Young’s latest project, Soul Summit [Shanachie], is the brainchild of Grammy-winning keyboardist/producer Jason Miles. It chronicles Young’s performance of soul classics such as “Son of a Preacher Man” and “Shotgun” at the famed 2007 Berks Jazz Festival with legendary studio cats such as bassist Bob Babbitt (Funk Brothers, Marvin Gaye), saxophonist Richard Elliot (Tower of Power), drummer Steve Ferrone (Average White Band, Duran Duran, Chaka Khan), and vocalists Maysa (Incognito) and Susan Tedeschi.

Young’s storied career began rather unexpectedly when he was just 20 years old, playing guitar for Eddie Bond & the Stompers. Thanks to the intervention of a local DJ, the band recorded an album for Mercury Records, and it spawned the 1956 hit “Rockin’ Daddy.”

“When we quit touring, I guess I was sort of in demand, and I got calls for studio work,” explains the guitarist.

In 1972, Young moved to Nashville, and over the next five years he cut 122 Top 40 R&B singles. With such a record, it’s no wonder the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum inducted Young and his “Memphis Boys” rhythm-section cohorts last November.

As impressive as Young’s resume is, contemplating how much history and change he has seen—not just in musical styles, but also in recording approaches, the industry, society, and guitar gear—is almost unfathomable. He’s one of a handful of active ax slingers today who can chew the fat about cramming an A-list rhythm section onto one or two tracks, discuss the icebox-sized racks of the iridescent ’80s, take a sip of coffee, and then opine about cutting an R&B ballad with an amp modeler.

“With the early R&B stuff in Memphis, you’d play a lick, and kind of slap around on your guitar—everything wasn’t perfect,” Young recalls. “All that blended together to make a little funk and soul thing happen. Then, we got a 4-track machine, and I thought, ‘I’m on a track all by myself!’ Boy, that changed my plan. I got very cautious, because I knew my track could be soloed and listened to—mistakes and all. Anyway, I got over that, and, of course, multitracking was better because you could fix mistakes. If there was a good take, everybody didn’t have to redo it because of your mistake.”

As for the ’80s rack-obsessed era, Young laughs about a conversation with producer Jimmy Bowen. “He said, ‘Reg, we need to stop using amplifiers. We need to go direct, because when chords fade out, you can hear amp hiss.’ We built a refrigerator-sized rack full of stuff to make it sound like you were playing through an amp, but it wasn’t as good. You spent all your time programming, instead of concentrating on what to play.”

Thanks to Young’s can-do attitude, tasty licks, and warm tones, his datebook eventually got so jam packed that he doubled his rate in 1979—but not because he thought himself better than other Nashville cats. He hoped it would result in fewer sessions, help keep his playing fresh, and set his family life on an even keel, without affecting his bottom line.

“Sessions were at 10:00, 2:00, 6:00, and 10:00,” he says. “Sometimes, you’d finish at 1:00 a.m., go home, sleep a little, and go back to the studio. It certainly fine-tuned your playing, and there wasn’t any wasted time. The more you worked, the better you got at it.”

So much better that, within five months, Young’s schedule was as busy as it had been prior to the rate hike. With that busy schedule came plenty of cool memories, though. One of Young’s favorites was playing Scotty Moore’s Gibson Super 400 on Dusty Springfield’s original recording of “Son of a Preacher Man,” as well as on Elvis’ “Suspicious Minds.”

“Chips Moman at American Studio in Memphis got the guitar in a trade with Scotty,” Young explains. “When Elvis came in, I said, ‘Wow, it would be too cool if I played the 400.’ It was really hard to play, so we sent it up to Kalamazoo, and they reworked it, refretted it, and got it to where it played good.”

For other dates, however, Young’s go-to gear has long been a ’57 Strat, a ’69 Tele, and a ’65 Fender Deluxe Reverb.

“I’ve got a lot of guitars, but they usually wind up in the garage,” says Young. “I’ll play one for a while, and it’ll make me a little more creative, but, at some point, I’ll always pick up the old Strat or Tele and go, ‘Oh man!’ They’re like old shoes, so why would I want to change that?”

The Strat is outfitted with Bill Lawrence pickups, and the Tele is something of a guinea pig. A Bill Lawrence Strat pickup resides in the neck position, a Lindy Fralin single-coil sits in the bridge, and a Seymour Duncan Hot Rails has been retrofitted to the middle position. The Tele’s tone control has also been replaced with a knob to blend the bridge pickup with the Duncan for a little more warmth.

Young’s pedalboard has Voodoo Lab Tremolo and Sparkle Drive pedals, a Boss GE-7 graphic equalizer (“I use that more than anything—I get my amp sounding really, really good, and then I kick in the EQ for more sparkle and bass”), an MXR Dyna Comp (“For twangy, bridge-position country licks”), a CryBaby 535Q wah, an Ernie Ball volume pedal, and a Boss DD-3 digital delay.

Although primarily an electric player, Young recently used a Larrivee LV-10 to record a bluegrass-informed acoustic album with his wife, Jenny, who is a classically trained cellist. He also has plenty of other plans in the works, including a guitar-focused R&B album in the next year.

“Everyone says, ‘When are you going to retire?’” Young relates. “I like Willie Nelson’s reply—‘Retire to what?’ I don’t think I’ll ever quit playing. I love it too much. I’m not looking back. I’m going forward.”

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