“I’M BASICALLY DOING A KEITH RICHARDS THING WITHOUT THE TOP STRINGS” — HOW HENRI CASH DOES SO MUCH WITH SO LITTLE
By Joe Bosso
STARCRAWLER GUITARIST HENRI
Cash can do a whole lot with very little. Throughout his band’s smashing new album, She Said, he fires off rip-snortin’ punk rock riffs and rhythms on just three strings. “It’s something I’ve done since I was a kid,” he says. “My dad played guitar, and he used a lot of open tunings. I kind of narrowed that down to the bare essentials and found that three strings were all I needed.”
Cash’s main guitar is a custom model designed by luthier Randy Parsons. He struck up a friendship with the guitar builder several years ago at a NAMM show, after which Parsons crafted Cash’s White Bat model. “It’s got one pickup, kind of Malcolm Young style,” Cash says. “And there’s an R2R treble booster built right inside, so I get a lot of lift with that.”
On most songs, he sticks with a G-D - G tuning ( gauges .046, .036 and .026, respectively). “I’m basically doing a Keith Richards thing without the top strings,” he says. “I never wanted to be a shredder dude. I’m more of a Chuck Berry/Johnny Ramone-type guy. I like to play solos, but I make sure they’re tight and melodic and without a lot of notes.”
Cash’s minimalist approach achieves maximum thrust on gnashing rockers like “Roadkill,” “Thursday” and “True Deranged.” But all isn’t pedal to the metal: On the frothy Seventies funk-disco pastiche “Jetblack,” he whacks up a disturbing noise solo (played on a
