Guitarist Jay Gilbertson of Yankton has been playing professionally since he was 14 years old. SDPB spoke with Gilbertson at his home studio.
SDPB: Do you remember the first time you ever had your hands on a guitar?
Jay Gilbertson: I got my first guitar from Mollete music here in Yankton for my 10th birthday. My grandparents and my parents, I think, bought me a, I don't know, a $30 or $40 nylon string guitar. And I started taking lessons at the music store.
SDPB: Did you pick it up quickly?
Jay Gilbertson: I don't know if I did. I was told that I did. It wasn't fast enough for me because you always want to be able to play your favorite song or whatever, and it was slow going in the beginning. For a couple years really, I probably didn't put my best into it. You're 10, 11 years old, you want to play in the dirt. But as soon as I got an electric guitar, that's when I went from here to here. By the time I was 14, I was playing live shows and I didn't take lessons anymore and just learning on my own all by ear. So I never learned to read music, which I kind of wish I had now. I know stuff about it, and I dabble in it, but that's about it.
SDPB: Who were some of your early influences in terms of guitar?
Jay Gilbertson: When I was a kid, I liked heavier stuff. So, Led Zeppelin, which I still like, but heavier, that kind of thing. All sorts of those ‘70s guitar players. Peter Frampton songs and that kind of stuff, I really liked the sound of their guitars. AC/DC, I liked that. And so I would play those somewhat easier three chord songs of like an AC/DC song or something like that. And that's how I would learn those on my own.
SDPB: And I guess that you probably evolved to play whatever style of music the occasion called for.
Jay Gilbertson: Over the years. Yes. Me and Mike Hilson, we play all sorts of acoustic shows and they're always different. If we're playing a club one night and then doctor's office in Sioux City the next night or the next show. And so you're always playing different styles, different volumes, different guitars. Sometimes we play electric. Sometimes we play acoustic. Most of the time, me and Mike are doing the acoustic thing.
SDPB: At what point did you say, ‘I'm not going to even try to do something else, and I want to be a musician? I want to play in bands.’
Jay Gilbertson: It was just always in my head. That's the way it kind of was. I remember when I... My son's graduating from high school here this weekend. So when I graduated from high school, I remember being in Columbus, Nebraska playing a three night show and we got home at oh, I think the birds were chirping. The sun was coming up. From Columbus is a long way and you had to tear down all your gear. And my alarm went off at 11:00 and I threw my robe over myself and ran to the field and graduated. Then I went to the university for a year, to USD. And it was the same year the guitar teacher, guitar program up there, ceased at the time. And so I didn't know what I was going to do. I teach now, but I didn't really want to teach. That wasn't it. I wanted to play live shows. Well, you're in Yankton, South Dakota. You can only play so many live shows. Luckily we do 100 to 150 shows a year. And so you can sort of make it with that, with some lessons, and dabble in this and that a little bit.
SDPB: Tell me about the guitar you're holding.
Jay Gilbertson: This is a '64 Fender Stratocaster (built) the year before CBS buy-out. They're great guitars. They're sought after. I bought this at Willie's American Guitars in Saint Paul when I was 24 or 25, I suppose. And my buddies, my brother-in-law and a couple other buddies, they were with me that day when I bought it. And it was way more than I could afford. I think I tapped out two credit cards on it, but it was worth it. I don't remember having to pay for it necessarily because I just loved it so much. And I've had it ever since then, since '95.
SDPB: Tell me a little bit about the materials in it. What makes it different maybe than a contemporary Stratocaster?
Jay Gilbertson: What I like about it, of course is just the tone. And what the tone comes from is this old wood that they made these guitars out of. The body of this is alder, which is a really hard wood. And the sound of the wood of this guitar is just fantastic. It's got an all maple neck, Brazilian rosewood fingerboard, which you have to pay top dollar to get that on a guitar these days. They don't build them like that anymore. Everything was hand sanded, not a CNC machine. And the pickups were all wound with that old style winding, old style materials that they used back then. And with age, they even sound cooler. But Jimi Hendrix was playing a ‘66 and a ‘67 Strat... Those were after CBS, and he made them sound incredible, but that's kind of what myself and my friends go for is we want to try to get that sound. So you go back and get those kinds of guitars that those guys played.
SDPB: There were other solid bodies out there. What led you to this one?
Jay Gilbertson: I like the sound of Stratocasters. I have a Les Paul. I like that too, but they're a very hot guitar and you have to dial them back to clean up, I guess is what you'd say. You have to dial them down, where you can just add to a Stratocaster, and they're chime-y. They just have a great tone to them to begin with. These do too, but they're for a little bit different thing in my opinion. I like Stratocasters. I have a few of them that I play live. I don't usually play this one live unless it's for a special thing. I have an Eric Johnson Strat and a Stevie Ray Vaughan Stratocaster that I use for regular shows. And they're made with great woods too. They're less expensive. You don't care if you throw them on the ground and jump on top of them or whatever, but you don't really want to do that with this. Although I used to do that with this one too. I learned in my getting older to relax a little bit.
SDPB: So the ’64 is kind of your recording instrument.
Jay Gilbertson: It is. This is if I'm recording stuff, I'll use this. Like I said, I take this out and play it too, but it's just not to a regular club gig or something like that.