Yesterday my son wanted to bang on the drums at Sam Ash and Guitar Center, which are across the street from one another here in northern New Jersey. So I sort of shrugged at my wife like, ‘Hey – I’m doing it for him,’ then ran for the car and took off!
(On the way there, [...]

Great Tone Info!
After reading a disappointing interview with Tony Iommi and Edward Van Halen in Guitar World – how you interview those two guys and just end up with a b**ch session I have no idea – it was a pleasure to get the January 2010 Guitar Player with Tony on the cover. It’s a [...]

New ‘Signature’ Pickup…
You may be aware that Gibson recently announced two new signature Angus Young Gibson SGs. One is a custom shop model – the Angus Young SG Standard – and the other is a Gibson production model that has the same name minus the Standard. We can learn about what kind of tone Angus [...]

There’s more woody tone in Gov’t Mule’s new By a Thread CD than in just about any album I can think of off the top of my head since the ’70s (maybe Derek Trucks’ latest?). Many other albums have great tones, but it’s pretty rare that everything sounds this woody in a vintage rock way. [...]

Foreigner is a funny band. One of their songs will cause you to change the station, another will cause you to crank it up – because Mick Jones can throw out cool riffs.
I’ve always been curious about the specifics of Mick’s early Foreigner gear, but there isn’t much info on the web about it. So [...]

If it’s worth getting to the bottom of this question – and, strangely, IMO it isn’t (assuming it’s possible) – comes the latest and maybe last unearthed fact in the “where did Edward Van Halen learn to ‘tap’?” question. (Not really tap, as those are harmonics. It’s right-handed hammer-ons, but no one uses that mouthful. [...]

Most people swore Jimmy Page only used a Les Paul, but we now know about the Fender Telecasters. Jimi Hendrix apparently used a Tele on the Purple Haze solo. Virtually everyone thinks Steve Gaines used a Strat on Skynyrd’s “I Know a Little,” but it turns out it might have been a Les Paul.
Point is, [...]

Well, I guess it’s George Lynch week here at WoodyTone. Read this again yesterday and remembered that I forgot to note it at the time. Here’s George Lynch on Eddie Van Halen’s influence back in the day, from a Guitar Player interview (and other sources, below) – and remember that the “big three” players that [...]

Part 2 of 2; Plus George’s Vintage Parts Guitars
If you read part 1 of the Lynch Mob’s Smoke and Mirrors review, you know I’m digging the album. (I’m also really digging Lynch’s Souls of We disc – more on that in a future post.) But what’s odd about it, from a Lynch standpoint, is a [...]

Part 1 of a 2-parter
Wicked Sensation. That was George Lynch’s first post-Dokken “solo” album (the band was called Lynch Mob), and it was incredible. Still is. Great songs, great singing, great gainy tone, great playing and some of the most mind-altering solos you will ever hear.
For me, it’s one of the best albums of that [...]

If you’re a diehard Slash fan, you might know this already, but it was news to me – interesting news.
Lately, Slash has been spotted playing only a Les Paul (no surprise), but one that is not one of his many signature Les Pauls (a surprise). Naturally lots of people have been curious about the guitar.
Here’s [...]

Everybody – every famous guit-slinger – loves Mountain’s “Mississippi Queen.” The meanness of the riff (literally too mean for daytime radio at that time – it was played only on night radio), the hugeness of the tone and the vocals…. If I can sound like a talking head for a sec, the tune is an [...]