It’s the instrument that is most associated with any form of rock music, the sound of an amplified guitar drives teens wild and parents often mad. Well known though it may be it can still be a difficult thing to master. Phil Honeyjones makes playing look effortless and has a unique sound all of his own performing with the Healthy Junkies. Gary Trueman chatted to Phil about the guitar and hopefully the result is informative rather than nerd speak for anyone curious to know more about the most iconic of instruments.
What, or who first made you want to pick up a guitar?
“I was already playing the cello from a very young age, around six. I was struggling with that and then I saw glam rock on Top of the Pops with the likes of The Sweet, David Bowie, Marc Bolan and watching them play. It started off with a tennis racket (as a kid mimicking) then I progressed to an acoustic guitar aged ten, but that was still a struggle. Blistered fingers while trying to learn classical guitar for two years. I didn’t like my teacher particularly and he didn’t like me. It wasn’t until I was about 12 that I got an electric and by then punk rock had happened and we were going into new wave, and that’s what got me into it, hearing the energy of those kind of bands.”
What guitars do you own and play at this point in time?
“My favourite guitar which I usually use live is called The SG which I got in 1979. Gibson made The SG and The Paul in 1979 for one year only. I think it was meant to be a more affordable Gibson. I was in a band with someone who had The Paul and I had The SG. I’ve used that one for my entire guitar history. I do also have a black 1972 Gibson SG which I got 20 odd years ago for my back up. I have an Ibanez 80s guitar with an active pick up which I bought off a friend. And I have some acoustic guitars. It’s quite a limited collection. Some people have massive collections but I’m not one of them.”
Guitars, specifically electric ones, have almost exclusively got six strings but occasionally you get them with seven or even eight strings. Why is that? Why have a few got more?
“As far as I know the extra string would be a lower note. Normally you have a bottom E string, so you’ll have a B which is lower. For example in metal sometimes with the detuned deep sounding chugging style (that you find in Nu Metal – Ed). I’ve only ever played a seven string once.”
Pick ups sit under the strings to ‘pick up’ sound. You mentioned that you have a guitar that has an active pick up, presumably as opposed to a passive pick up? What’s the difference between the two?
“My Ibanez that has an active pick up has a battery that powers it. And you have a switch so you can turn it on to give you a boost. You can get active and passive pick ups for PA equipment as well. So it’s whether it’s powered or not.”
Staying on the subject of pick ups you quite often see guitarists posting that they’ve changed there’s on a particular guitar, often with older guitars. Some people though seem to hate that and want a guitar to be absolutely original. Why would you change the pick ups?
“I guess if you wanted a different sound. Our bass player Dave wants to change the pick ups in his Fender bass, and he’s going for a particular sound. I guess I’m just not that fussy, I like the sound of my guitar and I’ve stuck with it. Maybe I just don’t like change.”
Conversely is there a value in vintage guitars having their original pick ups?
“You would have thought so, that it would be more valuable keeping it as original as you can. I did change the frets on my 1979 Gibson SG much to Nina’s (Healthy Junkies singer and Phil’s girlfriend) dismay because she’s very keen on keeping things original. There was a bit of a ‘buzzing’ on a couple of the frets and they were clearly very worn. Now I can’t keep the bloody thing in tune!”
Moving on to another vital part of a guitar, the strings. What strings do you use and why?
“I use what are called 10s. The top E string is a 0.10 guage (hence ‘10’ – Ed). I used to use 9s and then someone put me on to 10s. Lighter strings are easier for fast playing, heavier strings are good for a solid chuggy sound. Mine are in between.”
What pedals do you use and why?
“I do like my pedals which are mostly old Boss pedals. They were made in the 90s and they don’t make them any more. If one of them breaks I have to seek out second hand versions from Japan or wherever I can get them. I see other bands now with huge pedal boards, mine is a piece of MDF with the pedals gaffer taped on. People laugh and take the piss because of my old fashioned pedal board. I have now bought a new pedal board but haven’t actually transferred the pedals over yet. But yes, Boss for me, and I do like Electro Harmonics as well which is a synth pedal that gives you a key board like sound. I’m using it more on some of our newer material.”
We’ve already discussed with Becky Baldwin the difference between a head and cabinets and a combo unit but what set up do you use for amplification?
“I have both a Marshall 2000 valve combo and a JCM 800 valve head with a Marshall 4×12 cabinet. It’s usually the combo I get to use because of the nature of the gigs we do, but I do love it when I can use the stack. I prefer the JCM 800. But they’re both valve and that’s my sound and I love them.”
So again we have two different types of amplification with you using valves as opposed to transistor. When you hear people use valves it conjures up an image of old war time radio sets but they’re still very popular in modern live music. Why is that?
“Well, quite a lot of people are now switching that like me said they wouldn’t. There are now quite a few transistor amplifiers out there with emulators built in so you can choose to replicate a valve sound. I’ve been told I should get these new amps because they’re lighter to carry and have an amazing sound. Old valve amps are really heavy to lug around but I’ll carry on using mine as long as I can.”
What’s the best thing about playing the guitar in a band?
“For me I feel free and able to play what I want when I want. 99.9% of the time that works fine. It’s the freedom of it. I don’t know why I gravitated towards the guitar. I guess it was the look at first then I found it was something I could do, as opposed to the cello which has no frets so getting the notes in tune is very difficult.”
And is there anything you dislike about playing the guitar?
“There’s nothing I really don’t like. It does take its toll on your hands and arms after a while. My mother was a pianist and had similar repetitive strain injuries in her hands. You get frozen fingers and numbness but that’s after many years of playing. But there’s nothing I can say against playing the guitar.”
If someone came up to you after a gig that they were considering playing the guitar what would you say to them to encourage them?
“If they’ve asked then it sounds like they’ve pretty much made their mind up anyway. If they’ve come up to me at one of my gigs talking to me about that then I’d ask them why they’re considering it and what sort of guitar they’d like to play or if they have one already. I’d engage in a conversation about them.”
Interview and photos by Gary Trueman