CP Thornton Guitars has posted the Tone Quest Report magazine from August 2007 (PDF), which features a dissection of Stevie Ray Vaughan's '64 Vibroverb amp. SRV's amp tech Cesar Diaz had done quite a few modifications to the amp, including changing the caps, adding a larger transformer as well as many other mods. It's interesting to read how the amp was modified to help give … [Read more...]
Blues with Brains
Guitarist Chuck D'Aloia has recently released an instructional lesson set titled Blues with Brains. Unlike other blues lessons that try to teach you basic pentatonic blues licks, Blues with Brains teaches you how to add a different element to your blues playing. While you do not need to know music theory in order to benefit from the lessons D'Aloia provides, I think you'd … [Read more...]
B.B. King Live in Africa
Here's a nice video find from YouTube of B.B. King playing "Sweet Little Angel" live in Africa in 1974: (via TGP) … [Read more...]
Davy Knowles and Back Door Slam Live in Nashville
Davy Knowles and Back Door Slam played here in Nashville this past week at a local club called 3rd & Lindsley. I've seen Back Door Slam once before, but since that time, Davy and the previous members of Back Door Slam split up. Additionally, Knowles worked with Peter Frampton on a recently released new album. I was curious to see how those changes would affect the live … [Read more...]
Guitar Tablature: Evil, Great, or Somewhere in Between?
Some guitarists decry guitar tablature as a cheat or, at best, a crutch, instead telling guitarists to learn standard notation. I can understand this position, although I don't hold it myself. (If you don't know what guitar tablature is, read this.) I think guitar tablature has made the guitar a much more accessible instrument, almost a paint-by-numbers introduction to the … [Read more...]