Guitar Gurus by Matt Reekie from Guitar Magazine (Australia)

I met Brad Shepard and Dave Faulkner in the relaxed comfort of Electric Avenue Studios in the Sydney suburb of Annadale. There they were starting to mix the debut album for their latest collaboration., the 60's inspired Persian Rugs. Formerly Trafalgar Studios this is coincidentally the same place were the pair made their first album together way back in 1984 in a little outfit called the Hoodoo Gurus. Driven by the natural songwriting ability of Faulkner, the Gurus would go on to become one of Australia's greatest hitmaking rock bands until their break-up in 1998. Despite the success, guitarist Shepherd has always been a hugely underrated player despite possessing instincts that can rarely be faulted.

These two guys have been though the rock 'n' roll wringer together and these days seem more like family than mere bandmates. As they swap stories of guitars that have come and gone over the years, regularly finishing one another's sentences there is a fondness and trust in how they relate that goes beyond mere words, and music for that matter. Get the guys talking about guitars and you had better cancel all previous commitments.

What guitar did you start off with?

BRAD: My first guitar was a Yamaha classical guitar, but before that I had a toy guitar made out of cardboard.

DAVE: What about your first electric?

BRAD: My first electric was an Ibanez SG copy.

That's classy!

BRAD: I suppose it was. It was $120 in 1974 from the Brisbane Academy of Music

DAVE: Did your folks buy it for you?

BRAD: Yeah, the folks bought it for me. I got an SG 'cos I was a big Black Sabbath fan and I wanted a guitar just like Tony Iommi.

So are you both guitar heads?

BRAD: I'm the guitar head, although I have tried to reign that in. I came to the conclusion that it was a sickness.

What, buying guitars was a sickness?

DAVE: Buying, selling…

BRAD: Lusting! It's still hard. I am like a recovering guitaraholic. I acknowledge that it's a sickness and I try to only keep the tools of he trade these days.

Which one would you save in a fire?

DAVE: You shouldn't bring up such questions. That's a horrible thing.

BRAD: I was talking about this just the other day. The two Les Paul's that I played that I used a long time in the Gurus. I am sort of emotionally attached to them even though I don't really like them that much anymore. I am very fond of my old Stratocaster which is a '62 pre'L job and I recently acquired a '69 Telecaster Custom that I really like as well. It'd be a tough call if there was a fire.

DAVE: So will I get that black Les Paul back?

BRAD: No, no, no. I had one and I sold it to Dave and he pissed and moaned…

DAVE: It's a terrible story.

BRAD: We have an understanding that he gets first option.

DAVE: Well you have sold some that I would have loved to have bought, but what happened with this Les Paul Custom, he wanted to sell it and we had used it in a lot of stuff for the Gurus. So I said "You can't sell that! That's a great guitar." So I bought it off him and I said, "You've got a 12-month buy-back option on this one. You can buy it back for exactly what you paid for it, after that it's mine". But then he saw, um, someone came out and toured…

BRAD: Roxy Music! Phil Manzenera. I'm not even a particularly big fan but he just got some phenomenal guitar sounds. And he was playing a '60s Les Paul Custom.

DAVE: This was about 9 months after the deal was made. Brad said to me in the car…

BRAD: I kinda broached it casually though, like, "I don't suppose you…"

DAVE: "… Would you ever sell that Les Paul?", I said, "No way would I sell that!"

BRAD: I just took that as a no. I thought he meant that he'd just fallen in love with it so much that he was reneging on the 12-month buy-back.

DAVE: But what I meant was that I would never sell it to anyone else.

BRAD: So I ended up buying a second-hand '58 reissue, a three pick job..

DAVE: Then I saw him playing that live and afterwards I was like, " You're playing a black Les Paul, I guess you don't want that other one back?" This was after the 12 months had expired, and he basically said…

BRAD: "…Well I asked you about that and you said you wouldn't sell it too me!" The he's like, "Nah, you never asked me!" Big misunderstanding.

DAVE: So anyway about six months later, maybe a bit less…

BRAD: I was like "I really want that fucking guitar back", because Customs are different, they have ebony necks as opposed to rosewood so they have this top end to them that your Les Paul standards don't have.

DAVE: I can't remember whether he offered me the exchange or whether I asked about it but I was looking for a Gold Top so Brad swapped me a Gold Top.

Are you happy with that?

DAVE: Well, it's a great Gold Top and I was looking for one, but if he ever got rid of the other Les Paul…

BRAD: Keep it in the family then you'll always know where it is.

So the, do you still pop around the corner to Jackson's (Rare Guitars) at lunchtime as part of the rehab Brad?

BRAD: That whole thing is something I can't buy into anymore. That really bugs me that guitars worth $2,000 a couple of years ago are now worth $20,000. It just shits me. No guitar is worth that. Actually I have been through all of that. I offloaded a ton of guitars, like 20 guitars, to indulge myself in the pathetic teenage fantasy of owning a Les Paul Standard, like Jimmy Page. It was a 1960, the last year that they made them. But it's like, "where do you take it" You can't take it anywhere! It's like a curse. And I sold a ton of great guitars to do that.

DAVE: I was very upset with that.

BRAD: I got rid of 50s Strats and God know what else. You could buy a nice flat for what that guitar cost. I only had that Les Paul for a couple of years and I had to get rid of it. When I sold it I ended up about even.

What are you playing at the moment Brad?

BRAD: I am very much favouring Fenders at the moment. I just love 'em, Tele's and Strats. I played Gibbo's and Gretsch's for many years in the Gurus.

And you Dave?

BRAD: You've been favouring that Les Paul Junior SG.

DAVE: I've also played the 335 a few times and I have a Mustang that I've played once of twice. I've got my old Tele, which I play occasionally and I use the old Rickenbacker 12-string on one song. To be honest though the 335 is easier to player than most of them,. It's a short scale sort of thing and it's light and I am a pretty primitive guitarist anyway so the less obstacles the better for me. Now that the record is out I might have to stick more faithful to the sounds on each track but I borrowed Brad's Les Paul for something and I won't be playing that.

BRAD: You've got your own!