“It makes me sick to even think that I spent that much money on a guitar. Nile Rodgers was like, ‘What is that?!’” Tash Sultana on the magic of Strats and blowing a guitar legend’s mind with an extremely rare model
The musical polymath reveals what the future holds for their signature Strat, and why jamming with Nile Rodgers, Mateus Asato and Tom Morello was just what the doctor ordered
(Image credit: Alyssa Gafkjen)
With 1.3 million YouTube subscribers and 1.2 million Instagram followers, Tash Sultana is one of the few social media age guitarists best known for making original music.
“I’d made the decision not to go on tour for the foreseeable future. I’d just gotten back home and I get this email: ‘Hey, not sure if you’re interested in this. You’ll have to fly back to LA. It’s Grammy week, could be fun. Nile Rodgers is doing it on the day that they want you there.’ I was just like, ‘All right!’
“I’ve got a love/hate relationship with my guitar playing, so to be asked and considered among some of the best guitarists in the world to do this campaign, I think I needed that. You know, Mateus Asato, Tom Morello, Nile Rodgers on the bill, and they’re asking little old me to come along as well! I partied so hard, stayed up till the sun came up every morning.
“I finally understood what hair of the dog means, and had this amazing week where I just kept bumping into Nile Rodgers everywhere I went. Like, ‘We got to stop doing this, man!’ We really connected and he gave me his number. We’ve been talking so we’ll see what happens from there. I think it was possibly the best week of my life.”
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“I bought a 1960 Graffiti Yellow Stratocaster from the Chicago Music Exchange [potentially a refinish as Graffiti Yellow was first introduced as a finish in 1986 – Ed]. It’s the most expensive guitar I’ve ever bought. It makes me sick to even think that I spent that much money on a guitar. It’s a fucking crazy guitar.
“Straight away, Nile Rodgers was like, ‘That! What is that?’ I did change the pickups, just for three stock single coils. The old ones were super-tarnished, very noisy, so they came out. For me, it wasn’t about the internals of the guitar. I just saw this motherfucker on the wall and I was like, ‘What the hell is that?’ It had the ugliest scratchplate on it, too, but I could see what it could become.”
You’re normally a stickler for noiseless pickups. How are you coping with traditional single-coil pickups?
“I kind of dilute my noise with the way that my guitar is routed and the type of processing that I have on it. I think I can pretty much achieve everything now by removing that noise digitally, with noise gates and other processing. I also reduce the noise floor on my Strats by shielding the cavities with aluminium foil.”
“I wanted it to be versatile for all different kinds of player preference. So I wanted to have the Dual-Tap humbucker with a coil-split on the tone knob and humbuckers and single-coil just so that you could set the guitar however you wanted. My whole concept was I wanted a guitar that looked like it was worth a lot of money, but still be affordable.
“I think the next one I do will probably be a little bit more specific to my personal spec. I still want to price it the same, but I would just I would make sure that the neck and radius was a little bit different, starting off as a U and finishing off as a half-moon. I would make sure that the neck was shaved down and unfinished. And I would have three single-coils for more of that jazz/blues sound.”
Tash Sultana - James Dean (Official Music Video) - YouTube
“The yellow one, ‘Daphne’ – that’s the name – has taken first place now. I knew as soon as I picked it up, it’s the build, it’s the weight, it’s the wood. It’s just things that you can’t replicate, because of age, that just kind of does a certain thing to the guitar itself. That has a really big impact on the sound. So that would have to be number one.
“I still feel sick about how much I paid for it, but I love it. Vinnie was my other one, my vintage blue relic 1962 Stratocaster with the single coils and the hot rod DiMarzio Choppers pickup on the bridge. That’s definitely up there.”
(Image credit: Alyssa Gafkjen)
How did you get into playing Strats?
“My first Strat was a black Fender Squier that I got for my eighth birthday. When I was a little bit older, I actually saved up all of my money and bought myself a Epiphone SG. After the Epiphone I went and bought a Jazzmaster with my busking money. I could not believe that I’d made enough money busking to afford this Seafoam Green Jazzmaster!
“From there, I bought my Richie Kotzen Tele which I still use every single show. I don’t even remember when I started playing Strats again – I don’t remember how and I don’t remember why! I’m a slinky type of guitarist, so that is what I really like.
“Predominantly I play Strats because it’s great for all those reggae, soul and jazz progressions. I like the thin neck to be able to wrap my thumb all the way around. With the Strat cutaways I can get all the way down the neck, and that’s how I feel I play the best. And and I think they’re just a really good-looking, classic guitar. And I use the whammy bar heaps!”
Tash Sultana - New York (Official Music Video) - YouTube
Last time we spoke you teased that you were developing something Strat-related with DiMarzio. Is that still coming?
“Yeah, that kind of fell away a little bit just because of schedule conflict, but it’s definitely in the pipeline.”
How are you coping with not gigging?
“Right now, it’s a really strange place to be. Who am I now that the music’s off? Quite a few days of nothing, just laying around in bed, which is not me. Maybe slightly depressed. I haven’t had that spark for a very long time, because I was just completely burnt out. But also, it’s kind of a nice place to be because I am starting to feel really, really creative now…”
Jenna writes for Total Guitar and Guitar World, and is the former classic rock columnist for Guitar Techniques. She studied with Guthrie Govan at BIMM, and has taught guitar for 15 years. She's toured in 10 countries and played on a Top 10 album (in Sweden).
