Although it didn’t happen instantaneously Chic evolved as an r&b band with influences ranging from jazz, funk, rock and, yes, even disco! Rodgers and Edwards’ songwriting partnership was driven by Rodgers, as most of the songs’ initial sketches came from him. Edwards would then add his ideas and the songs would come together. It sometimes worked the other way around, but this was not usual.
The duo were also the core of the music. Arguably, the most recognisable facet of the Chic sound is Rodgers’ rhythm guitar. His guitar of choice has long been the ‘Hitmaker’, a 1960 Fender Stratocaster with a ‘59 neck. He spoke to Amit Sharma forGuitar World in October 2020 about how he settled on it as his go-to guitar:
I was basically a jazz and classical player, to begin with. The speed I could achieve using my fingers, I couldn’t achieve with a pick. I found it easier with my hands. Bernard was a really funk-oriented guy, and he hated my sound with the big, fat, jazzy guitar (a Gibson Barney Kessel). He’d say it fed back too much, and, therefore, you couldn’t play it loud, etc. There was an opening act on our tour and I let their guitarist use my equipment. He was playing a Stratocaster and was really chugging on it. That’s when I realised what Bernard was trying to get me to do. He talked me into buying a Strat, so I did. And that was the Hitmaker, bought in 1973 from a little pawn shop in Florida.
As for effects pedals, Rodgers admitted: ‘I’m quite simple; my pedalboard only has three things on it – a chorus, a wah and maybe an overdrive, which I don’t really use.’ Rodgers’ tone was, and still is, usually clean and bright with a focus on the high and high-mid tones.
Bernard Edwards’s formidable bass playing, although not always as instantly recognisable, was almost as key to the Chic sound as Rodgers’ guitar. For the first Chic album, he used a Precision bass, swapping over to a 1977 Music Man Stingray (with round wound strings) for every album after that. Rodgers explained his partner’s unusual technique toBass Player in November 2023:
Bernard was a guitar player before he played the bass guitar. But the last thing he wanted to be was a bass player who used a pick. So he played with his forefinger and thumb as if he were holding a pick. He’d strike the string with the bottom and top of his finger. The strength of the low-end comes from his thumb on top and the other three fingers curled up underneath, so he had the fattest pick you could ever imagine!
The third man in the expanded rhythm department was their powerhouse drummer. Tony Thompson had to adapt quickly to the wishes of Rodgers and Edwards, moreso the former. He explained toModern Drummer in 2002:
When I first joined, Nile was like: ‘Why do you need all those cymbals and stuff?’ He would tell Bernard, ‘The brother plays way too much.’ So Bernard took me under his wing. He told me: ‘Get ri
