3 Questions With Eric Ambel

By Rob Skane.

Eric Ambel plays rocknroll guitar – loose, raw, and loud – and he’s worked with everyone from Joan Jett to Steve Earle. You’d be wise to listen to his work as a musician but also as a record producer. If I were you, I’d track him down and have him produce your next LP. Please find him at www.ericambel.com or www.cowboytechnicalservices.com

RRX: What was the moment that made you pick up a guitar and never put it down?

EA: The Beatles on Ed Sullivan.  I was doing my homework in my room, and my parents yelled out, “Hey, you gotta see this.”  They were on the couch laughing.  I was not laughing.  I didn’t have a guitar yet, but I was gonna get one no matter what.   My first guitar was a folk guitar I got from a neighbor for 25 bucks.  It played awfully, but I got one of those chord books and started teaching myself.  I had already been playing piano and the trumpet.  The first song I learned was “The House of the Rising Sun,” and it was a good one.  It had five chords.

RRX: If you could go back and tell your younger self one thing about playing guitar, what would you say?

EA: I’d tell myself not to underestimate the thrill of playing the thing.  I did know that as a kid, but  I like to remind myself every once in a while.

RRX: When you’re not onstage or recording, what kind of stuff do you play when no one’s listening?

EA: A friend of mine who was a writer for an esteemed hi-fi magazine got to interview Les Paul about his home stereo.  The interview was long and technical.  At the very end, my friend asked Les Paul if he had a tip for the guitar players.  Les said, “Yeah, don’t keep the guitar in the case.”  This writer didn’t play guitar, and Les could see that he was kind of baffled by this statement, so Les helped him out and finished, “You can’t play it in the case.”   I leave guitars around.  I like to pick them up and see what comes out of them.  If I like it, I’ll record the bit on the phone.  Every few months I’ll go through the phone and see if something’s better than good; then I’ll work on that a little more. If I’m not doing that, I might try to figure out how to play a Beatles piano song on the guitar.  That’s always a worthy challenge.