Queens Of The Stone Age’s Troy Van Leeuwen has fairly nice style. Between {custom} Echoparks, double-necked offsets and his very sought-after signature Jazzmaster, he’s not often seen enjoying a guitar that doesn’t make you go “oh, what the hell is that and the way do I get one?” And now, for yet one more guitar in his arsenal, that query simply acquired loads simpler to reply.

Whereas it began life as a custom-shop construct, the brand new Troy Van Leeuwen Telecaster XII isn’t a high-end {custom} recreation, or perhaps a mainline Fender mannequin: it arrives as a part of Squier’s ever-creative and bizarre Paranormal sequence, an ideal residence for its mashup of design components and distinctive method.

I chatted to Troy in regards to the origins of the guitar, how J Mascis paved the best way for inexpensive signatures, and the way the very nature of a 12-string gels with the superbly imperfect method of the brand new Queens file Perfecth.

The place did this guitar originate?

“There’s a little bit backstory that goes again to once I first began working with fender on my Jazzmaster. This was proper when our file …Like Clockwork was popping out. There was a lot 12-string on that file that I used to be like, I ought to in all probability have a double-neck guitar, – my thought was to have a Jazzmaster on the underside and an Electrical XII on the highest.

“I used to be speaking to Paul Waller, a Grasp Builder on the Customized Store, and he was like, ‘That is in all probability gonna take six months from idea to playable guitar.’” We have been about to hit the highway, and I used to be utilizing a Burns Double Six reissue for my 12-string. Paul principally mentioned, ‘Why don’t I construct you a 12-string Tele as a substitute?’ – which was excellent, actually, as I had at all times wished a 12-string Telecaster, I simply by no means noticed one.

“So he took some measurements, and 4 weeks later I had this Customized Store Telecaster 12-string, in a copper relic end! Between myself and Dean [Fertita] we used that guitar a bunch – recording, dwell, what have you ever. In order that’s how that specific guitar began. Lately once I was chatting to a number of the guys at Fender, they have been perhaps speaking about doing one other signature. I simply went, ‘we should always do that 12-string Tele!’”

What was the advantage of working throughout the Squier vary fairly than making this a Fender launch?

“My very first electrical guitar was a Teisco Del Rey – that guitar at all times holds a particular place in my coronary heart! It was low-cost, I acquired it from a storage sale for like 60 bucks – and it didn’t sound like the rest. So to me, to do one thing with Squier was necessary – there, J Mascis blazed the path for us, actually.

“It grew to become about getting one thing on the market that’s actually easy and inexpensive for youths to attempt, too – I didn’t have a 12-string till I used to be in my late 20s! The brand new guitar is tremendous accessible and easy. Plus, it’s a Tele. There’s a cause that guitar has been round for 75 years. It’s basic, it’s easy, it at all times sounds good!”

What makes you attain for a Telecaster over a Jazzmaster?

“There’s only a completely different sort of twang, . With a Jazzmaster, it’s extra of a surf twang, the Tele, it’s extra of a rustic twang. And if I seize a Jazzmaster, I’m in all probability gonna use the vibrato system, as a result of it’s top-of-the-line for staying in tune should you’ve acquired the precise bridge, which for me is the Mustang bridge. The Tele is extra easy: it’s a slab, it’s squared-off, it’s no-frills – the Jazzmaster will get you this plethora of different stuff, however with the Tele, what you’re gonna get.”

How do you make 12-string sounds match nicely inside a Queens Of The Stone Age track relating to writing and recording with them?

“Loads of what we do in Queens with 12-strings – as a result of there’s three guitar gamers, myself, Dean and infrequently Josh – it’s often single-note stuff. Particularly specializing in the upper strings, for extra of that ringy, doubled character. I assume you’d name it a Center Jap sound. You may’t actually get away with loads of lushness with three guitar gamers. There’s not room for lots of huge, large chords as a result of it fills up the sign and the combo, and so with a 12-string particularly that’s why it’s extra single-note components.”

How has your method to dialling in tones modified through the years?

“The older Queens stuff was leaning extra on that large hollow-body, humbucker sound. However through the years, it’s undoubtedly widened and sharpened on the identical time. With single-coil you may get this clearer overdriven sound, should you’re pushing the amp with the precise kind of increase. The cleans aren’t utterly clear, and the overdrives aren’t searingly saturated – there’s this pleased medium, and that’s the place I hang around today, I’m undoubtedly leaning on the only coils.”

A 12-string arguably sounds nice as a result of it’s a barely imperfect instrument, much more so than six-string guitars – at all times barely out of tune with itself. Was that an method you wished to take typically on Perfecth, given the identify?

“With this new file, it’s one other examination of simplicity. Most of it was plugging straight into the amp with out loads of results, even when there’s a time and place for reverb and stuff. I’ve been utilizing this actually cool SG Methods amp, and it has a built-in Maestro phaser – it’s unimaginable, as a result of you’ll be able to plug it in and both have it phasing, or dial it in like a notched frequency factor. But it surely’s actually liberating to only plug straight in on a file like this, and let it do the magic.

“As we’re additionally producers and guys which may soar within the combine, too. So you’ll be able to sort of pre-mixing the file by deciding what tones are going to go down straight to the tape. There’s a track on the file known as Insignificant Different, and it’s a seven-minute track that we recorded dwell at, nicely, in all probability 3am. It was take two. All of us within the room, no results. Doing that it’s a must to go, ‘These are the frequencies Josh and Dean are going to dwell in,’ and so forth. It’s while you begin taking stuff away as a part of that, all the pieces opens up, and it feels extra pure.”

The brand new file is taking much more of an analogue method in a time the place loads of music is shifting away from that.

“I’ll take it additional than that: the identify of our file is Perfecth, which is principally saying there’s no such factor for us. On Insignificant Different there are errors that we saved – a few of these have been pleased errors, what you would possibly name ‘magic’, and a few of them are simply us feeling it out within the room.

“Guitars are completely not excellent. They shouldn’t truly work. While you mix all the weather, a wood neck, metallic frets, metallic strings – it’s by no means going to be really in tune. So for us, we’re analyzing the human expertise by doing issues which are completely imperfect, completely human. I imply, individuals are utilizing AI and that’s high-quality or no matter – however it’s simply boring. It’s fucking boring!”

Discover out extra in regards to the Squier Paranormal Troy Van Leeuwen Telecaster XII at fender.com.