From the folks at Gibson.com – who do a heck of a lot better job with their website than their Fender counterparts – are these tidbits of WoodyTone detail about Duane Allman, Eric Clapton (his Gibby-related “woman tone”), and fleet-fingered tonemeister Joe Bonamassa.

George Lynch of Dokken fame tends to provoke fairly strong like/don’t like reactions from guitar-slingers. I’m a little perplexed by that, probably because I’m in the “like” camp.
Obviously George can play like a house on fire, and his work with Dokken and particularly on the first Lynch Mob disc is simply great. He has a [...]

The Edward Van Halen and Fender-backed “EVH” brand will soon be selling what they’re calling the EVH Frankenstein Humbucker – which implies that it’s a copy of “the” pickup in Ed’s first and main axe for many years, the Frankenstein, aka Frankie. That’s the guitar that was white with black stripes and then had red [...]

I’m a little burnt from writing my treatise for Monday’s WoodyTone entry, so here’s a WoodyTone-related roundup of “stuff.”
Vox Reading
Speaking of treatise, a new, definitive treatise on Vox amps is out – though the only person I can recall using a Vox amp in a rock context is Brian May.
Kennedy Did Try Out for ‘Zep’
In [...]

Plus Sammy skull-cracks just about everybody (Dave, Eddie, Slash, Ronnie Montrose, Gary Cherone) – nicely!
You may recall that Chickenfoot was the stand-in name, and now looks like the official name, of the Joe Satriani, Sammy Hagar, Michael Anthony, Chad Smith (Red Hot Chili Peppers) super group.
They said an album and tour were coming in ‘09 [...]

Gibson must be doing well with their reproductions of famous guitars because it just announced another one: the Jeff Beck “blow by Blow” Oxblood Les Paul. Very cool if you’ve got the $$$.
Gibson.com has the full story and specs but here’s the story behind Jeff acquiring the heavily modded guitar, which I didn’t know:

Yours truly scrolled through all 700+ Winter 2009 NAMM show YouTube vidoes (and a few others) to find the best vids uploaded so far – WoodyTone-wise, that is – and they are below, in no particular order.
Tone-wise, my favorites are the Wizard amps – I believe Wizards are made by Angus Young’s roadie and are [...]

First the disclaimers: I have nothing against Tommy Thayer, whose band Black ‘n Blue I really liked and who seems to do a good job filling the slot of one of my absolute favorite guitar players, the one and only Ace Frehley. Nor do I have anything against KISS, meaning Paul and Gene, one of [...]

Just in case you thought Jimi Hendrix played the entire album version of Purple Haze with a Strat – as if anyone would think differently – apparently he didn’t, at least for the parts on which an Octavia was used. This just in, from an interview of Roger Mayer by the folks at PremierGuitar.com. Here’s [...]

Gotta admit, the vid looks pretty cool – in a techy kind of way.

What the heck is the Gibson Dark Fire? Until today, I had no idea other than it was a newfangled $3,499 MSRP Les Paul crammed with electronic gizmos, the shipping or QC (quality control) of which caused delays in shipping the guitar [...]

Did Edward Van Halen learn tapping from Brian May who learned it from Billy Gibbons?
In a recent (and very good) Guitar Player interview of Brian May, conducted by GP associate editor Matt Blackett, the topic of two-handed tapping (aka, right-hand hammer-ons) came up. Rather than paraphrase the whole exchange, I’ll quote it below – but [...]

Some news clips of the week:
Ace’s Album/Space News
From Blabbermouth.net and HardRadio.com: Ace Frehley’s new solo album, tentatively due out this spring, will be called “Anomaly.” In an early 2008 interview with Billboard, Ace said about the forthcoming CD: “Basically I’m trying to get back into the mindset I was in when I did my first [...]

Steve Vai said on his website that a new Carvin Legacy amp, the Legacy II, would be announced in a couple weeks at the winter NAMM show. Well, the newest Carvin catalog is available on the Carvin site via PDF, and Vai is on the cover with his Legacy II. One download later, and here’s [...]

What’s the bigger crime: ‘Zep’ touring without Robert Plant or Jimmy, John Paul Jones and Jason Bonham never touring together again with any singer?
First came rumors of the band trying out new singers because Robert Plant didn’t want to tour. Robert said categorically that he would not tour for at least 2 years.
Then the rumors [...]

Stairway on a Tele?
In the category of “how the hell did I miss this” is a semi-recent interview published on Gibson.com titled “Jimmy Page’s Recording Secrets.” Say what?
Didn’t want to get my hopes up about learning some cool tidbits from one of rock’s masters of recording and composing, but I guess I did because I [...]

Full Wolfgang specs below!
It’s almost time for the winter NAMM convention, so details about new gear are starting to come out here and there. One of the hottest items in terms of buzz is of course Edward Van Halen’s new EVH Wolfgang guitar.
What Ed said about it to Guitar World’s fawning staff has previously been [...]

Want a custom EVH Wolfgang? Buy a car.
Edward Van Halen is selling two 1956 Chevy’s at the famed Barrett-Jackson uber-expensive car auction this month, and with each car comes a custom-painted EVH Wolfgang guitar – painted to match the cars. These will of course be one-of-a-kinds, designed and at least held by the man himself [...]