IT’S 3:05 P.M. ON A FRIDAY. I’M WAITING FOR A CALL from Vito Bratta. He’s late. Five minutes late, to be exact. But considering it’s taken years of knocking, followed by an additional three weeks of scheduling back and forth via email, to gain entry into the proverbial Casa di Vito… what’s a few minutes more?
A few nervous sips of Johnny Walker Blue later, at around 3:10 p.m., my trusty iPhone 10XR buzzes with anticipation; I’d used that old iPhone for countless interviews prior, but this one is different. The number scrolling across the screen is one I didn’t recognize. I mutter to myself, “That’s gotta be Vito...” It is.
“Sorry I’m late, man. I was dialing the wrong number for the last 10 minutes,” Bratta sheepishly says. “It’s funny, though; I’ve got nothing to do. I’m here all the time. I care for my mother full time and only venture out for a few minutes daily to run to the grocery store.”
The “here” Bratta refers to is the childhood home in Staten Island (one of New York City’s five boroughs), where Bratta still resides. Since the end days of White Lion — when Bratta retreated from the “biz” — the ever-reclusive guitarist has been seldom heard from. Still, many rumors regarding Bratta have cropped up. Some are true — at least, on the surface — while others are bastardized versions of his post-glam-metal life.
Of course, Bratta has earned all the grace that he desires. Far be it from me to be bothered by waiting a few extra minutes. After all, I’d waited this long to dig into the solos that made Bratta — with his imaginative pop arpeggiations and blues-based, yet Van Halen-inspired bouts of slippery tapping — famously adored.
Denne historien er fra September 2023-utgaven av Guitar World.
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Denne historien er fra September 2023-utgaven av Guitar World.
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
Caparison Dellinger-JSM V2
WAY BACK IN the dark ages (a.k.a. the Eighties), there were two distinct types of guitar shredders who occupied opposite sides of the spectrum: the hard rock player whose weapon of choice was a super Strat versus the country picker who inevitably opted for a Telecaster.
The Ultimate Guitar Shop
Christie’s Jeff Beck Auction offers a revealing look at numerous iconic instruments from the legendary guitarist’s entire career from the Yardbirds to Johnny Depp
Blown Away
Jeff Beck's landmark Blow by Blow dramatically transformed the future for instrumental electric guitar music. Fifty years later, it still remains an inspirational force
TAKE NO PRISONERS
In this exclusive excerpt from Dreaming Japanese, Marty Friedman's new autobiography (co-written by frequent GW contributor Jon Wiederhorn), the ace guitarist details his auditions with Ozzy, Megadeth and - what's this about Madonna?
MAGNIFICENT
Tearing up the blueprint with an octave G string, Johnny Marr's new seven-string Martin signature model is a distillation of all the British icon's most rebellious opinions on acoustic (and yes, there's also a six-string version)
Xotic XSS Super S-Style electric guitar
AS FUNNY AS this sounds, when a brand sends me a new guitar model outfitted with only one pickup, I say to myself, “That’s bold.” Releasing a spartan guitar like the Xotic XSS Super S-Style seems like such a throwback to a time when a guy with the initials EVH changed the entire guitar-world landscape by playing guitar with a solitary humbucker and making every guitarist around the globe realize that might be all we need.
IF GUITAR GOD IS A WOMAN
With renewed confidence and a slew of new guitar-forward songs, Larkin Poe's Rebecca and Megan Lovell are upping the ante of their blues-rock sound once again on seventh album Bloom
TC Electronic Plethora X1 TonePrint Loader
JUDGING BY THE abundance of effects that the TC Electronic Plethora X1 TonePrint Loader makes available to guitarists, it is obvious that TC knows what it means to have a plethora. Just the same, if having too much of a good thing brings you joy, then TC Electronic's Plethora will bring much delight with its many desirable and stellar-sounding effects - each offering a wealth of options.
1950-69, 1986-PRESENT FENDER ESQUIRE
IT’S PRETTY DAMN cool that the very first commercially produced solidbody electric guitar, the Fender Esquire, can still kick serious butt today; you can’t say that about too many 75-year-olds. Many guitarists often forget that the Esquire came before the Telecaster and that a two-pickup version of the Esquire, which came a few months after the single-pickup version, was essentially the first Broadcaster/Nocaster/ Telecaster. But here I’m just going to focus on the single-pickup version.
Tallon Electric "The Noise"
UNLESS YOU’VE BEEN living under a rock, you’ll know that collaborative pedals between artists and manufacturers are all the rage now.
