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 [...]

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 of it [...]

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 [...]

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? [...]

…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.

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

…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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]