Category: Rants
I’ve been on the fence about this for a while. Then I’ll get an issue of Guitar World that makes me think, Dang, I need to keep getting this magazine! (Like the fact that it gets all, and I mean all, the EVH interviews.) Well, the most recent issue of GW was the nail in […]
We break down rigs here at WoodyTone. It’s fun, I dig it, you dig it…so, much as I didn’t want to, I eventually clicked on a Premier Guitar video rundown of John Mayer’s rig (below). And….
Well, I suppose that’s it then. Robert Plant re-posted a beehivecity.com article on his website confessing that he had his bollocks cut off in an accident years ago, and that’s why he has no interest in any type of music resembling the powerhouse that was, and apparently never will be again, Led Zeppelin.
Is it? Do you consider it one? You should. Because your amp – a good amp – is at least 50% of your tone (not including your fingers) and it’s what you and other people actually hear. If it wasn’t that important, you would just get the cleanest amp/speaker combo you could find to faithfully […]
Having Less Older Gear = Better Tone? We live in an era of guitar gear nirvana. We can literally get any piece of gear at any price point, today, overnight, whenever. If you buy from one of the big boxes, you can even get something, try it out and return it! Cool…but has all of […]
Are music lessons/instruction vastly overrated? I’m thinking they are. I’ve read over the years how people “should” read music, know all the notes on the fretboard by name and all that stuff, but really? Does that really help you become a better musician with your own style? Or does it hurt…. I got thinking about […]
Nuno In a Similar Boat… Since we recently ended a year and, according to some, a decade, I thought about writing a post on the year’s/decade’s best/worst whatever…but decided it would run a serious risk of being boring. Or at least redundant. But I couldn’t let one thing pass without writing about it. And because […]
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 […]
