Wes Montgomery :: Impressions (Coltrane)

During his entire career Wes Montgomery played almost exclusively on a Gibson L5 (cutaway electric spanish) from 1963. He wasn’t really interested in equipment. In his own words: “I got a standard box. I don’t never want nothing special. Then if I drop my box, I can borrow somebody else’s…”

He also played with his thumb rather than with a guitar pick, and this is a major characteristic in his guitar sound. He had a corn on his thumb, one sound he got from the soft parts of his thumb, another more edgy one from that corn…