00:00Hi, I'm Greg Freeman. I'm here with guitar.com, and this is My Guitars and Me.
00:20I got a guitar when I was about 12, maybe.
00:23My dad got me into classic rock early on, and the White Stripes really was an informative band for me.
00:33In about middle school, I guess, all of those things combined kind of were big inspirations.
00:40I just started writing songs as soon as I could play chords and stuff, and it's just an instinct, I
00:46guess.
00:47I didn't really like learning other people's songs so much. I still don't really.
00:51I had lessons, yeah, from a great teacher named Jamie, but then at a certain point you're also kind of
00:58teaching yourself your own style, you know.
01:02I love the idea of being kind of naive, having a naive style, but just the way I learned was
01:11just like trying to figure out as much as possible.
01:13And, you know, I'm not like a technical master or anything, but I think it's helpful knowing like scales and
01:23positions and stuff, or chords, yeah.
01:37With my second record that came out last year, I started writing it like maybe three years ago, but I
01:45don't think it really clicked with me what my own specific style was until I started working on that record.
01:51I wrote it with only one guitar in mind. Like that band that I was playing with didn't have a
01:58lead guitar.
01:59So I was kind of trying to like play rhythm and lead at the same time while singing, which was
02:08a good challenge, I guess.
02:09But I think trying to reincorporate like finger picking and it's kind of a hybrid style into my songs, I
02:17guess.
02:19Yeah, it took a long time to figure out how I thought about my own playing, I guess.
02:23But I think only recently have I really started to understand it, maybe.
02:38I mean, my last record had so many alternate tunings, which is part of why it was just kind of
02:44annoying to play.
02:44So this one I kind of went back to just like mostly standard tuning. There's one song that has this
02:50drop A tuning.
02:51I kind of started experimenting with it a couple years ago, alternative tunings.
02:57Mostly just changing one string or something. My main alternative tuning was just the G string up to an A,
03:04which I didn't realize.
03:06I guess that's like a pavement thing, apparently. You can kind of play the same chord shapes with that tuning.
03:13And it just, everything sounds a little bit different, you know, but I've since abandoned that.
03:34This is a 1980 Tokai Breezy Sound. My friend Benny Yerko in Burlington gave this to me.
03:44We recorded my last album there. This was kind of a gift.
03:49And it's just an incredible guitar. It's like, I played it every show last year, last two years pretty much.
03:58And I break like a string pretty much every time I play it for some reason.
04:03But I think it sounds and feels just as good as any Fender from that era.
04:09So I'd put brass saddles in this one to give it a more, you know, I just like the sound
04:14of them.
04:16I got a humbucker in there. I usually just use that. I really don't use that too much, but I
04:24just think it looks way better, you know.
04:26Let's be real.
04:40This is my new favorite guitar.
04:42My friend Garrett who plays bass in my band found it on Craigslist in Maine for like $400 or something.
04:51It might be late 90s, but I think it's an early 2000s, just Gibson SG.
04:56And it was in a house fire. That's why it looks way older than it is, I guess.
05:02Just kind of immediately relic the whole thing. Like the pickguard is literally melted right there.
05:07And that wear looks about 70 years old, but it's really just, you know, it was just burnt to a
05:15crisp.
05:16But yeah, just, I mean, it plays really great and has a big thick neck and just feels like a
05:21proper SG.
05:22Yeah.
05:23Some of them don't really feel right to me, but this one is just great.
05:27I put that Bigsby on it and that's the only thing I did really.
05:30Other than I put this sticker for this old airline called Gull Air.
05:49There was a while where I had like some old guitars.
05:52I just play too hard to like be able to play, you know, a vintage whatever, Mustang or something.
06:01Like it's just not going to be in tune.
06:02So I think that's why I like guitars from the 90s and 2000s.
06:07It's like has the age, but can kind of put up with a lot, I guess, because it's not too
06:12old.
06:12So honestly, I've recorded a lot of the new record on that guitar, maybe a little bit.
06:17I mean, I just think a Tele records better than any guitar pretty much in my experience.
06:22But for like anything, any type of music really.
06:25But definitely live, it's like if I had to choose one guitar for this new record,
06:31I can kind of play every song on this one here, so.
06:46It's just kind of a punk rock guitar, you know.
06:50You can kind of beat the shit out of it and play as high up as you want.
06:54It's just a good sounding guitar.
07:21Thank you for checking out my guitars.
07:24I have an album out October 2nd and yeah go listen to it
