and
just learn to play Eruption note-for-note.”Subscribe to Tomo Fujita Guitar Wisdom at
tomovhxtv.vhx.tv for tuition from Tomo himselfTALKBOX
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