Twenty-One Today! With Mick Taylor, Editor of Guitarist Magazine

We ask Guitarist Editor Mick Taylor twenty-one questions: about strings, cables, guitars, amps, the best player that ever lived, his worst playing nightmare, and more…

GB: Do you have a type of pick that you can’t live without?

MT: Dunlop Gator Grip 1.5s – the green ones. I can’t play with thin picks at all unless it’s a very light, strummy acoustic part. I also like the Eric Johnson Classic Jazz III which helps me pick more cleanly… and helps me make more mistakes, too.

GB: If you had to give up all your pedals but three, what would they be?

MT: Keeley-modded 808+ Tube Screamer, Dunlop JHF-1 Fuzz Face, Fulltone Full-Drive MkII Mosfet – yep, all noiseboxes.

GB: Do you play another instrument well enough to be in a band (what, and have you done it)?

MT: In my dreams, I’m a better drummer than Vinnie Colaiuta, but my drum set is best left in my brain. I do sing, if that counts.

GB: If a music chart were put in front of you, could you read it?

MT: I’d have more chance with Latin. It’s something I deeply regret not learning.

GB: Do guitar cables really make a difference? What make are yours?

MT: Absolutely they do. Regardless of brand, tonally it’s about capacitance and making sure the high end content is right for your rig. I use a Providence Z102 or Mogami Platinum, live. The Elixir cables sound good too.

GB: Is there anyone’s playing (past or present) of which you’re slightly jealous? (And why?)

MT: Anyone who’s been bold enough to do their own thing in the past. In the present, John Mayer, Philip Sayce, Matt Schofield, Joe Bonamassa and Eric Gales would just about sum it up. They all mix technique and tone in a way that just connects with me.

GB: Your house is burning down: which guitar do you salvage, and why?

MT: I’d let them all go and go shopping with the insurance money – there’s probably an album in the story, too. Replacements would include a rosewood board Relic Strat, maple board blackgaurd Relic Tele and a Collings CJ.

GB: What’s your favourite amp and how do you set it?

MT: My Mesa Lone Star 2 x 12. I pretty much only use the clean channel and a bunch of pedals. I have the loop/masters switched out, run the gain and treble up around two o’clock and everything else around 10 o’clock. 100-watt mode, or 50-watts at 4-ohms.

GB: What kind of action do you have on your guitars?

MT: Medium, I’d say – most of my friends say it’s too high for them, but it’s not as high as a lot of my Strat-playing heroes. I can’t play with a low action – the sound just disappears and I can’t get under the strings.

GB: What strings do you use? (Make, gauge and why?)…

MT: D’Addario EXL10-46, sometimes 10-52, or if I’m playing a lot, 11-52s. On Strats, biMTer strings sound better for the sounds I like most.

GB: Who was your first influence to play the guitar?

MT: Francis Rossi. I would like to say Angus Young or Stevie Ray, but it was Quo all the way with me when I was a kid – Quo and proud!

GB: What was the first guitar you really lusted after?

MT: A knackered Strat just like Stevie Ray Vaughan’s, or maybe even Clapton’s Blackie.

GB: What was the best gig you ever did?

MT: The next one, I hope. My favourite gigs have been the ones that have some totally unpredictable element of spontaneity within the band. Crowd size doesn’t matter – I’ve done big gigs and hated it, and done tiny gigs and loved every second.

GB: And your worst playing nightmare?

MT: Playing drunk, falling off a four-foot stage and looking like a total idiot. You live and learn, hopefully. The Karmic payback is the drunk who insists on singing at every wedding gig you play.

GB: What’s the most important musical lesson you ever learnt?

MT: Do what’s in your heart. Everything else is a total waste of everybody’s time.

GB: Do you still practise?

MT: Not with any sort or regime. Which is why my playing is deteriorating!

GB: If you could put together a fantasy band with you in it, who would the other players be (dead or alive)?

MT: James Jamerson on bass, Steve Jordan on drums, Larry Goldings on keys, the JBs playing horns, Aretha and Chaka on backing vox. Prince can be my roadie.

GB: Who’s the single greatest guitarist that’s ever lived? (And why?)

MT: Andrés Segovia. Fear, skill, evolution – he was rock’n’roll long before it ever existed. 

GB: Is there a solo you really wish you had played?

MT: Gravity by John Mayer. It’s a beautiful melody with a couple of nice technique challenges that seem simple until you try to play it properly. And the tone, ah – loud clean Strat: bliss.

GB: What’s the solo/song of your own of which you’re most proud?

MT: There honestly isn’t one. When you spend your life among professional players and songwriters who kick your arse at every turn, you’d be deluded to feel musically proud.

GB: What are you up to at the moment?

MT: Playing wise, not much. A few function gigs and the odd dep job. I’m about to make a blues album with Neville Marten though – that should be a laugh!

Thanks Mick