Does it get any better than Bad Company for classic rockage? I’ll answer that for you: No! For years I’ve held onto an old Guitar Player with Mick Ralphs on the cover, and of course now I can’t find it…but I did find the interview online. In it Mick goes into some pretty decent gear [...]
There’s this issue of the old, defunct but often awesome Guitar Shop mag I have that runs down Dave Gilmour’s live gear from every period of Pink Floyd. Crazy! Actually too much stuff to put in here, but I had to get something in so here we are. The thing that kick-started this post is [...]
…The Brian May and Joe Bonamassa Connections Rory Gallagher was Irish. ‘Nuff said. Seriously, Rory was a bad motherFer on the geetar, no doubt. I wish I was more familiar with him and his stuff, but here’s a cursory overview of his gear and tunes for others like me. Rory fans chime in with any [...]
At this point it seems like Jimmy Page is the keeper of the Led Zep flame – doesn’t it? Plant isn’t interested, JPJ is awesome but ain’t the point man, so we have Jimmy. And how much of the Zep sound is Jimmy? He obviously wrote the riffs and a bunch of the tunes, but [...]
In a 1978 interview for Guitar Player magazine, this guitar-slinger said the following: > He created his own guitar by mixing and matching parts from Fender instruments. > Part of the creation was chiseling out a spot so he could put a humbucker in the guitar. > The pickups were directly mounted to the wood.
My buddies convinced me to go see The Smithereens Sunday night, a free outdoor show at “Maplewoodstock” in Maplewood, NJ. I’ve never been a Smithereens fan, and never not been a Smithereens fan, if you know what I mean. Knew a couple songs from the radio back in the day when rock was on and [...]
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 [...]
Not Peavey Maces! Peave Mace, Peavey Mace, all we’ve heard for years is that the Lynyrd Skynyrd guys used Peavey Mace amps. Somewhat true. They did, but not all the time – and apparently not on the recording of ‘Sweet Home Alabama.’ Stumbled onto an interview with one of the engineers of that tune (off [...]
Is a Strat a rock instrument? Seriously. I’m talking about a Strat with a single-coil pickup at the bridge. If so, can you name five rock Strat players in 10 seconds? How about five rock Strat players whose tones you’d want to cop? I can only name two. I’m not dissing Tommy Bolin or anyone [...]
It’s no secret that I like Joe Bonamassa. The guy is flying the flag – of blues, blues-rock and classic rock. Works hard too. Tours his butt off and puts out new music like bands used to do in the old days: Black Rock about a year ago, Black Country Communion (they’re touring, so get [...]
Part 1 – Plus Iso Tracks! I love Mick Jones’ stuff. Simple riffs, great song hooks and I love the tone he has on some of the older tunes. It’s Marshall plexi, but…different. I’d always thought I heard something different there, anyway. Maybe it had to do with the odd wiring in his Les Paul. [...]
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 [...]
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.
Part 1 Does this sound like a recipe for good rock tone (or even a usable tone) to you: > Mismatched pickups, at least one of which was installed wrong > Boss pedals (plural) – modified and stock – to accentuate mids > Marshall JMP head modded for less gain in the preamp stage and [...]
The Guitar Player interview mentioned in Tuesday’s post had more info, beyond just Cream. Here are the tonealicious highlights of that, starting with a Les Paul and Marshall rocked on a Beatles tune: GP: By the way, was that you playing the lead guitar part on “As My Guitar Weeps” on the Beatles album? There [...]
I dig this version of The Who tune. It’s another simple Scorpions tune, somehow executed with AC/DC-like perfection. And when I heard it recently, I dug the crunchy guitar tone. Only question is, What the heck was it?
A buddy of mine recently bought the track “Say What You Will” by Fastway. I remember when the video for that tune first came out – the Internet says it was 1983. Full into my Eddie Van Halen phase, I (and many others!) thought Fastway was “behind the times, man.” The guys looked “old” or [...]
Do you know who Robbie Blunt is? Sure you do. He’s the guit-slinger who played in Robert Plant’s band during the “Big Log” era – the less-mature of us never forgetting that name because in high school it meant a turd in a bowl (snicker).
Cool riff, cool tune, cool lead and a WET tone. That’s what I hear and have always heard in the Judas Priest tune “Another Thing Comin’,” off 1982′s Screaming for Vengeance. While I of course know it’s a two-guitar band, I always think of the chords/riff and Glenn Tipton’s solo on this tune, hence the [...]
I have a few buds who still laugh at me for digging Journey. I think it’s the Steve Perry, Jonathan Cain-driven “Don’t Stop Believin’” stuff that gets them laughing because after the chuckle they’re always like, “Neal Schon, great player.” “F-in A right!” as they say, or used to, in Patterson, N.J. Neal is a [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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, [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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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