Your playing seems to hold up better over time than some of your peers. Why?
I really don’t know. All I can think of is that I would strive for the best solo or part based on what made the tune better rather than something that would help my notoriety as a guitarist. Part of my method for constructing parts was instinct—you play what comes naturally to you, listen back, and keep the good stuff. And part of it was more cerebral, where you take the tune home and work a part out from scratch. Looking back, however, you just do the best you can at the time and it’s up to everybody else where it all rates. I’m continually surprised at the stuff people dig in those tunes.

Your playing always had a swing to it. Was that something you worked on? 
Not really, it was always kind of there. Eddie Van Halen and George Lynch have that swing as well. I did listen to a lot of Johnnie Johnson’s piano playing with Chuck Berry as well as with Little Richard, so maybe that influenced me. There was also an amazing guitarist we used to always go see in San Diego named Darryl Kinney. He was big into jazz horn players and Allan Holdsworth, so he exposed me to that feel as well.

Did you have any watershed moments in regards to getting your tone?
Yes. When I put a Seymour Duncan JB pickup into one of my Charvels, that was a revelation. I plugged into an old plexi Marshall Tremolo 100 head at rehearsal, and everyone in the band, including me, did a double take. The difference was that dramatic. The JB seemed to bring every frequency and every nuance of my playing to the forefront. I can’t even remember what kind of pickup I had in there before the JB, but man, that was a really good rehearsal!

Ratt has been touring pretty consistently. What are you playing these days on the road?
I’m using my old Charvel “Crossed Sword” guitar which is loaded with a new signature humbucker from Seymour Duncan. I used JBs for years, but my new signature pickup is a little smoother than a JB. Charvel just came out with a signature series of the “Crossed Sword” as well. I’m plugging into a Diezel head and using a couple of Lexicon PCM 70s in the amp’s effects loop—one for chorus and one for delay. I run through four old Marshall cabs. Two cabs are loaded with Celestion Vintage 30s and two are loaded with 25-watt Celestion greenbacks. I like the low end of the 30s while the greenbacks give me a bit more definition in the mids and upper mids. It also gives the front of house engineer more options so he can mix between the different cabinets.

What were some of your setups back in the day?
For the most part, I used late-’70s Marshalls, for our first EP and Out of the Cellar. After that I could afford some other things, so I started using old plexi Marshalls. Sometimes, when I was looking for a warmer lead tone, I would use my Rivera-era Fender Super Champ. That’s the amp on the “Round and Round” solo. For guitars, I used Charvels for the first couple albums, and then I started using Performance guitars. By the time we did Collage, I was using Charvel, Performance, Hamer, and Gibson electrics as well as a National Resophonic.

Which Ratt record do you believe signaled your arrival as a guitarist? 
I’d say Invasion of Your Privacy. By that time I felt that I had found my voice. On our first EP or Out of the Cellar, I can hear traces of the players who influenced me more than myself—like my note choices weren’t exactly my notes. But if you just keep at it, your own notes will eventually come through. I think that’s the key to progress with the guitar. You have to stay dedicated to the instrument. Because as the years and decades go on, your technique gets better and you’re able to convey your ideas within a broader dynamic range, from intense to subtle. I’m still a student of the guitar. The further I get into it, the less I seem to know—22 frets and six strings is a door to infinity.