Sime Nugent of Sweet Jean
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Sime Nugent of Sweet Jean

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What piece of equipment do you have to show us today?


Alice’s modified 1977 Greco Les Paul-esque guitar.

 

How did you come across this particular item?


We bought this little beauty at the mighty Music Swop Shop in Carlton, Melbourne. They (and the excellent Found Sounds) are some of the last bastions of recycled music gear and we love to browse. Our friend and producer, John Castle, pointed the guitar out to us and we loved it at first sight.

 

What is it that you like so much about it?


Great neck. New pick-ups give a beautiful tone. Someone had put a Bigsby on it and we ditched that straight away. It really suits Alice’s playing style and since we had it set up by Jeb at Melbourne Guitar Repair it has very good intonation.

 

How do you use it, and how has it shaped the way you write music?


Our new album Monday to Frida, has this guitar all over it and a lot of the songs were written on it. We set out to make a more electric album than our previous releases and this was the guitar for the job. We worked at home in our converted laundry studio then took those sketches across to John at The Shed Studios. Working this way we were able to keep a lot of the first takes from the earliest demos and then expand on them over time.

 

Any other interesting points/stories about it?


When the Japanese made these guitars in the 70s, they were so good that the American companies that made the originals filed lawsuits against the makers of the copies. They call this the lawsuit era. I have an Ibanez made Telecaster copy from the same era.

 

Sweet Jean will be touring throughout Australia from July 1 through to August 6. For more information, visit their Facebook page. Their new album Monday to Friday is out now via ABC Music.