First Guitar
“I had a Kay acoustic guitar. A piece of wood with strings on it, man. Five bucks maybe. I struggled to make this thing make noise. My parents made it into a lamp for my 21st birthday, as a joke, because at that point I had a hit record and all this stuff.”
Getting Better
All The Time “All of a sudden it made sense to me. My fingers all of a sudden went, ‘Yes, I know how to do this.’ And I started playing all the 1st position chords over and over. ‘Ding, ding, ding.’ I was like, ‘Wow, man, you’re a little teeny kid, you play chords.’ And then I got the bug and it all started from the germ of seeing The Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show. Everything happened in real time, from Meet The Beatles! to now. Then it was the British Invasion and it got bigger and bigger: you’ve got Beck, Page and Clapton, and then everything exploded. Jimi Hendrix then the prog rockers and then all of a sudden rock and jazz crashed into each other. And then funk. It’s sort of an amalgamation of all of that.”
School Of Rock
“Our school band had Jeff Porcaro and David Paich sitting in with us. We realised in high school we had to be as good as those guys. But we caught up real quick. We were so hungry for it. Mike Landau was in the band. We have known each other since we were 12 years old. We’re still the ‘neighbourhood kids’: ‘Oh, those two rascals up to no good.’
Denne historien er fra June 2021-utgaven av Guitarist.
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Denne historien er fra June 2021-utgaven av Guitarist.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
BASIC INSTINCTS
The sophisticated range of Swedish-designed guitars made by .strandberg* has lured thousands of players over to the headless side. But the company's new stripped-back Boden Essential model is its strongest play yet for the hearts and minds of mainstream players
Second String
As PRS's more affordable USA-made S2 line moves into its second decade, the series gets a revamp with - at last - USA-made pickups and electronics. What took so long?
PABLO VAN DE POEL
When a band from The Netherlands describes themselves as 'raw, psychedelic Southern rock', it may take a little cognitive processing to work out what that might mean. One listen to DeWolff, however, and you will be duly transported to the 60s for some fuzzed-out rock 'n' roll
THE BERNIE MARSDEN COLLECTION
With a fabulous collection of the late Bernie Marsden's guitars, amps and other highly collectable music gear going under the auctioneer's hammer on 11 June, we were thrilled to have the chance of a sneak preview
LENNY KRAVITZ
Some 35 years since the release of his debut LP, for his 12th record, Blue Electric Light, Lenny Kravitz is back again with equal doses of vigour and vibes, using vintage guitars and the purest valve amps
GEORGE VJESTICA
You may not know him at first glance, but the work of Stoke-on-Trent native George Vjestica has probably impacted some of your favourite albums and movies
DICKEY BETTS
Emerging from the shadow of Duane to write signature hit Ramblin' Man, the Allman Brothers guitarist was a hard-living pioneer of Southern rock
NICK GUPPY
It is with great sadness that we report the passing of our highly valued amplifier guru, who died suddenly in April
Lucky Break
Alex Bishop blends old wood with new in an attempt to fix a severely damaged guitar headstock
Tones Behind The Tracks
Cedric Burnside learnt at the knee of his fabled grandfather, but his latest album is a hill country blues masterclass on his own terms