A Perfect Circle guitarist Billy Howerdel discussed a guitar he got from Trent Reznor helping formulate his sound in a new Seeker interview.
In addition to A Perfect Circle and Ashes Divide, Billy Howerdel was also a guitar technician for David Bowie, The Smashing Pumpkins, Nine Inch Nails, Guns N’ Roses, Tool and others. He went from being a guitar technician for Tool and Smashing Pumpkins, to being in a band with Maynard James Keenan and James Iha.
“Well In my youth I didn’t know who either one of those guys was. I can, though, think in similar ways about meeting musical peers and having them be people I listened to when I was younger, and it’s a super surreal experience. To put yourself into that hypothetical time machine and revisit your sixteen-year-old self, so yeah it’s a pinch yourself moment once a while,” Howerdel said.
Billy Howerdel, while a guitar technician for Nine Inch Nails, received a 1991 Les Paul Classic from Trent Reznor.
“At the end of Nails tour in 95 Trent told me to take two or three guitars as he gave away a lot of broken guitars to people as souvenirs. I got good at fixing them, so I took three broken guitars and had one repaired by Gibson and then fixed 2 myself. That became my go-to instrument, my sound has been made around that guitar, my main cinnaburst 1960 classic reissue, and my Marshall amp and it became the defining sound of what the guitar is in APC,” Howerdel said.
