Buzzing Guitar: A Love Story

The unglamorous guitar maintenance ritual that makes musical breakthroughs possible

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The looper breakthrough during “Far From Me,” featured in my last newsletter, didn’t happen in isolation. Before going live, I spent time adjusting the guitar—you can actually hear some buzzing in the stream if you listen closely. The truss rod needed attention, and getting the action right is an ongoing process with this instrument. This is the unglamorous side that makes the musical moments possible. Guitar maintenance—changing strings, getting all the gear right—can be like a pre-music ritual, and the less glamorous groundwork that has to happen before the transcendent moments can emerge.

Even with the setup not quite perfect, the music still found a way. There’s something honest about the buzzing—it keeps the performance human rather than pristine. The imperfections become part of the sound, and an element that I was working with during this performance.

The vocals here are doubled as well. It’s completely accidental, but they add a psychedelic texture that actually serves the material. With music performance, I have to work with what I have in the moment that it’s happening, and sometimes that’s the mud from which the lotus blooms.