Player Spotlight - Nalle Colt
By Strings Direct – 29 August, 2023
This weeks' player of choice takes us to the musical mecca of LA.
Many musicians that reside in LA are not always natives but have been drawn to its musical magnetism.
The player in focus this week is a true master of his craft, however, guitar wasn't his first love and almost fell into the six string life by accident.
This episode takes a closer look at the one and only Nalle Colt of Vintage Trouble.
Skater Boy To String Slinger …
Nalle Colt is an incredible guitar player... he's a real players player and appreciated by many fellow guitarists for his outstanding ability and tasteful playing, not to mention his incredible Tone.🤘
Here we have a guitarist who embraces his vintage sound in a modern age.
Like many great players, Nalle didn't actually choose the Guitar, it sort of chose him as it does with the most organic players.... guitars are drawn to their masters rather than pursued, and this is exactly the case here!
Nalle Colt was born in Malmö, Sweden and recalls that music had its limitations in his place of birth.
“In Sweden, growing up, there was not much music around, there was very little to do. Then there was this music school in California, I’m sure you’ve heard of it, the Musicians Institute, MI, and of course once I got to Los Angeles I just couldn’t leave.”
Nalle Colt - http://www.guitarplanet.eu/the-nalle-colt-interview.html
But what led Nalle into a world of music and a life of guitar playing was very interesting. As a teenager he had become quite a promising skateboarder 🛹 He actually gained serious status and began to compete professionally. Things looked promising until a serious injury left him pretty much bed ridden for an extended period of time.
Giving into the unfortunate prospect of being unable to compete due to injury, Nalle took the brave decision to trade a skateboard for an electric guitar. This would be his first guitar and open up a world that many of us can identify with. 🎸
“I think it was a Harmony guitar, I can’t really remember the name of it, but it was totally whacked out - I could never really get it in tune but the action was just insane on it. I got it with a cool little amplifier. I could make a lot of noise, get a lot of feedback, it was really cool.
As soon as I learnt a few chords, I couldn’t stop. I just ended up sitting in my room because I couldn’t stop playing. You know when you can get so wrapped up in something, when you have fire, you just can’t stop. I’d come home everyday and start playing.”
Colt cites The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, and Led Zeppelin as his early musical influences.
Growing up with his father being fond of Johnny Cash like many from his generation, Nalle was absorbing a great palace of musical history through his elders.
“I like to think of my guitar as a bridge between lead guitar and horn and keyboard parts. I wanna leave as much space as I can, I love that old rhythm and blues music, where you don’t feel pressured to fill up every little bit of room”
Nalle Colt - http://www.guitarplanet.eu/the-nalle-colt-interview.html
Vintage R&B Soul Perfection
After numerous projects ran their course, Nalle's search for reinvention has ended up in what some might say is an absolute dream of a four-piece band.
Vintage Trouble are a truly astonishing band with four of the most incredible musicians you are like to see in any decade.
Speaking from personal experience, I've seen this band more than a handful of times live and encountered them when they first came over to the UK.
For an incredibly accomplished band, Vintage Trouble were doing well, however, in a sea of similar talent, it’s somewhat difficult to stand out.
They made some serious advances in the music industry after an explosive performance on the iconic Jools Holland right here in the UK 🇬🇧 .
This really is something special, to this day I’m not sure if I’ve seen such an effortless high energy performance, both the song and showmanship are mind blowing.
A wake up call for everything music is about. 🎙
This band are probably one of the most complimentary group of musicians you could ever wish to hear.
Every member of this four-piece outfit leave space for the other, the musical communication is completely off the scale and the debut album still resonates to this day 10 years on... an absolute masterpiece of the modern day rooted in the retro day.
This incredibly flawless set of musicians came from humble beginnings from a musical perspective, now they support the biggest acts in the world and run their own tours of course... if you get the chance you must see this band, if only to experience the energy and soul spiritual healing🤘
As much as this band bounce off each other and respect each other's musical voices, Nalle is undeniably a standout guitarist. His work is exceptional in this band and absolutely awe-inspiring to watch and listen to.
This live version of one of the songs of the first album truly demonstrates Colt’s tasteful playing incredible technique and ability to AdLib through influence, we can hear everything from Led Zeppelin to Jimi Hendrix some Jeff Beck with a sprinkle of Clapton and everything in between....a monumental outro solo!
Soul Tones & Strings That Sing 🎶
So a player with this much complexity and control needs a decisive and dynamic string that provides the right platform to fuel expression.
Nalle uses two different string gauges depending on the guitar he's using and reassures us that D’Addario are his strings of choice and he trusts in them heart & soul ✌️ .
He states that his two Les Paul guitars are set up with D’ADDARIO EXL140 Nickel Guitar Strings 10-52 Light Top Heavy Bottom Strings.
This gauge of course compliments his style of rhythmic R&B structures along with intricate lead parts with subtle but dramatically dynamic dropped droning bass notes to fill out the frequency and sonic space within a one guitar player band.
The other choice is a custom designed option that Nalle worked closely with D’Addario to finalise and perfect for his Gretsch.
“The neck is basically a straight Les Paul neck. It’s got a Bigsby tremolo, ’cos I thought if you have a Gretsch you gotta have a Bigsby on it! With that, there’s less tension, so I can use heavier strings – .11 to .54.”
Nalle Colt - https://guitar.com/features/interview-vintage-trouble-1-hopeful-rd/
The Nalle Colt NYXL custom set can be found here @StringsDirect 🤘.
“Tweet - @nallecolt Thank u @DaddarioandCo - strings with some "muscle". sounds like a dream on my #gretsch guitar! @vintagetrouble “
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