‘I Used to Say, ‘Bah, Les Pauls Are Always Out of Tune!”: Joel Hoekstra on Why He Went From Dissing LPs to Playing One ‘All the Time’

“And then I got it, and about a week later, I couldn’t kick myself hard enough.”

'I Used to Say, 'Bah, Les Pauls Are Always Out of Tune!'': Joel Hoekstra on Why He Went From Dissing LPs to Playing One 'All the Time'

Joel Hoekstra reflected on how Les Paul became his go-to instrument despite his initial dislike of it, noting that every note played sounds “fantastic”.There seem to be two main types of players in this world (excluding Joe Bonamassa) — those who wouldn’t give up playing Les Pauls for the world and those for whom Gibson’s iconic model does nothing. The Whitesnake & Trans-Siberian Orchestra guitarist used to belong to the latter group in his youth, as he admits to Twisted Sister’s Jay Jay French in a recent interview.

As Hoekstra explains, he only came in contact with Les Pauls later in his life (transcribed by Ultimate Guitar):

“I grew up playing Floyd Rose guitars. That was what was happening at the time. So, I grew up playing a Kramer, and a Jackson… A Tele, a Strat. I used to always say, ‘Bah, Les Pauls are always out of tune! I don’t want a Les Paul!’ And then I ended up getting an SG when I came to New York here to do that ‘Love, Janis’ show, which was about Janis Joplin.”

“Sam Andrew was the music director of the show, and that led to me gigging with Big Brother and the Holding Company.

 

So, I got an SG for that show, which was cool, because Angus Young was my hero… But I fought the Les Paul thing for forever, and then finally, that Goldtop you see me with all the time, that was my first Les Paul.”

Reflecting on how he almost immediately changed his opinion on the model after finally giving it a try, Hoestra went on:

“It took me all the way until, I would say 2004 or something like that. I mean, it took me forever.

 

And then I got it, and about a week later, I couldn’t kick myself hard enough because I went, ‘This is it!’ It immediately became *it*.

 

I was like, ‘I get it.’ Everything sounds good on this guitar. It wasn’t about how fast you could play; I think you’d give up maybe 10% of your technique on a Les Paul or something like that. But it’s worth it, because the one note that you play sounds fantastic.”

“It’s not a Ferrari, but it’s a Mercedes. It just instantly became my thing. And amazingly enough, that guitar is still my main guitar. I own a lot of Les Pauls, but that particular guitar is still my favorite.”