Last week, Nick Lowe and Los Straitjackets visited The Current's studio for a session that became quite poignant given the passing of Ian McLagan later that day.

In the moments following the session, however, Lowe had a great guitar story to share: A few years back, Lowe accompanied a friend on an errand to a guitar shop in Portland, Ore.; implored to try a guitar by a store employee, Lowe originally dismissed the instrument as "ugly." But after playing it, Lowe bought it.

Here's how Nick Lowe tells it:

What was the guitar you were playing today?

It's a Gibson. It's called a J-150, and it's like a poor man's J-200. It's a big jumbo guitar, but it's sort of a cheaper one, and it suits my sort of rockabilly style well. It's not a very sophisticated guitar, but it works for me.

It sounds beautiful. How long have you had it?

I've had it about five years now. I bought it new in a shop in Portland, Oregon; I think it it was called the Acoustic Cellar. I didn't go in to buy a guitar; I was in there with someone who was doing a chore, and I started playing a few guitars and the guy in the shop said, "This has just come in — what do you think of it?"

And I said, "Oh, no, it's sort of ugly. It's not for me, really. I like something a little more beautiful."

Although I have to say, I like those kind of guitars — and when you find a good one, they're really good.

And he said, "Oh — you should try it, it's really good."

And I did — and it was! It's got lots of bass on it; that's the main reason I liked it. When I do my solo shows, I need a guitar with a lot of bass on it so I can play some rudimentary bass lines, make them come through. It's very good for that.

In your session today, you were using your thumb a lot to hit those bass notes.

Yes, when you plug these guitars in, they sound so horrible normally, that you continue trying to find ways of disguising the fact that it's plugged in and so it sounds as natural as possible. I've developed a sort of style using my fingers — I never use a plectrum because it makes it sound so clattery and makes that awful digital noise, that digital sound that I don't like very much. But I found with the thumb, you can get a nice, podgy, sort of spongy bass sound.

Obviously you're touring right now, but when you're at home, do you keep this guitar in a stand in your front room so you have it to hand?

Yeah, I do, I do actually. Actually, I've got quite a lot of guitars, including a number of this sort of style — including a Guild, actually — but I've got another Gibson, a sort of fancy J-200, actually: it's a remake of the first J-200 that came out. It's called an SJ-200 Ray Whitley Custom Guitar. I've got one of those. It's a lovely guitar. But it's very sort of highly strung, you know. It seems like if it's the temperature's not right, it won't go in tune, and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. When it does, it works fantastically, but sometimes it doesn't so I don't take that away with me.

This one, it's built like a tank. It always stays in tune, so that's why I take it on the road. But I also have it on the stand at home — "to hand," as you say.

Resources

Nick Lowe - official site

Gibson Guitar

Portland Music Company - Acoustic Cellar