Is it the Bad Times now?

Well, I suppose that’s it then. Robert Plant re-posted a beehivecity.com article on his website confessing that he had his bollocks cut off in an accident years ago, and that’s why he has no interest in any type of music resembling the powerhouse that was, and apparently never will be again, Led Zeppelin. …click here to read more

Have you seen that commercial for the new Kia Sportage, the red one? Or I guess I should say, Have you heard that commercial? If you have, you may have recognized woody tone jumping out at you from your TV speakers. I did – though I had some trepidation, like “is that a Pod or a Line 6 or some amp plugin artfully recorded?”

Dang, I hoped not. So I tracked down the folks who did the sound for that commercial. here’s what I found out: …click here to read more

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

You remember the buzz about this band? The buzz goes like this: Joe Bonamassa, Jason Bonham, Glenn Hughes – and former Dream Theater member Derek Sherinian on keys. (No offense to Derek, he’s just not as well known as the first three guys.)

The buzz was all about classic rock. Zep’s in the heritage there, Deep Purple too, and Joe was throwing out terms like Marshall plexi and Paul Kossoff. It was enough that I and many others couldn’t wait to hear this album. And now I have! …click here to read more

Here’s My List!

My 8-year-old son makes me listen to only Van Halen and Led Zep in the car (he’s a good kid!), so to keep it interesting I started to pick out some highlights of Dave-era VH albums – and wondered, wouldn’t it be cool to have some of these things on the new VH album. So here they are in album order. Chime in below with what you’d dig. …click here to read more

First of all, Steve Morse! How ’bout it! Love the guy’s playing. Sick, sick stuff, brilliant playing, seen him many a time, mostly with the Steve Morse Band.

I watched a recent vid (below) of Steve’s tech, Tommy Alderson, running through Steve’s rig. …click here to read more

Joe's most recent (current?) rig. Click to see it bigger.

Well-known fact: Joe Perry loves gear. Or more correctly, he loves gooooood gear. (That reminds me: There’s an interview with an ex-Gibson guy somewhere on the web where he tells how the Gibby folks would bum out whenever Joe and Brad went down to Nashville …click here to read more

Glenn at the '83 US Festival (click to see it bigger).

Cool riff, cool tune, cool lead and a WET tone. That’s what I hear and have always heard in the Judas Priest tune “Another Thing Comin’,” off 1982’s Screaming for Vengeance.

While I of course know it’s a two-guitar band, I always think of the chords/riff and Glenn Tipton’s solo on this tune, hence the look at just his gear. Here’s what I found. First, some overall comments by Glenn from the book Gear Secrets of the Guitar Legends: …click here to read more

Al Estrada ripping it up in tribute.

The latest of the perennial debates about Edward Van Halen’s early tone/rig, the post You Too Can Sound Like Angus and this AmpGAS! post got me thinking: Can anyone with decent chops – say, “Running With the Devil,” “You Really Got Me,” “Dance the Night Away,” maybe “Everybody Wants Some” and “Unchained” – get close to sounding “like” EVH?

John Suhr, who recently offered up some KILLER info on EVH’s mythical Super Lead (here and here), also had this to say about playing through that amp …click here to read more

A Friday, summer, time for some good music. Today we have an unreleased Badlands tune (not the one at right), an Extreme tune from their last album (very good), a blast from the past by Neal Schon and Jan Hammer (funny MTV vid) and…a bonus track. Enjoy! …click here to read more

Neal Schon famously toured with Santana when he (Neal) was 15. He then bolted with a couple of bandmates and co-founded one of the biggest U.S. rock bands, Journey. He has chops and feel, plays great blues and apparently is a cool dude. What’s not to like about this guy?

Here’s more about his experience, gear and techniques.

> On his early start, from a Guitar Player interview: “I was just really focused. I really knew what I wanted to do, and I think that was the main factor in …click here to read more

We are left to wonder why Neal cut his 'fro.

I have a few buds who still laugh at me for digging Journey. I think it’s the Steve Perry, Jonathan Cain-driven “Don’t Stop Believin’” stuff that gets them laughing because after the chuckle they’re always like, “Neal Schon, great player.”

“F-in A right!” as they say, or used to, in Patterson, N.J. Neal is a stellar player, possessed with the rare combo of chops and feel, not to mention the ability to write good pop and rock riffs and tunes. And the oldest Steve Perry-era Journey was rock and blues-rock, not pop. Great stuff. (Wait a minute…. …click here to read more

The 5FDP guys, and the original.

Quick story: I know a guy, good guy, in his 20s, did a tour in Iraq, National Guard, infantry, fought in most of the big battles, saw a lot of bad stuff, put a lot of notches on his gun. …click here to read more

Rich at a Hookah Brown gig, in '04 maybe? (audioe.com photo)

Oh man. When a WoodyTone reader hipped me to Hookah Brown (thanks again Greg!), I was elated and bummed at the same time. Elated because it’s just so good, and is what I wish the Black Crowes would sound like: A little heavier, more space in the tunes, different singing. But the band was already defunct, finito, hasta la vista. Bummer.

Still, the tunes are great. Definitely worth tipping you off if you’re unaware of this fantastic band – which, incidentally, Rich Robinson said in this interview “didn’t pan out because a lot of band bullsh*t politics.” Rich is of course the guitar-playing brother of the Black Crowes Robinsons, and is the guy who put Hookah Brown together …click here to read more

Here are some vids you have to see if you haven’t already. Doesn’t need more explanation than that so…. …click here to read more

Those are the 6CA7 power tubes Ed liked (click to see way bigger).

Today we continue with John Suhr “talking” – actually posting, in a looooong thegearpage.net thread – about his experience with EVH’s magical Marshall Super Lead amp. We pick it up with John’s comments to some doubters: …click here to read more

Here's the back of EVH's Super Lead (click to see it bigger).

John Suhr!

A hundred years from now there will be mythology about Edward Van Halen’s early VH signal chain. But right now the unending discussions about it (which I am not denigrating!) are largely rumor or misinformation resulting from some version of the telephone game: someone heard/read something, told someone else, etc.

Mostly. But once in a while new, or at least reinforcing, facts will come to light. FACTS! …click here to read more

Below are two recent vids posted by German amp company Hughes & Kettner going over Alex Lifeson’s 2010 Time Machine tour Rush rig. In brief, he’s running …click here to read more