Johnny Hiland Interview

by Rick Messock

Johnny Hiland may not be a household name yet, but hang in there, this incredibly talented guitarist, motivational speaker, author, illustrator, and teacher will soon be revered in more than just guitar circles.

Hiland grew up in Maine, and was a musical prodigy, playing with the family band from age eight. Legally blind, he was studying at the University of Maine to be a teacher when he made his career decision to enter the music field and moved to Nashville where the "new kid" wow'd 'em.

His teaching talents are evident on his guitar lesson DVDs, Chickin' Pickin' Volume 1 and Strictly Rhythm.

Favored Nations Entertainment has released his first album, titled Johnny Hiland, and he is currently at work on his second.

Hiland's making stops around the globe with his power trio, The Johnny Hiland Trio, featuring Michael Hill on bass and Greg Strizek on keyboards. At Winter NAMM 2006 the trio pulled in crowds during each of its five shows with guitarists huddling up close to the stage with their eyesl fixated on Hiland's flying fingers that lit up the fretboard.

Johnny was recently honored with a Paul Reed Smith Signature Model that was a collaborative effort between him and PRS's master luthier Joe Knaggs. He also keeps a heavy touring schedule rolling along and offers guitar teaching clinics for PRS and masters classes at major music schools, including Berklee, the Atlanta School of Music and the Musician's Institute in Hollywood.

Hiland's whirlwind schedule also squeezes in time for him to be a motivational speaker and he's just finished writing and illustrating his first childrens' book, Tuff the Special Bear.

From child guitar prodigy to author, Johnny Hiland is a remarkable talent with so many tricks up his sleeve, we can't wait to see what this stellar performer will unleash next.

Your schedule looks pretty hectic, yet you've managed to write "Tuff the Special Bear", a childrens' book.

Johnny Hiland It's been a long time goal of mine. I really love children and because music programs are diminishing in school systems, I think it's important that the kids find out just how inspirational it is to play music. Also, that music can go beyond a hobby to a career, if you show dedication and practice your instrument. It's like anything else in life. I wrote Tuff the Special Bear to inspire handicapped children to take that extra step and believe in themselves.

Growing up with a handicap, it's really not all that easy or fun, so I thought I could show kids there are things to inspire them and keep them going.

Honestly, I don't know what I would have done in my life if it hadn't been for the guitar. It was an emotional outlet and it was like a security blanket- I had the thing everywhere. It became an essential part of me and so I really wanted to show children with a handicap that you could pursue your dreams.

Of course, I'm a prime example of being a child that's done that- overcome the odds. Children with a handicap are made fun of in school, and their self-esteem goes down. To have something like an instrument that makes you happy is a good balance.

PRS recently announced their new Johnny Hiland Model.

JH: I am blown away with that signature model! That guitar is just unbelievably awesome! It's everything I've ever wanted in a guitar. Over the years, playing different guitars, I've had the chance to find out really what it was that I wanted.

How about a rundown on it?

JH: Basically, we did a mahogany back, and a maple top. I wanted a guitar that was going to offer the luxuries of playing many different genres. So it has the tremolo- I think the PRS tremolo is the best in the world, just amazing- you can dive bomb, you can do nice, pretty things when you're playing '50's ballads.

Of course, I designed the back pickup to have a real spanky, country sound. You want that pop and snap for the country sound. It's close to a tele sound, but real distinctive. It's real punchy, but when you switch to rock, it has all the harmonic overtones- real bitey- and there's a good balance in this pickup for rock music. There's a great bass end, the highs shriek, and the mid-range is really punchy. It's really a well-balanced pickup.

When they made [the front] pickup for me, PRS modeled it after the PRS-9, and that pickup is splitable.

[Editor's Note: the Hiland model provides the following settings: with push-pull tone pot "down", the toggle in the rear position activates the bridge humbucker; the middle toggle position combines the bridge humbucker with the neck split coil; and the front toggle position is the neck split coil only. When the tone knob is pulled "up," the toggle provides: back- bridge humbucker alone; middle- both humbuckers; and front- neck humbucker.]

What's really cool about this guitar is that with the tone knob down on the forward pickup, you get a really "Stratty," glassy blues sound. When you pull it up you have a real thick PAF jazz-box hollow body sound. It's really a killer tone. I'm just in love with the tone of both pickups.

Why a 24-fret neck? Do you ever get up there?

JH: Oh sure. Playing rock you want to have those frets, but sometimes in country you want that too. When you get up into the "G" position, you have room and your hand is not cramped. I've got steak fries for fingers so I need to have that extra room.

The neck contour is a little different- basically, we took one of my favorite guitars and made a "C" old style neck down to the 12th fret, and from there it's a wide, thin PRS neck.

I see the truss rod has been recessed.

JH: We recessed the truss rod cover, so you can bend behind the nut. The cool thing in when you bend on a tele behind the nut, you have to push the string down but you can over bend the note if you push too hard.

This guitar, you bend it right to the wood, and it gives a perfect whole tone on every string. It's really easy to bend.

The thing I love about PRS as well is that when you play the country stuff the tremolo doesn't throw out [the tuning] on your steel bends at all. And the bridge is still floating! I was just blown away with that.

I'm really in love with this guitar! It has every feature and is a multi-genre guitar for sure.

How about the controls? Are they standard?

JH: The knob position is different that a traditional PRS. Traditionally the PRS switch is where the tone knob is on this guitar. I wanted to have to the tone knob back behind the bridge, so that when I do the "Gatton wah" thing. Having the switch back there was a little hard for me to get at it, so I had the switch and tone swapped. So now it's really cool too, cause when I play back by the bridge like I normally do, I can just flick my pinky and flick that switch down.

The guitar has a bolt-on neck. That's what you like best?

JH: I really do. When you bend a lot on notes like me, you wear out frets very easily. After a few fret jobs, the neck starts wearing out. On this one you can just take the neck off and replace it.

I had a couple of PRS's that PRS turned me on to in order to build this guitar. They first gave me a Custom 24, and a Swamp Ash Special. The Swamp Ash had a maple neck and 22 frets, and the Custom 24 had the wide thin neck with 24 frets. I loved the feel of the Custom 24 neck, but it wasn't a bolt-on, the neck was a little chunky for me, and felt really short. I'm used to a Tele, so I needed a little longer neck.

We were on our way to open for Eric Johnson last year, and were at PRS when I called my drummer to get one of my Swamp Ash's to take as a backup guitar. He broke off my key in the door and couldn't get the guitar. So, PRS took me back into the artist cage and I saw a CE, which is the same as the Custom 24 with a bolt on neck. I found a real pretty tortoise shell one with an Indian rosewood neck, not real dark, but kind of light. I love the sound of rosewood, but I just can't see them that well on stage, that's why I really prefer maple. Not only is it easier to see, but it's brighter, bigger and punchier.

You seem to like to click into the bridge pickup most of the time. Right?

JH: For the most part. I'm not afraid to switch pickups, but I'm always a bridge pickup guy first.

Do you keep the guitar's volume and tone wide open, or do you tweak your sound with them?

JH: I'm actually very finicky. I've heard that Danny Gatton was constantly turning knobs, and of course, I'm a huge Gatton fan, and I guess what I've found is that I'm not a big compression guy. I don't like to squeeze my tone too much and so I overset the compressor to almost be a boost. Then you' re really pushing the amp as well. So I turn my guitar down to about ¾ and then I have the extra room.

If you want to do the steel guitar sound, I have the extra room to do the volume swells. As far as my tone knob is concerned, I do the "wah" thing that Danny used to do, but most of the time, my tone is all the way up.

I've read that you play a lot of instruments besides guitar- mandolin, fiddle, banjo. Do you stay up with all of them or do you focus mainly on guitar?

JH: I've been doing a lot of demos, mostly guitar, bass, drums, and keyboards to suit the genre that I'm in. I still play 5-string banjo, and enjoy that. I can still chunk around on the mandolin pretty good but I've definitely lots my chops on the fiddle. If you don't use it, you lose it. When I was a kid, I could rip one up. Now I can get through a standard country tune on the fiddle and that's about it.

Are you a "practice every day" kinda guy?

JH: I didn't realize how I used to fight to get some of those bends. Since I've been using the PRS, I've had such a motivation and inspiration to play; I'm probably playing about 5-6 hours a day. Sometimes, I'm up in the middle of the night driving my wife crazy! I get a new melody in my head and I've got to write the song.

Speaking of songwriting, how do you do it? Do you start with melody, or do you strum into the lyrics?

JH:You know, it really depends on the song. There's a song on my album called "Truth Hurts" when I was in the studio doing another demo and I played that lick by accident! I was like, "Whoa! I could use that!" So the lick was the starting point to make a song. Most times, I'll write around a lick. I'll hear a lick and go, "That's it!"

So you compose on the guitar?

JH: Oh yeah. I used to have a hard time playing and notating. I know how to read music, but it's hard to write out a 300 note solo. So I just play a lick, think about it, and when I've got the line, I'll put it on the tape deck. When I get into the studio, I lay it down.

Fortunately, we have a friend in Nashville who lets me go into his studio gratis and play. He has some basses and drums, so all I do is bring my drumsticks and guitars, and have full access to lay down a demo.

How do you and your band work through the process?

JH: I pretty much lay down the demo and then give it to the band.

I'm experimenting with the band right now. When we do live shows, I'll throw something new out there to the folks and see what kind of crowd reaction I get from it. I've found that people are really accepting me taking the country genre through a half stack and cranking the shit out of it. I'm using a drummer who plays with a double kick and a bass player who plays like Michael Anthony. Very loud! Country with a Van Halen rhythm section!

It's been really fun for me. I've always been a big Van Halen fan- and the '80's rock stuff, Joe Satriani, and Steve Vai. People don't realize, I'm out there playing these country shows and playing the honky tonk, but when at home I'm practicing that stuff!

Country music today is actually lending itself to a kind of '70's or '80's rock sound- the rock side of guitar.

What are you working on at the moment?

JH: I'm focusing on writing my new album now and I'm probably six or seven tunes into it. I send stuff into the label and then there's a big artist/label collaboration, and of course, with the first album out, they say the sophomore album really has to smoke. So I'm really focusing on the theme of the album and really trying to make it more one fixed genre- pick a lane and drive. It will be the country chicken-pickin' rock with a "Van Halen" rhythm section. There will also be some really cool country stuff. Flat-out clean channel as well.

You're on the road a lot!

JH: We're having a ball doing many, many different dates for PRS doing clinics and traveling the world. Last year I went to Mexico, Germany, Italy, and Japan.

We're hitting as many road dates as we can where I'm promoting the first album while writing the second. I'm having a ball with it. I'm also trying to squeeze as much time in with my wife. I was recently married.

We rehearse the band in finished basement downstairs, and one of these days I'm going to put a studio in down there. I go downstairs and crank up the band, and my wife's upstairs holding the dishes to make sure they don't fall on the floor!

Related Links:
Johnny Hiland Website
PRS Guitars
Wayne Dennon Photography