This month on Bought & Sold, Gem Archer drops by to reveal what is in his current rig for Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds, and to discuss a life of gear, from first and favourite electric guitars to his best bargains – and he has some advice for anyone who is trying out a guitar.
But as ever, we start at the beginning: that moment when Archer's relationship with gear got serious.
What was the first serious guitar you bought with your own money?
“The first was basically half of my own money. I saved up half and the other half came from my uncle, who used to live with us. I really wanted a Rickenbacker because I was a massive fan of The Jam and The Beatles.
“I’d been around all the shops in the north east of England, and my uncle ran in one day, saying, ‘There’s a shop that’s got a Rickenbacker,’ and the first thing I said was, ‘What colour is it?’ I’d saved about 100 quid and I think he put in about 200 quid; I think I was about 15. I loved it so much that I used to sleep with it under my bed!”
What was the last guitar that you bought?
“A Les Paul Custom. I bought it off my mate, who was in one of my old bands, Heavy Stereo. I’ve done this before where you buy a guitar off your mate, but they always have the option of getting it back. I had this Gretsch Country Gentleman and it was fantastic but not really my thing. So he got that off of me and I got the Les Paul off him.
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“It’s the main Les Paul Custom I’m playing live and I love it. I hope he never wants it back! I think it’s an ’89 and it looks like it’s been played. I stuck a Bigsby on it to complete the look. It’s the bollocks, man. I sanded down the back of the neck, and there ya go.”
What’s the most incredible bargain you’ve had while buying gear?
“It’s a guitar I’ve still got, a 1965 Epiphone Casino. I bought it back in ’91 when I got my first record deal. There used to be a paper called Loot, basically a [classified advert publication] selling anything – and I mean anything. So I saw an ad for this Casino and I was like, ‘Right, I’ve got to have it,’ and got it for 400 quid. It’s just amazing; I’ve two other Casinos, but that one is the one.”
What’s the strongest case of buyer’s remorse you’ve experienced?
“Well, I’m in my studio now and I’ve got an Echoplex that I paid a lot for and never used [Laughs]. I turn it on now and again to see if it works – and it’s the big, clunky plastic one, the one that you want. And, of course, we’ve all bought too many pedals. You know how it is where you’re up late at night, you’re on YouTube, you order something and it’s just a load of bollocks when it comes [Laughs].
We’ve all bought too many pedals. You know how it is where you’re up late at night, you’re on YouTube, you order something and it’s just a load of bollocks when it comes
“But I’ll tell you what I bought [that I didn’t regret], a Klon clone, which we’ve all got so many of. It was one of those JHS [Pedals] Notaklön pedals and it’s great. The best part about this one is that it was 80 quid and I just like the Ikea[-style] packaging. Even the manual looks like an Ikea thing, and after I put it together, I ended up with this wonderful pedal I ordered five months ago.”
Have you ever sold a guitar that you really regret letting go?
“There’s a 12-string Rickenbacker that was my old guitar for a long time. I was in a three-piece band in London and needed to pay rent, so I lined up all my guitars and chose one to sell. It was one from the 80s and it played so well.
“That was such a good period for those guitars, and just around a year before I got asked to join Oasis, I sold it. I always hoped I would be able to buy it back because it was one of those guitars that we all, as guitar players, romanticise or mythologise.
I had about seven Firebirds at one point, which was ridiculous
“And there’s another, a non-reverse Firebird that I played a lot when I was in Oasis. I had about seven Firebirds at one point, which was ridiculous, and the red one – which I got for 400 quid, too – and the black one were the main ones I played. It got to a point where if I closed my eyes, I couldn’t tell which was which, so I ended up selling the black one to my old mate James [Walbourne], who plays in The Pretenders. I still say to him, ‘If you’re ever getting rid of that guitar, I’d love to have it back,’ but he always says, ‘No way!’”
What’s your best guitar-buying tip?
“If it’s an acoustic – or any guitar, really – ask them for a tuner and get it in concert pitch. I’ve found over the years that a lot of acoustics tend to be tuned down a bit, which makes them sound a bit better, so get it in tune. And if it’s an electric, don’t plug it in first; play it to feel how it is and really take your time to see how it sounds unplugged.”
Do you have a favourite spot to shop for gear?
“That’s a really good question because they’re all kind of going away, you know? It hurts to walk down Denmark Street in London – it used to be Tin Pan Alley and when we’d tour, we’d all go there. But I don’t know… Chicago Music Exchange is still great. But too many of them have the same things, like, there used to be a place called Black Market Music in LA and they’d have odd stuff that you’d never seen before, let alone for sale. It’s tough now, and a lot of it is online.”
I always go back to what Keith Richards said: ‘Give me five minutes with any of them and I’ll make them all sound the same
When was the last time you stopped and looked in a guitar shop window or browsed online and what were you looking at?
“Recently, I was buying some slides on Denmark Street. I’ve got too many slides, though none of them are the one. And even though I’ve got too many, I’m always looking at Rickenbackers and Firebirds, just because I think they look great. I’ve gotten a bit out of hand with Firebirds, but I always go back to what Keith Richards said: ‘Give me five minutes with any of them and I’ll make them all sound the same.’ [laughs]”
Given the choice, would you rather have a great guitar and a cheap guitar amp or a cheap guitar and a top-notch amp?
“A really good guitar. Always. Even with a cheap amp, you can get something out of it. But a bad guitar… it doesn’t work. It’s got to be that way round for me.”
If you had to choose humbuckers or single-coil pickups for the rest of your career, which would it be?
“You’re assuming I know the difference! [Laughs] I’ve got a close friend, who I won’t mention by name but is a fantastic guitar player, who doesn’t know the difference and said to me, ‘Right explain it to us.’ But, for me, it would be humbuckers because you can probably cover more ground with them.
“You can turn them down and get that sound, or you can turn them up and push. I would say they’re more adaptable, but it’s a tough question to answer for the rest of your life!”
Gem's go-to rig
“Right now, there’s this Epiphone Sheraton that’s actually Noel’s. I don’t know what it is, but it’s got it. Noel used to play it in Oasis and love it, and then we split up and when he asked me if I wanted to play with him again in 2017, and if I wanted to borrow any gear, I said, ‘Have you still got that red Epi?’ He said, ‘Oh, yeah,’ and that was it. It’s got mini-humbuckers, like the Neil Young-looking ones.
“My pedal setup is constantly changing. It’s mostly changing levels of gain, some reverb and tremolo. I’ve got to come up with a lot, though, because there’s a lot of sounds I’ve got to cover playing with Noel. But it’s just fucking rock ’n’ roll, so I like the Fulltone stuff and I like Wampler and Strymon stuff, too. With all that, my main amp is a Fender ’57 Twin reissue because it can take all that sound, meaning all the levels we play at.”
- Council Skies is out now via Sour Mash.
