Edward Van Halen’s tone has been dissected, obsessed over and pursued to the ends of the tonal universe maybe more than any other single guitarist’s. That’s no surprise because the man is the Beethoven (gifted substance-abusing composer of the popular music of the time), Paganini (virtuoso) and [some other classical reference having to do with [...]

‘Cocaine’ Rig Photo!

I’ve been sort of back-of-the-mind obsessed with (really more like “puzzled by”) Eric Clapton for a bit now. Ever since I saw him play on Joe Bonamassa’s Albert Hall DVD. I mean, there’s ERIC CLAPTON! – the fact that he’s Eric Clapton is cool on its own, but I wanted him to thrill [...]

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 stuff [...]

You might. It would probably be a mid-70s Fender Stratocaster, which Lowell (of Little Feat) was favoring at the time, but could be something else.
Why am I asking? Here’s why, from the August 1976 issue of Guitar Player magazine:
GP: How many guitars have you had?
Lowell: I’ve had 50, 20 of which I no longer have [...]

Howard Leese’s Gear Too; Replace Ace?

To me, the Heart tune “Barracuda” is one of those perfect songs. Everything’s great: guitar, drums (watch it on YouTube) and the singing, which is just amazing. We’ve all heard the song hundreds of times, but there’s precious little about the gear Roger Fisher and fellow guitarist Howard Leese used [...]

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, [...]

How To Play ‘I Know a Little;’ Played on a Les Paul?
Thirty-two years ago today, Lynyrd Skynyrd’s plane went down and we lost one of the greatest guitar players ever to walk out on a stage: 28-year-old Steve Gaines.
Steve was an absolute monster. Couple quotes to that effect (if you read nothing else, read Ed [...]

Wanted a Trumpet, Drums; Settled for Guitar
Fender.com recently published a short-ish interview with Ritchie Blackmore that had a couple of interesting tidbits in it, below. For the full interview, which discusses his current work with Blackmore’s Night, click here.
Fender: Is it true that when your father bought you your first guitar at age 11 it [...]

A couple of decent Ace interviews were published recently – decent because there’s some gear info in them, some good stuff, but both come up a little short on details (when I interview Ace I’ll rectify that!). Anyhow, here are the most interesting bits from modernguitars.com and iheartguitarblog.com. Anything in quotes is Ace speaking.
Gear Used [...]

If you don’t know who Ty Tabor is, or haven’t heard King’s X’s music, please do your ears a favor and buy every King’s X CD right now. Seriously.
At the risk of sounding like an uber-fan, King’s X is one of the best American rock bands ever. And although it seems like there’s some sort [...]

Re-Bias While Playing, Blood on His Guitars…
Performing Musician recently posted an interview with Michael Kaye, who is Pete Townshend’s amp/electonics tech and is a guitar tech for other bands (Springsteen, Bon Jovi, others): Alan Rogan has been Pete’s guitar tech since 1977.
“Alan takes care of Pete’s guitars — the tuning, the guitar changes, the strings, [...]

It’s tough to pin down the Aerosmith guys as far as what guitars were used when because they definitely didn’t stick with any one instrument too long, even during any given concert. But amp-wise, after Toys they switched over to the new-at-the-time Music Man amps which had 6L6 power tubes (like Fenders) but solid-state preamps.

With Aerosmith touring and all the pre-tour talk about playing the Toys in the Attic album live, I wanted to try to nail down what gear Joe Perry and Brad Whitford were using on Toys. Well, good luck: This one has been tough to track down.

The September 2009 issue of Vintage Guitars magazine has Mick Mars of Motley Crue on the cover. My first thought was: Another guy who makes a lot of dough and buys a bunch of vintage stuff. But after reading the interview, I was surprised to find out that Mick actually uses this stuff, in the [...]

Vid: ‘The Spirit of Radio Lesson’ from Alex

Even though I played in bands that copped multiple tunes off Rush’s Moving Pictures album, my favorite Rush album is Permanent Waves. The band was just on fire for that recording. Lots of energy, great parts, great arrangements that are complex yet understandable.
Did I say great?

Good Show…but Sorta Strange
I remember when the Kenny Wayne Shepherd buzz first started, this kid who idolized SRV and apparently wanted to sound just like him too. Even his name was similar (Kenny Wayne – Stevie Ray).
Then we lost SRV (we still miss you down here, man!), and we, or at least I, heard less [...]

Strat + Modded 200-Watt Marshall + Boost = Wood

Before he got on his Medieval music trip, Ritchie Blackmore’s tone was all wood. I heard a Rainbow tune the other day on Internet radio, and I just sat there wondering how the heck he could get that fat tone out of a Strat’s bridge pickup.
So later, [...]