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 [...]
A semi-recent thread on the metroamp.com board was started about a geetar-slinger named Ollie Halsall. Huh? That was my reaction too, since like you I’m pretty sure I know about every famous to semi-famous guitar player worth knowing about. Obviously not true. Ollie was almost in the Stones, inspired jealousy in Alvin Lee, and was [...]
Okay, not really two minutes, but I’m diggin’ “2 Minutes To Midnight” these days, so…. What gear did Iron Maiden’s Dave Murray and Adrian Smith use on Powerslave? Hold on – I guess the first question is, Is their tone woody? IMO no, but it’s the distinctive what I’d call “saturated” metal tone these guys [...]
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 [...]
And More on Angus’ Gear, Settings What’s the best AC/DC song? If you ask Joe Perry, he’ll apparently say “Sin City.” Bold, Joe, bold – because I’m completely unable to pick a favorite AC/DC tune – because so many are THAT freakin’ good. But “Sin City” is awesome, no doubt. It sounds great. Once again, [...]
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 [...]
Did you hear about the new Celestion Lynchback speaker? By now maybe you have, but I hadn’t until I stopped in at the Celestion room at last summer’s NY/NJ Amp Show (btw, the Los Angeles Amp Show is this weekend – go!). Right away I was intrigued. Why: > George Lynch is one of my [...]
Wooooooo-hooooooooo! Stoked! The earliest interview we have of Edward Van Halen is the one Jas Obrecht did that ran in the July (and then November) 1978 issue of Guitar Player magazine. But we weren’t reading everything Jas had on tape because just like with any print interview, what’s published is cropped way down. At the [...]
Even if you’re not a KISS fan or hate KISS or Gene Simmons or whatever, give this tune another listen – the original studio version, not the redo. Make it a loud listen. Why: > This whole album (Rock and Roll Over) has woody guitars all over it – because it was produced by Eddie [...]
Been a loooooong time since I’d heard the Alice in Chains tune “Down In a Hole” until it hit the car radio the other day. First thing that hit me: What a unique use of a standard bottom-of-neck chord progression. And the tune sounded so dang good! Of course guit-slinger Jerry Cantrell has an uber-distorted [...]
“Big Foot” is the new Chickenfoot tune being release to radio (what’s that? lol) today, and…I like it! The #1 reason: MARSHALL. You can hear a big difference, an evolution from Joe Satriani’s big round solo-artist tone to a more rock tone – harsher (in a good way), less bassy/muddy (in a band setting), more [...]
Fascinating stuff. Ran across it when fact-checking the previous post. Enjoy.
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 [...]
If you haven’t heard or seen it yet, Premier Guitar recently put up a 17.5-minute Billy Gibbons rig rundown via Billy’s tech, Elwood Francis. This is a seminal event because Billy has kept his rig deets pretty tight…but honestly, there’s not much new stuff in it. Really wish PG had read the most popular WoodyTone [...]
Nice weather here in Jersey, finally, feels like Friday, like I should be typing this with a beer next to me. It’s all putting me in the mood for Van Halen’s sunny SoCal music. So while I let ‘er rip on the stereo computer, here’s some fun EVH stuff for ya. And of course, while fun, [...]
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 [...]
Variac (!), Kept it Simple Do you remember reading Eddie Van Halen’s comments about Randy Rhoads “ripping him off?” I believe those comments were made and published after Randy’s death – though after listening to the transcript of that tape (on the web somewhere) it sounds like Ed didn’t know his comments would be used [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 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 [...]
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. [...]
And some oddballs…. As I type this, Bonham’s auction house is auctioning off a bunch of Eric Clapton-owned gear to benefit his Crossroads rehab center. Took a look at the online catalog, and here’s what caught my eye, starting with the coolest stuff:
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.
Joe Bonamassa seems to be one of those guys with golden hands. Don’t think I’ve ever heard him with bad tone, even when he was a a flashy youngster. And as with all tone hounds, the amp – or in his case “amps,” since “there can’t only be one” – is a huge part of [...]
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….
Whether Yngwie Malmsteen’s playing is your cup ‘o tea or not, one thing can’t be argued: his tone is woody, always has been. A boosted Strat into cranked 50w metal-panel Marshall Mark II heads – schweet! So when I was tipped to the fact that Yngwie has a new signature Marshall head coming out (thanks [...]
A couple years ago, Paul Gilbert was favoring semi-hollow guitars. You could attribute that to him being an at-times weird dude, but turns out that’s not (entirely) why he made the change to those guitars, albeit since reversed. So why did he like semi-hollows? In a word, tone. That’s what Paul said in a Guitar [...]
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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