Where Boys Fear To Tread

GS: Did you use any other non-Strat guitars on Mellon Collie?

CORGAN: On "Where Boys Fear to Tread," I used a Les Paul Junior reissue. I really like that guitar a lot. It's got a fat sound. Though the rack set-up, that thing sounds incredible.

GS: That song has a pretty crazy beginning.

CORGAN: That's the part of a sick jam we were having. The song just a pretty simple riff played over and over. We but that one live, and the take on the record is the first time we ever played the tune together! All the changes in the song are totally off-the-but, and were signaled by me via making signals and faces to the band as we played.

GS: It's interesting how, at the very end of the song, you unexpectedly return to the lick one more time. A similar little "extra piece" thing happens at the end of "Love."

CORGAN: The thing with "Where Boys" was that, when we got to the last note, which we hold, I signaled Jimmy to come back in on the riff. I wanted him to end it exactly as it ends on the record, but he played through it, so we had to edit it later.

-1996 - Guitar School

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GS: What makes that super high-pitched sound that goes through "Where Boys," beginning at :45?

CORGAN: I used a '74 Strat, commonly known as the "I love My Mom" guitar. That guitar has since been painted baby blue. I used it on the main rhythm of "Muzzle," through the reach setup.

GS: That's a fantastic guitar sound.

CORGAN: Yeah. The guitar is made of a heavier wood so it's got the basic Strat sound but with more bottom, more of a low-fi kind of sound that's real nice. It sounds good for certain songs. I played that guitar on "Bullet," too, because it has a little more "Chunk" on the bottom end.

1996-Guitar School