Excerpt from Roy Buchanan interview (longish)
Daniel Cooper
GP: ...What type of guitar do you use?
RB: A Stella (laughter). No, I've got a (Fender) Telecaster. A '53. I
like it because it's the funkiest. And it's versatile...It's not modified,
I just keep it stock. I use (Fender) Rock and Roll strings, but everybody
does that.
GP: Do you prefer the one-piece maple neck to the rosewood model?
RB: ...It's harder for me to bend a note on a rosewood neck...And I like
the action high.. Notes sustain better when the action is high, too.
GP: When you fingerpick, how many fingers do you use?
RB: Sometimes only one or two, sometimes all of them. It depends on the
feel of the thing...I used to use fingerpicks on the Telecaster, but now I
just use fingernails. The flat pick I use is a little Fender jazz pick.
It's like a mandolin pick or something. Very small and heavy...
GP: Do you pick in any unconventional style?
RB: Everything I do is unorthodox. I hold my pick wrong. I use my thumb,
which you're never supposed to do. When I'm picking blues, though, I'll do
a lot of downstrokes; when I want speed, I use a small circle.
GP: You've perfected an overtone technique by striking the string with your
pick and the first finger at the same time. Did you develop this yourself?
RB: I guess so...When I first did it, it was a mistake. I did a thing with
Bobby Greg called "Potato Peelings", and it happened. Then everybody was
digging that one thing, so I just figured out what I did....You have to have
a lot of volume, and you have to have the guitar on treble.
GP: Have you ever used any mechanical devices like wah or fuzz?
RB: Only before they came out. Like, to me, fuzz tone is only distortion,
so I used to slice my speakers with razor blades and soak them in water
(!!). I did that for a couple or three years...
GP: What kind of amplifier do you use?
RB: I was using a Fender Vibrolux with two 10-inch speakers..........
