The great Guthrie Govan recently chatted with Peter Hodgson of the I Heart Guitar blog, and the two covered such topics as Govan’s early career and his work with musician Steven Wilson.

In addition, Govan talked extensively about his Charvel signature guitars.  The versatile axeman worked closely with Charvel to achieve his dream instrument.

“In Charvel you have a company who really seemed receptive to any input I could give them as a player, as someone who’s out there on the battlefield testing their products in challenging conditions,” Govan said.  “So we started out with this concept of a super Strat, 24 frets, two humbuckers and a single coil, basswood and maple. It’s stuff I’d figured out over years and years of using various other guitars. This is the rough formula that will work for me if I have to take one guitar to a gig or session not knowing what I’d need.

“They were willing to custom-wind pickups for me based on certain hard-to-describe qualities that I was looking for. Rather than saying ‘I want this particular midrange and I want it to output this many millivolts,’ I said I wanted it to be really responsive to the range of different ways you can hit the strings. I want someone else to pick up the same guitar with the same amp settings and sound completely different.”

Govan certainly had a lot more to say throughout the interview. To read the full piece, click here.