Heard the Tom Petty tune “You Got Lucky” on the radio the other day, and had a flashback – about the solo on that song. It was 1982, and I was all about Van Halen, Randy Rhoads and all the rest of it. When I heard the solo back then, I laughed! It was comically [...]
Robbie McIntosh! If you read no other post this week, read this one. I gotta start somewhere, so I’ll start with my first thought when I saw this vid: Who the heck is Robbie McIntosh? Actually, I had that thought after I watched/listened to it for about the 6th time in a row, when I [...]
The second part of my recent NYC geetar adventure was a visit to Ludlow Guitars, which amazingly enough I’d never been to (I think – can’t exactly remember). A super-cool store with lots of USED GUITAR INVENTORY! Yeah! And used and boutique amps! Yeah! That’s the stuff I want to play.
Advised Hendrix On His Rig? Pete Townshend could never be accused of understating things. In some ways he always seems like the classic artist, in the “here’s the way I see it and F you if you don’t like it” sense. In a new-ish and excellent PremierGuitar.com interview, Pete is all that and says some [...]
I live in Jersey (that’s New Jersey for those of you in Europe) and don’t have to leave “The Garden State” to have new tonalicious experiences. But it’s also true that you can only have some experiences in “New Yawk Citae,” so I get in there from time to time. My most recent trip was [...]
Are music lessons/instruction vastly overrated? I’m thinking they are. I’ve read over the years how people “should” read music, know all the notes on the fretboard by name and all that stuff, but really? Does that really help you become a better musician with your own style? Or does it hurt…. I got thinking about [...]
Already Writing Next Record! Premier Guitar recently posted an interview with Ace Frehley in which Ace FINALLY talks with some specifics about what he used in the studio back in the early KISS days. Not a lot, but some. Here it is: “On the early KISS records, I used my tobacco-sunburst Gibson Les Paul Standard [...]
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 [...]
Part 1 of 2 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 [...]
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. [...]
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 [...]
…and Save a Bundle 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?
Pete vs. John, Hecklers, Feedback 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.
Here’s the New VH Single/Vid: 50w?
Update from a reader (thanks!): Tattoo is is based on an old song, “Down in Flames” – check it below. “Tattoo.” Is it me or have we never heard a Van Halen tune like this before? If Ed used his “grail” Marshall Super Lead on this album, don’t think we’re hearing it on this tune! [...]
Breaking Down the VH NYC Debut
She’s the Woman! Cafe Wha – yeah man! Couldn’t wrangle my son and I an invite, so instead awaited the sure-to-follow YouTube vids. Fingers were crossed that the band would play some new tunes, though had to admit that didn’t make much sense since they hadn’t even released a tune yet. Anyhow, here’s what we [...]
Bonamassa Hears Clapton in EVH: You?
Lots of well-known axe-slingers are quoted in Neil Zlozower’s new (and awesome) Eddie Van Halen book. One is the current white bluesman extraordinaire, Joe “gingers o’ fire” Bonamassa. What he says is interesting, and not sure I can hear what he’s hearing. Bear in mind a couple things: 1. EVH has said many times that [...]
Have You Gone Extra Slinky Yet?
When I recently got an email from a WoodyTone reader – let’s call him Mike because…that’s his real name – I was stoked because I like light strings. I played 10s for years, then went to 9s after getting back into the whole EVH tone quest. With 9s I noticed that the notes “opened up,” [...]
If I ever had a doubt I’m a huge Edward Van Halen fan (never had any doubt, but…), any such insane thought was erased when I finished reading Neil Zlozower’s new Eddie Van Halen book. Yep, reading. Actually got a little emotional at the end of it (*sniff*), reading Nuno Bettencourt’s story about a recent [...]
Did Edward Van Halen have his MXR phaser and flanger modded to boost or not? The initial interviews are inconclusive. Exhibit A, from this recent post: I use a phase shifter, a Phase 90 – MXR, I think. It doesn’t really phase – it just kind of gives you treble boost, which I like. Cuts [...]
Last Cool Stuff From ’78 EVH Transcript
Here’s the last of the interesting stuff from the newly published transcript of the entire 1978 interview of Edward Van Halen that Jas Obrecht did for Guitar Player mag. Wish there was a lot more! Guitar Stuff The Shark/Destroyer Jas: Does it have a standard neck? EVH: Yeah. It’s completely stock, really, except for the [...]
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