Ori Naftaly
Southern Avenue
www.southernavenuemusic.com
https://facebook.com/SouthernAvenueMusic/
https://www.instagram.com/southernavenuemusic/

How long have you been a musician? How did you get into it in the first place?

I started playing guitar when I was 5 years old. I remember listening to my dads record collection that was full of Jazz, Blues, Funk and British rock from the 60s and 70s. I had an amazing mentor called Tony Pearson who moved to Israel when I was 8 years old. He toured with James Brown, Tina Turner and Four Tops to name a few. He was a huge inspiration to me and we studied together for a decade until I was about 18 years old.

Who have been some of your major musical influences, past or present?

Every few years I would switch a genre or get into bunch of new bands and artists. Early on it was Muddy Waters, BB King and Jimi Hendrix. Then Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple. I got into Miles Davis and John Mcglaughlin when I was 13 years old and that led me to Fusion and more progressive rock. Danny Gatton is a huge inspiration until this day. Stevie Ray Vaughn was someone who I studied a lot. James Browns guitar players always intrigued me as well. But at some point I realized that I like listening to good songs that were written very well and then my solos would be way better. When my focused changed from listening to guitar oriented music to just music, it opened my entire mind to new approaches as a guitar player and now I’m influenced by horn and piano players just as much as guitar players.

What drew you to using pedals initially? Have you been using them throughout your playing career? How have pedals helped to shape your sound, or influence the style that you’ve created?

My first few pedals were a compressor and an overdrive and then my dad convinced me to get a multi effect which now looking back, was a big mistake! But I guess he wanted me to just experiment with different sounds without the need to invest so much money because we never had a lot growing up. Later on when I started my first all original band in high school when I was 14, I purchased a few BOSS and EHX pedals and that revolutionized my sound. When I finished high school and got accepted to Music College for composition and arrangement, I actually stopped using pedals and put my money into a Fender Vibrolux, Cranked it up and occasionally used a Dunlop Wah Wah. Those were important years in my evolution as a player because I really focused on my tone using a tube amp rather then relying on pedals for overdrive or distortion sounds.

Then after focusing on classical music for a few years, I got back to playing rock ‘n roll music when I started my solo band in 2011, when I was about 23. I built my pedal board again and this time around knew how to blend the sound of my Vibrolux amp and my overdrive and booster pedals. I learned about gain stacking and experimented with different staging of my modulation pedals. Until this day I use the same approach on my board which is having the amp a bit hot and then stack my booster with a clean overdrive and I use my volume knob on the guitar or my volume pedal to get the “clean” tone that I want for rhythm and then when I go to solo I just turn the volume up. I’m not a fan of pushing a button to get into “solo mode”. The main reason is because during shows we jam a lot and my band mates will try different things and I don’t want to be jumping back to my board just because I need to have a fuller more rich overdriven tone for lead. I like to be in control and not rely on pushing a button. My overdrive and booster are always on and I use the volume knob to go from Rhythm to Lead, I think that’s the safest and best option for me.

What’s your current setup look like? Take us through your pedal rig (feel free to include amps and instruments as well if you’d like):

I have three main guitars that I’m using on tour and that’s a 2015 Gibson ES-Les Paul Goldtop, 2016 Olympic white Stratocaster by Nash Guitars and a 1996 sunburst G&L ASAT Classic.

The I really like my Ernie Ball VP Jr Volume Pedal because of the Tuner output option and because it’s just so reliable. Occasionally, when I feel like it, I will run my old Cry Baby Wah, but not always, I like my wah wah effect a lot but don’t believe in using it too often as it takes away from the “real” playing. My chain most of the time would look like this:

Ernie Ball VP Jr Volume Pedal -> Strymon Lex Rotary pedal -> EQD Spatial Delivery -> Morning Glory V4 -> EQD Palisades -> Option 5 Phaser -> Mooer Trelicopter -> TC Flashback 2

I change my tremolo pedals often and my newest purchase is the Trelicopter, mainly because it’s so small and makes my life easier, because I can fit more pedals on my board. I use a Fender Vibrolux that was modified by a Memphis Amp engineer Lyle Caldwell, who’s a legend in town. He actually added a “Mid” knob in the back so I can get more of a “Twin” sound but I keep it almost down to 0 most of the times, still cool to have that option!

Favorite type of pedal (drive, delay, fuzz, etc. – more than one answer is always acceptable!):

My EQD Palisades is by far the best overdrive I’ve used in my life. Endless options and switching between a Humbucker and single coil guitar is so easy with the band witch knob. I rarely use a Fuzz but the Analog Man Sunbender was the best I’ve ever used. For Delay, I really dig the endless possibilities with the TC Flashback. I’m a huge fan of Tremolo and my favorite is the original FullTone. For Rotary and Leslie kind of pedals, the Neo Instruments Ventilator and my Strymon Lex are by far the best I’ve ever used. I always use my Fender’s reverb and rarely use a pedal for reverb effects.

You’re stranded on a desert island – which three (3) of the following do you want to have?

Instruments: Gibson ES Les Paul because of the lightweight body and out of this world tones. The temperature changes in the island might make it hard to keep in tune tho lol!
Amps: Fender Vibrolux, but it has to be modified
Pedals: my EQD Palisades

What’s up next for you/your band(s)?

We are always on tour. Always writing and recording. We are on the road 300 days a year. Biggest thing coming up for us is a tour with Tedeschi Trucks Band, that is a dream come true and I’m very excited and honored that they chose us to support them on 6 shows.

The Klon hype: Love it or Hate it?

If there is a hype, there is a reason! But, not everything works for everybody. It’s all about how you strum your guitar and what approach you have as a player. A good player can make anything sound good, but it’s more about how easy it is to get what you want out of a pedal, guitar or amp.

Any last comments, promos or anything you’d like to talk about?

Be sure to check out tour schedule and catch us on the road! We are probably coming to your city or close by very soon!

Thanks so much to Ori for taking the time to answer some questions! Make sure to go check out www.southernavenuemusic.com, and check their tour page to see when they’re headed to a town near you! Cheers!

Check out some of our other interviews here:

Brandon “Taz” Niederauer

Willy Porter

Brian Moss of Spafford

Neal Casal (rest easy, friend)

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