Category: Effects
Vivian Campbell cracks me up. In just about every interview about Def Leppard he says that being in the band has hurt his guitar playing but has helped his singing. A little cringe-inducing, eh? But honest, always honest. I like that. [Remember the Guitar World interview where he slagged the heck out of Gibson? In […]
The documentary “Cry Baby: The Pedal that Rocks the World” was released a few months back. Did you hear about it? Since I’m not a frequent Cry Baby (or any wah or pedal) user, I didn’t feel compelled to track it down for a look-see. But then I saw recently that the entire movie – […]
The Fender Jeff Beck signature Strat – MSRP of $2,199 – is a unique animal in Strat-dom. Meaning basically it’s a customized standard Strat. But the one Fender sells isn’t much like the one Jeff plays. The Fender Beck Strat has a Strat-standard alder body, maple neck (9.5″ radius) and rosewood board. But per Beck’s […]
Even though Ronnie Van Zant wrote and sung the line “Handguns are made for killin’, ain’t no good for nothin’ else,” his younger bro Donnie started a band that ended up being named after a handgun. And that band (.38 Special) produced some great stuff tunes in the ’80s, not all of which were the […]
In the early ’70s, the Eagles were heading down a country path. That was all well and good, but they wanted to rock.
Part 2 In effort to get to the bottom of what George Lynch used in the studio on the cut “Lesser of Two Evils,” here’s a rundown of the live gear he used on that tour (also from an older version of his site), which may give a clue about his studio setup.
Part 1 Dokken’s Dysfunctional album isn’t great. Maybe not even good. They know it, I know it, now you know it. But there are a couple good tunes on it, and one I’d call great – great hard rock. Not metal, not pop metal, but big guitars, catchy, nice hook, good chorus. George Lynch’s tone […]
Part 2, Protos and Rig Details Three prototype amps were used by Neal at HipKitty to start the R&D process for Mick’s signature head. Neal said two 50w heads were started to form the primary distortion channel and tone circuit. The third proto head was/is a 100-watter “that uses the culmination of the refined distortion/tone […]
High Voltage! by John Drenning Okay, I’ll come clean. I have a Big Stupid Pedalboard. It’s a Furman with eight power taps, four power outlets, casters and an extendable handle like the bags flight attendants use. It takes up about the same amount of floor space as a foosball table. On it are two buffered […]
I’ve had these three old Guitar Player magazine interviews kicking around on my desktop for a while now, decided to wind them up into one post. Interesting stuff, here are the most interesting tone-related excerpts:
Wow. A man dying so young and out of the blue (no apparent sickness or substance abuse) is a body blow in the guitar community. RIP Gary! Had to do a tribute of sorts. Thought for a while about what to do, here’s the result. Hope you enjoy. (Diehard Moore fans, please contribute any gear […]
If you’re way into “guitara obscura” you may know the following. But for the rest of us, this might be news. Let’s start with the Echoplex itself. I’m not going to get into the electronics of the thing, but anyone who’s a fan of classic rock tone knows that the Echoplex was used as much […]
Yngwie Malmsteen’s signature Marshall has gotten a lot of interest, seemingly more because people like the idea of a 100w Marshall plexi with attentuation (power scaling) than because it’s a signature amp. With the recent NAMM trade show now over, some more details of the amp have come out.
Mids! In part 1, we learned that Ronni Le Tekro prefers pickups with Alnico 5 magnets. Seems odd that Ronni would use A5 pickups if he loved mids so much, but he more than made up for any “lost” mids with his amp and effects setup….
Wow! Anyone here in the U.S. catch the recent airing (re-airing?) of Cheap Trick live on Austin City Limits? Couple quick observations after watching: > Cheap Trick is a ROCK BAND. Lots of big guitar tone, great classic rock/Beatles-esque tunes, good singing – a real freakin’ band! Great to see and hear they’re still doing […]
Fair Warning Tone Ain’t All the Same
Got it in my head to figure out which Van Halen song tones – not album tones – I liked the most. Started with Fair Warning, whose balls I just can’t get enough of…which doesn’t sound so good but you get what I mean. Listen to it cranked in my car because that’s the only […]
Pondering VH’s Fair Warning Tone
LOVE the first four Van Halen albums. Always have, always will. Love the rest too, including the Van Hagar years (oops, forgot about VH III…), but those first four vinyl donuts are to me and many others just the nads. The nadliest of nads. They’re a band kicking the world’s butt in every way, and […]
Recently I was ruined yet again by a good amp. This time a bud’s Bogner Shiva, EL34 version. Let’s call him Sean – because that’s his name…. He’d been talking about how awesome it was for a while, and even though I know he has good ears, wasn’t too motivated to go try it. I’d […]
The Gene-EVH-Ace-Joe Perry Connection
Have you picked up “Guitar World Presents 40 Years of Van Halen” yet? Zactly – I didn’t even know it existed until I saw it in a bookstore (remember those? lol). Anyhow, I’m always amazed at how I think I’ve memorized every word ever written about Ed and his gear and then I read something […]
More On the YMI5150 Model-A Guitar
Few weeks ago I posted a brief “review” (outdated word) of Kevin Holbrook’s YMI5150 Model-A guitar. As a brief reminder, what got my attention were the following things: > A good wood combo: swamp ash, maple/rosewood. > An interesting and unique combo of components resulting in a Strat-shaped and -scaled guitar with an ABR bridge […]
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 […]
