By: Matt Warnock
Photos courtesy of E. Mantel.
Tone. It’s the one thing that every guitarist searches for, spending countless hours and dollars trying to personalize in their sound. Great players such as Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton and Eric Johnson have all become known as much for their unique tones as they have the notes that they play. Illinois based guitarist extraordinaire Eric Mantel is a player who understands the importance of tone, and how effective a solid tone can be when coupled with a well-written melodic idea, something that seems to be lost on many of today’s up and coming players.
Mantel brings his strong tonal quality and penchant for melodic writing and development to his album The Unstruck Melody, which can be found on Steve Vai’s Digital Nations label. The album, which is divided into two acts, is a testament to the countless hours that Mantel has spent in the practice room, as well as the many years he’s spent on the bandstand developing his craft. Taking a page from the Beatles songbook, the album features well-written songs that are not only a treat for guitar fans, but that have melodic hooks and harmonic progressions that any music fan can enjoy, something that is not always the case with other guitar records in this vein.
Recently making the switch from Fender and Gibson guitars over to Korean made Cort guitars, Mantel is joining the ranks of both professional and amateur players who are moving away from expensive guitar, that usually charge more for their name than their craftsmanship these days, and playing instruments that are both affordable and of the highest quality. While Cort has had a reputation in the past of making cheap guitars, it is players like Mantel who are working to rid the company of that image, showing the world that Cort can make a great guitar that is affordable, but definitely not cheap. With tough economic times still looming over our heads, many players are looking to get the most bang for their guitar buck, so while a move like this would have been a rarity in the past, it seems to be setting the trend for things to come, at least in the near future.
Mantel is also running a series of contests where guitarists submit videos of themselves playing his songs, and the winners get some seriously cool prizes including Cort guitars and all sorts of other gear. If you haven’t done so already, visit Eric Mantel’s Facebook page to keep up to date with these, and other, contests as well as everything that’s going on in Mantel’s musical world.
Guitar International recently caught up with Eric Mantel to talk about Cort guitars, teaching guitar and his album The Unstruck Melody
Eric Mantel
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Matt Warnock: For many years you played Fender and Gibson guitars, but now you’re playing Cort guitars. What inspired you to make the switch over to Cort?
Eric Mantel: I still own Fender and Gibson guitars, most guitar players do, but I moved over to Cort because I’m trying to work out a Signature model guitar with them. I also discovered after playing through their different models, is that Cort guitars started back in the ‘60s, when they were called Cortez. For some reason, a lot of people associate Cort guitars with being cheap, and at one time they kind of were like that, many decades ago. But, now they’ve come such a long way it’s ridiculous.
The quality of these guitars is amazing. The woods they use are the same as anywhere else, but what I do with my Corts is I upgrade them a bit once I get them. I put Sperzel tuners on them. I put Seymour Duncans in them. I put Tone Pros on them. They’re amazing for what they are. The price range is amazing. You can pick up a Cort guitar for half the price of a competitive brand. There’s a difference between being cheap and being inexpensive, and Cort guitars are not cheap by any means.
They’re also a great company to deal with. With a Fender or a Gibson, you have to be a huge name to be heard, if that, but with Cort I can talk to them, give them input, and feel like they’re really listening to what I have to say. It’s a great relationship.
There have also been a number of big names that have endorsed Cort over the years, guys like Gene Simmons for the basses and Larry Coryell. My goal is to get my own signature model. I’ve got my own custom one-off guitars, but I’d like to develop a model that is produced at higher numbers.
I’m also looking to break into the Asian music scene more in coming years, and Cort is based in Korea, so that was another reason to work with them. Those are some various reasons, but the main reason is that they make high-quality instruments at an affordable price.
Eric Mantel
Matt: Besides being an accomplished performer and recording artist, you’ve taught literally thousands of students over the years. Why do you feel it’s important to maintain that part of your career with everything else you have going on?
Eric: The reason I keep teaching, is it’s my way of giving back to the community in my own way. I always do full-hour lessons and I charge a fraction of what other people and places charge to keep things affordable for people. It keeps me humble. A lot of big-name players still teach. Greg Howe still teaches for example. So I think it’s an important thing for me to do and I really love working with the students and seeing them grow as players.
Matt: What are some of the fundamentals that you stress with your students?
Eric: The main thing is to understand the basics. You want to have your basic chords down, open chords and barre chords. A lot of players don’t have a large chord vocabulary down, so I emphasize learning many different chords and chord shapes. Then, when we get into scales I have a very detailed workout on learning pentatonic scales, learning the fingerings but also learning them in many different situations.
The pentatonic scale tends to be an easier scale to work with than the modes, because there are fewer notes. It’s basically a cross between a mode and an arpeggio. They tend to be very user friendly. For the style of music that I play, I think it’s important to really master the pentatonic scales. I get into all sorts of variations, like string skipping, how to use octaves, using intervals, every possible variation you can think of.
By doing that, it creates a nice palette that you can build off of when you’re soloing. It gives you more colors to solo with, but without learning a ton of different scales in the process. But, having said that, most of the younger students these days don’t really want to learn to solo, not like in the old days, but hopefully that will start to come back around.
Eric Mantel Unstruck Melody
Matt: Your album Unstruck Melody is divided into two acts. What was the inspiration behind this, and did that setup influence your writing or did your writing influence that setup?
Eric: I wrote the album like that because I had a ton of material to work with, there’s like 21 tracks on the record. Also, it’s very eclectic and diverse, everything sounds like it’s coming from a different musical space. Too many albums have tracks that all sound the same. Or, they have one or two great songs and the rest is filler. What I did was break it down into Act I and Act II to separate things a little bit.
I just wanted to show my diversity as an artist with that record. I’m a singer-songwriter as much as I am a guitar guy, and I wanted to showcase all sides of my playing, not just make a one-sided record. That’s why I like Eric Johnson in that regard, he can shred, but he can also write and sing great songs. I wanted to show those sides of my musicality as well. As much as I love to shred and have that side of my playing, melody is of the utmost importance. If you don’t have melody you’ve got nothing to build on.
Matt: What do you have planned for 2011 as far as new projects in the works?
Eric: First, I plan on having a new album out by the end of this year. And I’ve already been in contact with Stu Hamm, the bassist, and I’m going to hire him to play on one song. I’m also talking to a few other guys, so the ball is rolling on bringing the project together. The album’s not going to be long, maybe 12 tracks or so, but it’ll feature some great players. I also want to do Christmas album, which is something I’ve wanted to do for a long time now as well.
I’m also going to be focusing on getting overseas more, to Asia and Europe. I’ve had some interest already to go over and work in those markets, but the biggest problem is the travel expense. But, definitely a new album in the works and the Christmas album, those are my two main focuses for the coming year.
