AFTER 10 YEARS of grueling one-night stands, forging a reputation as a one-of-a-kind new breed of electric bluesman, Stevie Ray Vaughan was poised to make 1983 his watershed year. Stevie's Strat sprayed blistering licks across David Bowie's Let's Dance, released that same year, punctuating the songs with a dose of Texas grit and primo blues flavorings and taking Bowie's songs to a whole new level. It was only half of the story, though, as shortly after the release of Let's Dance, he delivered his startling, game-changing debut album, Texas Flood. While Let's Dance was a fantastic showcase for Stevie to sprinkle some of his Texas hot-sauce stylings, Texas Flood was the full-blown, no-holds-barred, real deal — arguably the greatest blues-rock album made since Jimi Hendrix and Johnny Winter were in their prime. Sure, there were plenty of great discs that might loosely fit the pigeonhole of blues rock, but their emphasis was always on the rock side of the tracks. With Stevie, blues was king.
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PRS
PREVIOUSLY PART OF PRS's Maryland-built guitar line, the SE NF3 was recently reissued in the company's offshore-produced SE series. The SE NF3 is so named for its Narrowfield Deep Dish (a.k.a. DD) \"S\" pickups. These unique PRS-design units have deeper bobbins to accommodate more windings and extra metal pieces between the magnets to yield a more powerful \"single-coil\" tone, while remaining noise-free because they are in fact humbuckers. A control set consisting of master volume, tone and a five-way blade switch allows the usual selections of bridge, middle and neck pickups by themselves and the neck-plus-middle and bridge-plus-middle combinations that allow the SE NF3 to veer into Strat-like territory in switch positions two and four.
EPIPHONE
Inspired by Gibson Custom 1963 Firebird V and 1959 ES-355
Dobro 101
A look at the iconic bluegrass slide box.
CERTIFIED GREATNESS
Fingerstyle master Tommy Emmanuel combines unique musical instincts and breathtaking technique to become an acoustic tour de force.
MASTER OF HIS OWN JOURNEY
For more than 50 years, David Lindley graced albums and concert stages with his singular talent on a vast range of stringed instruments. In this Guitar Player exclusive, his musical friends — including Jackson Browne, Ry Cooder and Bonnie Raitt - pay tribute to an original.
TRANSCENDENTAL MAN
Luther Dickinson interpreted a priceless work of art in music. In the process, the blues guitarist wrote his own next chapter.
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Together with Tony Levin, Adrian Belew and Steve Vai join forces for a Robert Fripp-endorsed revival of King Crimson's groundbreaking 1980s music.
I'M 100 PERCENT HAPPY WITH THE WORK I'VE DONE WITH PINK FLOYD. BUT...'MY FOCUS IS DIFFERENT RIGHT NOW'
Leading a rock group and being a solo artist were \"not what I asked for,\" David Gilmour says. For Luck and Strange, he assembled a team that shared the weight of his creative efforts. The result? \"The best album I've made since The Dark Side of the Moon.\"
DOUG GILLARD IS INDISPENSABLE
His six-string genius has proved vital to the music of Guided by Voices, Nada Surf and other indie-rock favorites. But all he really wants is to make good music.
Sol Salvation
The genius of Sol Hoopii is preserved in 16 timeless cuts on Master of the Hawaiian Guitar.