Recently, I caught up with legendary cross-picking phenomenon, Jesse McReynolds, backstage at the Franklin KY Music Festival. Jesse was kind enough to share about his instruments and a few gimmicks, to boot! Enjoy.
BC: What is your main mandolin right now? (Feel free to talk about more than one)
Jmc: The main mandolin right now is the Jesse McReynolds Model Gibson. I've been playing it for 3 months now and it's really going to be a good one. Up until this one, I've been playing the Stiver for 20 years, made by Lou Stiver. I've done a lot of recording on it, well, everything I've done in the last 20 years, I've done on it. But I've been kind of looking around for something different and Gibson's been talking to me about building me one several times. I designed a little different fingerboard for this one and I'm real happy with it right now.
BC: Soundwise, what is the difference between the new Gibson and the Stiver?
Jmc: Well, the Stiver's got a little more sustain and a little more depth to it. Of course, with the Gibson, they tried to match them. That's the direction they went with it, not the real deep tone, but brighter, so it would cut better for the cross-picking.
BC: Any special setup? Who does it for you?
Jmc: No, about the only thing I have done is fret work, and Rual Yarborough does that. He does about as good of a job as anyone I've found.
BC: Would you say your action is higher than the average player?
Jmc: No, actually it's lower. I keep it lower. I play a lot of fast stuff like El Combanchero and some hoedowns and things. In order to play it faster, I have to keep it pretty low.
BC: What type of case are you carrying it in?
Jmc: I've got a case that's actually a copy of a Gibson, a Paganoni. I bought a mandolin from Paganoni, gosh, 20 years ago and sold the mandolin and kept the case! I keep a cover on it. Traveling as much as I do, you can tear one up pretty good, you know. I keep the Small Dog company pretty busy making me the covers.
BC: What type of pick do you use?
Jmc: I just go to Ernest Tubb Record Shop and go through the little pick pile there (laughs). I like to find a medium pick that gives a little bit. A Gibson or whatever. I've tried to use a stiff pick like most mandolin players do…I know you get a better tone that way…but I always just used a smaller pick and one that would give just a little bit. After you get used to playing, it's hard to switch.
BC: What strings do you use and why?
Jmc: As far as the stings that I use, on this new one I tried experimenting with 3 different gauges and couldn't get it to feel just right, so I finally put some Sam Bush Gibsons on it. I couldn't believe the difference it made in the feel of it.
BC: What kind of strap do you use?
Jmc: Right now I just use the regular Gibson strap that came with the mandolin. I used to use a dog leash.
BC: A dog leash?
Jmc: Yeah, a dog leash and a fish tank cord. I went for a long time using that. I would thread the cord through there and it would make your strap last forever and it wouldn't wear out your shirt or anything. During cold weather those things would get pretty stiff, you know.
BC: Any pickups, amps or effects?
Jmc: No, I went through that phase back when we were doing some country recordings. In fact, I watched one of the old Porter Waggoner shows the other day and I was playing the old F-5 and I noticed it had a pickup on it. I kind of made me my own kind of pickup. And stuck it on there, on the pick guard, so it wouldn't bother the tone on the mandolin. I never could get the electric mandolin to sound right, so I played some electric guitar back then.
I also played an electric mandola I saw in a pawnshop in Alanta. A nice looking instrument, I got and then plugged it in to this little Echoplex to add to number of licks you could play on it. I took it into the studio. If you got it adjusted right, you could play one lick, and get three! So I did one album with that. Man, I liked to have run everyone in the studio crazy with that thing!
[Editor's comment: As far as I know, Jesse invented this "echoplex trick" that was adopted by electric guitar players including Albert Lee in the 1980s. Any one out there have more details? JC]
BC: Any microphone preferences for stage or studio?
Jmc: No, I don't study microphones or anything, like I should. When I go into the studio I just tell the engineer, "I want this thing to sound big. Even if you have to stick five mics around it. get the full tone out of it". If I don't do that, they'll just stick one small mic up next to the fingerboard and get all the pick noise and all that with it.
BC: Any other equipment you can't do without?
Jmc: Well, I write little programs and carry these programs for the band's sake. I stick this paperclip on my keys up there to stick the program on sometimes. So I can look at it and if anyone wants to know what's going on, they can come up there and look at my little keypad there. So, people come up and ask me, "What's the paperclip for?" That's just a little gimmick that I use.
For more about Jesse, visit http://jimandjesse.com/
