Frank Hannon

For almost 40 years, Frank Hannon has enjoyed success as co-founder and lead guitarist of hard-rockers Tesla. He has also released a few solo albums, none of which are more emotional than Reflections, his new release consisting of 12 original guitar instrumentals in a variety of styles inspired by personal difficulties including the April ’24 passing of his father-in-law, Allman Brothers Band guitarist/co-founder Dickey Betts. Did you think of the songs you were writing as therapy, or that they would turn into an album? Absolutely not. I wasn’t planning an album. It happened by accident, but I’ve found over my career that the best things really do happen that way. Even with Tesla and other projects, usually the unplanned albums are the best; Tesla’s Five Man Acoustical Jam, wasn’t planned. We just happened to record it live in a club. With Reflections, I rediscovered my passion for guitar, just simply guitar as a voice, in a way. I came home after a couple years living in Florida, where for the last year, in particular, my wife and I experienced some major stressful events that included the loss of her dad, the loss of a couple of other friends who passed away, turmoil with some family members, and hurricanes that forced us to evacuate with our animals and drive across the country, back home to California. Once we got back, we lost my wife’s prize horse that she loved dearly, after it got sick in Florida. It was very traumatic and painful. Once we were finally home, I took a deep breath and exhaled, thinking, “All I want to do is not do anything but recover and play my guitar.” I was writing little tunes with my TC Electronic Ditto Looper pedal just to showcase my guitar collection, then I started making videos about my guitars to post on Instagram. My wife took notice and told me I should make an album and not just throw those songs out there. Did events affect the way you played guitar? I took a melodic “singing” approach to my playing – from the heart, slow and melodic, which can be much harder than shredding – putting notes in just the right spot to discover my sound and voice. My goal was to write guitar music that emoted like a vocal, keeping it pure and simple. It was very therapeutic and healing after the hardships. You used several guitars, including a Gretsch Brian Setzer signature Hot Rod originally owned by him. That was given to me by a friend who is no longer with us, so it has a lot of sentimental value. Brian had given it to my friend, and he gave it to me. I’d played it in the past, but not really appreciated it like I do now. Some others I played include a ’58 reissue Bourbon Burst Les Paul, a couple of SGs, one with a Bigsby, a ’24 Gibson Custom Flying V, and J-50 and Dove, and a Martin D-45. The basses were Gibson EB-0, Rickenbacker 4001, and a Höfner Beatle bass. Did you write and record the lead or rhythm guitar first? It varied. For “Our Father’s Love,” I wrote the lead melody first. “Walking in the Rain” was the chord progression I was hearing in my head first – kind of Dire Straits’ “Sultans of Swing.” “San Francisco” is one song that I recorded the whole thing with just the bass first. Nothing else except my imagination, thinking, “What would the guitar sound like over it?” That one was an accident I didn’t think was going to be usable. I was noodling on the EB-0 and it got this vintage Jack Casady tone. I spent two hours layering guitars then decided to play flamenco-sounding guitar in the middle, using my Dove, strictly as a joke. But when I listened back to it, I thought, “This isn’t bad!” How did you record Reflections? I recorded the whole album with the Audigo app and microphone on my iPhone. It’s a little cellphone mic that happens to sound really good. You can’t punch in on it, and you can’t copy and paste like you can on the computer, so you have to play the whole way through. But it has record and mix functions, compression, reverb, delay, and all that. I was very happy with the way it recorded my Deluxe Reverb, which I used the most. – Bret Adams This article originally appeared in VG’s July 2025 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.