Several of Frampton's Gibsons played key roles on Fingerprints. "I used my '58 Les Paul Junior with a single P-90 for riffs and rhythms throughout the album," he says. "I love that guitar. I also have a two-pickup Firebird III that has a nice funky sound, and I played that on the 'Boot It Up' rhythm track. That's my '61 SG double-tracked on the choruses of 'Black Hole Sun,' and for the verses I played a newer 1960 Les Paul Standard Reissue that the Custom Shop sent me. To get the auto wah sound, I played the Standard through a Mu-Tron III envelope follower. On 'Smoky,' I did those Kenny Burrell-inspired leads on my beautiful 1959 ES-175. That guitar sounds stunning."

One of Fingerprints' most compelling tunes is the Django-flavored "Souvenirs De Nos Pres," which Frampton performs with guitarist John Jorgenson. "He gave me a lot of help, let me tell you. I've been spouting off about Django my entire life, but this is the first time I've attempted to record any Gypsy jazz on my own."

Though Frampton is passionate about Django, he didn't always feel that way. "When I was a kid, my dad brought home a record of Django with Stphane Grappelli and the Quintet of the Hot Club of France. I couldn't stand that music when I first heard it-it didn't make any sense to me whatsoever. But whenever I wasn't listening to the Shadows and the Ventures, my dad would put Django on the record player, so I was exposed to it repeatedly. After a couple of years, Django didn't sound so alien, and I began to stay in the room while my father was playing his music. From that point on, Django became an inspiration."

Absorbing Gypsy jazz as a child helps explain why Frampton sounded different from other British lead guitarists of the day, such as Eric Clapton, Mick Taylor, and Peter Green, who were emulating B.B. King, Otis Rush, and other Chicago bluesmen.

"It started with that first Bluesbreakers album with John Mayall [Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton]," says Frampton. "It was the most wonderful style Eric came up with, the combination of the Les Paul running through a cranked Marshall combo. I mean, that sound changed everything, didn't it? It was so seductive, such a very sexy style, suddenly that was what everyone wanted to play. It was very hard not to go with everybody else, but at that point I decided to be a little different and head toward the more melodic side. Maybe things would have been different if my dad had brought home a Robert Johnson album instead of a Django LP. John Jorgenson told me I was the first one he noticed who went outside the box in rock 'n' roll guitar, and that was a very nice compliment. I guess I owe that to Django, though as a guitarist, I've never been anywhere near his league."

Gear geeks like to speculate what equipment Frampton used in his Humble Pie days. "It was either my SG or Les Paul," he reveals, "plugged straight into a 100-watt Marshall stack. That was it, no overdrive or wah. With Humble Pie, I nearly always used the neck pickup because its rounder tone meshed well with the more raucous sound of the bridge P-90 on Steve Marriott's Les Paul Junior."

Recording Fingerprints satisfied Frampton on several levels. "It was a wonderful creative workout, as every track was a challenge in one shape or form. But most important, I'm a better guitar player for experience. Working with other musicians opened my eyes to many different things, and if this comes across to listeners, then I'll have succeeded."