Justus West is quickly building a reputation as one of the most in-demand session guitarists for some very (very) high-profile acts. His hefty résumé includes working with Thundercat, John Legend, Ariana Grande, Mac Miller, Alicia Keys, and Snoop Dogg – not to mention Beyoncé – and, oh, did we mention that he's also one of John Mayer's favorite contemporary guitarists?
So, it's only fitting that he's lifting the veil on the lesser-known aspects of working as a session musician in 2025 – including navigating the worlds of plugins, amps, and digital modelers – all in pursuit of the right tone.
“There are great guitar plugins out there, Neural DSP and Safari Pedals, really stellar stuff. Producers do not know about these plugins!” he tells Guitar World.
“It's still on the player to have a plethora of tones and offerings. Some of them would have the amp there, like, ‘This is kind of what I'm looking for,’ but a lot of producers are just not that granular.”
However, according to West, this is not necessarily a negative thing, since, as he succinctly puts it, “the producer's job is to look over the entire song and the whole album.”
To stay competitive, it's crucial for session guitarists to have access to “an array of plugins, amps, and nowadays even mics. Here in LA, a lot of big-name studios don’t have an amp locker or a mic locker anymore.”
And with the changing nature of recording – and the studio setup itself – does West automatically opt for digital modelers nowadays? “I only use that stuff when I’m absolutely forced to!” he reveals. “I’m still using an amp. I’m into being loud and having fun.
“For people who are touring and playing two-hour sets that have a wide array of tones, Fractals and Kempers are very helpful, because you can get tones that you would normally need to travel with seven amps to do. But I still use an amp any time I possibly can.”
As for his work on Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter? “I used the Neural DSP Plini plugin to play on 16 Carriages. Could I even afford a real-life amp that sounds like that modeler? I don’t think so. Living in L.A. makes this tough because you're paying all this money for rent, and your place is not that big. I don't have space to have a bunch of amps!”
Recently, West continued to expose the music industry's underbelly by calling out labels for prioritizing awards over paying session musicians on time.
Guitar World's full interview with Justus West will be published in the coming weeks.
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