The Current's Guitar Collection: Till Timm of King Khan and the Shrines, 1960s Harmony
by Luke Taylor and Till Timm
October 23, 2013
When King Khan and The Shrines stopped in to The Current studios for an in-studio session and an interview with Mary Lucia, the band's lead guitarist Till Timm took a few minutes to talk about his vintage guitar just before he and the band packed up to travel to Madison, Wis. Here's what he had to say:
What kind of guitar is this?
It's a Harmony guitar. I think it's from the late '60s. I bought it in Canada — I think it was in Toronto. I bought it just because, do you know Mark Pepe, aka Mark Sultan or BBQ? That's the guitar he uses.
How long have you had this guitar?
I think I've had it about eight years now.
What do you like about its sound?
It's the loudest guitar I've ever had. It's more like a beginner's guitar, so it's not that easy to play, but I totally dig the sound. And I dig that it's so powerful.
I used to play Fender guitars, but they are very heavy so that was bad for my back. And Fenders have a soft sound, which I don't dig very much.
This guitar is more bassy, but it's not a rock sound, it's a more '60s sound — that kind dirty sound. And it works pretty well with most any amplifier.
Who are your guitar-playing influences?
We listen to soul music and a lot of '60s stuff. There's a lot of early Rolling Stones that I really dig, and then I listen to what the Stones were listening to back then: I'm not that fond of Chuck Berry, but I like Barrett Strong — do you know his song "Money"? That's, like, one of my favorite songs and I think that lick is great.
And there is a lot of Beatles stuff where I think the guitar is really, really great. My influences are mostly '60s: Kinks, Beatles, Stones.
And lots of the garage stuff: the Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era album, the Pebbles compilation series, acid punk. That's what I try to copy, more or less.
