Joe playing his signature Les Paul in candy apple blue (source: mylespaul.com).

Part 1 of this interview was about the music Joe Bonamassa has been recording lately. In part 2 below, it’s all about tone and gear (yeah!). Joe has a great ear for tone (for woody tone), so it’s always interesting to see what he has to say.

WoodyTone: There’s Black Rock, Black Country and now I’m seeing you with what looks like a black Les Paul – what’s going on there?

Joe: It’s coincidental. I’m actually in a really good mood. The Black Rock studio album came about because of the name of the studio [Black Rock] where we recorded it. Black Country totally was not my idea, but it’s a good idea if we can use it. So coincidentally there’s a lot of black things going around my name but it’s not like that. And the Les Paul is actually blue. …click here to read more

Part 1 of 2

Joe with a dark Les Paul....

I was fortunate to grab some time with Joe Bonamassa today, and got to ask him a few questions about Black Rock, Black Country and black Les Pauls, among other toney things. Sounds very dark, but Joe called that coincidental.

I asked about things I hadn’t already read about, about half of it focused on gear. Hope you enjoy. …click here to read more

Alex with 'Al.'

I’m a Rush fan, particularly since I came of guitar age during the Permanent Waves and Moving Pictures era, still two of my favorite albums. I did fall away from Rush a bit over the years as they got more into synths and Alex Lifeson got more into washy, ultra-chorused, ambient sounds instead of riffs.

But last night I happened to accidentally catch Rush live on DirecTV’s 101 channel. Turned out to be an hour of tunes from the Snakes and Arrows DVD, and it was freakin’ outstanding! Tight playing, great tones, good singing, well-filmed, good sound.

Alex’s tone was good – I was surprised! …click here to read more

Plaid Blues, 4xEL84s, Know Anyone Who Owns a Hiwatt?

I’m surfing around, minding my own bidness, when I come across this line: “What do you call an amp that has 10 tubes, five transformers, user-controlled variable feedback, variable bias and a built-in Variac?”

I’m thinking, I don’t know…a science experiment? The last act of a tone-desperate man? A hernia?! …click here to read more

…and Save a Bundle

Here's the real deal, the EVH Wolfgang.

This cool post was submitted by WoodyTone reader and avid EVH tone-chaser Trev Morson. More about him and his band is at wolfscrossing.net.

How many of you want to own a new EVH Wolfgang but can’t afford the $3K asking price? …click here to read more

Pete vs. John, Hecklers, Feedback

Here's an early shot with early Marshalls.

You probably know that Pete Townshend had an important role in Marshall Amplification becoming what it is today. You probably have heard that Pete is responsible for the Marshall stack.

That’s all true, but you may not know the details (I didn’t). So here goes. …click here to read more

A Dang Solid-State Amp!

Joe Walsh isn’t a tone king, he’s a tone emperor. A couple examples: He insisted that Jimmy Page take (buy, whatever) the Les Paul that became Jimmy’s No. 1. And he hooked Pete Townshend up with what to this day is one of Pete’s favorite rigs. (More details on both of these below.)

I’m sure there are more unreported examples, but the bottom line is that Walsh has GREAT ears…which is why it might be surprising to learn that one of his favorite amps is the solid-state Roland Cube 60. Yes, solid-state! …click here to read more

Human Voice-Emulating…

PremierGuitar.com had an article on its website titled “The Science of Tone.” Caught my eye, read it, turned out to be only semi-interesting. The bottom line of the article is that there really isn’t much of a science because it’s all in the ears of the beholder, and everyone’s ears are different. Duh.

Having said that, the article did have a few interesting tidbits …click here to read more

Guitar magazines are strange. Honestly, every month I prepare to be disappointed and once in a while I’m surprised – in a good way. That was the case with this month’s (April 2010) Guitar Player magazine, with Joe Perry on the cover. Good interviews with Joe and also Frank Gambali and Pete Anderson.

I mention that because today’s post involves the cover interview with Joe, specifically the last question of the interview which was: “There’s a video on YouTube of Aerosmith jamming on ‘The Immigrant Song’ with Jimmy Page. What did you take away from that?” …click here to read more

Here's the DVD cover (click to see it bigger).

Some people might think an Ace Frehley instructional DVD is an oxymoron. I can understand that. Ace is not a technician and his style isn’t complex in 32nd-note, finger-gymnastical, “hyperlodian” ways.

But that is precisely what makes Ace’s style unique, and the fact that it’s relatively easy to cop is one big reason he’s influenced many thousands of kids to pick up a guitar.

Plus he freely (Frehley?) admits he can’t read music and doesn’t know a lick of theory – and he’s a rock star – so it’s not like anyone out there can hurt his feelings about this stuff. …click here to read more

…and Three Van Halen Connections

Montrose, the 1973 self-titled debut album by the band of the same name, is one of those tone-pillar albums – “a pillar of tone that holds up the house of rock” (or pick a different metaphor). It likewise stands on its own as a monument of great tunes and great tone.

I heard “Rock Candy” on satellite radio the other day in the car, and just couldn’t get over how great it sounded. BIG drums, BIG guitar, simple riff, rip your head off vocals by Sammy Hagar who at that time was pretty much unknown.

So I had to find out: What was Ronnie Montrose using on that album – the default thinking is that it was a Les Paul through a Marshall, but was it? And that overall sound, that “hugeness” across the full audio spectrum, something that’s largely missing in this digital recording/playing age. How? …click here to read more

MTV awards, 1996...when it started to go bad (again).

Edward Van Halen has a new guitar and a new amp – new in the sense that they haven’t been recorded yet. Not sure if it’s a rumor, but conventional wisdom is that Van Halen will at least record a new album this year. Hopefully civil behavior and sobriety will win the day, and they can deal with the crappy economics of albums these days.

Assuming there will be new music, with DLR, what sound will Ed have? …click here to read more

I’ll come right out and say it: Joe Bonamassa’s new Black Rock album is better than The Ballad of John Henry. My opinion, of course, and to some extent it’s apples/oranges, or at least apples/pears.

Still, that’s a pretty big statement because I believe John Henry debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Blues chart, and as I type this is still at No. 3. More importantly, John Henry was a great friggin’ album. …click here to read more