Recently Rudy Sarzo, bassist of ’80s Quiet Riot and Ozzy/Randy Rhoads fame, announced a new contest. In it, participants can write a song on their own, with Rudy then picking a winner and doing the bass lines, or write a song using pre-recorded Rudy bass lines. It’s a cool idea, with prizes from Jackson, Ampeg, [...]
I was wandering through Wal-Mart’s music section the other day, trying to politely refused my son’s repeated requests for a Def Leppard DVD, and found a couple of Zep tribute discs. The first one I listed to was “Contemporary Blues Interpret Led Zeppelin,” put out this year. It’s cool. Some of it is about what [...]
Back in early October, Billboard.com published an update on the Satriani-Hagar-Anthony-Chad Smith (Red Hot Chilis) “supergroup” that at least for now is titled Chickenfoot. Since I missed it then, hear are some highlights of that article now (all quotes are from Satch):
Well, I don’t love “The Cosmos Rocks.” I wanted to be hit over the head by Brian May’s royal chords and sweet lines (WoodyTone being a given), interesting song structures and chord patterns, and Paul Rodgers’ soulful vocals over the whole amazing thing. But except in a couple of cases, I didn’t get what I [...]
Carlos Santana is a very cool guitar player. He has his own style, he’s an innovator, I dig some of his music, not all of it, because what he does isn’t necessarily my personal thing. But I find his spiritual searching, his articulation of it and his conclusions — which often relate to guitar-playing and [...]
I went surfing and found some info on Audley that WoodyToners will enjoy. The excerpts were taken from two articles: here and here. The articles are a bit old, so some of the info might be dated. If you know where to find more or more-current Audley info or interviews, please let me know. Influences [...]
Although the music machine named Edward Van Halen is never not creating more and more music (put it out! sell it online!), it does appear that the much-hoped-for new VH album with DLR won’t be happening anytime soon — and I feel obligated to say given the in/out nature of the band, “if it happens [...]
A buddy of mine passed me a disc the other day to check out, by this band called Cry of Love. A ’90s release. Took exactly one listen to reach this conclusion: frickin’ great. Great tunes, great singing (Kelly Holland sounds a little like Chris Robinson of the Black Crowes, but better), simply and “rawly” [...]
Judging by the number of views on this vid, looks like I’m tardy to this party. This kid can play! And…is that WoodyTone I’m hearing? I hear the Strat, the phaser sounds luscious in spots, the flanger big and bold. I mean — we’re all listening to compressed video audio through some form of computer [...]
In case you need a reminder, dust off your Don’t Say No album or CD, or click here to go to last.fm and give those tunes a listen. THAT, my friends, is WoodyTone. Dang. You can clearly hear the vintage gear and analog recording equipment, even on laptop speakers. (This is making me wonder whether [...]
Initially I just chalked up the “Zep touring without Plant” talk as rumor. I mean, can you imagine? (I’m searching for an analogy here, but I can’t find one. Maybe it would be like Queen, with Freddie still alive (God bless him) taking a long hiatus and then suddenly touring with another singer. Or maybe [...]
I just read an article on Gibson.com about Stevie Ray’s tone. The headline starts with these words: Myth Busters. I assume that’s because the overall point of the piece is that Stevie’s gear wasn’t cut and dried, particularly on the amp side, so his tone being a direct function of his equipment is a bit [...]
On the subject of switching your picking from thumb/forefinger to thumb/first two fingers — well, you can go the other way too. Paul Gilbert used to play with two fingers and a thumb, but switched to thumb/forefinger, apparently just to get a cooler, cello-like pick attack — and because of a little thumb pain.
Years ago I was watching a Steve Morse instructional video (yes, on VHS) in which he talked about how he holds his pick. Specifically, if I remember right, he holds it with his thumb and first two fingers — contrary to the grip 99% of people seem to use, which is thumb and first (pointer) [...]
Today I was going to write something about Yngwie getting a bad rap or maybe start looking into how Skynyrd got such great tones out of Peavey amps, but instead ran into this quote on the Van Halen News Desk. It’s from an interview with EVH’s guitar tech Tom Weber, who was on his maiden [...]
According to Gibson.com via this gossip blog, Led Zep may tour minus, without, not including — Robert Plant. Plant’s replacement may be Myles Kennedy of Alter Bridge. What?!
Like all good tone-chasers, Gary Moore has been all over the map, albeit a fairly narrow map. I won’t pretend to know a lot about Gary Moore — he’s from one of those islands over yonder, right? — but I do know WoodyTone when my ears hear it. And killer playing. Today I was listening [...]
Can anyone get woodytone out of a solid basswood guitar body? Or is this just the worst guitar wood ever? Here’s my ear experience with it. 1. Not even the great EVH can get a true woodytone out of basswood, though he has come close on stage with the EVH Art Series Charvels.
I was fortunate that a friend got tix to last night’s King’s X/Extreme (in that order) show at NYC’s Fillmore Irving Plaza. Follow is my “review” — just my experience, really — but the bottom line was that both bands were very good. King’s X opened and they were awesome as usual. What a great, [...]
Mel Galley of Whitesnake fame died on the 1st. He died of cancer, knew he was going out soon, and handled it like we all probably wish we would in the same circumstances: fearlessly and at peace. He was 60 years old, and in my opinion is responsible for one of the woodiest and well-recorded [...]
I’m talking about the pre-Faithfully, pre-uber-ballad Journey, which toed the line between old-school rock, blues and just a little pop. To this day, Departure is one of my favorite albums — uh, CDs. The guitar work is great (Neal Schon, of course), the keyboards are great (Gregg Rolie — great), the vocal melodies are great, [...]
Here he is, the master of tone who articulated it so well: “They go to 11.” Learn from Nigel’s tone lab. Look at all the movies they made sequels (and multiple sequels) to. Doesn’t Tap deserve another? Don’t we deserve another? Funny Stuff
Does Boston’s Tom Scholz have WoodyTone? Remember, we’re not talking about the songs here. We’re talking about his Les Paul >> NASA effects rack >> Marshall tone — though Marshalls are only used in the studio. Otherwise it’s all Rockman stuff. Anyhow, it’s the NASA part that might drop him out of the WoodyTone pantheon. [...]
Not much, it turns out. You can usually count on PremierGuitar.com to find some cool stuff. Recently they posted four vids of Seymour Duncan talking about various things. Going from top to bottom, the first one is interesting if you want to know about how Seymour got into winding pickups. The second one doesn’t have [...]
I’ve started looking into Tommy Bolin. I’ve heard the name for years, but never looked into him. Still haven’t much, but when researching Bolin on YouTube, I found out that he must have replaced Joe Walsh in the James Gang, and my reaction was: Wait a minute. Joe Walsh? James Gang? There HAD to be [...]
I’ve been asked a few times whether I’ve heard the new Whitesnake CD, with Doug Aldrich and Reb Beach on the strings. Yes, it’s in my car. Or was. I have it here in my office (along with a Tascam CD-GT1, a mostly-Warmoth Strat and, for no good reason, two flangers). Anyhow, here’s my review [...]
You might be way ahead of me here, but I gotta say it: The new King’s X album is out! One of the world’s best bands. Can’t wait to see them again. If you didn’t know, they’re opening (I believe) for a reunited Extreme this year. Hear clips from the new disc by going to [...]
Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeell, well, well. According to this article, brought to my attention courtesy of premierguitar.com, it looks like the boys from STP were preparing to pull the drug-addled road out from under Slash and the boys in Velvet Revolver. Maybe it’s not worded right, maybe I’m reading it wrong, but if it’s what it looks like, [...]
If you missed the issue of Guitar player with Slash on the cover, you missed an interview with Joe Satriani about his new CD — which I will get into later. It’s a decent interview, but the one thing that jumped out at me in screamin’ freakin’ neon is that Satch is jamming with Sammy [...]
Did You Read the Esquire EVH Piece Yet?
We’re going to have to wait yet another week for the interview with Kevin Holbrook of YMI5150 guitars because we have yet another newsworthy event. This time it’s the recent Esquire interview with Edward Van Halen. Now before you EVH fans get to getting your hopes up, let’s bear in mind the same ol’s: 1. [...]
Show ‘Review’: Van Halen at the Garden
Took my 10-year-old son to see Van Halen at Madison Square Garden in New York City on March 1. I think he was more excited to see them than I was – not that I wasn’t, but this was the mighty Van Halen whose tunes the both of us have copped, jammed to and listened [...]
Thoughts On Van Halen’s New One
Been listening to Van Halen’s A Different Kind of Truth over and over and over for a while now. Couple reasons: 1. It’s great, and I’m a teenager again (minus a bunch o’ hair), running up to my room to put 1984 on the turntable. 2. Sometime after X listens (X = 1,000? 10,000?) things [...]
So everyone’s asking me, “Where the F is your review of the new Van Halen?” And I’m like, “I’m workin’ on it, man!” One reason it took a little bit is I wanted to catch up with Pete Thorn to get his comments on the tracks. If you haven’t heard of him, Pete is an [...]
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 [...]
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