“I just don’t see them as, ‘Oh, a nice guitar,’ or ‘a nice pedal.’ I see the hours behind them. I see, ‘Wow, somebody really committed hours and energy and their soul’”: Seal is a secret tonehound – and he has great taste in gear

Seal has revealed himself to be a not-so-secret tonehead and guitar aficionado. Truth be told, the Kiss from a Rose hitmaker admits that it was thanks to the instrument that he found his true identity as an artist and songwriter, which led him to land a record deal and paved the path for the prolific career he has enjoyed thus far.

“When I first started writing songs, I was writing from my voice, but then the type of songs I was writing, they varied in style and and identity, or lack thereof,” he tells Reverb, “which is why I picked up an instrument, and in this case, the guitar, because it would kind of ground me.”

“For about 30-32 years, I played mostly acoustic. I would sit in Albert [Molinaro]’s store on Sunset [Boulevard], Guitars ‘R Us, and I [would] sit there all day when I first came to LA and I’d play a bunch of acoustic guitars,” he reminisces.

However, Seal admits that he “never really ventured into electrics,” especially earlier in his career, even though now he has a “ton of electric guitars, and a ton of amps, and obviously, pedals.”

“I saw them more as pieces of art, and still do,” he reflects of his gear philosophy. “I just don’t see them as this, ‘Oh, a nice guitar or a nice pedal.’ I see the hours behind them. I see, wow, somebody really committed hours and energy and their soul and the whole thing’s energy.”

Seal’s pedalboard is a testament to his keen appreciation of what it takes to craft a guitar or create a pedal – with his “revised big board du jour” championing more boutique pedal makers such as Origin Effects, Walrus Audio, CopperSound Pedals, Neunaber, and Bennett Custom Audio.

“Each pedal requires a certain amount of time for you to sit with and really get into and find its sweet spots and find what it wants to do and what it doesn’t want to do,” he observes.

“And then you decide whether that’s for you. I see them as artist interpretations of two or three amp circuits, for the most part – pedals, that is.”

Seal’s continued reverence for the guitar stems from his humble beginnings working in a studio – and borrowing the guitars that bands left between sessions to learn his first two chords, the ones that would shape his career-making hit Crazy.

Janelle is a staff writer at GuitarWorld.com. After a long stint in classical music, Janelle discovered the joys of playing guitar in dingy venues at the age of 13 and has never looked back. Janelle has written extensively about the intersection of music and technology, and how this is shaping the future of the music industry. She also had the pleasure of interviewing Dream Wife, K.Flay, Yīn Yīn, and Black Honey, among others. When she’s not writing, you’ll find her creating layers of delicious audio lasagna with her art-rock/psych-punk band ĠENN.