Teenage blues prodigy Rhys John Stygal has been reunited with his electric guitar after it was stolen in Austin, Texas, last month.

Stygal, who has been hailed as the next Stevie Ray Vaughan for his uncanny ability to channel the late blues legend, reported the theft of his guitar and pedalboard in an Instagram post. It was also confirmed his bandmate Nico Little had also had a guitar stolen.

He received support from Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Gary Clark Jr. and Jared James Nichols, with Joe Bonamassa issuing a public plea for the gear to be found and returned.

Now, a follow-up post from Texas Rebels, a band based in Austin, has confirmed the safe return of Stygal’s prized Fender Stevia Ray Vaughan Stratocaster.

“Shoutout to the community, we got them back,” the band’s guitarist, Jacob West, said. “Especially shout out to James Levin with Elmore Pedals. None of this would have been able to be done without you.”

Details surrounding the guitar’s recovery have not been shared, but West did add in the caption: “We’re not gonna put the person who returned them on blast.

“Whether the long story he gave was real or not, doesn’t matter, the instruments are returned to their homes where they belong.”

“I cannot believe I am so lucky, to be surrounded by the best community in Austin,” Stygal wrote in the comments. “Thank you so much to everyone who helped bring our treasures home. You’re the best ever.”

It’s not been confirmed whether Stygal’s pedalboard has also been recovered.

Stygal burst onto the scene as a 16-year-old prodigy, winning over a legion of fans thanks to his beastly blues chops that pay homage to his hero, SRV.

He has previously credited music and the guitar with saving his life, using the blues to help cope with extreme anxiety that was brought about by his autism. The return of his Number One guitar, which has been by his side for the whole time, is fantastic news indeed.

Visit Stygal's Instagram page to keep up to date with his playing journey.

Brian Setzer has looked back on the time he went on tour with Stevie Ray Vaughan – and got the rare opportunity to play the blues legend’s electric guitar.

In one of the more oft-overlooked footnotes in Stray Cats history, Setzer and his rockabilly group hit the road with SRV back in 1989. It was a tricky time, to say the least, blighted with tough crowds.

There was one highlight experience for Setzer, though: on one date, he got the chance to play Vaughan’s Strat.

“I recall that the crowds hated us. [Laughs] They hated us! They were only there to see Stevie Ray, and they didn’t give us a chance,” Setzer says of the tour. “It wasn’t an easy tour for us, I can tell you that.”

Nonetheless, being on the road with SRV had its perks.

“I loved listening to him,” he says. “I remember thinking, ‘How does he get that sound?’ Only he could get a Strat to sound like that.

“One night he called me on stage, and he handed me a Strat and put it over me. I thought, ‘Oh, great! I’m finally going to see what this is all about.’”

SRV’s Strats are up there as some of blues guitar’s most iconic instruments, famously strung with ultra-heavy 13-58 strings. The thought of playing such a heavy-strung Strat, especially one that belonged to Vaughan, is intimidating.

However, Setzer wasn’t all that surprised. If anything, he notes, it felt rather familiar. And it cemented an important lesson: tone is in the hands.

“There were rumors that he had amps underneath the stage and he had them miked up in the basement – all sorts of stuff,” Setzer adds. “So I played it… and it sounded like me. I didn’t sound like Stevie Ray. I mean, his guitar even felt like mine.

“The action was the same, the volume he played at, the amp he played through. I was like, ‘Well, this is interesting. Stevie sounds like he does because it’s all in his hands.’ He was phenomenal.

“He was so fluid, and he played the blues differently every night. Besides us getting booed off the stage, it was a great show.”

To read the full interview with Brian Setzer, in which he gives an update on his ongoing health issues, pick up the new issue of Guitar World at Magazines Direct.

Many artists would have struggled to follow a debut album as game-changing as Texas Flood. Not SRV, however, who showed no signs of second album syndrome on 1984’s Couldn’t Stand The Weather.

Its opening track, the fiery instrumental he named Scuttle Buttin’, is arguably the most technically demanding piece of music he ever put his name to.

An uptempo 12-bar shuffle delivered in fast and furious style in under two minutes, in which he ripped through the open position of the Eb blues scale at 162bpm, demonstrating his ferocious alternate-picking skills with flickers of legato and glissando to round it all off. But it was far greater than an exercise in clinical repetition, instead typifying a gift most natural indeed – the kind very few are born with.

The title track from Couldn’t Stand The Weather was issued as a single with a video that received regular rotation on MTV. In this, Stevie can be seen playing his Hamiltone Stratocaster copy built by New York luthier James Hamilton. It had been commissioned by ZZ Top legend Billy Gibbons, and was presented to SRV as a gift on April 29, 1984.

Though it was similar in shape, the guitar carried a few notable differences to the real-deal Strats the guitarist was usually seen with, such as the neck-through-body design instead of the standard Fender bolt-on, and a two-piece maple body as opposed to his favoured alder.

In place of the usual rosewood, the fretboard was made out of ebony featured an abalone inlay emblazoned with the guitarist’s name. Somewhat ironically, during the video shoot the guitar itself couldn’t stand the weather, with the EMG pickups damaged by the ‘rain’ falling on the musicians and their instruments. Stevie replaced them with stock Fender single coils.

Other highlights from the album included slow blues Tin Pan Alley, jazz closer Stang’s Swang and W.C. Clark/Mike Kindred cover Cold Shot – which, like title track, made use of the Fender Vibratone cabinet manufactured by the American guitar company during the late-’60s and early-’70s.

A modulation effect would be produced by its 10-inch speaker and cylinder being mechanically rotated by a motor with a rubber belt, taking advantage of the Doppler effect – which is the apparent change in frequency of a wave to the listener as a result of motion.

Soul to Soul, the third album by Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble, arrived in 1985, and again yielded some staggeringly thrilling and ambitious moments as the band dared to tread new ground with keyboardist Reese Wynans, who now plays with Joe Bonamassa.

Look At Little Sister, for example, drifted away from their roots as a power trio and incorporated some honky-tonk piano as well as a saxophone solo, whereas Change It felt like a heavier and more modern take on the traditional blues format pursued on their earlier recordings. And on the closing ballad Life Without You he sang as beautifully as he played – a masterclass in sonic perfection.

As drummer Chris Layton recalls: “I guess to some extent we all had that perfectionist ideal, always wanting to get a little better, but Stevie was a really easy-going guy. He was a very forgiving person, and generous.

“The one thing he was demanding of – without ever saying it – was trying our hardest and being the best we could be. It was never like, ‘Uh oh, you made a mistake!’ In fact, he’d often say a mistake might even be something new – let’s go with it and see where it takes us instead of stopping and starting again because it was played wrong.

“That was a beautiful thing about him. We never really analysed what we were doing. We just had to put our hearts and souls into what we were playing. There were no qualifications, rules or regulations, which was cool but also kinda daunting – especially when you’re on stage in front of 20,000 people and he starts playing something new! You have to jump in and not question whether it will work or not. We just had to take off and try our best!”

It was in this period that Stevie’s alcohol and cocaine addictions began to spiral out of control, almost killing him from dehydration in Germany and famously leading to a blackout on stage in London. As he later revealed: “I would wake up and guzzle something just to get rid of the pain I was feeling. It was like… solid doom.”

After doctors warned him that he was just months away from death, Stevie entered rehab in 1986 and continued his recovery after relocating back to the house he grew up in. Although he was nervous about performing sober, he returned to the stage on November 23 of that year at Maryland’s Towson State University.

Sadly, as fate would have it, the 1989 album In Step – its title openly referring to his recent experience of rehabilitation – would end up being the final release from Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble.

It remains a favourite among fans for many reasons, with the quartet broadening their horizons and penning tracks that felt slicker and ultimately bigger than their earlier work, with additional horns, saxophones and trumpets for good measure.

Opening track The House Is Rockin’ includes some phenomenal interplay between SRV and Wynans, and a new sense of musical focus is evident.

There’s the band boogie of Crossfire, and the funky shuffle of Tightrope features another example of Stevie’s dynamic phrasing during the solo section, where he leaves long gaps in between his musical sentences to let the conversation flow naturally. And, just like everything they’d recorded thus far, there were many different shades of blue to be found in between its energetic opener, the slower 1-4-5 of Leave My Girl Alone and grand finale Riviera Paradise.

Says Chris Layton: “All the stuff we recorded together, from Tightrope, Lookin’ Out The Window and Leave My Girl Alone to Crossfire to Riviera Paradise and Stang’s Swang, these were all incredible songs and all very different. It wasn’t just the blues format dragging on and on.”

To promote In Step, the band joined forces on a tour with Jeff Beck and his group, who had recently released the highly acclaimed Jeff Beck’s Guitar Shop album. Anyone who was lucky enough to catch any of the 29 dates on The Fire Meets the Fury Tour will have seen two of greatest guitar players of all time going head-to-head on latter-day releases that proved they still had plenty to say. But, of course, in SRV’s case, it was just not meant to be.

During one month in 1990 he had teamed up with big brother Jimmie to record the album Family Style, credited to The Vaughan Brothers. The album was produced by Nile Rodgers, and for a lot of those recordings Stevie ended up using the Chic guitarist’s black Strat with gold hardware.

“He loved the way it sounded,” Rodgers told Total Guitar. “A few months before doing that Vaughan Brothers record, I went out and bought that guitar from Manny’s in New York. I might actually send that to Fender and have them come up with the story of how it was made and why it was made that year… because it was not a normal kind of Strat.”

On August 27 of that year, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble played as support act to Eric Clapton at the Alpine Valley Music Theater in Wisconsin. The show climaxed with an all-star jam. Shortly after, Stevie joined three members of Clapton’s entourage in a helicopter bound for Chicago. In foggy conditions, the helicopter crashed half a mile from its take-off point, killing all onboard.

As Chris Layton solemnly recalls, “The night he died, we spoke for an hour about what was next. Stevie said that he and Jimmie were going to do some stuff to promote the Family Style record, and then he said, ‘I’m really excited because once we’re done with that, I’ve got a bunch of ideas that, I hope I don’t freak you out – but I’m hearing strings and brass and a whole different bunch of shit compared to what we’ve done in the past!’

“He was really jazzed about it and wanted us to be, too. These were just ideas pouring out of him and I couldn’t wait to hear them. Then he got on that helicopter and took off. I think that’s the best insight of knowing where he was going… and the future that never happened.”

Chris has so many great memories from the years he spent with Stevie. What he remembers most of all is a man who lived for playing guitar. “Stevie had a guitar in his hand most of the time,” he says. “He’d always be sat there playing away, but not rehearsing or anything. He was just always strumming that guitar. That’s what was amazingly pure about him. Playing guitar was his life.”

Many guitarists spend hours navigating different string gauges in the quest for the perfect tone. In John Mayer's eyes, however, there are only a few factors you should really pay attention to.

The 'thicker strings equals thicker tone' debate is a popular topic among players, with some believing that a heavier string gauge can give way to meatier, beefier tones. The trade off, of course, is that thicker strings are harder to play.

But, speaking to Guitar World in 2010, Mayer dismissed such talk, saying that “the argument about string gauges is about the silliest thing a guitarist can engage in.”

“Maybe you get a better tone from bigger strings,” he conceded, “but if you can’t bend up to the note, what’s tone anyway? Hendrix probably had .010s, so it’s whatever you can bend.”

In other words, what's the point of picking heavier strings if you can't cope with them? Prioritize playability and the tone will follow.

His observation came during a discussion of Stevie Ray Vaughan, who famously opted for heavier strings. SRV played with a custom 0.13–0.58 set, tuned to Eb, which led many players to think that alone was the secret sauce.

That’s one of the reasons why Mayer feels Stevie Ray Vaughan has “the most misunderstood tone around.”

“Everybody thinks you get a Tube Screamer, you turn the distortion all the way up, and you turn the level as loud as it goes before you get yelled at,” he said. “But his sound wasn’t about gain – the gain was in his hands. It was in the muscular, atom-bomb left hand, which made it sound loud.

“It was loud, but it wasn’t distorted. When people try to play Texas Flood through distortion, it sounds awful. Stevie primarily used the amp’s volume [he played through edge-of-breakup Dumbles] and a distortion pedal as a boost. Then he just whipped the hell out of the strings to get that sound.”

Mayer’s argument is that the relationship between the fatness of the strings and the tone is not necessarily symbiotic, especially if it comes at the expense of how much movement you can get out of your bends.

That’s why his signature Ernie Ball string set is considerably thinner than SRV’s go-to, albeit coming in a little fatter than standard gauge strings at 10.5-47. They are, he reckons, the perfect Strat strings.

“The tension is exactly where I’ve always wanted it,” Mayer said of his signature Silver Slinky strings in 2024. “[They’re] big enough to get great tone, but nimble enough to finesse those vocal bends we as guitar players are always going for.”

So, yes, while he does seem to nod to the fact that thicker strings can contribute to a thicker tone, both his words and his gear reflect a belief that the quest for a beefy tone is far more multifaceted than most give credit for.

This is his sweet spot, but it must co-exist with everything else in his rig, and his personal playing style, too.

Other players prioritise playability alone. B.B. King famously used light string gauges to make bending easier, and Billy Gibbons ended up following suit after meeting the blues legend.

Rhys John Stygal, the teenage blues sensation who’s been hailed as the next Stevie Ray Vaughan, is appealing for help after his Number One electric guitar and pedalboard were stolen.

Joe Bonamassa helped the cause, asking fans and followers to keep an eye out for Stygal’s gear, which went missing in Austin, Texas. Jared James Nichols and Kenny Wayne Shepherd have all also shared Stygal’s plea on their own platforms.

“With an absolutely broken heart I need to let you all know that my Number One and my pedal board were stolen in Austin,” Stygal wrote on an Instagram post yesterday (June 17). “The police are aware and Nico [Little, whose band Stygal plays in] is doing his best to search every possible place in Austin while I am in Mississippi.”

Stygal’s Number One is a Three-Color Sunburst Fender Stevie Ray Vaughan Stratocaster. Distinctive marks include Buddy Guy’s signature on the headstock, ‘RJS’ stickers on the pickguard, tape around the middle pickup, and its mismatched bridge saddles.

It also has a picture of SRV behind the bridge springs, a ‘Don’t Mess With Texas’ sticker on the back, and plenty of natural wear and tear on the body finish and neck.

Stygal’s pedalboard, meanwhile, comprises a Boss TU-3, Pedal Pawn Fuzz, Ruby Red Sparkle 40th Anniversary Ibanez TS808, MXR Loop Selector, and Walrus Audio Monuments.

Stygal has previously opened up on how the guitar changed his life, helping him overcome extreme anxiety brought about by his autism. His Number One guitar has been by his side for his whole journey.

“My Number One saved me from my own dark days,” he says. “There are 1000s of hours on that guitar, I learnt everything on it, please could I ask you all to share my post to help find it and get it home.

“I’d be forever grateful, I’ll update this post with all the information of my stolen things as soon as I can.”

In his own post, Bonamassa wrote, “Hey folks.. Let's be on the lookout for Rhys' guitar and pedal board that was stolen yesterday in Austin Texas. Rhys is an incredible guitarist from the UK and a world class bloke to boot.”

Steve Lukather, Gary Clark Jr., Susan Tedeschi and Tomo Fujita have all offered their support to Stygal. A GoFundMe page, which will raise funds for a reward or to replace the stolen gear, has been set up. $1,838 has been raised at the time of writing.

Anyone with information is being asked to email info@elmorepedals.com, or contact Stygal privately. A reward of $1,500 has been offered for the guitar’s return.

Stygal burst on to the scene as a 16-year-old, amassing a huge following thanks to monstrous blues chops that channeled prime SRV.

Visit the GoFundMe page and Rhys John Stygal’s Instagram page for more.

Ace Frehley’s legendary 1975 Gibson Les Paul is headed to auction and is expected to sell for as much as $600,000.

Julien's Auctions has helped sell some truly historic instruments over past few years, including David Lynch's Parker Fly, Bob Dylan and Robbie Robertson's heavily-modded 1965 Telecaster, and some weird and wonderful guitars from Joe Walsh's collection.

The auction house will be at it again in late May, with instruments from Stevie Ray Vaughan and Kirk Hammett also set for new homes. But it's the late Kiss guitarist's workhorse LP that stands as the centrepiece.

It’s being dubbed by Julien's as “one of the most historically significant guitars in rock and roll”. It was by Frehley’s side from the start of his career and was his go-to for the studio and stage, accompanying him more than any other electric guitar in his arsenal over his Kiss tenure.

The guitar, which sports a triple threat of humbuckers, shows signs of its busy life, particularly above the bridge, where its burst finish has been worn away by Frehley's forearm.

The $600k estimate is a reflection of the guitar's prestige. It is, however, a drop in the ocean compared to the $1,315,708 (£1,068,500) Jeff Beck's Oxblood Les Paul – the world's most expensive Les Paul – that was sold last year.

Other notable axes set to be sold at the upcoming auction include the 1969 Guild F-412 12-string that Stevie Ray Vaughan played on MTV Unplugged; Billy Duffy’s 1976 Les Paul, as featured on the cover of the Cult’s Sonic Temple; and Hammett’s very first Ouija ESP custom guitar, which was his main touring and recording tool throughout the 1990s.

The 1987 Gibson HR Fusion 1 that Izzy Stradlin wielded in the Welcome to the Jungle music video is also included in Julien's 800-item collection.

Highlight pieces are set to tour at three Hard Rock Cafe locations, starting at Piccadilly Circus, London, today (March 25) and running until April 13, before traveling to Tokyo, Japan, from April 27. Other items will be displayed at Times Square between May 13 and 30.

The auction itself takes place May 29-30.

Visit Julien’s Auctions for more information.

Following his passing, a host of guitar stars, including Tom Morello, Justin Hawkins, and John 5, have paid tribute to the Ace Frehley.

In the world of extended chords, this is as far as we can go. Chords at this end of the spectrum frequently deviate from their strict theoretical definitions in the real world.

An extended chord goes beyond the major (or minor) triad, on to the 7th (or flat/dominant 7th) then 9th, 11th and 13th. In theory, all of these would be present in ascending scale order, but in practice this can lead to some dense, even dissonant, chords. There’s also the issue of playing a seven-note chord on an instrument with six strings...

In the examples below, I attempt to demystify some of the theoretical terms and demonstrate strategies enabling us to play beautiful-sounding 13th chords.

When choosing which notes to omit, the 5th is usually high on the list. In the case of 13th chords, the 11th is very often omitted, too, which is nice for us guitarists because that’s one less note to go searching or stretching for...

Example 1. G13

This G13 omits the 5th (D) and the 11th (C), leaving us with, in ascending order, the Root-b7th-3rd-13th-9th (G-F-B-E-A).

The fifth string is muted, which can make simultaneously playing all the notes tricky, unless you use your picking-hand fingers like Joe Pass (or leave it to the bass player!).

Example 2. G13(b9)

By flattening the 9th at the top of our G13 chord from Example 1, we get a G13(b9). Altered chords such as this are often used to create a ‘tension and release’ effect, resolving to somewhere more harmonious, such as a Cmaj9 or G/C.

In a film soundtrack context, composers often create tension by not resolving chords like this.

Example 3. C13

This C13 gives us a slightly different flavour by featuring the 11th, though we do omit the 3rd (E) and the 5th (G), for practical as well as harmonic reasons.

We are left with Root-11th-b7th-9th-13th (C-F-Bb-D-A) in ascending order. Like all the other examples, this shape is movable to any key.

Example 4. Gm13

This Gm13 consists of Root-5th-b7th-b3rd-13th-9th (G-D-F-Bb-E-A) in ascending order. As with all the examples, it’s not possible to feature all the notes in ascending scale order, and this isn’t necessarily desirable anyway.

The inclusion of the 5th is unusual and completely optional. In a band situation, you may well find yourself omitting the Root and 5th.

Example 5. Emaj13

This Emaj13 takes part of its name from the major 7th it features – a regular E13 features a flat/dominant 7th.

In ascending order, we have Root-3rd-maj7-3rd (again)- 13th (E-G#-D#-G#-C#). We omit the 5th (B), the 9th (F#) and the 11th (A), but what’s left holds up very well – good enough for SRV in Lenny!

• This article first appeared in Guitarist. Subscribe and save.

When Bernard Allison started playing blues guitar, he found himself in a familial atmosphere. “Back then, the blues field was especially tight-knit,” he tells Guitar World. “It was different from the battles you hear about from when my dad grew up, with the west side versus the south side.”

He’d been playing for two years before his guitar legend father, Luther Allison, found out he’d even picked up an instrument. Along with family friends Albert King, Johnny Winter and Stevie Ray Vaughan, Luther encouraged Bernard to be himself.

“Stevie, Albert and my dad all said the same thing: ‘You got all the licks. Don’t copy anyone else. Your heart, your feelings; every person’s different. Be true to who you are.’ And that’s how it unfolded for me.”

At 18, Bernard was asked by Koko Taylor to join her band. By his mid-20s, he’d progressed to the point where his dad didn’t just ask him to join his band but to be the band’s leader. “It’s hard to describe the feeling of being up there with your father,” Allison says.

“He was one of the creators. To receive his trust, and for him to allow me to be next to him, open the show, and even arrange his music – nothing gets better than that.”

Since Luther’s death in 1997, Bernard has led a distinguished solo career. Now 60, he isn’t slowing down. “I’m blessed to stay healthy, and I’m grateful that I can still go out and do what I love to do,” he says. “I just want to play music and put smiles on people’s faces. And we definitely need it during these hard times.”

Did your dad inspire you to pick up the guitar?

I actually started playing on my own. I was listening to his recordings and I started playing two years before he knew. He was home to make a record and caught me playing guitar! I’d wanted to be able to play his first album totally before letting him know I was interested in playing music at all.

What did he think of what he heard?

He was like, “Well, if you’re playing like that, you didn’t just start!” It came as a shock to him!

He introduced you to Muddy Waters, Albert King and Hound Dog Taylor. What was that like?

They were my dad’s friends, and you just never knew who’d come to our house. We knew who they were as kids. All those influences and stories, listening to them jam with my father, impacted me. I studied a lot of my dad’s idols. It helped me get an idea of what direction I wanted to follow.

Did your dad’s friends offer you advice?

The biggest thing was from Albert King. When I was in Koko Taylor’s band we toured with Albert. He’d take me aside and explain things to me. He said, “The biggest thing about music is you can’t play what people want you to play.” My dad said that, too.

Albert said, ‘If you want to be a follower, become a rhythm player. But if you’re gonna be a leader, you have to sing and play guitar.” My dad was really keen on that, saying, “You have to be a leader. I don’t want you to be a follower. Stick to being Bernard Allison.”

You joined your dad on stage at the Chicago Blues Festival in 1983.

That was pretty crazy. I’d never been on a big festival stage. He’d bring us to clubs and smaller things to get me to play a couple of songs, but the festival was pretty mind-blowing. I’d been taking one step up the ladder at a time, trying to have patience and following my head to study music.

What led to your joining Koko Taylor’s band when you were 18?

Literally two days out of high school graduation, I got the call. It comes back to the relationship Koko had with my mom and dad. I think they discussed it – I was never told directly, but I kind of figured it out. They wanted to give me a chance to see if I was serious. They said to Koko, “Show him the rules of the road. See if he’s serious about it.”

Your dad had given you a Strat by then. Was that what you were using with Koko?

Yeah – it was a ’79 anniversary Strat. I had a Music Man amplifier, but Koko didn’t allow us to use effects pedals. She called everything a “wah wah!” If she heard a chorus or anything like that, she wouldn’t let us use it.

She came in the old-school way under Willie Dixon, and they didn’t use effects back then. She could play a little guitar herself, and the natural sound was what she considered true blues. There was no reverb, or anything. If she heard it she’d freak out!

You got to know Johnny Winter while you were with Koko.

I remember Johnny and Edgar coming to visit my father as kids. My brother and I were actually afraid of them because we’d never seen albinos before! But I’d always been a fan of Johnny.

When I was a sophomore in high school, my dad took me to Rochester, New York. We were on stage, and I saw this big flash of light in the crowd. My dad was like, “I’m gonna invite a friend up to play.” It was Johnny Winter! I stuck to my corner and wouldn’t even look at him. I could hear him, and he was trying to pass it back to me, and I’d play a little, but that was a real experience for me.

Once I was with Koko we did a package tour with Johnny. Every day he’d bring me on his tour bus. He showed me how to play slide guitar and use drop D, open E and open D tunings. Once he showed me that, everything made sense.

Through your dad, you also got to know and play with Stevie Ray Vaughan.

When I was no more than eight, my dad took us to New Orleans. I remember seeing this kid onstage who I thought sounded like Albert King. That was Stevie. Then he was in my hometown, Peoria, playing a show at Illinois State University. I was supposed to open that show, but they removed us, and we ended up doing the grand opening of a blues club called Duffy’s Tavern.

So Stevie contacted my mother and said, “Don’t tell Bernard, but we’re gonna surprise him for his birthday.” We’re on stage at this new club and it’s my first major gig. The place is jam-packed and the owner runs up and says, “You have to stop!” I was assuming we were fired, or playing too loud!

As I’m walking toward the dressing room I see this bus, and I’m like, “What’s a tour bus doing in Peoria Heights?” I get to the dressing room, and there were Stevie and Double Trouble. He said, “Happy birthday! You ready to play?”

There was no way to get Stevie through that crowd. They had this little door on the side of the stage, and that's where Stevie and the band snuck in without people realizing it. The only giveaway was the white tail feather in his hat! The place just went crazy. And that was my 16th birthday, where I got to share the stage with Stevie and Double Trouble.

After touring with Koko for several years, you became your dad’s bandleader in 1989. His band backed you up on your solo debut, The Next Generation, a year later.

That had always been a dream. He didn’t realize how much I’d progressed while I was with Koko. I’d learned how to actually be a rhythm player, as opposed to just jumping out and playing solos. I’d learned how to support someone.

When he invited me to record his live album in ’89, the plan was for me to play on the record and go back home. But then he was like, “No, I want you to stay on the tour.” He really started digging what I was playing. And he was really shocked by what I knew.

I wasn’t trying to step on him, just trying to push him, ‘cause he loved to push, and I knew exactly the spots to do it. And it gave him freedom, where he didn’t have to come to rehearsals every day. He’d send me with the band, and I’d share the rehearsal tapes with him. He could get the rest he needed to do all the dates.

It was like a dream come true. And then I taught him how to open-tune his guitar and play slide, just as Johnny Winter had taught me. You can hear it on his last three albums. Once I showed him that, he was just ripping slides everywhere!

It was kind of me giving back. And he was my biggest fan; he liked music, and I got a chance to arrange Soul Fixin’ Man, his comeback record. I was on my first major tour with my own group, so I couldn’t make the recording. I said, “Dad, this is another appreciation from me. Take these arrangements and go do your thing.”

From there, he took off Stateside and followed it up with three more albums. That’s when everybody was like, “We got a new king of the blues!” I was like, “My dad’s been around for years!” But I got what they were trying to say – and that was a new highlight for me.

Where does your rig stand today?

I have quite a few of Dad’s guitars. He was endorsed by Gibson. Before he passed, he wrote down a list and said he didn’t want his guitars going into the halls of fame; he wanted them to be played. I distributed at least 40 Gibsons to various artists and kept his main guitars for myself.

I’d been using a Mesa/Boogie for almost 12 years, but I wanted to change my sound, so I started using a Fender Hot Rod III. I pair that with DB Mark 212 and an Eric Gales Raw Dawg head. So I have a clean sound on one side, and if I want dirty, I have the Hot Rod. And for pedals, I use AnalogMan.

What’s next for you?

We’re heading back to Europe in March for a tour. Then we come home to record my next album. We may have it out later in 2026, but I’m thinking we’re going to release it in the first quarter of 2027.

• Catch Bernard Allison on tour.

Bernard Allison grew up the son of blues royalty, but made his own bones as a player – practicing for years before he revealed to his father, Luther Allison, that he could play.

Luther was, of course, a blues veteran and a contemporary of everyone from Howlin’ Wolf to Muddy Waters and Albert King. The apple didn’t fall far from the tree for Bernard – and growing up in the Allison household proved to be an education.

“When I was really young, no more than eight, my dad took us to New Orleans,” Bernard Allison remembers in a new interview with Guitar World. “I remember seeing this kid onstage, and I thought, ‘Wow, this guy sounds like Albert King…’ That was Stevie.”

Eight years on, Allison Jr. would go from admirer to peer, after a defeat turned into a victory like no other. As Allison explains, he was offered the chance to play support at SRV’s show at Illinois State University, but it didn’t work out.

“They removed us [from the show], and we ended up doing a grand opening at a blues club called Duffy’s Tavern [in the village of Peoria Heights, IL., instead],” he adds. “We accepted that.”

The gig coincided with his 16th birthday, meaning he couldn’t legally enjoy a glass of champagne to celebrate the venue’s opening or his big day – but a better gift lay ahead.

“So, it’s a grand opening, and my first major gig opening this new club. We’re on stage, and the place is jam-packed,” Allison says. “The owner runs up to us and says, ‘You have to stop…’ I was assuming we were fired, or playing too loud, you know?” [laughs]

“As I’m walking toward the dressing room, I see this bus go by, and I’m like, ‘What is this tour bus doing in Peoria Heights?’ I got to the dressing room, and there were Stevie and Double Trouble. He looked at me and said, ‘Happy birthday. You ready to play now?’

“They had to figure out how to get him on the stage because there was no way to get him through that crowd.”

Thankfully, the new venue had a work around for avoiding the inevitable mob at the sight of SRV. But he didn’t help himself.

“They had this little door, like a small cubby on the side of the stage, and that's where Stevie and the band snuck in without people realizing it,” Bernard explains. “The only giveaway was the white feather tail in his hat… but the place just went crazy. That was my 16th birthday, when I got to share the stage with Stevie and Double Trouble.”

Last year, The Outlaws' Henry Paul has recalled touring with a sober Stevie Ray Vaughan, dubbing him “a freak of nature.”

Now in his mid-60s, Larry McCray’s career has taken him all the way from new kid on the block to elder statesman of the blues.

With mentors such as Albert King, Buddy Guy and Albert Collins, McCray was schooled in the art of pentatonic conversation like few others and learned how to make his guitar speak as profoundly as any human voice.

This year the Michigan-based musician is back with new album, Heartbreak City, which was produced by Joe Bonamassa and Josh Smith and features a host of special guests including the producers themselves, along with Kirk Fletcher and Double Trouble keyboardist Reese Wynans.

This is a very uplifting record that crosses over into lots of areas of the blues.

That’s the intention. Whenever I’m asked what kind of music I play, I usually say I play ‘feel-good music’. I like to sing songs that are soothing in any kind of situation. I always felt that blues was broader than how it was depicted. Whenever I meet people who don’t have the same appreciation for it, I realise they haven’t discovered the right presentation of it.

The opening track, Try To Be A Good Man, kicks everything with some Albert King-inspired lines that really wail.

He was one of my biggest mentors. I loved Albert King. He would notice if you were trying to be good. You always had to show a bit of respect to Albert because that’s just what he was like.

He’d come around saying stuff like, ‘Hey boy, what you playing? Quit doing all that skipping and gimme something from the gut!’ like an antagonistic coach [laughs]. I’m lucky I got to meet people like him, BB and Koko Taylor. They made me fall in love with music in the first place. I used to be the youngest of all these players and now I’m the fuckin’ oldest!

The title track is a G minor blues that runs seven-and-a-half minutes long. What’s the secret to holding people’s attention like that?

It’s because I’ve listened to a lot over the years and incorporate other elements into my sound. Being a teenager in the ’70s, I was a big funk fan, listening to Larry Graham and Louis Johnson.

Then I left Arkansas and moved to Michigan and got exposed to heavy metal. I ended up becoming a big Def Leppard and Judas Priest fan. My criticism of blues at the time was that everybody was going for the post-war or Delta acoustic sound. Nobody was trying to take things to the next level, which is something I’ve always strived for.

You’re holding a Guild electric on the cover. Is that what we’re hearing?

That’s the one. It’s a Polara S-100 reissue with push-pull switches to split the coils. It’s a great-playing guitar, man. I wrote them a letter this morning trying to see if they would endorse me.

Because I love guitars like the Bluesbird, which is a bit like a Les Paul, and the X-175, which is reminiscent of the ES-175. The tones you hear are incredible.

I think Guild guitars sound in between a Fender and a Gibson. They are brighter than Gibsons, but still have the low-end punch of a humbucker. I’ve played Gibson my whole career – now I want something different.

And what were you plugging into?

I played through Joe’s rig. He has a nice collection of Dumble amplifiers. It was a little combo that was about the size of a Princeton, with a really warm tone. I plugged into Joe’s MXR FET Driver and a Klon clone. I have a real Klon, but I don’t take it anywhere because it’s worth so much. Effects are great, but the more you have, the more things can go wrong.

It’s amazing how lyrical your solos can be, almost most like a voice at times.

I use vocals for inspiration. I’m a baritone singer; I can only go so high, so I use my guitar to visit places I can’t with my voice. It’s like I’m singing through the guitar. I forced myself to learn all five pentatonic positions. Most people only tend to play in the 1st and 2nd [positions].

The best key to learn in is A minor: you can start with a G note on the 3rd fret and then climb into the 1st position, moving up the neck horizontally. You can mix minor with major for a blend.

You can transfer this knowledge to any key and find melodies naturally. We all know how the pentatonic scale sounds. It’s such a big part of the guitar, so it’s important to know how to play it across the neck.

Beyond that, what’s the secret to a good blues solo?

When I start playing, it’s usually with a slow bluesy lick. The second time I come around, I might throw in something a little jazzy. The third time, I might be all-out rocking and then the final pass is bringing it all back home.

It’s good to change it up. Try not to think in the same vein, whether it’s how you attack the notes, what notes you play or the rhythm. You have to tell your truth. As long as you’re speaking your truth and playing from the heart, people will listen.

This is your second time working with Joe. What have you learned from him?

I learned I’ll never be able to play like him and it’s best to stick to what I know. Joe is a one-in-a-million kind of player. He’s a special talent, and the same goes for Josh Smith, who wrote Bright Side and the title track. Even though I can’t play like Joe, I still use him for inspiration.

I have good dexterity for moments that call for me to play fast and step outside of the box. It was fun jamming together on the track I Know What I’ve Done. It reminds you to stay humble and be as good as you can be. Music isn’t a competition against other players. It’s a competition against yourself.

It really is an all-star cast on this album, especially with Reese Wynans involved.

I loved talking to Reese about his time with Stevie [Ray Vaughan], who I never got to hang with. The night he died, I was at Buddy Guy’s Legends club [in Chicago] waiting for Buddy, Stevie and Clapton because there was a rumour they were about to come and jam. All these musicians were waiting to see them.

Then we were told they’d all gone down. You’ll never see a house full of people get so quiet, it was pin-drop silence, and eventually we found out Buddy and Eric were okay. It was a terrible thing. I’ll never forget that day.

You’ve seen this kind of music rise and fall numerous times over the years. Where does the blues stand in 2025?

There are some great people trying to keep the blues alive. My biggest criticism is that the format seems to have changed. When we were coming up, there was always a structure; you’d know where the changes are. Nowadays, young people just change when they want to.

I know I’m getting older because I sound like my dad! I’m just happy there are people interested enough to preserve it. I love Christone ‘Kingfish’ Ingram. I have a 25-year-old son who’s a better singer and guitarist than me, so I have high hopes for him. And there’s another great young man in Arkansas called Josh Parks. He’s one to watch.

• Heartbreak City is out now via KTBA.
• This article first appeared in Guitarist. Subscribe and save.

Larry McCray's remarkable list of mentors is chock-full of blues heavyweights, Albert King, Buddy Guy, and Albert Collins, to name a mere few.

In his new album, Heartbreak City, the elder statesman of the blues’ talents are on full display – boosted by Joe Bonamassa and Josh Smith in the production chair, and guest features by the likes of Kirk Fletcher and Double Trouble keyboardist Reese Wynans.

“I loved talking to Reese about his time with Stevie [Ray Vaughan], who I never got to hang with,” McCray tells Guitarist.

Indeed, the blues veteran was in Chicago, eagerly awaiting the famous Strat wielder’s rumored surprise appearance on the night the guitar and blues worlds were left reeling by Vaughan’s death.

“The night he died, I was at Buddy Guy’s Legends club [in Chicago] waiting for Buddy, Stevie, and Clapton because there was a rumor they were about to come and jam,” he recalls.

“All these musicians were waiting to see them. Then we were told they’d all gone down. You’ll never see a house full of people get so quiet, it was pin-drop silence, and eventually we found out Buddy and Eric were okay.

“It was a terrible thing,” he says solemnly. “I’ll never forget that day.”

Vaughan was 35 when he passed away in a helicopter crash outside East Troy, Wisconsin, on August 27, 1990. That evening, the guitarist and his band, Double Trouble, performed at Alpine Valley Music Theater – alongside Buddy Guy, Eric Clapton, Robert Cray, and Vaughan's older brother, Jimmie.

For more from McCray, plus new interviews with Keith Urban and Steve Stevens, pick up issue 532 of Guitarist.

While scales are great for getting your fingers and brain in shape to play single-note solos and melodies, there are situations in which a knowledge of the chords you’re working with is a big advantage. One good example of this is the trio format, where you might only have bass and drums for support.

There is a limit to how much a bass guitar can convey harmonic details (such as a major or minor chord) without forfeiting its main function of keeping a consistent low-end, so it’s down to the guitar in this context to provide more harmonic and melodic content.

A single-note solo played over just bass and drums runs the risk of sounding a bit empty and lacking in musicality after a while. The solution is to include some chord tones, fragments or arpeggios to help outline the harmony for your listeners.

This isn’t as daunting as it sounds. The key is being able to find the triads around the fretboard, then embellishing them. It’s surprising how little it takes to transform a chord accompaniment into a ‘featured’ part.

If you break down the beginning of Little Wing by Jimi Hendrix, you’ll see that’s basically what he’s doing. Larry Carlton takes triads and superimposes them over different chords to create a complex, layered harmony. You can also break the triads into arpeggios and spell them out a note at a time.

This does sound like a lot to absorb, but these four examples are designed to give you some ideas to try covering each of these areas. You don’t need to become a music theory genius to use triads in this way – just find a few go-to ideas and build from there using trial and error. Hope you enjoy and see you next time!

Example 1

The root notes played by the bass in this first example are A, D then back to A. Upon this foundation, I’m starting with an A7 triad but then taking a boogie-woogie piano-style movement to D, G and C triads where the bass is playing D.

This gives a sense of movement and harmony, without clashing with the root on the bass. Bar 3 takes a similar approach by superimposing the triads of Gsus2, D and A. It’s probably a good idea to treat this as a ‘lick’, rather than examine the chord/scale relationships too much.

Example 2

Having established some harmony with all those triads, this example starts with a short ascending chromatic run, leading to a single-note line based around a Dadd9 arpeggio in bar 1, which then turns into a melodic lick based on that same pattern.

Bar 3 resolves back to A, with the guitar following suit, starting with a slide up to C#. The final lick is another piano-style idea, based around D major, but it could also be viewed as part of the A minor pentatonic scale, adding a brief Eb (b5) and a staccato C natural for a bluesy feel.

Example 3

After a brief pick-up, these descending 6th chords are reminiscent of a lap steel but are played more aggressively. Shifting down chromatically from E6 down to C6, these triads are superimposed over the E and D notes from the bass.

The beginning of bar 3 features the arpeggiated triads of A and G major. The beginning of what would be another A major triad is interrupted by the short, sharp G6 and A6 chords, then finishing with D-Eb-E in another chromatic run.

Example 4

Here’s an alternative take on Example 1. The repeated triad triplets are a classic blues device, staying static for the whole of bar 1, then shifting to D for bar 2 and relenting slightly – a small detail, but this is the stuff that gives a good feel and avoids too much repetition.

Bar 3 gets things moving with A7, D, A and D6 arpeggios superimposed over the A on the bass. The final bar is similar to how we came in on Example 1. The grace notes and staccato hits are an important part of the feel but allow a bit of looseness, rather than trying to be too exact.

Hear it here

Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble – Texas Flood

SRV manages to fill a lot of space – both harmonically and sonically. Check out his playing on Texas Flood, which establishes a strong sense of the harmony before breaking out into single notes. In fact, the whole of the Texas Flood album is a masterclass on how to play blues guitar in a trio format.

Beyond this album, Cold Shot demonstrates how chordal accompaniment and a riff with fills can be one and the same thing. Finally, listen to how he integrates chords, doublestops and solo lines on Lenny.

Kirk Fletcher – Heartache By The Pound

As well as his own solo career, Kirk has worked with Charlie Musselwhite, The Fabulous Thunderbirds and Joe Bonamassa. He’s comfortable both as a soloist and accompanist, who clearly knows his chords and triads back to front.

Check out his playing on Afraid To Die, Too Scared To Live from Heartache By The Pound to hear him mixing triads and self-assured single‑note lines. Elsewhere, try Ain’t No Cure For The Downhearted and Love Is More Than A Word, both from the 2020 My Blues Pathway album.

Jimi Hendrix – Axis: Bold as Love

Jimi is a renowned master of creating sophisticated harmonic textures in a trio format. Have another listen to Little Wing on Axis: Bold As Love, and then The Wind Cries Mary and Have You Ever Been (To Electric Ladyland) elsewhere.

Admittedly, there seem to be a couple of layers going on here, but plenty happening in terms of superimposed triads, doublestops and embellished arpeggiated chords. Don’t stop at these three tracks – there’s a wealth of ideas on the original studio albums, and be sure to check out the live recordings, too.

• This article first appeared in Guitarist. Subscribe and save.

When we think of guitarists with the name Guthrie, two probably come to mind first – English fusion virtuoso Guthrie Govan, and Nobels ODR-1-toting Nashville session ace Guthrie Trapp, who’s worked with everyone from Dolly Parton and John Oates to Alison Krauss and Garth Brooks.

“I haven’t really listened to the other Guthrie, to be honest!” laughs Trapp. “I guess we live in different worlds and come from different backgrounds. But I do know he’s a very respected player.”

Having grown up in a bluegrass household with very little Top 40 music, and benefiting from the guidance of his musician uncle Jerry, Trapp was molded from a young age. And while the 46 year-old is often typecast as a country player, he points out that, to have a longstanding and meaningful career in music, you need to think a lot broader.

This is well documented in his ArtistWorks School course, The Guitar Styles of Guthrie Trapp, which was recently relaunched. It’s a roundup of the most important things he’s learned, with tips and guidance on how to navigate through all kinds of musical situations.

“I don’t consider myself a country player,” he tells Guitar World. “I played in a country band with Don Kelley about 25 years ago, and I got pigeonholed. I’ve been trying to get away from that ever since! I just like music, you know?

“Of course, American roots music, bluegrass and traditional blues is important to me. I didn’t really idolize the big rock guitar players because I didn’t know any of them.”

Did any big rock guitarists that impress you later on?

Mark Knopfler was a favorite because his lines spoke to me. I’m not a diehard Pink Floyd fan, but I’ve always loved David Gilmour’s playing. Fast chops are impressive when you’re young, but that stuff doesn’t last. What does last is songs and melodies. Shredding is amazing but nobody can do that forever. Your hands will slow down, so you better learn how to play melodically.

Your approach is less singular and more contextual to the music situation.

It’s good to have speak different languages. If all you want to do is sound like Stevie Ray Vaughan, you’re kinda fucked. There was only one of him and he did it better than anyone else.

The same goes for Eric Johnson or B.B. King. But honestly, I couldn’t care less about guitar players. I’ve kinda heard it all at this point, you know?

From an alternate picking perspective, country guitar is one of the hardest styles out there. How did you develop those techniques?

If you play those lines sloppy, it won’t work. The whole down/up thing came from the flatpickers. For the younger crowd who might not know Tony Rice and David Grier, I’d say Billy Strings is doing that right now.

You have to alternate-pick those lines because they’re from fiddle tunes. And 99 percent of everything should come from your ear. If you just focus on theory without knowing how to make music, it’s like a chef who can chop perfectly but can’t actually cook.

At this point I like to zoom out and wonder, “Why are we doing any of this? What’s the point of pedals or theory?” I find the “why” gets diluted by the “how.” The goal should be to write a song, record it and let others enjoy it.

You usually stick with boutique T-style guitars made by companies like Floyd and Russ Pahl, going into vintage Fender amps via a Nobels ODR-1, or your signature JTO pedal made by J. Rockett Audio.

Here in Nashville we all love the original Nobels pedals, which sound better than the reissues. They’ve shot up in price – I used to get them for $100 and Uncle Larry [aka Tom Bukovac] would pick them up for $30. Now they’re upwards of $1,500.

After playing it for 20 years, the Floyd guitar’s done. I had it refretted a while ago and it got weird. I gave the Russ Pahl guitar back because I wasn’t using it. I’ve moved on to this Dan Strain Danocaster that Uncle Larry sold me. Then there’s this 1969 335. Now that’s a good guitar.

So you’re pretty minimalist when it comes to gear?

I don’t have many electrics. There’s a Gretsch that Zac Brown gave me that I don’t use much. I’ve probably got the smallest collection out of any working musician in Nashville! I don’t own a Strat, Les Paul or anything with P-90s.

I have everything I need. You’ll never hear me do anything high gain unless I’m told to. The Nobels works great through my 1966 Fender Pro Reverb. I don’t even use my signature overdrive anymore.”

What else is on your pedalboard?

There’s my Boss tuner and Xotic RC Booster. Then I go into the Nobels, a tremolo, a Strymon Brigadier delay and a Strymon Lex. There’s also a Strymon Cloudburst synth reverb for intros. I love my EarthQuaker Dispatch Master, which is a delay and reverb.

I just got a Tomkat Super Day Dreamer which is another badass delay and reverb. I’m a big fan of having both together – it creates this cool ambient world.

I’m not into any digital things with memory banks where you need to program a bunch of shit. I’m old school! There are no amp modelers with me – none of that garbage.

Have you ever tried one?

I did play through a Fractal or Kemper once. I flew in and had to go straight to this stadium to play the kickoff riff. They supplied all the gear, including the guitar.

I plugged it into this box and realized that if you try to play with dynamics, the thing will stop tracking. It wanted signal the whole time, which felt like insanity to me.

But I saw Mark Knopfler twice on his last tour; he was using digital modelers and sounded so fuckin’ incredible, I was in tears. Of course his tech had it all dialed in. Uncle Larry once told me that good tone is heavy. When you pick up an amp with a proper transformer and good speakers, it’s not going to be light.

Billy Gibbons is a fan of your playing. How did you meet?

I met him at Todd Sharp’s amp shop eight years ago. During Covid I got an email from him – I thought I’d ended up on his newsletter by accident! But he wanted me to be a special guest for his lifetime achievement award at the Ole Opry House.

The email had been sent six days before. I thought I’d blown it! I replied immediately and we had a call soon after. He said he’d been checking me out and wanted to jam.

What did you learn about him?

He’s every bit as cool as he looks, if not 10,000 times cooler! He’s one of the most generous people I’ve ever met – always sending me crazy shit like hot sauce, knives, dice and pedals. He’ll chat to and take photos with every single person he meets.

We went to the grocery store once and he ended up talking to this woman for 45 minutes about tamales. She was in tears, being such a huge fan. There’s only one Billy Gibbons walking the planet. He’s less about music and more about humanity.

How important is theory for a career as a session guitarist?

I avoid a lot of that stuff. I don’t look at this as a day job. I’m not a big fan of that “this is my office today” mentality. It isn’t about clocking in and out. I don’t play for anybody, but I do play with a lot of great people. It’s about having dignity.

You have to own your shit to get anywhere. The only originality we have left in this world of AI is ourselves. I tell young people to get themselves out there in an authentic way. The only thing you have left that’s original is your story.

You released an album called In Stereo with Tom Bukovac last year. What did you bring out of each other?

It was original because we were only making music for ourselves. We’d occasionally walk into a $2,000-a-day studio with zero ideas, so we’d grab some acoustics and start playing. That’s fresh creativity.

I don’t want to play another train beat or blues shuffle in A. Don’t regurgitate the same old shit that’s been beaten to death. I don’t want to pay homage to country and blues; that’s been done. I respect those styles enough to leave them alone.

Remember that the guitar neck is a super-conducting lightning rod for building relationships that could change your life. That’s the bigger picture with this shit. It’s not about how tall the frets are on your Telecaster.

Music is a language. Think like that and you’ll be better off than anyone who only knows how to shred through A minor pentatonic.

• The Guitar Styles of Guthrie Trapp is available now at ArtistWorks.

One of Fender Custom Shop’s leading Masterbuilders has shared his theory as to why some of the most legendary Fender guitars of all time are so heavily worn.

In guitardom, there are few sights more iconic than a battered and bruised Fender. Rory Gallagher’s legendary 1961 Stratocaster – which sold earlier this year for more than $1,000,000 – was stripped bare through wear. Stevie Ray Vaughan’s Number One was equally relic’d. Mike McCready’s Strat can also be added to that list.

There have been a few theories as to why these guitars ended up so heavily weathered, from natural wear and tear caused by spiky jewellery and belt buckles, all the way to the acidity of a player’s sweat.

Custom Shop Masterbuilder Dale Wilson – who’s mastered the art of artificial aging through his relic builds – has a different theory, though, and it doesn’t have anything to do with acidic sweat. But it does involve sweat in general.

“I have a theory. People always say Rory Gallagher had an acidic sweat, right? Or Steve Ray Vaughan. [But] this is what I think,” he says in a new interview with The Music Zoo.

“It's probably wrong but I think they put their guitars in the cases wet, and then they closed the cases and went to the next show. Then it just stewed in that wetness, in that sweat – because they both perspired quite a bit – until the next gig.

“I mean, Mike Campbell's guitar. You've seen the fretboard on that. It just is globbed with [dirt], and he doesn't want that cleaned off. I think it’s the same with heavy touring musicians that are just going from one place to another.

“They put it away wet. So it's not necessarily buckle rash or them hitting it on something – which it is, of course – but on top of that, it's just the paint getting loosened over time, sitting in a case.”

Andy Hicks – another legend of the Fender Custom Shop – agreed with Wilson’s theory, pointing out that vintage guitars are especially susceptible to such aging.

“The sweat gets through the natural checking,” he adds. “We’re talking about vintage guitars, so it’s lacquer paint. It checks, the sweat seeps in through that, and then kind of festers underneath.

“It’s not that your belt is a particularly spiky belt, it’s just more abrasive than jeans or whatever. And the paint is now hanging on for dear life because it’s had this water underneath the finish. Something like that is just going to take it off.”

“And if you like at some of the checking, there’s the bleed through,” Wilson agrees. “It almost looks like there’s oil in the checking running under the finish. I think that’s exactly what it is.”

Mystery solved? Well, Hicks and Wilson are leading experts when it comes to all things Fender, so they might have just hit the nail on the head.

Though Hicks is known for ultra-relic’d builds, he also has a few more out-there Fenders in his portfolio. Last month, he unveiled his latest Custom Shop design: a Godzilla Stratocaster with a built-in Roar button.

Since making its debut on October 11, 1975, NBC’s Saturday Night Live has been a pop-culture juggernaut like no other.

But before becoming a weekend staple for generations of late-night viewers, creator Lorne Michaels’ variety show began as a brash, uniquely irreverent counterculture experiment boldly pairing off-the-cuff outsider comedy with of-the-moment musical guests – for the record, the first show featured Billy Preston, Janis Ian and, arguably most memorably, Andy Kaufman miming his way through the Mighty Mouse theme song.

Indeed, while it’s a comedy-first operation, music has always been a major part of SNL’s appeal – and, obviously, that means we’ve seen a lot of guitarists grace the show’s stage.

It’s been a spot for bands to crank it up just before their careers went supernova. Others faltered spectacularly on live TV, beneath the bright lights of Studio 8H and under the watch of millions of viewers at home.

Some of the greatest guitar virtuosos showed up unannounced for once-in-a-lifetime jams. A pair of blues-loving bees morphed into the show’s breakout musical act.

While it’s all made for hundreds upon hundreds of must-see moments, to paraphrase the show’s iconic metalhead character, Wayne Campbell – a.k.a. Mike Myers, an obtuse on-air shredder in his own right – some were more worthy than others.

So, in honor of the show’s staggering 50 years on the air, ladies and gentleman, behold the 50 greatest guitar moments in SNL history.

50. The Rolling Stones – Shattered

Season 4, Episode 1; October 7, 1978

While nabbing the Stones was a major coup, the band’s lone SNL appearance isn’t remembered for being great. Mick Jagger’s voice is shot and unpretty through Beast of Burden, but Shattered taps into the sleazy urgency of the Some Girls era.

It also embodies the chaotic, anything-goes-in-the-moment spirit of live TV right about the time Jagger starts snapping his ivory sportcoat at Ronnie Wood, wet-towel style.

49. The Devil Can’t Write No Love Song sketch

Season 25, Episode 5; November 13, 1999

Garth Brooks plays a down-on-his-luck musician willing to sell his soul for a hit. Ready to make a trade, Lucifer – a horned-and-bearded Will Ferrell – bursts onto the scene with a devil-red Fender built out of a “hell-spun mixture of the bones of fornicators.” Trouble is, the dark lord is a damned terrible songsmith. Fred’s Slacks is a brittle-toned, out-of-tune geek-rock atrocity, and his originals only get cringier from there.

48. Joan Armatrading – I’m Not in Love / Down to Zero

Season 2, Episode 21; May 14, 1977

The highlight of Joan Armatrading’s SNL performances is the sound of her rich and oaken vocal – but her stately 12-string chording chimes through the mix quite nicely, too.

Whether through the dew-eyed I’m Not in Love or the yearning folk-rock of Down to Zero, guitarist Jerry Donahue also brought a waterfall-rippling wave of flanged-out fretboard elegance to the arrangements.

47. System of a Down – B.Y.O.B.

Season 30, Episode 18; May 7, 2005

The SNL censors were prepared to bleep out the F-bombs SOAD’s Serj Tankian and Daron Malakian regularly scheduled into their zany, kinda thrash/kinda ska single B.Y.O.B. The latter let loose an unscripted “fuck yeah” during a surf-zested string slide, though, which ended up putting he and the rest of System on SNL’s blacklist. They never played the show again.

46. Metallica – Fuel

Season 23, Episode 8; December 6, 1997

An argument could be made that SNL blew it by not booking Metallica during the height of ’80s thrash and that they slept on the biggest metal band in the world circa Enter Sandman.

But producers gave ’tallica fans that which they desired by finally bringing aboard the band during their Reload period. Fuel found Kirk Hammett all-gassing his wah-wah solo. James Hetfield kept on theme by strapping himself to a flame-emblazoned Flying V.

45. The Tragically Hip – Grace, Too

Season 20, Episode 16; March 25, 1995

When original Not Ready for Prime-time Player Dan Aykroyd was asked to co-host this episode, he agreed – with a caveat: fellow Ontarians the Tragically Hip had to come along with him.

Gord Downie grinned cherubically as he flubbed his first line, but Canada’s Band otherwise nailed the artfully hard-rocking Grace, Too, guitarist Rob Baker flexing a wide, flavorful vibrato into its finale.

44. Adam Sandler – The Thanksgiving Song

Season 18, Episode 7; November 21, 1992

Sandler used his Weekend Update segments to test out goofball characters like Cajun Man and Opera Man. The news desk was also where he developed his voice as a singer-guitarist, and that all starts with The Thanksgiving Song.

Coming out the gates with cheerful 7th chords and a toothy grin, he uses the quaint acoustic jazz-folk song to toast turkey dinners and serve up a side of pop-culture non-sequiturs.

43. Queens of the Stone Age – Little Sister

Season 30, Episode 19; May 14, 2005

Though drummer Joey Castillo was already clonking his plastic jam block hard-and-heavy through this segment, Will Ferrell apparently felt that Queens could use more cowbell.

The comedian reprised his famous Gene Frenkle character – ill-fitting shirt and all – and whapped to his heart’s delight, but the impromptu percussive performance wasn’t the scene-stealer. Credit that to Josh Homme putting on a clinic with his serpentine flair.

42. Big Ricky & the Minnows – “Bass Lake” sketch

Season 50, Episode 16; April 5, 2025

A lakeside potluck jam on Tom Petty’s Free Falling goes horribly awry once Big Ricky – played by an increasingly exasperated Jack Black – realizes everyone hitting the stage is hoisting a bass and the soupiest tone of all time (“The quality of sound feels like a sinus infection”).

The low-end nightmare swells into a dozen rhythm-stringers and one particularly talented basset hound trying to find their footing within the frequency, with disastrous results.

41. Spinal Tap – Big Bottom

Season 9, Episode 18; May 5, 1984

Talk about bass chops, these guys got ’em. Unlike Black’s bass sketch, Tap’s low-end monstrous performance of Big Bottom was no shit sandwich. Performed on air just two months after This Is Spinal Tap hit screens, the band’s performance of their multi-bass opus rumbled with hilarious, horn-dog fervor.

Derek Smalls lays down the initial rhythm with a double-neck bass. Nigel Tufnel hits those perfect fourths like a pro. The synth-bass is on point, too. But it might be David St. Hubbins mud-flappin’ lead bass prowess that pushes the ludicrous metal anthem into overdrive.

40. J Mascis & the SNL band – Out There

Season 25, Episode 16; April 8, 2000

It’s a travesty that J Mascis never got to chop through this Where You Been? stunner on the show with the rest of Dinosaur Jr. in the ’90s. Nevertheless, a 20-second sampling of Out There – which Mascis performed while sitting in with the house band – found the alt-rock guitar hero wham-smashing his way through a micro-sized but massive-sounding SNL moment. This performance took us to the commercial break seconds after the show staged its iconic “More Cowbell” sketch.

39. The Black Crowes – Sometimes Salvation

Season 18, Episode 9; December 12, 1992

Sometimes Salvation is a funny pick because the Crowes’ aching, extended blues ballad shares a similar feel to the SNL band’s longtime closing credits jam, Waltz in A. Where it differs is that the Georgia rockers also had Marc Ford sustaining a series of seismically reckless and romantic bends through his spacious solo. And it’s spectacular.

38. Foo Fighters – Times Like These

Season 28, Episode 13; February 22, 2003

Foo Fighters are prolific SNL guests, having hit the program nine times since 1995. Their third pop-in at 30 Rock came during the promotion cycle for One by One and began with a crunching version of All My Life.

But Times Like These is what makes the highlight reel – not just because the Foos crushed their yearning anthem with ease, but because Jim Carrey stormed the stage mid-song to air guitar his right leg like a maniac.

37. Red Hot Chili Peppers – Stone Cold Bush / Under the Bridge

Season 17, Episode 14; February 22, 1992

Dubious to include, but hard to ignore, the Chilis left a strange taste in millions of mouths with this off-kilter two-fer. Stone Cold Bush was funky, but merely fine – Flea gets appropriately slappy on the bass, but things get weird when vocalist Anthony Kiedis soccer-slides toward John Frusciante and boots his bandmate in the butt.

Under the Bridge is even more tense, with Frusciante cresting through a loose fluidity that paints a bit too outside the lines – and with a lot of brown. He ends the alt-ballad howling in falsetto like a hound from hell. The rest of the band seem stunned over their tragic Magik performance.

36. Boz Scaggs – Lowdown

Season 2, Episode 2; September 25, 1976

Elliot Randall’s wildcard solo is one of SNL’s most uproarious musical WTF moments. Halfway through the hit’s soft disco shuffle, Randall rips out to center stage for a furious hellfire of hammer-ons.

He tries to hit a behind-the-nut bend but kind of biffs it, then walks back with a huge smile to resume his soulfully rhythmic plinking.

Slang-style praise or secret diss, Scaggs jumps back in to croon with perfect comedic timing: “You ain’t got to be so bad.”

35. Prince – Partyup

Season 6, Episode 11; February 21, 1981

Prince’s most storied SNL performance arguably isn’t this one, and it wasn’t even in public – rather, a slow-jammed Let’s Go Crazy during the show’s 40th-anniversary afterparty in 2015 apparently had cast members losing their minds. But his televised Partyup in ’81 was still plenty iconic, with the Purple One parading around in thigh-high boots and sex-grinding his guitar with slinking funk licks.

34. Tracy Chapman – Give Me One Reason

Season 15, Episode 9; December 16, 1989

Here’s a good reason to have owned a VHS machine in the ’80s: Chapman’s rhythm-locked, Grammy-winning blues-rocker Give Me One Reason was performed on SNL a full six years before it made it onto an album.

Chapman anchored its television debut with subtle, staccato acoustic fingering and her soulful vocal, though the house band gets into the action, too; Tom “T-Bone” Wolk injects jumping-bean bass accents while bandleader G.E. Smith delivers Delta-ready slidework.

33. Devo – (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction

Season 4, Episode 2; October 14, 1978

Devo’s subversive take on the Stones classic harnesses the palpably anxious and painfully horny undercurrent of the anthem arguably better than when it’s ever sung by Jagger.

Sweet release arrives through this performance, where Devo – deep in their matching hazmat suit-and-3D glasses era – twitch through the tune like a bunch of broken androids, Mark Mothersbaugh wilding out while using a Hagstrom 1 with boosts and overdrives duct-taped all over its cherry body.

32. Pearl Jam – Not for You / Rearviewmirror / Daughter

Season 19, Episode 18; April 16, 1994

Pearl Jam were arguably the biggest band in the world in the spring of 1994, so SNL showcased the hell out of the Seattle quintet during their second appearance on the show – even offering them a rare third song. Their Daughter performance, in particular, presented an extended Jam; the group gave the alt-rock anthem a funky two-minute outro full of vibe-heavy fretless bass and ad-libbed Crazy Horse lyrics.

31. AC/DC – Stiff Upper Lip / You Shook Me All Night Long

Season 25, Episode 15; March 18, 2000

AC/DC’s SNL debut found the band cranking into their Back in Black classic a whopping 20 years after its initial release. In a solid performance, Angus Young wails hard and goes full-Curly while spinning around the ground during the finale.

Earlier in the evening, though, the eternal schoolboy and brother Mal arguably locked in harder for the gritty, then-current and super-underrated Stiff Upper Lip.

30. Punk Band Reunion at the Wedding sketch (Crisis of Conformity – Fist Fight in the Parking Lot)

Season 35, Episode 14; February 6, 2010

What begins as a father sheepishly getting his old band back together at his daughter’s wedding reception quickly devolves into one of SNL’s most raging hardcore performances ever. Fred Armisen sneers his way through ’80s-style Reagan-punk lyrics, while the arrangement itself quotes Suicidal Tendencies’ Institutionalized.

The table-crashing, glass-smashing melee gets all-too-real once drummer Dave Grohl’s mic cuts out. A cream Strat-strapped Kutcher saves the day by lunging over with another mic – which also reveals he’s definitely not the one punk-chording through their Parking Lot.

29. The Replacements – Bastards of Young / Kiss Me on the Bus

Season 11, Episode 7; January 18, 1986

G.E. Smith was a Replacements fan and called the group when SNL needed a last-minute replacement for the Pointer Sisters. The Replacements proceeded to get drunk backstage with host Harry Dean Stanton and strolled out to deliver slapdash Tim songs while sloshed out of their skulls.

Paul Westerberg fumbled lyrics, Bob Stinson played a loaner Les Paul after he fell on his own guitar on the way to the stage. The night was best summed up by the first line of Bastards of Young: “God… what a mess.”

28. Bonnie Raitt – Thing Called Love

Season 15, Episode 11; January 20, 1990

Nearly 12 years to the day after her first SNL appearance, Bonnie Raitt returned to the show to slide through this blues-rock blazer. At one point she bats at the body of her Strat to gain some gnarly sustain. Later, she juxtaposes a fiery, near-30-second glass slide solo against the arrangement’s laidback, roadhouse-reggae breakdown.

27. Lenny Kravitz – Are You Gonna Go My Way / Always on the Run

Season 18, Episode 18; April 17, 1993

Everything went Kravitz and co-guitarist Craig Ross’ way. Sporting the rawest and most iconic rock riff of ’93, the pair brought harmonized pull-offs and Hendrix-ian sharps to a pitch-perfect performance of Are You Gonna Go My Way – and then Ross delivered a wailing solo.

They then dug into their retro-rock war chest for Mama Said single Always on the Run, expertly swaggering themselves through fuzz-funk syncopation before Ross splintered off with another heater solo.

26. Nirvana – Smells Like Teen Spirit / Territorial Pissings

Season 17, Episode 10; January 11, 1992

Nirvana’s Nevermind dethroned the King of Pop’s Dangerous from the Number 1 spot on the Billboard chart the same week they dropped by SNL. Understandably, they played Teen Spirit, the industry-revolutionizing game-changer that got them there.

That said, Territorial Pissings was the livelier of their two performances; Cobain capped the manic track by smashing his guitar into a tower of logo-less cabs; Krist Novoselic hucks his bass into the air like loose change; Grohl rains drum hardware across the soundstage.

25. Rage Against the Machine – Bulls on Parade

Season 21, Episode 17; April 13, 1996

Interestingly, the SNL time bookers paired billionaire media mogul and Republican nominee hopeful Steve Forbes with left-leaning political rap-rockers Rage Against the Machine.

Rage tried to hang upside-down U.S. flags across their cabs as a form of protest, which led to an onstage confrontation with patriotic stagehands, who yanked away the subversive Stripes milliseconds before the band kicked into Bulls. Tom Morello crushed it with his wah work and mock-scratch technique. Then the band got booted out of the building.

24. Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers – You Don’t Know How It Feels / Honey Bee

Season 20, Episode 6; November 19, 1994

Petty’s fifth of eight appearances on SNL came during his Wildflowers cycle and boasted a new, temporary Heartbreaker behind the drum kit: Dave Grohl. The performance interestingly falls between the latter’s post-Nirvana, pre-Foo Fighters period, and he hits those cans heavy.

You Don’t Know How It Feels was a crowd pleaser, but the real treat is Honey Bee. The swamp-soupy garage-blues tune had Mike Campbell dripping out liquid gold guitar leads, but Petty hits an uncaged-and-uncouth, bendy solo of his own.

23. Aerosmith on Wayne’s World

Season 15, Episode 13; February 17, 1990

Satirically or not, SNL’s resident headbangers-cum-cable access hosts hoisted the flag for heavy music during a time where the show probably should have booked more metal acts.

Nevertheless, Wayne and Garth still got their party on with Aerosmith one time, with Joe Perry and Brad Whitford beefing up Mike Myers’ mock-squealing Wayne’s World theme as a basic-but-brawny basement rocker. Aerosmith also hit a pair of Pump tunes for the show, but this was their biggest bash of the night.

22. Fear – Beef Baloney

Season 7, Episode 4; October 31, 1981

Fear was brought onto SNL as a favor to fan and then-former castmate John Belushi, whom showrunners were hoping would pop back on the program for a cameo.

Fear then invited hardcore kids from across the Eastern seaboard – including members of Minor Threat and Negative Approach – to mosh out during a chaotic four-song medley. Bassist Lee Ving is constantly chasing a micstand as it gets knocked about by stage divers.

21. Phoebe Bridgers – I Know the End

Season 46, Episode 11; February 6, 2021

Phoebe Bridgers wasn’t the first person to smash a guitar on SNL, but she’s the one who got the most flak for it. I Know the End starts subtle, but the indie-rocker ended up primal screaming her way through the climax – which likewise found co-guitarist Harrison Whitford delivering quixotic scalework – before yanking off her jet black Danelectro and decimating it against a speaker wedge. The misogyny brigade tried to shame her on socials; Bridgers sold the axe for $100,000 and donated it all to charity.

20. Captain Beefheart & the Magic Band – Hot Head / Ashtray Heart

Season 6, Episode 2; December 22, 1980

Beefheart’s underrated early ’80s period found the experimental icon making music with the meanest-sounding iteration of his Magic Band. They put on a feisty performance for a shocked SNL crowd – guitarist Moris Tepper, in particular, spewing hot fire with his junk-blues sliding.

Beefheart cradled a cigarette, brilliantly rifling off a dadaist word salad through a haggard wheeze that sounded like his lungs had burnt right down to the filter.

19. Living Colour – Cult of Personality / Open Letter (to a Landlord)

Season 14, Episode 16; April 1, 1989

Living Colour’s April Fool’s appearance found Vernon Reid going off-the-charts gonzo with his inspired fusion playing.

He cut loose through a mind-bending, minute-long solo on Cult of Personality and then leaned into a vivid display of ambulance siren-styled inverted bending on Open Letter (to a Landlord).

The only thing that might’ve outshone Reid’s playing was Corey Glover’s extremely late-’80s, iridescent purple-and-yellow BodyGlove wetsuit.

18. Rihanna (with Nuno Bettencourt) – Diamonds

Season 38, Episode 7; November 10, 2012

Nuno Bettencourt never got the funk out on SNL during Extreme’s peak. Despite this, the Boston virtuoso was able to shine bright like a diamond when he popped up on the show as part of Rihanna’s backing band. The focal point is the pop star, without question, and Bettencourt begins the song with minimalist, volume pot-craning ambiance. But by song’s end, he’s soaring through the mix with a boldly prismatic vibrato.

17. David Bowie – Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)

Season 22, Episode 12; February 8, 1997

Armed with a Parker Fly, an unruly series of harmonic slides and an onslaught of out-of-control pinch-squeals, ace guitarist Reeves Gabrels (nowadays a member of the Cure) was a beast to behold on Scary Monsters.

Bowie & Co. were supposed to play something off 1997’s Earthling, but they went rogue and performed the retro cut as a form of protest after the singer objected to a sketch idea – and as a dig on Lorne Michaels, who told Bowie about a terrifying cocaine binge he’d been on while listening to Scary Monsters in the ’80s.

They were ushered out of the building ASAP. Bowie reportedly regretted not grabbing the fruit basket on the way out.

16. Top of the Pops sketch (aka Ian Rubbish & the Bizarros – It’s a Lovely Day)

Season 38, Episode 21; May 18, 2013

Fred Armisen’s SNL tenure was full of musical characters, one of his most memorable being comically hate-filled Spirit of ’77 punk eccentric Ian Rubbish.

While the U.K. snarler had many memorable lyrical barbs, Armisen’s last show as a full-time cast member found him slapping on Rubbish’s peroxide wig and a Fano Alt de Facto to deliver an earnest farewell anthem called It’s a Lovely Day.

It turns into a jam featuring Sleater-Kinney’s Carrie Brownstein, the Sex Pistols’ Steve Jones, J Mascis, Aimee Mann and Michael Penn. Is this one of Armisen’s top-10 greatest TV appearances of all time? Yeah, probably.

15. H.E.R. – Hold On

Season 46, Episode 4; October 24, 2020

H.E.R. wowed guitar-heads doubly in this Season 46 standout moment. She shot melodious, mile-wide vibrato through the ceiling during a revelatory performance of R&B slow jam Hold On.

She also used her time on SNL to showcase a then-brand-new signature Fender Chrome Glow Strat, which reflected a rainbowed array of colors beneath the stage lights that was almost as resplendent as her tone.

14. Robert Cray – Smoking Gun / Right Next Door (Because of Me)

Season 12, Episode 13; February 28, 1987

While Smoking Gun was tight, we’re going to suggest that it’s Cray’s run-through of Right Next Door that left a stronger impression on the music-loving public.

There’s a sleek, clean-channel mystique coursing through the smooth-blues arrangement, Cray accenting his adulterous tale with perfect, passionately plinking accent rhythms.

By song’s end, he bait-and-switches us with a yearning backend climax of wry little wriggles and finger-snapped string work. Of course, if you're going back and watching all these, don't deprive yourself of Smoking Gun.

13. The Smashing Pumpkins – Cherub Rock

Season 19, Episode 5; October 30, 1993

The Pumpkins went in for the kill during their first appearance on SNL. The performance of loud-quiet-loud classic Today was spectacular, but the alt-rock champs went nuclear on Cherub Rock.

Billy Corgan shreds his sinewy vocal cords throughout and wails a furious solo on his modded Bat-Strat. James Iha likewise gets in a few nasty and textural bends before they put this all-out bash to bed.

12. Beastie Boys – Ricky’s Theme / Heart Attack Man

Season 20, Episode 8; December 10, 1994

The Beasties’ second muscial spot of the night began with instrumental soul jam Ricky’s Theme, where auxiliary Beasties player Money Mark’s morning glory electric piano glistened against Ad-Rock’s sly-and-wily wah-wah guitar and MCA’s lithe standup basslines.

An extended cymbal segue leads to gear-swapping and a furious aesthetic pivot, as the Boys then go buckwild with a pacemaker-exploding old-school hardcore freakout. Ad-Rock smashes an S-shape into the ground – splinters fly into the air as the screen fades to black.

11. Adam Sandler – Lunch Lady Land

Season 19, Episode 11; January 15, 1994

From Red Hooded Sweatshirt to The Chanukah Song, most of Adam Sandler’s SNL music went unplugged. But unencumbered by the confines of the Weekend Update desk, the Sandman went full-electric with a black Gibson Les Paul to strum this Bruce Springsteen-ian opus about elementary foodstuffs revolting against their maker.

Sandler sells his Jungleland rip with goofball heartland earnestness. Of course, the sight of Chris Farley’s hair-netted Lunch Lady gracefully plié-ing across the stage near Kevin Nealon’s sentient Manwich pushes the performance into all-timer territory.

10. Fishbone – Sunless Saturday / Everyday Sunshine

Season 16, Episode 16; March 23, 1991

Despite its gloom-clouded song title, Fishbone were beyond brilliant on Sunless Saturday. Frontman Angelo Moore somersaulted across the stage with manic energy and put on an acrobatic vocal performance. John Norwood Fisher flexed thick bass thwaps across the soul-metal fusion piece.

A double-strapped Kendall Jones switched between acoustic strums and flanged-out-and-frantic tap solos on an S-shape. Keeping things on-theme, they then dipped into the funkily Vitamin D-dosed “Everyday Sunshine” for their second song.

9. St. Vincent – Birth in Reverse

Season 39, Episode 21; May 17, 2014

While the Season 39 finale brought out rappers 2 Chainz and Lil Jon for a pair of sketches, Annie Clark commanded the stage with playfully panicked art-punk energy during her performance of Birth in Reverse. Early on, she’s twitching out jazz chords on a vintage 1955 M-75 Aristocrat.

By the finale, a choreography routine finds St. Vincent and guitarist Toko Yasuda harmonizing post-shred bristliness while parading the stage like a pair of nectar-crazy hummingbirds.

8. Elvis Costello – Radio Radio

Season 3, Episode 8; December 17, 1977

“I’m sorry ladies and gentlemen; there’s no reason to do this song here.” In one of the show’s most iconic moments, musical or otherwise, Elvis Costello came into 8H to play Less Than Zero but abruptly and awkwardly halted the single to re-route his band toward a spritely but unexpected Radio Radio.

The swerve had staff panicking behind the scenes. He’d later say it was because Zero was too slow; it might’ve been that its lyrics on the rise of British fascism were, well, incredibly British. Costello satirically recreated the chaos for SNL’s 25th-anniversary special in 1999, hijacking Beastie Boys’ Sabotage to once again play Radio Radio.

7. David Gilmour with G.E. Smith & the SNL Band – Song for My Sara

Season 13, Episode 7; December 12, 1987

This episode brought out two musical guests, wildly juxtaposing Buster Poindexter’s broad, brass-heavy calypso-sleaze smash Hot Hot Hot with Gilmour’s tastefully funky instrumental, Song for My Sara.

Supported by the SNL band, the latter echo-quaked melodious vibrato from his headless Steinberger GM 3T. T-Bone Wolk thumb-and-finger popped his way through the piece. G.E. Smith is all smiles while supporting the Pink Floyd legend. The song was never officially released, making Gilmour’s drop-in appearance even more unique.

6. Eddie Van Halen with G.E. Smith & the SNL Band – Stompin’ 8H

Season 12, Episode 13; February 28, 1987

Van Halen’s lone and unplanned SNL appearance arose out of boredom. As then-wife Valerie Bertinelli was rehearsing skits that week, EVH ended up in the music office trading licks with Smith, and together they whipped up a bluesy lil’ choogle named after the show’s 8H soundstage.

Eddie goes full Orca-moan on his striped Kramer 5150 before flitting between tasteful quarter-note taps and cut-throat runs. Smith is ear-to-ear grinning while chopping at his Tele. The two guitarists literally – but playfully – butt heads mid-stage, though they stood united for this memorable drop-in moment.

5. Stevie Ray Vaughan – Say What! / Change It

Season 11, Episode 10; February 15, 1986

As Double Trouble drummer Chris Layton recalled years later, host Jerry Hall’s then-husband, Mick Jagger, was around during rehearsals. Mick almost sat in with the band for their SNL debut but ultimately didn’t have the stones to go through with the team-up. Instead, a mass of Texas talent graced the stage, with SRV first hitting 12-bar instrumental Say What! as a screaming, whammy-and-wah-wild workout.

For the cocksure Change It, he strutted through flavorful blues runs alongside fellow Strat-smith, brother and Fabulous Thunderbirds co‑founder Jimmie Vaughan.

4. George Harrison and Paul Simon – Here Comes the Sun / Homeward Bound

Season 2, Episode 8; November 20, 1976

Back in the first season, Michaels went on-air to offer the Beatles a hilariously paltry $3,000 – to split however they’d like – if they appeared on his show (“You want to give Ringo less? That’s up to you”). Paul McCartney and John Lennon were apparently watching the show together in NYC and damn near took a cab to 30 Rock to collect. But it was Harrison who became the first Beatle to play on SNL, and he did it with another music icon.

In one of most stunningly tender musical moments of the early years, Harrison and Paul Simon teamed up to strum and folk-finger through the former’s Here Comes the Sun and the latter’s Homeward Bound, back to back. Outside of their acoustics and gentle vocal harmonies, it’s pin-drop silent in the studio, the audience watching history in the making.

To say the least, the performance was more than alright – it was god damned magical. McCartney would ultimately show up as a musical guest four times between 1980 and 2012, and he closed out this year’s 50th-anniversary show with another Abbey Road classic, The End. Ringo hosted in 1984.

3. Jack White – Taking Me Back / Fear of the Dawn

Season 48, Episode 13; February 25, 2023

Ever since the White Stripes bashed through a radically raw Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground on 8H in 2002, Jack White has been an SNL fixture.

On top of being a five-time musical guest, he once ripped a solo as a six-stringing wedding crasher in a 2018 sketch and also covered Rockin’ in the Free World during this year’s SNL50 concert.

While he cut a memorable double-handed tapping tribute to EVH in 2020, his mic stand-toppling, pedalboard-maximalist Taking Me Back / Fear of the Dawn medley in 2023 was a fiendishly feral display of fuzz-blown sonics and wah expressionism.

2. The Blues Brothers – Soul Man

Season 4, Episode 6; November 18, 1978

John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd prototyped their musical-brothers band in the first season with a buzzy, bee-costumed performance of Slim Harpo’s I’m a King Bee. They eventually bought some fedoras and rechristened themselves as Jake and Elwood Blues.

Flanked by members of the SNL band (blues vet Matt “Guitar” Murphy and Stax session all-stars Steve Cropper and Donald “Duck” Dunn), this Season 4 cold open is the Brothers’ defining moment – and it led them toward a hit record and a blockbuster film.

After smashing into a sweat-box vamp of Otis Redding’s I Can’t Turn You Loose, they choogle through a cool-as-ice cover of Sam & Dave’s Soul Man. Cropper steps into the spotlight with sleek vibrato waggling while Elwood honks his harmonica.

1. Frank Ocean with John Mayer – Pyramids

Season 38, Episode 1; September 12, 2012

Pop-bluesmith John Mayer’s earnest-but-animated performance style was roasted on the show several times, via squinty-eyed, fat-tongued and faux-ripping impersonations from Bill Hader, Jimmy Fallon and host Ashton Kutcher. Mayer got the last laugh with his staggering 2012 guest solo for Frank Ocean.

The R&B singer walks over to a vintage arcade cabinet and starts gaming once Mayer unearths deep, atmospheric bends on a finish-obliterated Strat. A fighting game plays on in the background, but Mayer delivers the knockout blow.

• This article first appeared in Guitar World. Subscribe and save.

Last year, in the middle of a solo on stage, Ally Venable had a revelation.

“I was playing so many shows that it started to become kind of a monotonous blur,” she says. “I noticed I was playing to my ego and just looking for applause. It was like I knew when people were gonna clap when I did certain things.

“After I caught myself, I started to get very intentional about playing for connection over playing for praise. And that really changed the energy for me and my band on stage and opened up a whole new world.”

“Connection” is a word the 25-year-old guitarist-singer-songwriter returns to often during our conversation. “I connect to the guitar on a very emotive level,” she says. “I connect with blues music, and I think it’s one in the same – blues music and guitar music.”

Venable first felt that connection when she was 12 and heard her dad playing Stevie Ray Vaughan’s Texas Flood in the car.

“When I looked him up on YouTube, it changed my world,” she says. “I wanted to play like Stevie and wanted to see if I could break my guitar in half like he tried to do. Through him, I found Albert King, Jimi Hendrix, Buddy Guy and Sister Rosetta Tharpe. My goal for my music became to introduce other people that don’t know a whole lot about blues or guitar music to this genre – like Stevie did for me.”

On her sixth album, Money and Power, she continues to do that. From the empowering Zep-like roar of the title track to the funky Stopper Back Papa to the tender melodicism of Keep Me in Mind, there’s a maturity in the writing, singing and playing that’s remarkable for someone so young.

In addition to her own extensive touring behind the record this year, Venable played with Experience Hendrix alongside Eric Johnson, Samantha Fish, Kenny Wayne Shepherd and Zakk Wylde.

“I like being surrounded by guitar players that are better than me,” Venable says with a smile. “It makes me feel like I can work on something and learn something new from somebody else.”

Your last record, Real Gone, went to Number 1 on the Billboard blues chart. How’d that affect what you wanted to do with the new album?

“It’s cool when your album has any kind of chart success, and I was very grateful. But I don’t want to make music solely for the intention of receiving accolades. My goal is to write about what goes on in my life and try to connect with myself, my instrument and other people. Making music is always about connection.”

What was going on in your emotional life that fed the new songs?

“Over the past two years, I was going through a lot of grieving, thinking about all of these situations and relationships and people who aren’t in my life anymore. And so what I did was I wrote a letter to each of them. That helped me come out the other side and become a better version of myself. I think it’s important to face your own blues, because you’re going to come out on the other side of that as a better person.”

The title track, Money and Power, speaks to not only women in music but in society at large, and that’s especially resonant in the current political climate.

“Recently, I’ve been seeing more young girls at my shows – with their parents. I was thinking about them seeing someone like me, not that much older, playing music and following her dreams. Even if she doesn’t want to play guitar, just seeing a woman doing her thing is inspiring.

“The song asks, ‘Why is it so conflicting to see a woman with money and power?’ That’s a conversation we need to keep having. Let’s dig into our history, especially with where we’re at right now and raise awareness about how far women have come and how much work still needs to be done.”

What gear are you using?

“In the ’90s, Gibson did a limited-colors-edition series for Les Pauls, and I love my magenta model. I call her ‘The Wounded Warrior,’ because I’ve dropped her so many times. [Laughs] For amps, I use a Category 5 [Andrew]; last year, I upgraded the speaker to a Celestion. It has a nice big, round sound.

“I use a [Detrik Fx] Experience Wah – the white one – with an Analogman King of Tone [overdrive]. That’s my bare-bones setup. But then there’s also an MXR Carbon Copy for delay and a Keeley Monterey [Rotary Fuzz Vibe] for fun, vibe-y effects.”

Do you have outside interests that feed your creativity?

“I just bought a house that I’ve been renovating, so that’s been a hobby. But don’t ever renovate a house and release the album at the same time – you’ll go crazy! [Laughs] I’m gardening, trying to grow some strawberries and potatoes and perennials.

“And I love thrifting, going in and not knowing what little treasures I’ll come out with. It’s like creating music. You kind of know where you’ll start, but you don’t really know what you’ll get until it’s finished.”

• Money & Power is out now via Ruf.
• This article first appeared in Guitar World. Subscribe and save.

There are varying degrees of guitar hero, but Carlos Santana is a name you’d expect to find near the top of any list. Like Jimi Hendrix, Brian May or Slash, Santana has transcended guitar music and permeated his way into popular culture, immortalizing his name into legend on every corner of the globe.

Of course, he’s a tremendous player, but it goes way beyond that; he’s a highly prolific composer and collaborator, the type of musician who can thrive in just about any musical environment, drawing from an impressively wide pool of influences to make his guitar speak to any kind of audience or listener.

His latest album, Sentient, serves as yet another reminder of these universal talents. It consists of 11 tracks, three of which were unreleased until now, and the rest reimagining some of his most famous partnerships over a storied career, from a moving live version of Michael Jackson’s Stranger in Moscow to classic cuts alongside Miles Davis and Smokey Robinson.

It’s an impressive body of work that captures the breadth of his sound and imagination while taking the listener on an unforgettable journey that defies all notions of boundary or genre. And, as the chart-topping veteran explains to GW, it’s mainly because his approach to music is a profoundly holistic one.

You’re one of the most prominent faces for PRS, but you’ve played all kinds of guitars throughout the years.

“Guitars are like crayons to me. Life is the canvas, and guitars are the colors you use to express your soul, your spirit, your heart, your passion and emotions. Those are the ingredients to create beauty, and guitars are the tools.”

How many guitars do you own these days?

“I don’t know, but probably not more than 100 and not fewer than 75. I guess the Fender Strats and Gibson Les Pauls would be the oldest models in my collection. I’ve got Strats from 1954; some of my Les Pauls go all the way back to 1959.”

You even had a Yamaha signature model in the ’80s.

“That’s right. I had a good time with Yamaha. I learned from each one of the guitar companies. They all have their own sound, texture and feel. But I always go back to my PRS models.

“Paul Reed Smith has mastered creating an instrument that behaves. No matter what the weather is like, it will stay in tune and always give you that great tone. I’m very grateful to Paul. He came up with his own vision to create a different tone and feel.

“I’m grateful he did that because his designs suited my personality when it came to self-expression. We’ve had a relationship since the late ’70s. He convinced me to come on board. Back then, there were only three companies I knew of – Gibson, Fender and Gretsch. There were others, but those three were the main ones.”

The PRS signature guitar you call “Salmon” is the guitar you’re most associated with lately. What makes it so special?

“I also think of it as my Supernatural guitar, because that’s what I used for 99 percent of that album [1999's Supernatural]. As for what’s special about it, I think it’s the most fluid. It’s the easiest instrument for me to materialize my inner-vision, thoughts and emotions. There’s not much struggle translating myself onto that guitar. But sometimes that struggle is nice, you know?

“Some people struggle with playing Stratocasters. It’s not easy to play a Strat and get really nice tones without pedals, because some people use pedals for extra sustain. But when you play loud enough like Jimi Hendrix going straight into Marshall stacks, they can become a whole other canvas. That’s why players like Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Buddy Guy stuck with Stratocasters.”

PRS has continued to evolve through the years with models like the Silver Sky. Have you ever tried one?

“A bit here and there. I thought they were pretty close to the original design it had been clearly inspired by.”

The company’s SE models are also pretty well known for being some of the best guitars you can find for that kind of money.

“That’s right! From guitars to food or whatever, there are two words that are important for any business – impeccable integrity. When people put love and attention into what they make, it stands out.

“When my guitars arrive from Paul Reed Smith, they are always perfectly in tune. I’m not making it up! They come to me set up perfectly because somebody at the factory is doing that final check. A lot of companies don’t do that.”

You play PRS single-cut models, too. What kind of situations call for that over a double-cut?

“It’s like wine. You’ve got choices like burgundy, merlot and cabernet sauvignon. The singlecut is more like a merlot, it’s a more robust sound. When you play a double-cut, the sound changes dramatically and you get more treble. So in situations where I want more of a rounder sound, I will go for the single-cut. Both have their uses for different sounds and songs.”

On your new retrospective album, you turned your guitar into a voice for an instrumental version of Michael Jackson’s Stranger in Moscow. Not many players can make their instruments talk like that.

“There are components to articulating. It’s a bit like how a chef thinks about ingredients, from flavors to nutrients. To cook a delicious meal, you need more than salt and pepper. Nothing is closer to the heart than the voice. To make a guitar speak to people, it’s more than just volume and control.

“You need to put your soul into each note; when you do that, it changes the sound. There are a lot of people who play music that’s more mental, which has a different type of feel. It’s okay for certain things, but I prefer the sound of someone playing from their heart because of players like Wes Montgomery and Otis Rush. They made you feel what you hear.”

Which singers helped you most with your phrasing?

“If I sang, I’d want to sound like Marvin Gaye. If I were female, I’d want to sound like Aretha Franklin, Whitney Houston or Billie Holiday. That’s what I’m thinking of when I play guitar – how to articulate.

“I’ve spent a lot of time taking my fingers for a walk with Smokey Robinson, so when I play my guitar, I become the voice through my fingers on the fretboard. It’s the same way I approached Stranger in Moscow. I had to morph myself and get into a character, almost like an actor.

“When you see Robert De Niro on a talk show and he’s not in character, sometimes he can be a little boring. But when he turns into the guy from Heat, Taxi Driver or The Godfather, he’s incredible. It’s a frame of mind. When I’m playing Stranger in Moscow, you’re hearing a different Carlos, because I’m thinking of Michael Jackson and phrasing everything differently – even if it’s still got my own fingerprint.”

On a technical level, what were you doing to sound like the original vocal?

“I chose to play more relaxed and behind the beat, choosing my notes carefully. It’s like putting your fingers in water and sprinkling someone’s face with water, or if you take a spoon to grapefruit and it squirts.

“Those are the good notes. A lot of people don’t know how to squirt their best notes! I learned this stuff from Buddy Guy, B.B. King, Albert King and Freddie King. If you don’t know how to squirt, everything is contained, and it can get boring after a while.

“I like being squirted in the face by music because it makes me feel alive. The goal of any guitar player, whatever the style may be – from funk and flamenco to heavy metal – is to make the listener feel alive. A good guitar solo should sound like an orgasm. I can hear it in Eddie Van Halen’s playing, and the same goes for Jimi Hendrix. I live for the juicy notes.”

There’s almost a Jeff Beck approach to your improvisation on that track. You knew each other and famously played together on The Nagano Sessions [with Steve Lukather] in 1986. What do you remember most about Jeff?

“Jeff Beck took guitar way beyond. His approach was like letting the hamster out of the cage. I was a big fan of Jeff from the second I heard him play. What I loved most was his imagination and passion. He was a very untraditional player, even though he had learned the traditional approach to blues to start with.

“I remember hearing Truth [Beck's first solo album from 1968] a long time ago and loving it, but I think the first song I heard by him was Over Under Sideways Down by the Yardbirds. He had this fuzz sound that was very special. You could also tell he’d been listening to people like Ravi Shankar or Ali Akbar Khan.

“He was a multi-dimensional player in that sense, the opposite of a one-trick pony. He learned from Roy Buchanan and Buddy Guy – I mean, we all took a lot from Buddy – because he put the turbo inside the blues. Like Jeff, I learned how to take a deep breath and trust my fingers almost like a child going down a water slide.”

Is it because in situations like that, it’s more about heart and soul than technicality?

“Anybody can practice scales up and down. But there’s something about coming down a water slide. You don’t know how you’re going to land; it might be on your head or on your feet.

“That’s what happens when you deviate from the melody. John Coltrane, Miles Davis and Wayne Shorter taught me a lot. It’s the art of improvisation, entering the unknown. People would ask Wayne how he practices, and he’d tell them, ‘We don’t know what we are going to play; how do you practice the unknown?’

“I learned improvisation from Coltrane. I learned cosmic music from Sun Ra. I learned down-to-earth music from the Grateful Dead because they were heavily immersed in the folk and bluegrass worlds. And don’t dismiss the guitar playing of Bob Dylan. He played a lot of great guitar, which worked beautifully with his vocals. I’ve learned from many musicians, especially the incredible women I mentioned earlier.”

Playing along to soul singers is something nearly every guitar player could learn something from.

“I don’t care who you are, whether you are Al Di Meola or not, I’d recommend this to any guitar player. If you spend even one day learning how to play and phrase like those lady soul singers, you will become a better musician. This is the truth. This is genuinely the most important part of the interview – right now. The only thing people will remember about your music is how you made them feel.

“They are not going to remember all the fast scales and ‘Look at what I can do!’ moments. But they will remember those three notes that made the hairs stand on the back of the neck and tears come out of their eyes, even if they don’t know why. That’s a whole other element, one I call spirit. Some people don’t know how to play with spirit, heart and soul. Those are three very important ingredients.”

Music isn’t a sport at the end of the day – especially for the listener.

“If you just practice all day and night going really fast, after a while, it’s a bit like going to the gym and seeing somebody flexing their muscles. Big deal. So what? Playing with spirit is like giving someone a hug that lasts for infinity. Time stops.”

Are there any songs that you think demonstrates this best?

“There’s a note Jimi Hendrix plays in All Along the Watchtower that makes you feel like you are entering eternity. It’s like being from Kansas and having only seen the Pacific Ocean on a postcard, then going to Hawaii and putting your feet in the water. That’s when you understand the totality and absoluteness of an ocean. A lot of musicians don’t understand how to play like that, but Chick Corea can.

“You have to learn how to dive into infinity through one note. It’s like learning how to French kiss correctly – to be fully alive with all your senses but no guilt, shame or embarrassment. Take the inhibitions and all that stuff out. You will see how beautiful it is to interact so intimately. That’s what a guitar player is. The guitar is a very naked and sensuous instrument. That’s just the way it is.”

The other Michael Jackson track on the album, Whatever Happens, has some harmonic minor lines, but on nylon acoustic. Where’d you learn to use that sound?

“I got a lot of it from my father because he played violin. It’s funny; when I started, people would say I was using a Dorian scale. But the only Dorian I knew was a girl who went to my junior high school. She invited me to go over to her house when her mom was working. I had a good time with Dorian.

“They also said I was using tonic scales, but the only tonic I knew was in gin and tonic. I don’t know, nor do I want to know, about scales because that will get in my way. I would rather feel like a blind man touching someone’s face. They are memorizing something in a completely different way to how someone else would see it.

“I’m not saying ignorance is bliss; I’m saying that if you learn everything, you can take some of the magic away. Don’t lose the magic of self-discovery. There’s something so beautiful about purity and innocence. Again, it’s like that first kiss.”

The Smokey Robinson track, Please Don’t Take Your Love, has a distinct, lively blues tone. What were you using?

“That sound is a combination of three things. The guitar was a really old white Stratocaster going straight into a Dumble amplifier that was lent to me by Alexander Dumble. The tone of that Strat with the Dumble is something magical.

“You stop playing notes, sounds and vibrations, and it all becomes a living sensation. How many players can say they play with a living sensation? Manitas De Plata, Paco De Lucía, John McLaughlin and Sonny Sharrock. The main ingredients for me are spirituality and sensuality. Without those two things, I wouldn’t play guitar like this. I wouldn’t want to be on this planet.”

Get On is an interesting piece of music. Do you play differently knowing someone like Miles Davis is on the same track?

‘I’m almost 80. I’ve learned how to diversify my portfolio and my Rolodex of expression, tones and vibration. When I first heard this song with Miles, I had to trust that I knew enough about what he was doing.

“Certain music comes from Africa, and that went on to influence stuff played by Cubans and Puerto Ricans, all this sensual music like guahira, bolero, charanga. If you listen to the African band Kékélé, you will hear a lot of Santana in there. I have to give credit to the musicians because they knew how to make music feel like it’s alive. It’s not just notes and clever inversions. I always go back to something physical.

“You have to make people feel. They can’t take it or leave it. The song has to speak to them. They will stop all conversations because they are enthralled and captivated. The sound is making love to them. And it takes trust. If there’s no trust, you won’t get the goods. With music, you gotta give the goods, man. Otherwise it’s just too clever and intellectual, and that stuff is boring.”

You’ve said Stevie Ray Vaughan once came to you in a dream and told you to use his Dumble Steel String Singer amp for a performance at Madison Square Garden. Not many people can say that.

“I call them visitations. I get visitations from Miles Davis sometimes, as well as B.B. King. You don’t have to be dead to visit me. Sometimes a dream is not a dream; someone has come back to communicate with you.

“I had a dream about Miles where I went to his concert and someone said, ‘Miles knows you are here and wants to see you in his dressing room.’ He asked how I was doing and started writing on a bit of paper, which he then gave to me. And just as I was about to read it, I woke up. I have to analyze what he was trying to tell me.

“It’s like that with Stevie Ray and Jaco Pastorius. I feel very honored that these people come to me. Sometimes I feel like I’m like [John F. Kennedy International Airport] and all these musicians are landing on me and sharing things. I have to figure out what it all means.”

What exactly did Stevie tell you?

“With Stevie, he was saying, ‘Carlos, where I am, I don’t have any fingers; I am only spirit.’ He missed putting his fingers on a guitar and making the speakers push air. He told me to call his brother Jimmie [Vaughan] and ask him to lend me his amp, the #007 Dumble, and then play it with a Strat so he could feel it through me. You know that Ghost movie with Whoopi Goldberg? There’s a part where a ghost comes into her body so he can feel. That’s what Stevie was doing.

"He wanted to utilize my body and hands because he missed playing guitar. Jimmie wasn’t sure at first. Fortunately, Stevie’s tech, René Martinez, had the same dream and called Jimmie, which is how we convinced him to lend me the amplifier. The last person to borrow it was John Mayer. Let’s just say Jimmie doesn’t loan that thing out very easily.”

Rightly so. For those of us waiting in vain for Jimmie Vaughan to give us the green light on the Dumble, how would you describe the sound of that amp?

“It sounded like everything I love about Peter Green when he played a certain kind of heavenly blues. My mom once asked me, ‘Mijo, do you like Whitney Houston?’ and I said ‘of course.’ She then told me that when Whitney sang, her voice would become a legion of angels. I think my mom knew what she was talking about.

“Sometimes when you play, you channel things. One person I haven’t mentioned too much is Michael Bloomfield. I miss him a lot. He was a great player who knew how to tap into things. Those Paul Butterfield Blues Band albums, like the [self-titled] debut and East-West, are incredible, with songs like Born in Chicago. And the stuff he played with Bob Dylan, forget about it. Michael Bloomfield was a hero beyond heroes to me.

“But the guy who got me out of all that stuff was [Hungarian jazz, pop and rock guitarist] Gábor Szabó. The way he could play ballads was amazing. Listen to his album Spellbinder [1966] and you will hear a lot of Santana in there. Anyone reading this should listen to Hungarian gypsy music. There is nothing more romantic than hearing that stuff. It really pulled me out of the blues, which is something we all need from time to time.”

• Sentient is out now via Candid.
• This article first appeared in Guitar World. Subscribe and save.

Following career-defining stints with guitar legends Johnny Winter and Stevie Ray Vaughan, bassist Tommy Shannon is practically synonymous with the blues.

“Tommy is the quintessential modern blues bassist,” said Roscoe Beck in a 1997 Special Issue of Bass Player. “Stylistically, he ranks among innovators like Jack Bruce – but he's also rooted in the tradition of of the great Chicago and Texas blues bands, right back to the early bass pioneers like Willie Dixon.”

In 1968, Shannon landed a gig with the then-unknown Johnny Winter. With drummer John Turner, the trio produced three highly influential albums – and made an appearance at Woodstock – before splintering in 1970.

Shannon drifted into drugs and jails throughout the '70s before teaming up with Vaughan and drummer Chris Layton in 1980. “I got strung out on drugs, and I got in trouble with the law,” Shannon told Bass Player. “I lost everything and every friend I had; the only thing I held onto was my Fender Jazz Bass.

“I worked in construction until I was finally able to get back into music. That led to a gig with Rocky Hill, the brother of ZZ Top's Dusty Hill.

“I was living in Houston, and I heard Stevie was going to be playing at a club in town. I walked in and saw him onstage, and this beam of light went through me telling me that was where I was meant to be.”

“I went over to him on a break, and not caring who was in earshot, I said, ‘I belong in this band. I want to play with you.’ I ended up sitting in and having a great time, and about a month later he called and asked me to join.”

The ability to cook up catchy hooks within a bluesy framework is one of Shannon's greatest assets. Perhaps his best known line is the classic riff from Crossfire by Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble.

Crossfire features a vintage blues flavor evident both in the repetition and note content of the unforgettable ostinato. Pinpointing its origin, Shannon stated simply, “I was sitting around playing one night, and the part just came to me.”

Crossfire begins with a drum fill and a 12-bar intro that rides on Shannon's two-bar sub-hook. For the bridge at 01:43, Shannon maintains an almost identical eighth-note rhythmic pattern, this time sticking to roots and octaves.

With the tune building and the guitar solo coming up, Shannon throws in a tasty eighth-note fill at 01:57. “That happened on the spur of the moment, and I liked it so much I repeated it later going into the ride-out guitar solo (at 03:35) – but down an octave for variety.”

As the track picks up intensity via Vaughan's raucous chordal solo, Chris Layton's drum fills, and the addition of the #9 to the Eb7 chord by both Vaughan and keyboardist Reese Wynans, Shannon holds firm.

With his bass part now the only thing keeping it all together, the effectiveness of the static-line concept really becomes apparent. “The track even starts to speed up, which we pointed out to Stevie – but he told us to leave it as is.”

Though Shannon has played various basses throughout his career, his mainstay axe is a 1962 Fender Jazz Bass that he's had since his time with Johnny Winter.

“A lot of different companies send me basses, and some of them are really good, and I'll play them for a while, but I always go back to my old Fender Jazz. I've never heard a bass that sounds better.”

To match Vaughan's Eb tuning, Shannon tuned down a half-step. The resulting lower string tension led to some string-rattle problems on the E and A strings, for which Shannon compensated by using heavier-gauge Rotosound strings and plucking over the bridge pickup instead of his usual spot over the neck pickup.

Carlos Santana may have transcended guitar music and permeated pop culture, yet in his latest interview with Guitar World, the veteran musician reveals multiple brushes with the supernatural – including a “visitation” from Stevie Ray Vaughan.

“I get visitations from Miles Davis sometimes, as well as B.B. King. You don’t have to be dead to visit me. Sometimes a dream is not a dream; someone has come back to communicate with you,” he says matter-of-factly.

“It’s like that with Stevie Ray and Jaco Pastorius. I feel very honored that these people come to me. Sometimes I feel like I’m like [John F. Kennedy International Airport] and all these musicians are landing on me and sharing things. I have to figure out what it all means.”

As for what his dream with SRV meant, Santana is keen to elaborate. “He was saying, ‘Carlos, where I am, I don’t have any fingers; I am only spirit.’ He missed putting his fingers on a guitar and making the speakers push air. He told me to call his brother Jimmie [Vaughan] and ask him to lend me his amp, the #007 Dumble, and then play it with a Strat so he could feel it through me.

“You know that Ghost movie with Whoopi Goldberg? There’s a part where a ghost comes into her body so he can feel. That’s what Stevie was doing. He wanted to utilize my body and hands because he missed playing guitar.”

Safe to say that SRV's brother, Jimmie, wasn't sure at first, and it took some persuasion from Stevie’s tech, René Martinez, who also had the same dream and told him about it, for Santana to borrow the amplifier.

“The last person to borrow it was John Mayer. Let’s just say Jimmie doesn’t loan that thing out very easily.”

So, how did Stevie Ray Vaughan’s famed Dumble sound? According to Santana, it “sounded like everything I love about Peter Green when he played a certain kind of heavenly blues.

“My mom once asked me, ‘Mijo, do you like Whitney Houston?’ and I said, ‘Of course,’” he recounts. “She then told me that when Whitney sang, her voice would become a legion of angels. I think my mom knew what she was talking about. Sometimes when you play, you channel things.”

Santana has just released Sentient, a pared-down, 11-track retrospective of his career, featuring recordings unearthed from archives stored in his house.

16-year-old Rhys John Stygal – the young blues prodigy whose electric guitar abilities have led to the proclamation that he is “the next Stevie Ray Vaughan” – has taken the next step towards fully embracing that mantle, having been given the keys to an obsessive recreation of SRV’s legendary rig.

Stygal’s is a name that has been floating around the blues scene for a few years now. The teenager has amassed a huge following online thanks to his full-throttle, razor-sharp Texas blues chops and gritty style that punters have drawn parallels to SRV’s own.

He’s also previously detailed how the guitar has changed his life, overcoming extreme anxiety brought about by his autism, which prevented him from leaving the house, to sharing the stage with Buddy Guy and Christone ‘Kingfish’ Ingram.

His ability to accurately channel the six-string spirit of Stevie Ray Vaughan, along with his formidable phrasing and handling of the fretboard, has already firmly put him on the path to guitar stardom.

Now, the acclaimed youngster has returned to the Pedal Pawn YouTube channel – who has called him “a walking encyclopedia of Stevie knowledge” – to take another deep-dive into all-things SRV, playing through a rig that has been specially and obsessively curated in order to further blur the lines between Stevie and Stygal.

“This is it – the moment Rhys finally dialled in the real Stevie Ray Vaughan tone!” Pedal Pawn writes. “After years of experimenting, tweaking, and obsessing over every detail of Stevie’s legendary rig, we pulled out all the stops: vintage amps, authentic pedals, and full stage volume (120dB+). The result? Insane.”

For the video, a pedalboard modeled after Vaughan’s late setup was built. That included an Ibanez TS10 and a few Pedal Pawn-own boxes – some of which, it should be mentioned, have themselves been reverse engineered from SRV’s own units.

Joining them was a “wall of Fender amps”, including Deluxe Reverbs and Vibroverbs with an EV-loaded cab and spinning Vibratone. ‘Insane’ is a rather apt word to describe it.

Stygal, who is an authority when it comes to emulating SRV’s tone, also gave his two cents on how to best capture that specific style, paying attention to string gauge and pick attack and sharing his in-depth knowledge about the late blues guitar great.

When asked if bigger strings are a necessity, Stygal says, “It helps, but if your hands don’t like a heavy gauge, that’s no problem. The width of the tone is slightly larger and it’s a bit darker-sounding, and the lighter strings you can’t hit as hard.”

Ultimately, though, Stygal echoes a sentiment widely held by the guitar community – that tone is in the hands: “As much as people don’t hear it, or like to hear it, it’s all in their hands.”

It’s a nice full circle moment for Stygal, who was the focus of a guitarguitar campaign last year that put the spotlight on 20 inspirational players.

Check out Rhys John Stygal on Instagram follow his journey.

Among musical styles, few are as laden with convention and cliché as the blues. Every aspect, from the chord progression to the lyrics, is intentionally derivative. That's why you know blues when you hear it – you've heard it played before, probably in almost the same way.

Texas guitar god Stevie Ray Vaughan generally stuck to tried-and-true blues forms and feels, and benefited from one of the baddest rhythm sections in blues history, also known as Double Trouble.

Despite often being burdened with nailing the groove while also flaunting their own thing, the tandem of bassist Tommy Shannon and drummer Chris Layton laid down unfalteringly fat grooves for SRV to blow over.

Much of Vaughan's music uses the standard 12-bar form, like his biggest hit, Pride and Joy, off his 1983 debut Texas Flood.

“Texas Flood came together quickly because we approached it like a live gig,” Shannon told us back in 2023. “We set up in the studio just like we did when we'd play a show and didn't try and do anything baffling, you know? We set up, went at it, and it turned out great.

“Stevie had his Strat, and I had my old '62 Fender Jazz Bass. We did two songs on the first day and eight songs the next.

“I knew the record was good, but when you hear the way he plays, there's no question that Stevie was an all-time great guitar player.”

Pride and Joy revolves around three chords in the key of Eb: the I, IV, and V chords, or Eb, Ab, and Bb. While the root notes of these chords are diatonic to Eb, they are all non-diatonic dominant 7 chords.

Another standard convention of the blues is the shuffle feel. Pride and Joy is about as shuffling a shuffle as there is. Essentially, the shuffle feel is based on an underlying triplet emphasis for each quarter-note, with the band accenting the first and third notes of the triplet, giving more length to the first.

The second note in each eighth-note pair isn't always played in a shuffle, particularly if the drummer and guitar player are doing their part. Shuffling is as much a state of mind as it is a rigid technical concept.

While each chorus varies (a single time through the form is often called a chorus), many of Shannon's most common devices are represented in the first 12 bars from the beginning of the first verse.

Most important, notice Shannon's extensive use of chord tones, particularly moving from the root to the 3rd. Also note that the 3rd sometimes comes below the root note, depending on overall line contour.

Shannon also uses chromatic passing tones in a few key harmonic turning points, like the transitions from Eb7 to Ab7 and every bar-to-bar transition from the Bb7 onward.

The artful combination of chord and chromatic tones, a killer groove, and a boomy yet crisp tone are all hallmarks of the Tommy Shannon style.

Guitar World's December 1990 issue was dedicated to Stevie Ray Vaughan, who was tragically killed on August 27 of that year in a helicopter crash.

The accident came just as Vaughan was in the midst of a new ascendancy. Having kicked the substance abuse problems that dogged him throughout the mid-'80s, the guitar hero had returned to the limelight in grand style in 1989 with the classic In Step album.

At the time of his death, Vaughan was preparing for the release of Family Style, a long-planned collaboration with his brother, fellow Strat-slinger Jimmie Vaughan. Manning the boards for that album was another Strat legend, Nile Rodgers.

Rodgers first encountered Vaughan in 1983, when the latter was hired to lend some Texas blues attitude to what would become David Bowie's most commercially successful album, Let's Dance.

A number of circumstances led to the eventual souring of Vaughan's relationship with Bowie, but he remained fond of the funk guitar legend, and indeed the two worked well together on Family Style.

Rodgers was one of many guitar greats who Guitar World reached out to after Vaughan's death to share their memories of the guitar hero, and the magic of his playing.

The Chic man recalled the fun times he had working with the Vaughan brothers on Family Style, and looked back with some wonder on Stevie Ray's final session.

“Doing the record with Jimmie and Stevie was such a joy because the three of us felt so connected,” Rodgers told Guitar World. “I wanted the record to reflect how we were enjoying being together, so I asked them to keep the themes of the songs light and fun.

“I had to stress that to Stevie a couple of times: ‘Don't write anything too heavy, Stevie, save that for later.’ So what happens? Jimmie and I go and write Tick Tock, which is a pretty heavy song. And then on top of that we gave that to Stevie to sing! He thought that was pretty funny.

“As he was singing Tick Tock, I became so thrilled at hearing his warmth and compassion come through him as a vocalist,” Rodgers continued. “He was very shy about that, because that meant putting his guitar down and letting his voice do all the emoting.”

That said, after reviewing the tune with fresh ears as the album was just about complete, Rodgers felt that it needed more than just Stevie Ray's vocals.

“Weeks later, I listened to the song and became concerned that we didn't have his guitar on it, so I called him and said, ‘Uh, Stevie, I think we need a little guitar from you on the song. Maybe just play little spots of notes like B.B. King,’” he recounted.

“Stevie hopped on a plane and flew in to do literally 20 seconds of notes. What he played was so concise and dramatic, well, it just blew me away. That was the last thing he recorded for the record.”

As Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble entered Dallas Sound Lab to begin recording their third album in March 1985, they were nearing the end of a remarkable two-year run.

After years of grinding on the Texas blues circuit with a series of near misses, including almost signing with the Rolling Stones’ record label, the band burst onto the national scene with Texas Flood, released by Epic Records in June 1983.

They followed that up less than a year later with Couldn’t Stand the Weather. They had toured the world, played with many of their heroes, and had videos in heavy rotation on MTV.

It was an incredibly productive 24-month period, but the band was on shakier ground than anyone on the outside could have realized. The frenetic lifestyle made it hard to work on new material and spurred an alarming increase in their substance intake, both of which became a problem as they started work on what became 1985’s Soul to Soul.

“In the studio, you’re under a microscope, and have to confront what you really sound like,” says Double Trouble drummer Chris Layton. “Soul to Soul was difficult to make. It was like trying to run a race when you’re very tired. You might make it and even get a good time, but it feels like it’s going to kill you.”

The sessions, which were produced by the band and longtime engineer Richard Mullen, needed a boost. That’s why Vaughan called on three stalwarts of the Texas blues circuit to lend a hand: saxophonist Joe Sublett, keyboardist Reese Wynans, and songwriter Doyle Bramhall.

The latter, a great drummer and singer, was an old friend of Vaughan’s, not to mention his vocal inspiration. As bandmates in the Nightcrawlers a decade earlier, the two had co-written Dirty Pool, which appeared on Texas Flood. “Stevie needed songs and knew Doyle had them,” Sublett says.

The group recorded two Bramhall songs, Change It and Lookin’ Out the Window. Wynans, who had just given two weeks’ notice to singer Delbert McClinton, was originally brought to the sessions to add piano to Look at Little Sister, but he couldn’t hear himself in a room that was set up with a massive wall of amps and a full PA, a setup that only made sense to Stevie, who wanted to recreate the feel of a live performance.

“You could not hear a piano over the roar, so I suggested we try a Hammond organ, where I could isolate the Leslie cabinet,” Wynans says. “I think my organ playing and the energy it added surprised them.”

Sublett faced the same issue, which was resolved by Mullen setting him up in an iso booth with a clean track to avoid audio bleed.

“Richard had a lot of common sense,” says Sublett, who described the volume in the main room as “painful,” noting that the loudness “came from Stevie, who had a Frankenstein wall of amps.”

On Wynans’ first night in the studio, the band worked until seven in the morning, and recorded Change It, the instrumental Gone Home, and Say What!, which bassist Tommy Shannon says had evolved out of a jam based on Jimi Hendrix’s Rainy Day, Dream Away.

In the studio, Vaughan suggested breaking the song down and singing “soul to soul,” which would eventually provide the album title. On that song, Vaughan used a wah wah pedal that had belonged to Hendrix, and which older brother Jimmie had swapped with the guitar god in 1968 when his band opened for the Experience.

As the sessions proceeded, it became apparent that Wynans was doing more than contributing keyboard parts; he also was aiding in arrangements and helped keep things moving. When Stevie showed the band a new song, the slow burner Ain’t Gone ’N’ Give Up on Love, a Wynans contribution helped lock the tune in.

“He came up with the great walk-up part in the bridge, which I thought was one of the coolest things about the song,” Shannon says.

Late one night, Shannon adds, with everyone “hanging out, high and drinking,” Vaughan abruptly asked Wynans if he wanted to join the band, much to the shock of Layton and Shannon. It was never discussed beforehand, but, Layton says, “We knew we had reached a point where we needed some help.”

The previous year, Vaughan wanted to add guitarist Derek O’Brien, in part to free him of some chordal duties so he could focus on soloing and singing. O’Brien played a run of Texas shows before manager Chesley Milliken nixed the idea, not wanting Vaughan to give up any spotlight. Stevie didn’t ask for permission this time.

Vaughan decided to record Empty Arms early one day when he and Shannon were alone in the studio. “We like to play bass and drums together,” Vaughan told Andy Aledort in 1986. “We were just messin’ around.”

Recalls Shannon, Stevie said, ‘Let’s do Empty Arms real slow’ and sat down behind the drums.” Assuming that they were just messing around or establishing an arrangement, Mullen didn’t bother rolling tape until Vaughan insisted he do so.

“They had a little argument, then Richard turned it on – and that’s the take we kept,” Shannon says. “Stevie knew exactly what he had in mind, and he was a great drummer – if he could last through the song. On a shuffle, his arms would get tired.”

The song began at such a slow tempo, Vaughan recalled, that it was “hard to keep going at the same speed. We sped it up 13.5 percent with the Varispeed and recorded the rest of the song to it.”

Vaughan’s playing on Empty Arms did not represent the only drumming-related hijinx on the album. On Looking Out the Window, Layton and Bramhall played together on a single kit.

Recalls Layton, “Instead of playing on two drum sets, [Doyle] pulled up a stool and sat right next to me, and the two of us played one kit!

“I played the ride cymbal and the snare, and he played the hi-hat. So there’s a 4/4 thing going on the hi-hat, but a 6/8 thing with the ride and the bass drum. We tried to sit on the same drum throne, but we kept falling off! We just wanted to be able to say that we played the same drum set at the same time.”

Vaughan took a left turn with Life Without You, a moving soul ballad written for and dedicated to his close friend, guitar maker Charley Wirz, who had died suddenly in February 1985. The song also reflects Vaughan’s passion for soul singers like Curtis Mayfield and Donny Hathaway.

“He was so scared to sing Life Without You because it was so personal,” Shannon says. “He was afraid he wouldn’t be able to do it right.”

The song was largely finished when Vaughan presented it to the band, but they struggled to seamlessly play the form, which had “a lot of chord changes” and two different bridges.

An astute suggestion by Shannon helped the song fall into place. The original moved down chromatically from the A chord to an F, and Shannon thought it would sound better resolving on a minor chord, so Vaughan switched it to F minor.

The bassist also suggested that the song had too many walks, going up from A to C, again up from B to D, and then a walk-down from D to B. They pared those down, then Shannon suggested that “it would sound cool” if Vaughan played a solo reminiscent of Hendrix’s Bold As Love, starting with a slow whine. Those changes locked the song in.

“The first time we ever played the song all the way through, we got to the solo section, and all of a sudden, the song became massive,” Wynans says. “It had seemed so tentative up to that point, then it was like we could all relax, and he just let go.”

That, says Layton, was just the band’s normal operating procedure: “Business as usual.”

Ultimately, four of the album’s 10 tracks were new Vaughan compositions: the simmering, sultry slow blues Ain’t Gone ’N’ Give Up on Love, Empty Arms, Life Without You, and Say What! He was also oddly credited with the swinging instrumental Gone Home, a slightly reworked cover of a song by jazz saxophonist Eddie Harris.

Soul to Soul also included Bramhall’s Lookin’ Out the Window and Change It; R&B star Hank Ballard’s Look at Little Sister; the Willie Dixon-penned Howlin’ Wolf tune, You’ll Be Mine; and New Orleans bluesman Earl King’s Come on (Part III), which Hendrix had recorded on Electric Ladyland.

With the help of Bramhall, Sublett, and Wynans, the band had pulled together an excellent album, one that was destined to serve as a marker for the end of the first era of Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble’s national career.

With the album largely complete, the band returned to the road as a four-piece.

“I initially thought I was just going to play on the songs I had played on the record until the first show, when Stevie told me I was playing on everything,” Wynans says. “He didn’t want to play rhythm all the time so he could concentrate more on singing. Chris, Tommy, and I focused on the groove and forming a tight three-piece rhythm section. They were a great band without me, and I just wanted to add to it.”

Soul to Soul, the band’s third studio album in just over two years, was released September 30, 1985, and it reached Number 34 on the Billboard 200 chart, with the music video for Change It receiving heavy rotation on MTV.

Stevie Ray Vaughan had risen from the gritty Texas blues circuit to become a mainstream artist, but Soul to Soul would peter out, selling less than each of the first two albums. Their record label was concerned that the group was losing steam, but they had bigger issues to deal with.

Stevie would introduce the new quartet by saying, “They’re no longer Double Trouble; now they’re Serious Trouble!” Whether or not he was making a sly joke, Vaughan was expressing a deeper truth than most fans realized.

The drinking and drugging were out of control; Crown Royal and cocaine were the preferred substances, and Stevie and Tommy were the most serious abusers. The band’s performances were becoming increasingly frenetic and chaotic, which would eventually make the recording and compiling of their 1986 live album, Live Alive!, excruciatingly difficult.

By the following fall, the castles made of sand began to crumble. On October 2, 1986, Stevie collapsed on a London stage and entered a rehab facility for drug and alcohol treatment. He wouldn’t record another studio album until 1989’s In Step, a recording that reflected Vaughan’s sobriety in the lyrics of songs like Tightrope and Crossfire and in the clean flow of his playing and singing.

It seemed like a glorious beginning to an exciting new era in SRV’s career. Alas, it was to be the last album he ever recorded with Double Trouble.

• Adapted from Texas Flood: The Inside Story of Stevie Ray Vaughan, copyright 2019, Alan Paul and Andy Aledort.
• This article first appeared in Guitar World. Subscribe and save.

Tyrone Vaughan was 17 when his uncle, Stevie Ray Vaughan, died in 1990. “Texas shut down for a couple of months, if not a whole year,” he tells Guitar World. “It was just hanging your head, trying to figure out what happened.”

Tyrone’s father, Jimmie Vaughan, even stopped playing guitar for a time. “It took him a year or two to get things together and get back out there – but he did with the Strange Pleasure record.”

That was also when Tyrone got things together, joining his father on tour, picking up blues licks and an itch of his own for six-strings. Now in his early 50s, he has gathered a following of his own. He’s straddled the line between blues and country, but lately he’s leaned hard into straight-up Texas blues.

His upcoming album is what you’d expect from a Vaughan.

“I like a very clean tone,” he says. “I like to hear the hands. My dad told me a long time ago, ‘With a Twin and a Tube Screamer, you can take over the world.”

Carrying Stevie and Jimmie’s legacy isn’t easy, but Tyrone is up for it.

“Right now, it’s just a blues thing for me. I’m building some good stuff and I’ve got some yet to build.”

You’re Jimmie’s son and Stevie’s nephew. Can you measure their impact on you early on?

“They had everything to do with it. I was also influenced by Muddy Waters, who, when I was three, gave me a harmonica. My dad was good friends with Muddy; he told my dad, ‘Jimmie, when I’m gone, teach everybody how to play like that.’ He liked the way Jimmie played slide.”

Were you aware that Jimmie and Stevie were doing something special?

“When you look back, you see the significance of that blues movement in Texas. From Dallas to Austin, you can see how it developed – but growing up in it, you didn’t think much of it.

“Stevie would play on a Sunday night with the Cobras [in the mid/late-'70s], and there’d be 10 people in the crowd as he’d be playing blistering blues for two and a half hours straight. Before he was ever playing Albert King-type licks, Stevie was just trying to follow Jimmie.”

Is it true that Stevie bought you your first two guitars?

“He came to my fifth birthday and gave me a pawnshop Harmony guitar. He saved up money for it, and it didn’t have a gig bag; it was like two paper grocery bags on either end, and he was like, ‘Here you go.’ Then he bought me a Fender Musicmaster, which was another pawnshop guitar.

“Stevie came over one night and told my mom, ‘Jimmie’s boy is going to be a player.’ He was excited. The fact that his favorite player – his brother – had a kid who was going to play too, he just thought the world of it. Stevie was a kid at heart. That’s always stuck with me.”

Can you remember his passing?

“Thank goodness he got sober. He was really busy, in a good way. He was pouring his heart and soul into every note, every night. He was going to take a break and come back after that tour, and we were going to hang out and really soak each other up.

“Stevie was my main guy, you know? After he died, my dad really made an effort. He got sober too. He scooped me up and said, ‘Hey, let’s do this,’ and I went on tour with him for the Strange Pleasure album.”

Jimmie and Stevie had just done the Family Style record in 1990.

“It was such an impactful record on everybody. It won a couple of Grammys; it was incredible and it was commercial. It was ahead of its time, and very impactful. After Stevie died, it was devastating – if they’d been able to tour for that record…”

Did traveling with your dad on his Strange Pleasure tour give you the push you needed?

“It was a sick tour. I was about 19 or 20 when it went down. I didn't get to actually play with him onstage, but I traveled with him. I wasn't a roadie, but I did a lot of things backstage.

“My dad showed me some Magic Sam licks and leads. We were going through some old cassettes, and he really got me going on the blues. Coming off that tour is when I really started to dig in and play guitar.”

Do you regret not getting the chance to play with Jimmie and Stevie together?

“Yeah – I always think about how that would be. I think if Stevie were alive right now, I’d probably be in his band. I wish I’d gotten to really play with him. He played in front of me a couple of times, but we didn’t trade licks.”

Is carrying the weight and expectations of the Vaughan name difficult?

“I think so. But it’s difficult for any artist to get out there, right? Everybody is trying to fill the hole. Just to be a real artist is tough enough. But with the Vaughan thing, man, I think I’ve gotten enough nods from enough people.

“I could have bowed out a long time ago, but I’m such a fan of music that I got addicted to playing guitar a long time ago. I love the electricity of the electric guitar. And I love to play Strats. I love that tone thing, you know?

“I’m representing Texas with my tone and how I’m playing out there. But the pressure… I don’t think you can think about it too much. It’s like Stevie – he just put his head down, and one day he woke up on top of the mountain.”

What’s your biggest takeaway from Stevie and Jimmie?

“My dad and Stevie were the best builders in the world. Stevie built the Taj Mahal and Jimmie built the Empire State Building. But I’m a builder, too. I’ve got a knack for it.”

What are you building next?

“I’ve got a new blues record – it’s like the Vaughan brothers’ next record. My friend Doyle Bramhall Jr. was like, ‘Man, it’s hard to write a good blues song; it’s all been done,’ but I think there’s more out there.

“I’ve stumbled on some really good songs lately. I’m getting to the point of finishing up my demo, and I’m going to be shopping it. Hopefully, it’ll put me on the map as a really good blues player.”

• Keep up with Tyrone Vaughan on Instagram.

The family tree of Tyrone Vaughan is absolutely steeped in the blues, and as someone who shares a lineage with two of the finest Texan blues greats of all time – Jimmie is his father, Stevie Ray was his uncle – it will come as no surprise to learn that Tyrone himself started his own musical journey at a very young age.

In fact, he received his first electric guitar for his fifth birthday – and it was gifted to him by the late Stevie Ray Vaughan, whose haphazard wrapping skills left a lot to be desired.

In a new interview with Guitar World, Tyrone Vaughan reflects on his own blues journey, from the pressures of inheriting the Vaughan surname and touring with his father, to following in the footsteps of his illustrious relatives.

He also takes a look back at one of his earliest guitar memories, when Uncle Stevie turned up with a rather on-the-nose gift.

“Stevie came to my fifth birthday and gave me a pawn shop Harmony guitar,” Tyrone recalls. “He saved up money for it, and it didn’t have a gig bag; it was like two paper grocery bags on either end.

“He was like, ‘Here you go.’ [laughs]. And then he bought me another guitar, a [Fender] Musicmaster, which was another pawnshop guitar.”

A guitar from SRV may have seemed like a token gift, but the gesture went far beyond keeping young Tyrone’s present within the theme of the family. Indeed, both Jimmie and Stevie supported the aspiring guitar player when he showed interest in following the family trade.

In fact, Stevie even once approached Tyrone’s mother to voice his support and enthusiasm for the fact there was another Vaughan guitar player in the pipeline.

“He [Stevie] basically came over one night and told my mom, ‘Hey, Jimmie’s boy is going to be a player,’” he continues. “He was excited. Stevie’s favorite guitar player was his brother Jimmie, and the fact that Jimmie had a kid who was going to be playing, you know, he just thought the world of it.

“Stevie was a kid at heart, and he was excited that I was in play. That stuck with me – that’s always stuck with me.”

The full interview with Tyrone Vaughan will be published on GuitarWorld.com in the coming weeks.

The thought of Stevie Wonder and Stevie Ray Vaughan collaborating is a dream, overflowing with musical possibilities. But despite seeming too good to be true, it did actually happen – for just two songs. Most impressively of all, Wonder became one of a handful of people to have played Vaughan's legendary Stratocaster.

The Stevies hooked up with an incredible all-star lineup in 1988 for the MTV special, Stevie Wonder: Characters.

Joining them in the band were Prince & the Revolution bassist Brown Mark, rap duo Salt-n-Pepa, and genre-crossing vocalist Jody Watley.

Perhaps most exciting of all, though, is the backstage footage of Wonder jamming on SRV's famed No. 1 Stratocaster.

Not using a pick, Wonder plucks mainly with his thumb, eliciting a hefty thump from the wound strings. He plucks E blues scale licks in open position, beginning with a four-note figure that resembles the intro to Superstition.

The weighty, fat tone Wonder gets is quite reminiscent of SRV. Tone may be in the hands, but you can hear that this is Vaughan's rig.

The clip cuts off after a tantalising 16 seconds.

The full TV segment, below, shows SRV and the band jamming through two Wonder tunes: Superstition, which Vaughan had covered on his 1986 Live Alive LP, and the 1987 single Come Let Me Make Your Love Come Down. The latter is notable for the extended jam (from 8:50) between Messrs Wonder and Vaughan at the end, and the evident joy from both musicians.

Vaughan, notably, did not play his No. 1 Strat for Superstition, instead opting for his white Charley guitar, a Strat-style instrument with lipstick pickups built for Stevie in 1984 by Dallas guitar tech Charley Wirz.

Even with seemingly programmed drums, the groove that Wonder, Vaughan, and Mark produce is epic.

Vaughan rips out a solo over the outro to Superstition, the aggressive lipstick pickups in the Charley guitar sounding absolutely awesome.

The other musicians leaving the stage, Vaughan switches to his No 1 Strat for Come Let Me Make Your Love Come Down. Vaughan appears to be improvising throughout this. He doesn't play any rhythm, just inserting stinging pentatonic fills into the gaps in Wonder's vocals before the two trade licks over the outro.

With such clear mutual appreciation and musical chemistry between the two artists, it is a shame that they never managed a longer collaboration. It's one of many 'what might have been' absences left by Vaughan's tragic death in 1990, aged just 35.

Stevie's brother Jimmie Vaughan recently reflected on the one and only album he made with his sibling. We also recently learned about how Stevie Ray initially missed out on jamming with his hero Lonnie Mack because Lonnie wouldn't touch anything except a Gibson.

The difference that the choice of fretboard material actually makes is a hotly contested debate among guitar circles. While it's widely accepted that rosewood is softer and maple is snappier, there are others who believe the difference is negligible.

Jimmie Vaughan sits firmly in the latter camp, and in a new interview with Guitar World, the blues guitar ace claims that your choice of fingerboard material makes no difference whatsoever because they all sound the same.

He has some strong supporting evidence to draw on in support of his argument, too: his brother, Stevie Ray Vaughan.

During a discussion of the three most important guitars in his collection, Vaughan turns attention to one of his prized Fender Stratocasters – a 1963 model, to be precise, which originally came with a rosewood fretboard neck.

However, Vaughan promptly swapped the rosewood for a maple alternative because he preferred the aesthetic, and he found the difference in tone to be imperceptible.

“The body is from a ’63 Strat, but the neck is one Bill gave to me, so I guess it’s kind of a ‘parts’ guitar,” Vaughan remembers. “It was really put together by Charley’s Guitar Shop in Dallas and René Martinez, who was a fantastic guitar tech.

“I’d wanted a white Strat for years; it felt like it was unobtainable when I was a kid. I remember seeing Gene Vincent and the Blue Caps in an old movie, and they all had white Strats with the maple neck. I just thought it looked better than the dark rosewood, so I replaced it.”

While some swap their Strat necks for an alternative fretboard because they prefer the feel and tone of a specific wood, Vaughan did it purely for cosmetic reasons – and as far as he’s concerned, it made no difference. That was further made clear every time Stevie Ray Vaughan would flip-flop between the two.

“I know there are people who think it makes a big difference to the sound, but I really don’t think it does,” he adds. “I know Stevie always sounded the same whether it was a rosewood or maple neck.”

There will be those who disagree with Vaughan’s school of thought. For example, Joe Bonamassa has previously said he prefers Strats with maple fretboards, and even noted that “a rosewood ’board results in more of a Stevie Ray Vaughan-type sound”.

“Personally, I’m more of a maple-fretboard Strat player,” he said. “To my ears, the notes jump off it in a different way, as compared to a rosewood ’board.”

On the other hand, Jason Isbell has gone on record to reveal he prefers rosewood ’boards as they “soften things up a little”.

For the full interview with Jimmie Vaughan – as well as new features with Kiki Wong, Jim Babjak and more – visit Magazines Direct to pick up the newest issue of Guitar World.

Dose anyone remember 1985? Unlike the previous year, when one album clearly topped our collective “guitar album of the year” charts (a little something called 1984 by Van Halen), 1985 was more of a smorgasbord.

For alarmingly young me, it was all about Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble; I saw them a few times that year, including their famous September 21 show at the Capital Theatre in Passaic. I even wrote to Guitar World that summer, and they mentioned me on page 73 of the Vaughan-fronted November '85 issue (pictured on page 54 in this very issue).

But there was so much more than SRV in 1985, and we’ve tried to capture a bit of that year’s “anything goes” vibe by revisiting albums by Run-D.M.C., Megadeth, the Dead Milkmen, Heart, Kiss, Aerosmith, Simple Minds, Talking Heads and more.

We've also got a transcription of Dire Straits' 1985 hit, Money for Nothing, which – believe it or not – has never been transcribed in a U.S. guitar mag. And keep in mind that the 1985 festivities continue in Power Tools, where we celebrate the ’85 birth of the eternally stylish PRS Custom 24.

In terms of bands that have nothing to do with 1985, check out our feature on Boston’s GA-20. Our headline, “GA-2.0,” refers to the fact that they’re kicking off a new era, complete with a new guitarist and drummer. I saw them in Brooklyn in December 2023, and I look forward to seeing version 2.0 in action.

Anyway, don’t just sit there. Dig in!

>>> Class of '85: After a summation of 1985's opulent guitar scene by Mr. Brad Tolinski, we launch into a relentless series of brand-new interviews, including:

Joe Perry on Aerosmith's Done with Mirrors, Chris Poland on Megadeth's Killing Is My Business... and Business Is Good, Nancy Wilson on Heart, Yngwie Malmsteen on Marching Out, Double Trouble on SRV's Soul to Soul, Jerry Harrison on Talking Heads' Little Creatures, Eddie Martinez on Run-D.M.C.'s King of Rock, Billy Duffy on the Cult's Love, Paul Jackson Jr. on Whitney Houston, Charlie Burchill on Simple Minds' Once Upon a Time, J Mascis on Dinosaur Jr.'s Dinosaur, Bruce Kulick on Kiss's Asylum, Robert Cray on Showdown!, Bob Mould on Hüsker Dü's New Day Rising and more.

>>> A Smashing Pumpkin: Kiki Wong on her life, gear and technique before and since teaming up with Billy Corgan and James Iha.

>>> GA-2.0: GA-20 – everyone's favorite bass-guitar-free Boston-based blues trio – debut a new guitarist and drummer on the latest EP.

>>> The Smithereens' Jim Babjak: The beloved guitarist talks A Girl Like You, New Jersey rock lore, touring with Tom Petty and his guitar tone's impact on Nirvana.

>>> Third Man Hardware: Yeah, that's right – GW checks in with Jack White's pedal company!

This issue – aka the shockingly breathtaking June 2025 issue of Guitar World – is available right here, right now!

Hold on, now! There's also this other stuff...

>>> Jimmie Vaughan's life in three guitars: The co-founder of the Fabulous Thunderbirds reveals the three guitars that have meant to most to him.

>>> Dead Kennedys: East Bay Ray discusses the making of 1980's Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables.

>>> This is Cracker Soul: A rare GW interview with Cracker guitarist Johnny Hickman.

Plus new interviews with King Diamond's Andy LaRocque, the Night Flight Orchestra's Sebastian Forslund, Field Music's Peter Brewis, Jonathan Hultén, Bonnie Trash's Emmalia Bortolon-Vettor, the Cradle of Filth guys, the Fleshtones' Keith Streng and the Cars' Elliot Easton.

Gear-wise, we explore the history and allure of the PRS Custom 24, and we review all this cool stuff:

>>> Gibson Victory and Victory Figured Top
>>> MXR Rockman X100 Analog Tone Processor
>>> SOMA Harvezi Hazze
>>> SoloDallas SVDS Boost
>>> Shure MV7i Smart Microphone & Interface

We have new columns by Joe Bonamassa, Jared James Nichols, Sue Foley and Cory Wong, plus transcriptions of Money for Nothing by Dire Straits, Idle Hands by Kerry King and Better Man by Pearl Jam.

Being a native Texan and a disciple of Stevie Ray Vaughan raises expectations for a blues guitarist.

“It’s just a thing,” Ian Moore reflects. But he hasn’t always followed the rules. “I know it's been confusing,” he says. “People have a million theories about why I've done things the way I have. I wanted to learn, get better, and catch some beauty.”

He burst onto the scene in 1993 with his self-titled debut album, then toured with Bob Dylan, ZZ Top, and The Rolling Stones.

“They were just like two big kids who loved to play guitar,” Moore says of Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood specifically. “I still take inspiration from seeing their pure joy and presence.”

The Strat-slinger admits to being “a bit naive and starry-eyed” when he moved away from traditional blues, starting with his second album.

“Blues rock guitarists don’t typically evolve into art rock guys. I can now see that people had a perception of me and who I was, and as I strayed from that, it was confusing to them. The fact that people have stuck with me is amazing.”

Moore suffers from laryngeal dystonia, a neurological disorder that makes speaking – though not singing – all but impossible. But he can still play guitar.

“I’ve really refocused my energy on playing,” he explains. “There are so many badass guitar players right now, and it’s really inspiring for me to grow and stretch.”

Together with Jesse Dayton and Johnny Moeller, as the Texas Headhunters, Moore will release new music in August, with a tour to follow.

“I feel like a much deeper player,” he says. “I see the guitar differently. I’m challenging my style and my defaults, and I’m growing through it.”

Tell us about the childhood accident that led you from violin to guitar.

“The short version is that my mom was dying of cancer, which of course turned her life and mine upside-down. I was a teenager, and we were trying to navigate that as well. We just had a crazy moment where everything kind of broke and we got into a supercharged emotional fight.

“I was so upset that I raised my arms as if to hit her and she reflexively pushed me. I fell backward from the steps, and my left arm hit her wine glass. A shard of glass went deep into my wrist, cutting all my tendons. There was a lot of blood.

“We went to the hospital and they reattached my tendons. It wasn’t some renowned hand surgeon. It was who was on staff. I had a cast and sling for months. When it came off, I started playing guitar.”

Growing up in Texas, did you take influence from Steve Ray Vaughan?

“When I started doing interviews, all the journalists outside of Austin only knew Stevie’s sound. I spent a lot of time trying to explain what it actually was. We were all trying to play like his brother, Jimmie – even Stevie – Denny Freeman and Bill Campbell.

“The thing that was so special is Stevie's heart. You could really feel it in his playing. A big part of the blues is knowing the lexicon of what has come before and incorporating that in ways that honor the tradition. Stevie had a way of doing that, while also having a powerful, unique voice.

“The other thing is that Stevie was such a gentle and kind person. He gave me my first guitar. He was always unbelievably gracious with me. The most notable conversation I ever had with him was backstage at Guadalupe Antone’s, when I was telling him that I was getting a lot of comparisons to him.

“He told me that when he started, he was always compared to his brother, and then to Hendrix – and it was a way to kind of discount who he was. He told me I was part of a tradition and my sound would be my sound, and not to let anyone ever tell me who I was. I took that to heart.”

What type of guitar did Stevie give you?

“I was so young that I’m not totally sure! I think it was an ES-335. It was a Gibson hollow body that I only had for a short time. He dropped it off and said I could play it until he needed it again, which was about six months later.”

What cultivated your love for the Strat?

“Everyone in Austin played a Strat – Jimmie, Stevie, Eric [Johnson], Doug Sahm, Bill Campbell, Denny [Freeman], and Buddy Holly. When I bought my number one at Hennings Music in Austin, I was actually eyeing an ES-175 jazz guitar.

“I was deep into Coltrane and Parker. I had this half-baked fantasy about being a Kenny Burrel-type jazzer. I went back and forth with the two guitars and finally bought the Strat with the Esquire neck for $750. I thought I could get close to the ES-175 sound with the Strat.

“For what I want the Strat is the most versatile and a real working man's guitar. I’ve been trying not to play one for most of my career – but they just work so well.”

You’ve said there’s a “snake oil element” to Dumble amps. Are they as magical as they seem, or are they just beloved because of SRV?

“It’s not just Stevie; it’s Eric Johnson too. I think a lot of the new wave of players buying them are as influenced by Eric and Robben Ford as Stevie. To be honest, I didn’t like Stevie’s tone as much in the heavy Dumble period. It sounded a little tight to me.

“I liked that looser sound – to me it was a more emotional. I got really into Fender designs and learned a good deal about what Dumble would do that made his sounds. To my ears, a lot of it has to do with filtering, especially with his cleaner designs.

“But like many amp builders, he had stuff he did to build his mystery. Guys spend tons of money on super-odd capacitors and resistors, and within the hardcore Dumble community, they get into how much of a difference it makes.

“I’ve been around serious builders of studio gear who know much of the Dumble story just isn’t true. That said, those designs have been integrated deeply into so many great amps.”

After releasing your self-titled debut in 1993, you opened for ZZ Top, Bob Dylan, and the Stones. What was that like?

“The first ‘grownup’ records I had were the Stones, Beatles, and Buddy Holly. When I opened for Bob, I was really diving into my own songwriting – so getting to hang with him, play with him, and talk to him was huge! He was so knowledgeable about old blues music.

“When I did the ZZ tours, I often traveled often with Billy Gibbons. We wrote a bunch of songs, some of which we recorded. I’m still trying to find some of those.

“It was so crazy with the Stones because they were literally the biggest group in the world. Keith and Ronnie had this jam room; my bud Red Dawn decorated it like a Bedouin camp – except filled with old tweed amps. I had a couple of times where we sat around and played old blues stuff for what seemed like forever.”

Your second album, Modernday Folklore, was successful – but then things took a turn. Why?

“At the risk of sounding flippant, I never chase success. I was trying to develop into a deeper player and a better songwriter. As I got deeper into that and the art of production, it took me away from guitar-driven music.

“I was a big fan of mid- to late-'60s music, and I wanted to have a creative arc that was similar to that. I had a sound in my head that I think was pretty cool. I think we were just a bit out of step with the times.”

You’ve had some neurological issues. How have they impacted you?

“Musicians and artists have to be open and sensitive – it’s our superpower. It’s how we find the sounds, the feelings, and the magic. It’s amazing! The issue is that when you live there, you’re open to everything. It all hits you. It's why so many musicians die young after tumultuous lives.

“One of my guiding lights in my music is bringing people together. A few years ago, our country started getting meaner. I’m in that middle ground trying to bring unity through music, but I think it just got too intense. My body was trying to protect me. I’d started a nonprofit, SMASH, around that time, and it was taking a lot of time and energy. I also lost my bass player and best friend, Matt, to drugs and alcohol.

“My laryngeal dystonia is brought on by this kind of stuff. It’s neurological; it creates a gripping, which has made speaking almost impossible. Thankfully, my singing, which is on the other side of the brain, remains much more present. Everyone is very sweet, and it is challenging – but honestly, it’s also a gift.

“It’s giving me the opportunity to work on my joy and my gratitude. I feel happier and more present. Plus, it’s given me a renewed focus on my guitar. I’m not spending as much time singing and writing, so my guitar practice has really ramped up!”

• Catch the Ian Moore Band live.

Gary Clark Jr. has delivered a blazing take on Stevie Ray Vaughan's Pride and Joy and Dirty Pool alongside Eve Monsees on vocals and guitar – for Austin City Limits' 50th Anniversary PBS special, which will be premiering today (April 4) at 9 pm ET.

For Clark Jr., the performance was a full-circle moment, as he has often mentioned how, growing up, he watched his heroes – including Stevie Ray Vaughan – on old episodes of the series. Now, he's payed it forward with a stellar, blues-through-and-through tribute to SRV, via a two-song knockout of tunes by the Texas legend.

“I used to miss out on hanging out with my friends on Saturday nights to sit in front of the television and watch Austin City Limits,” comments Clark Jr. “I'd sit there with my guitar and that was my education. This show gave me purpose, it gave me hope.”

Another full-circle moment comes by way of the song choice – specifically SRV's Pride and Joy, from his 1983 debut Texas Flood – as Clark Jr. notes how the last time he played this track was back in 1998 at his eight-grade middle school talent show in Austin, where he also performed alongside his childhood friend, Monsees.

Fittingly for the occasion, GCJ and Monsees both brandish Strats – an Olympic White and a black one, respectively – a surefire nod to SRV's penchant for the model.

In a 2012 Guitar World interview, Clark Jr. waxed lyrical about SRV's impact on his trajectory, recalling how receiving Vaughan’s Texas Flood (along with the Jimi Hendrix compilation The Ultimate Experience) “just set it off for me.”

He continued, “Through Stevie Ray Vaughan I learned about Jimmie Vaughan and other Austin guitarists, like Denny Freeman and Derek O’Brien. When Clifford Antone brought Hubert Sumlin and Buddy Guy to his club [Austin’s famed nightclub, Antone’s], I’d go see them. I soaked it all up. That was my foundation.”

Beyond this special tribute to Vaughan, Austin City Limits' 50th-anniversary two-hour broadcast will also feature performances by the likes of Chris Stapleton, Billy Strings, Leon Bridges, Indigo Girls, and Ángela Aguilar.

As the former lead guitarist of Huey Lewis and the News – a bonafide hit machine back in the ’80s and ’90s – Chris Hayes has his fair share of anecdotes from the group's heyday – like writing and recording Workin’ for a Livin’, I Want a New Drug and the Oscar-nominated The Power of Love, and, of course, life on the road. And touring meant rubbing shoulders with a gamut of musicians – including Stevie Ray Vaughan, who happened to be the band's opening act in 1984.

“Stevie Ray Vaughan was great, [who] we toured with for like, a year. Every night, it was like a guitar lesson for me,” he tells Vertex Effects.

Hayes recalls a particular night – about halfway through the tour – which, aided with a bit of liquid courage, helped solidify his friendship with the blues great. “He said, ‘Hey, Chris, come on the bus with me. I want to hang out.’ I went, ‘Great.’ I get to go hang out with Stevie Ray Vaughan. This is freaking awesome.’

“So he kicks all the other guys in the band off the bus, and it's just me and Stevie on the bus, with a bottle of Crown Royal, and we just wrapped it down. Drank that whole bottle of Crown Royal. Of course, he could handle it. I think I was sick as a dog in the morning because it's not the safest thing to drink.”

Hayes recalls how it was such a great time for him because, aside from Vaughan being “kind of one of my heroes,” they both had a deep admiration for Jimi Hendrix. As he summarizes that experience, “That night on the bus with him, that was life-changing for me.”

As for whether he ever tried to play one of SRV's guitars – perhaps even his infamous Number One/First Wife – Hayes responds with a laugh.

“I couldn't play them!” he admits. “He had like, 12s on the top. It was like a G string. I was like, ‘How do you do that?’ Man, he was just so strong – I could barely play his guitar. The lower strings were super [thick] – I mean, they were probably, I don't know, 60s or [something]. It was crazy.”

In an extensive 2023 Guitar World interview, Hayes reflected on his storied career, his jazz beginnings, and how he “just kind of fell into” being part of Huey Lewis’ band.

Stevie Ray Vaughan and the Stratocaster are one of those iconic guitarist/guitar pairings – Brian May and the Red Special, Jimmy Page and his Number One 1959 Les Paul, et cetera.

Less well-known, but equally air-tight, was the relationship of one of Vaughan's foremost guitar heroes, the always-underrated Lonnie Mack, to the Gibson Flying V. And Mack's loyalty was not without reason.

His V of choice happened to be a '58 model known as “Number 7,” so named because it was the seventh V to ever roll out of Gibson's factory, then in Kalamazoo, Michigan. As if that distinction didn't make it noteworthy enough, Mack also famously had the guitar fitted with a Bigsby vibrato unit attached to a piece of stainless steel spanning the guitar's wings.

Now, there are stories aplenty of guitarists abandoning their signature (literally and otherwise) guitars in special, typically guest, appearances – Washburn man Nuno Bettencourt, for instance, used a Les Paul for a mini-gig with Steven Tyler just last month.

When Vaughan invited his idol to jam onstage with himself and his band, Double Trouble, one night, though, both guitarists' particularly strong loyalties proved to be a slight sticking point. Vaughan's arsenal, you see, was solely comprised of Strats.

“Lonnie came into an Austin club where we were playing,” Vaughan told Guitar World in a 1983 interview. “I asked him if he would play, but Lonnie, the master of the Flying V, said he wouldn't touch anything but a Gibson, and so he just got up and sang his ass off. Later he said he wanted to produce us.”

Vaughan, as it turns out, would soon produce him, with the two working closely together on Mack's 1985 comeback album, Strike Like Lightning.

On that album, Mack and Vaughan re-worked the former's pioneering instrumental, Wham (the first record that Vaughan ever bought) as Double Whammy. Asked about the recording of the re-working in a 1986 interview with Guitar World, Mack gave insight into the chemistry that first flickered that fateful evening.

In response to a question about how he “arranged” his parts with Vaughan, Mack said with a laugh, “I'd just say, ‘go!’

“I'd say, ‘Okay, you play rhythm, take the second solo,’ like that; we never worked anything out in detail. Or like when we did Wham, it was obvious I was going to do the intro, so I just played until I decided it was time for him, got it right there and then nodded at him.

“So he played it for a while, then he looked at me, I got the message and I took it,” Mack continued. “Very informal: I like it like that.”

Australian guitar wunderkind Taj Farrant may have made his tentative steps in the music industry on Australia's Got Talent and The Ellen Show – but has since gone on to rub shoulders with and even share the stage with luminaries the likes of Carlos Santana, Rob Thomas, and Orianthi.

Now, he's adding another endorser to this fast growing list, as Nuno Bettencourt has recently bestowed upon him the title of Stevie Ray Vaughan and Eddie Van Halen reincarnated.

The Extreme guitarist reposted a video of Farrant's live interpretation of his quintessential blues single, Mumma Raised a Man, and could not help but rave about the 15-year-old guitarist.

“Yes, the internet is littered with great players, especially jaw dropping technical players,” writes Bettencourt. “But rarely, do you get that technical prowess that shoots straight through the heart with pure emotion. We may be witnessing a true future guitar hero in our midst. Shreds the blues… but MORE IMPORTANTLY he does it with Soul, Passion and Fire.”

“It’s as if God was doing his weekly reincarnations…but on this day…enjoying a bit of a drink…just to fuck with us convinced SRV and EVH to be reincarnated into one body… and just for fun he threw in Michael Jordan’s fingers.”

Bettencourt goes on to call the young guitarist's performance “dangerous” and “inspiring” – applauding Farrant for unleashing the solo that was filmed “LIVE on a fucking stage…not in the safety of a bedroom or studio.

“I truly don’t care about your age… I’m not in awe of that. I’m in awe of you. Chills watching this. Must have rewatched a dozen times. You are fierce...it’s pouring out of you. Go get it kid.”

The young guitarist is already making a strong impression, revealing in the comment section that the guitar featured in the video is a signature Kiesel model that's in the pipeline, while he's currently touring the U.S. in support of his debut album, Chapter One, released last year.

As for Nuno Bettencourt, when Extreme made their return in 2023 with their sixth album – Six – and their first single in 15 years, Rise, the virtuoso revealed that he had made a promise to himself to carry Eddie Van Halen's fire.

“When Eddie Van Halen passed, it really hit me,” Bettencourt commented. “I’m not going to be the one who will take the throne, but I felt some responsibility to keep guitar playing alive. So, you hear a lot of fire on the record.” Seems like Nuno has found his partner in crime…

Whether you’re a pro musician or play with bands in your spare time, chances are you’ll spend the majority of your time fulfilling rhythm guitar duties.

You’re certainly not alone in this – many great soloists are also fantastic rhythm players, covering both rhythm and lead parts and frequently blurring the lines between the two. Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan are great examples of this blending of styles, with the solo/examples here (broadly speaking) inspired by the latter.

We’re working in a ‘trio’ format, with just bass and drums for support, so we need to cover harmonic, melodic and rhythmic areas far more comprehensively than we would in a conventional lead/rhythm or guitar/keyboards line-up. Linking chords with pentatonic embellishments via an awareness of the CAGED patterns really helps when exploring these ideas.

I’ve opted for a fairly low-gain sound, which allows the notes of any chords to come through clearly. Even so, I’ve taken care to mute unwanted strings, as shown with the open fourth string in Example 1.

I’ve also kept the options as open as possible by keeping the bass moving to support the guitar, and avoided – or at least avoided lingering on – major or minor 3rds, so you can switch between the two or be ambiguous about it, which is such a hallmark of this style.

In the context of a song, details such as this are often more rigid, but it’s nice to have the freedom to treat this as more of a ‘freestyle jam’ – a safe place to take risks as a learning experience.

You’ll see that I’ve taken groups of chords/inversions and superimposed them over what the bass often implies as a single chord. There are also a few (hopefully) useful pentatonic phrasing ideas. Hope you enjoy this and see you next time!

Example 1

After a cheeky slide down the sixth string to set the mood, this example features several useful chord shapes based around E major.

Note the open fourth string is muted; it does feature in the very first hit of bar 1, but from then on I’m using my fretting hand fingers to stop it ringing as this would negatively affect the clarity. For ease of reading, I haven’t marked these muted hits on the transcription: if the tab doesn’t say it, don’t play it!

Example 2

Moving on to an implied A chord, this example follows a similar template to Example 1. There are a few useful and interesting chord ideas leading to a couple of pentatonic licks at the end.

Also like Example 1, there’s a strong swing feel, using upstrokes on the muted or open strings to give the illusion of another rhythm guitarist playing at the same time. It pays to experiment with ideas such as this because there are many more possibilities to be explored, not just what’s written here.

Example 3

As in Example 1, I’m muting unwanted strings to keep things clear – in this case, the fourth string in those B7 and C7 chords. From bar 3, I’m experimenting with different inversions and adding some pentatonic embellishments, which fall under the fingers quite easily with these shapes.

This is quite a simple principle, but it is key when coming up with these kinds of guitar parts. As with the other examples, I’ve played a more bluesy pentatonic lick to link with the next idea.

Example 4

There’s a more ‘solo guitar’ approach to this final example, something I felt free to do having established a good strong harmonic basis with the earlier chords. I’m mixing open and fretted strings, and being deliberately dissonant at times.

After playing around with a shape 1 open-position E minor pentatonic, we move to a ringing open-position B7, before finishing with a classic ‘when-I woke-up-this-morning’ style blues riff!

Hear it here

Stevie Ray Vaughan And Double Trouble – Texas Flood

Recorded back in late 1982 but not released until the following year, this is essentially a live album, recorded ‘off the studio floor‘ in just a few days.

Listen to Pride And Joy and you’ll hear this was a big influence on these examples. Elsewhere, check out Rude Mood as well as Mary Had A Little Lamb for further examples of the way Stevie would fill out the sound by combining bluesy licks with chords and rhythmic playing.

John Mayer Trio – Try! Live In Concert

This 2005 live recording covers a few different styles – but, most importantly, amply demonstrates John Mayer’s ability to seamlessly combine rhythm and lead (and vocals!) in one go.

Make sure you check out Who Did You Think I Was, Gravity and Out Of My Mind for further examples, although it’s well worth a listen to all the other tracks here, too. Live trio-based albums are a great hunting ground for ideas to fill out the sound and keep things interesting.

Jimi Hendrix – Band of Gypsys

Carrying on with the ‘live trio’ theme, this album is also a definitive example. Jimi covers both rhythm and lead playing, using a selection of interesting chord voicings, rhythms and sometimes just playing riffs in unison with the bass.

Check out Who Knows, Message To Love and We Gotta Live Together to hear lots of examples and a few underlying principles such as combining CAGED chords and pentatonic shapes to blur the line between rhythm and lead guitar.

It has come to my attention that, of all of the columns I’ve created for GW, I have yet to talk about the great Stevie Ray Vaughan. Oh my god!

As a child of the ’70s, in 1983, when I was all of six years old, there were two guitar players that changed the game for me: on the rock side, it was Eddie Van Halen.

The other was Stevie Ray Vaughan, who came out of Austin wielding an old Stratocaster and a Fender amp set to stun, and turned the blues guitar world on its head. We all play like Stevie – we all share this connection to his incredible debut album, Texas Flood, and the great records that followed.

For the examples in this column, I’m playing a 1964 Candy Apple Red Strat with a “hardtail,” which means there's no tremolo system. In that way, it’s like a Telecaster, and I’m a big fan of hardtail Strats.

When I first heard Stevie, I heard licks like this (see Figure 1), which is played in 5th position, in the A blues scale (A, C, D, Eb, E, G) box, with the inclusion of the 9th, B, and the flatted 9th, Bb, Stevie routinely tore through licks like these on tracks like Texas Flood, Pride and Joy, Say What! and many others.

A real signature of his is the lick that falls on beat 2 in the first bar: on the B string, after bending G up to A, I move to the high E string and play A to B, followed by a quick hammer/pull from A to Bb, followed by a pull-off from G to E on the B string as the phrase then continues moving down the scale all the way to A on the 6th string.

The roots of this lick go back to T-Bone Walker, as well as Jimi Hendrix, and overall Stevie melded the combination of those two influences, as well as Albert King’s, in his own inimitable way.

Live at El Mocambo explodes with phenomenal playing, with tunes like So Excited.

Figure 2 is played in that style and ends with an aggressive slide down the high strings. Stevie’s playing on all of his records changed the world for me: it was the tone, phrasing, infinite amount of ideas and flawless articulation, with a very simple toolkit of a Strat, a couple of Vibroverbs, a Tube Screamer and a wah pedal.

Jackson Browne lent Stevie his Dumble amp for the Texas Flood recording sessions, and Figures 3 and 4 illustrate phrases played in the key of G, along the lines of how Stevie kicks off the title track.

Figure 4 is a good representation of Albert King’s influence, delivered as only Stevie could. I spent countless hours jamming along to Tin Pan Alley (Couldn’t Stand the Weather), and at that time, Stevie was certainly one of my biggest influences.

He redirected the future of blues guitar from his very first release, and his influence continues to inspire new generations of aspiring players.

In 1990, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Jimmie Vaughan – two brothers who had both made an indelible mark on the wider world of blues guitar – joined together for the first time in their respective careers under the ‘Vaughan Brothers’ umbrella to release Family Style.

Released mere weeks after SRV died, Family Style was the only record the pair worked on together, and was the last album that Stevie himself worked on in his life.

Family Style marked a full circle moment, though, and as Jimmie Vaughan notes in a new interview with Guitar Player, it harkened back to the pair’s earliest memories when they were both budding guitar players finding their feet on the fretboard.

While discussing the guitar highlights from his career, Vaughan reflects on the making of Family Style, and recalls how the prospect of him and Stevie recording an album together had been mooted long before their solo careers took off.

“Ever since we were little kids our dad would say, ‘Okay, boys, go get your guitars and play something in the living room for our guests,’” Jimmie remembers. “And someone would always say, ‘That’s really great boys, maybe someday you can make a record together.’ It was a long time coming.”

Reflecting further on Family Style – and specifically of the track Tick Tock – Jimmie says, “Recording the Vaughan Brothers’ Family Style with Stevie was one of the highlights for me. I wrote the music and the chorus, with the words ‘Tick Tock.’

“Nile Rogers, who was producing, wrote the lyrics. When I turned up, I had a recording of what I had, played it to Nile and he took about 10 minutes to write the words. [laughs]

"I couldn’t pick a particular favorite from this album – it was all real serious and heavy to me as we were working on it. And then Stevie got killed. We were together for three months making that record and had a real great time doing it.”

The album was released September 25 1990, weeks after Stevie Ray Vaughan died in a helicopter crash on August 27. Last year, a documentary that centered on the relationship between Jimmie and SRV was released.

Head over to Guitar Player to read the full interview with Jimmie Vaughan.

Texas is home to some of the best guitarists the world has seen – and among the best are the underrated. Jim Suhler is primarily known for his lead role in George Thorogood and the Destroyers, but there’s more to his forceful talent for playing slide guitar, transforming that twang of blues into celestial quality.

Starting out in his trio, Jim Suhler & Monkey Beat, he’s gone on to work with incredible artists, collating extraordinary stories along the way. Those including a memorable encounter with Stevie Ray Vaughan, Billy Gibbons officiating his wedding, and Joe Bonamassa’s star appearance on Monkey Beat album Tijuana Bible.

Why did you gravitate towards slide technique?

“Initially it was Johnny Winter’s Captured Live! album. His cover of Bob Dylan’s Highway 61 Revisited really hit me hard. I remember going to a friend’s house and watching Dazed and Confused, sitting in his room listening to that; it just blew my mind.

“Slide came more naturally to me than anything else I was trying to do. I was also listening to Robert Johnson in my late teens and started trying to cop a lot of that stuff somehow.”

Monkey Beat’s second album Shake includes the track Snake Bit, where different instruments characterise a snake – slide movements up and down the fretboard, and 16th notes on shakers like a rattle. Was all that intentional?

“Probably only with the shaker! Not necessarily the slide – but now you mention it, yeah, I hear that! I remember cutting that solo. We did it at Compass Point Studios in Nassau in the Bahamas with Terry Manning producing.

“He wanted me to use a particular guitar sound on the solo, but I wasn’t digging the sound at all. Man, he was right! Once I listened to the track it really fit well within it. I’m glad he overrode me that day. I’d never thought of the snake vibe with the guitar before, but I guess you’re right!”

What guitar did you use on Snake Bit?

“It was a ’93 Gibson Hall of Fame Les Paul Junior with P100 pickups. The neck got snapped – I was flying overseas and when I opened the case, it had snapped at the headstock. I had it repaired; twice, actually, but it was never the same. I really miss that guitar. It had such a great sound and great vibe to it.”

Was Monkey Beat a Gibson gig, or did you switch it up?

“On the first album Radio Mojo, any electric guitar you heard would have been a Strat. But the second album going forward I was using more Gibsons. More humbuckers and P90s, just for a little textual variation.

“There were times where a Fender was a little thin. I’m always trying to find a happy medium between Gibson and Fender. It’s a never-ending battle. It’s easier for me to make the Fender sound like a Gibson than the other way around.”

When you joined George Thorogood and the Destroyers in 1998, was it an easy decision?

“My only question was: ‘When do I start?’ Things were slow – I was between albums and struggling financially. I’d actually thought to myself it would be nice to get a side gig with some big band. I got the call and started playing a few months later with them. I was elated. It was a very easy decision to make.”

How has George shaped you as a guitarist?

“First and foremost, George is an entertainer. Even before I was in the band, just watching him, I learned how to deal with the crowd and how to handle an audience. I had always liked playing with a second guitar player so that was easy. If George is playing one thing, I’ll find another thing to play.

“It’s not a ground-breaking musical idea, but learning how to listen, when to step up and when to stay back, is another thing I got with George.”

You opened for AC/DC in 2002. What was it like playing to their crowd?

“They don’t have a lot of patience for anything other than Angus – on the second show in Hamburg, the Black Crowes, who were opening, got booed off. The first show, we got into Bad to the Bone, then they were like: ‘Oh, those guys. I know who this is.’

“I remember AC/DC signed my Strat. I had everybody sign it – Neil Young, Jeff Beck… In fact, when Angus saw Beck’s signature he said: ‘Oh, the bouffant!’ They were great to us; gave us all kinds of access, like standing with the guitar tech. It was just a wall of Marshall amps for as far as you could see.”

How did you get Joe Bonamassa to appear on Monkey Beat’s Tijuana Bible album?

“Joe played on Deep Water Lullaby, which was a title I’d dreamed. A friend of mine – I didn’t know this at the time – had a family member who drowned. I don’t know where this stuff comes from, but it’s floating around.

“The song is very Hendrix, so I was thinking, ‘This really calls for a superhuman to play a solo beyond my abilities.’ I knew Joe, so I called him. He was coming from Houston and had a night off, but he was sick. He came out to the studio, did the solo and killed it.

“He did a couple passes, one with a Les Paul and one with a Strat; I think we used the Strat solo. I tried to pay him some money but he wouldn’t accept it. I’ve got a lot of love for Joe. We go way back; he was still riding around in a van when I met him before he ascended the stratosphere.”

Can you remember the first time you met?

“I was playing with George in San Diego in 2001 and Joe was opening. I walked in and hear this guy playing Cradle Rock by Rory Gallagher, and I was like: ‘Whoa!’

“First of all, Rory wasn’t that popular, so that had my attention. Second, he was absolutely killing it. We became friends from then on. Monkey Beat would do shows with Joe whenever he came through Texas or Oklahoma. He came down to Dallas and played the guitar show with me a few times; he’s a good friend and a good man.”

On a slightly different note, Billy Gibbons officiated your wedding.

“Yeah! The crew working for the Destroyers also worked for ZZ Top and they were still in touch with Billy. I knew our tour manager had been married by Billy; I think they were the first couple. I jokingly said to a crew member: ‘I’m engaged – ask Billy if he’d do it!’

“Then Billy called me, and I thought it was a prank call. I don’t know what he knew about me, but he did it. It was as nutty as you’d think it was. He took it very seriously and his mother, Lorraine, was there. Then we all went down to the Texas coast.

“Billy sent us champagne, chocolates and flowers. You haven’t lived until you’ve gone out on the town in Texas with Billy Gibbons. His influence is very big on me, personally as well as musically.”

You’ve met Stevie Ray Vaughan – how did that come about?

“I never got to play with him, but I had seen him a bunch of times. I met him for the first time in ’89. We had a family jewellery shop in Dallas and Stevie had an old antique watch he brought in to get repaired. I just happened to be there when he came in; in fact I walked right past him when my dad was talking to him.

“My dad called me back and said, ‘Son, there’s somebody here you want to meet.’ And it was Stevie. I was in my late 20s, trying to get it together. I hadn’t met George at that point; so my dad asked him: ‘Do you have any advice for my son?’

“I was really embarrassed by that at the time, but Stevie said to me: ‘Yeah, keep it clean.’ To me, one of the greatest parts of his legacy was his sobriety and him helping others through that journey as well.

“He never come back to get his watch, so in 1990, the last time he played in Dallas, I took the watch out to where he was playing, got backstage and gave it back to him. He did have a light – an aura or energy – about him. It was palpable. It was real and he was very powerful. God bless him; he was a great man.”

Texas electric guitar heavyweight Jim Suhler may be best known for his starring role in George Thorogood & The Destroyers, but he’s also collected a hat-full of other A-List collaborations and encounters across his prolific career.

Billy Gibbons officiated his wedding, for example, and he tapped Joe Bonamassa for a Hendrix-inspired song on his 2007 solo album. Plus, he also had a rather memorable first meeting with another prestigious blues player: Stevie Ray Vaughan.

“I met him for the first time in 1989,” Suhler says in a new chat with Guitar World. “We had a family jewelry shop in Dallas and Stevie had an old antique watch he brought in to get repaired. I just happened to be there when he came in. In fact I walked right past him when my dad was talking to him.

“My dad called me back and said: ‘Son, there’s somebody here you want to meet.’ And it was Stevie. I was in my late twenties trying to get it together. I hadn’t met George at that point so my dad asked him: ‘Do you have any advice for my son?’”

Very much an adult at this point, Suhler said he was “really embarrassed” to be stood there in front of one of the greatest blues guitarists to ever live, his father asking him for advice on his behalf. But his profound response quelled any concerns he may have had very quickly.

“Stevie said to me: ‘Yeah, keep it clean.’ To me, one of the greatest parts of his legacy was his sobriety and him helping others through that journey as well,” Suhler expands.

Strangely, Suhler adds that SRV “didn’t come back to get his watch”, and so the young guitarist hatched a plan to cross paths with the blues great a year later to return the forgotten timepiece.

“The following year [1990, the last time SRV performed in Dallas], I took the watch out to where he was playing, got backstage, and gave it back to him,” Suhler reveals. “He had a light; an aura or energy about him. It was palpable. It was real and he was very powerful. God bless him; he was a great man.”

The guitarist’s life was tragically cut short in August of that year. Suhler, after slinging licks in The Homewreckers and Jim Suhler & the Monkey Beat for nearly a decade, joined Thorogood’s group in 1999.

British pedal crafter Pedal Pawn has introduced the Cowboy King overdrive pedal – a new take on the classic Tube Screamer circuit that promises to “enhance the crap out of your amp”.

Notably, the pedal’s heritage can be traced back to a previous Pedal Pawn creation called the BluesPrint – a dual overdrive offering two distinct TS-style tones, which was created after close inspection of Steve Ray Vaughan's own personal 1983 Ibanez TS9 pedal.

One of those OD modes replicated the SRV circuit to deliver the “juiciest mid-hump overdrive tone ever”. Now, in response to intense fan demand to have that side of the stompbox packaged into a stand-alone unit, the Cowboy King has arrived.

There is a slight twist, though. It is being described as a “souped-up” version of the vintage TS9, meaning it offers “more output, gain, juice, and clarity” than its old-school progenitor as it homes in on a woody clarity to give this pedal its edge.

Like the classic green Tube Screamer, it has controls for Level, Drive, and Tone, but it's designed to get “fat” where other overdrive pedals get “mushy”.

“Plus,” says Pedal Pawn founder Chris King Robinson, “it’s got one of the woodiest overdrive tones I’ve ever heard. Taking inspiration from the Tube Screamer-style circuit, you wouldn’t think it had that extra clarity and woody tone, but the way we’ve enhanced it... it’s a Tube Screamer on steroids.”

Cranking the Drive dial unlocks the sought-after Stevie Ray Vaughan-inspired super distortion. Even with all the settings maxed out, it still packs an impressive musicality, although any semblance of nuance has been duly left behind.

Robinson, a confessed “pedal addict” and hardened touring musician, had tested over 50 vintage Tube Screamers in preparation for the BluesPrint. SRV’s beloved 1983 unit stuck out above the rest.

“The Stevie Ray Vaughan-owned one stands out as the clearest and most dynamic Screamer I've ever heard,” he told Guitar World. “There’s a clarity I’ve never experienced before.”

“Whether you want smooth, Texas-style smoke or stage-shaking leads,” says Pedal Pawn, “the Cowboy King nails that iconic tube tone with fat, juicy character and unmatched authority.”

Each pedal is handcrafted in Cambridgeshire, UK, and draws from the usual 9V of power. There is also true bypass switching to keep guitar signals clean.

The Pedal Pawn Cowboy King is available now and is priced at £194 (approx. $250), although it is currently 25% off for Black Friday.

Head to Pedal Pawn for a showdown at dawn.

A 1967 Fender Twin Reverb, said to have once belonged to the late blues guitar great Stevie Ray Vaughan, has gone up for sale on Reverb for almost $630,000.

The listing bills the Twin as one of SRV’s “main recording and live amplifiers”, and notes it was used from the early 1980s onwards in some of the late electric guitar icon’s most notable studio and stage performances.

“This amplifier was one of Stevie Ray Vaughan’s most favorite and important amplifiers,” Björn Groenen, the Twin's current owner, tells Guitar World. “He owned many amplifiers but only one Twin Reverb with Electro Voice coffee can speakers.

“In the five years that I have owned it, I have played the amplifier just once. It deeply shocked me how an amplifier could sound like that. I immediately recognized the sound of Stevie Ray Vaughan's most famous songs.”

Vaughan was known for using a combination of amplifiers, but the amp’s present owner says he considers the Twin to be perhaps “the most important amplifier in blues musical history”.

SRV reportedly first bought the amp – notably fitted with a set of distinctive Electro Voice SRO ‘coffee cans’ speakers – at Ray Hennig’s Heart of Texas music store in Austin around October 1982. It had previously belonged to Scott MacDonald, guitarist for Bill Carter & The Blame, who traded it into the store shortly before.

When it was purchased by Vaughan, it was quickly put to work, and according to the generous array of verification documents that Groenen has supplied, it became one of the blues icon’s most used and recognisable amps.

“I contacted hundreds of people via email, letters and phone calls,” Groenen, a professional guitarist and bassist who has owned the amp for five years, tells Guitar World. “I had contact with almost everybody who was close or worked with Stevie Ray Vaughan.

“It took me a couple years to approach the people who worked with Stevie. Some important people didn't want to say anything more about it because they said it was Stevie Ray Vaughan's main amplifier, which was the secret tone.

“Many people have been able to tell me their full stories about the amplifier. The amount of confirmed information about the amplifier’s verification is immense.”

Indeed, Groenen has amassed what looks to be a comprehensive trail of authenticity certificates, hand-signed notes, quotes and dated photographs in his quest to confirm the provenance of the Twin Reverb.

Some of the most compelling pieces of evidence have come from Evan Rush, an in-house engineer and production assistant at Kiva Recordings in Memphis at the time In Step (1989) was tracked; Robert Eaton, a staff engineer at Power Station Studios, where Couldn’t Stand the Weather (1984) was recorded; and, perhaps most convincing of all, Rick Spencer, who was once SRV’s guitar tech, stage manager and truck driver.

According to Spencer, “the Fender Twin Reverb with Electro Voice SRO speakers was used by Stevie Ray Vaughan during the Texas Flood sessions in Jackson Browne’s studio in Los Angeles”.

As well as using the amp during the Texas Flood sessions, Eaton says he saw SRV play through the Twin Reverb “on all the songs on the recording sessions for the album Couldn’t Stand the Weather”, while Rush confirms he “specifically” remembers seeing this amp – memorable for its unusual speakers – during the recording of In Step.

The supplied evidence builds a picture that the Twin Reverb had a hand in shaping a number of SRV's most well-known works, with those three records alone featuring tracks such as Pride and Joy, Love Me Darlin, Scuttle Buttin' and more.

Furthermore, Spencer also confirmed the amp’s live uses, writing in a signed authenticity letter, “This [amp was] extensively used by Stevie Ray Vaughan with a Marshall combo with double 12” speakers when I worked for him in the early ’80s.

“The 1967 Fender Twin Reverb was used at larger concerts and at most club gig’s [sic]. We wired his signal into both amps. I loaded and unloaded this many times from the band’s truck.”

In another letter, he wrote, “I did a lot of hard work for the band in the early ’80s. We toured through the four corner States... all the way up and down the California coast, San Francisco and Los Angeles.

“This Fender Twin Reverb with Electro Voice SRO speakers was used here for many club gigs.”

Aside from his Double Trouble action, it’s also been noted that Vaughan used this particular Twin Reverb during his famed Las Colinas rehearsals with David Bowie.

“Yes, this is absolutely authentic. I had the privilege of working with Stevie Ray Vaughan during David Bowie’s rehearsal period,” Frank Pavlich, SRV’s guitar tech during the rehearsals, is quoted as saying in the listing.

“I worked on that crazy Fender Twin Reverb amplifier with Electro Voice SRO speakers (coffee cans) and never understood how it made such fabulous noise.”

It is worth caveating that Vaughan used a large array of amps throughout his career, and often combined multiple units in the studio when tracking his albums, from Fender Super Reverbs and Vibroverbs, to Marshalls and beyond. John Mayer, for example, owns the Dumble that featured on Texas Flood.

Vaughan explained as much in an old Guitar World interview, revealing, “When we did Soul to Soul, we had every amp that I owned at the time hooked up. For amps, I had two Dumbles, a couple of Marshalls, a bunch of Fenders…”

Rush also references SRV’s habit of, er, combo-ing combos in his own letter of authenticity, noting how the Twin Reverb was one of “several” that were set aside for the sessions, stating: “The Fender Twin Reverb… would have been mixed in to get that tone.”

It seems likely then that the ’67 Twin was indeed one of several amps that formed SRV's wider arsenal during his Texas Flood era and beyond.

Groenen has promised that the amp comes with even more verifying documentation, including quotes from Bowie guitarist Carlos Alomar; Ray Hennig’s son, Steve Hennig; SRV’s road manager in the mid 1980s, Jim Capfer; SRV’s guitar tech from 1987, Zack Berry and more.

As Groenen puts it in his listing: “For collectors and fans of Stevie Ray Vaughan this is truly a holy grail item and a once in a lifetime chance to own a piece of musical history.”

The supporting evidence here all looks promising. Naturally, there will be a question over the amp's serial number, but Groenen has invited those who have any further questions to get in touch.

Visit Reverb to read the full listing.

It’s the latest rare amp find we've seen this year. Back in July, it was revealed in a Guitar World exclusive that John Lennon's first-ever Vox amp had been found, painted black, on an auction site.

Grace Bowers and her band, The Hodge Podge, have just delivered their own renditions of two Stevie Ray Vaughan classics, Lenny (1983) and Scuttle Buttin’ (1984) as part of a recorded performance at The Underdog in Nashville.

For this occasion, Bowers ditched her trusty Gibson SG and opted for a white Strat. This gesture served as a nod to Vaughan's Charley Stratocaster, a white custom-made hardtail Strat-style guitar built by his friend Charley Wirz, which he played on Life Without You (1985) and Live at Montreux 1982 & 1985.

“When Grace and her band The Hodge Podge take the stage with their blend of blues, rock, and soul, suddenly age becomes just a number as they weave something entirely their own,” wrote Western AF in the performance description.

“As we watched Grace and her band tear through a set that could rival any seasoned veteran, we couldn't help but feel like we were witnessing the early days of something truly special. This is an artist who's not just carrying the torch for rock 'n' roll – she's igniting a whole new fire.”

The young guitarist's virtuosic performance was complemented by Nate Felty on drums, Esther Okai Tetteh on vocals, Joshua Blaylock on keys, Eric Fortaleza on bass, and Prince Parker on rhythm guitar.

Bowers recently made her late-night TV debut on Jimmy Kimmel Live! with a wah-laden performance of her track Tell Me Why U Do That.

Footage has emerged online of Stevie Ray Vaughan making a storming debut appearance on Late Night with David Letterman in 1989.

The newly unearthed clip originally aired on NBC on September 21 of that year, but was recently uploaded to Letterman’s official YouTube channel.

Vaughan was, of course, well established by the close of the ’80s, having released Texas Flood just over six years earlier, in June 1983, so you’d be right in thinking his Late Night debut is, well... very late.

However, as Letterman establishes (with amusing trouble) in his intro for the guitar great, Vaughan’s appearance was somewhat delayed. Meanwhile, SRV’s brother, Jimmy Vaughan, had had more luck – having already made it onto the show with the Fabulous Thunderbirds.

Indeed, Vaughan’s debut is so late that he’s there to promote his fourth and final album, In Step, performing the song Tightrope alongside show stalwart, MD Paul Shaffer and the house band (in the place of his usual backing group Double Trouble).

The guitar icon takes Letterman’s confusion over his appearances on the show in a characteristically laid-back fashion and slips into the louche Tightrope with barely a shrug.

Musically, there’s a bit of a juxtaposition of Shaffer’s well-drilled studio band and SRV’s off-the-cuff guitar slinging, but the clip captures a moment where the guitarist is absolutely on-point – three years into his sobriety – and coming off the back of making what he would call his best studio album.

As such, his rhythm playing is supremely in the pocket and the pairing works really well here. Indeed, by the end of the appearance, it’s clear that Letterman will have no trouble remembering this as SRV’s actual debut.

“Man, could he play the guitar or what?” sums up the host, succinctly.

Vaughan would later return for another Letterman appearance, the following year to perform Wall of Denial – in April, 1990 – just four months before his passing.

For more on that period of SRV's career, check out this 1988 interview with Stevie Ray Vaughan, in which the guitar legend discusses his affinity for the Fender Strat, how he approached learning Clapton and Hendrix, and the healing powers of the guitar.

To celebrate its 20th anniversary, independent UK gear retailer guitarguitar has launched a new campaign that shines the spotlight on 20 guitar players who all have one thing in common: the guitar changed their life.

It has been launched with a ‘Guitar Heroes’ photo series headed up by renowned music photographer Aaron Parsons, who has snapped the likes of Arctic Monkeys, Taylor Swift and the Red Hot Chili Peppers throughout his career.

The campaign sees players from all age brackets and demographics from across the UK share their tales of overcoming grief, adversity, viral fame and more, which all have the guitar at their heart.

A standout anecdote comes from 16-year-old Rhys John Stygal – a London-based blues guitar prodigy who, as a result of his autism, once suffered extreme anxiety and isolation, before the guitar completely changed his life.

Now, Stygal – who once was unable to leave his house with his mother – has a huge online following, and has transformed from a young teenager who couldn’t even go to the supermarket, to an up-and-coming guitar hero who regularly plays to crowds of up to 2,500 people.

Not only that, he’s managed to impress some of the biggest names in blues during his journey, and has performed alongside the likes of Buddy Guy and Christone ‘Kingfish’ Ingram.

In guitarguitar’s campaign, Stygal credits the guitar with helping him find his place and understand his purpose, and giving him the confidence to stand up and communicate with thousands of people through this musical language.

“I’ve gone from a kid who couldn’t even go to the supermarket with my mum to playing on stage in Phoenix, Arizona next to Buddy Guy and Christone ‘Kingfish’ Ingram in front of 2,500 people,” he says. “Guitar saved me – it was a language I understood immediately.”

Despite his humble age, Stygal plays to audiences around the world and continues to grow his online presence by dazzling viewers with his blues chops.

Usually seen playing a Fender Strat across YouTube and Instagram channels, Stygal has been hailed as “the next Stevie Ray Vaughan” [namely, by YouTube's Pedal Pawn, below] for his searing tone, and his ability to cover SRV classics with an eerie accuracy characterized by formidable phrasing and a top-notch command of the fretboard.

Stygal’s is just one of countless tales of how the guitar has been able to change people’s lives. Elsewhere in its campaign, guitarguitar has also shared the story of Miles Reed, whose relationship to the guitar took on a deeper meaning after he lost his father at a young age.

Then there’s Horse McDonald – a legendary Scottish singer-songwriter who opened for Tina Turner and B.B. King, and who first turned to the guitar as an escape from the homophobia she experienced in her youth. The list of inspirational guitar stories goes on.

“Buying a guitar is a special moment for any person, but the journey our customers go on with that instrument is why we are so passionate about what we do here,” says guitarguitar Marketing Director Adam Speck. “The 100,000’s of guitarists we’ve inspired over the last two decades all have their own incredible relationship with the guitar.

“And whether they are playing with it in front of thousands, benefitting from it as a form of therapy during difficult moments in their lives, or even proposing with one – that’s the magic of this great instrument.”

Visit guitarguitar to find out more.

Over the last 50-odd years, a hell of a lot of great guitarists have come out of Texas. Stevie Ray and Jimmie Vaughan, Eric Johnson, Johnny Winter and Billy Gibbons come to mind – but ever-rocking blues bruiser Rocky Athas should never be far from top of the list.

Having connections with SVR, Brian May, Glenn Hughes and John Mayall, Athas has seen it all since breaking ground in the ‘70s. He’s also been a member of Black Oak Arkansas, covered Hendrix and Cream, and dropped nine records under his own name.

What he’s learned is that it all comes down to one thing: “Tone – the elusive Ark of the Covenant,” he laughs. “Finding your tone is difficult to explain because tone is subjective. What sounds good to me might sound offensive to you and your ears.

“I know what pleases me when I hear it. I want the good round, rich, deep tone of a world-class operatic tenor like Pavarotti. It has to sound great in every register and be effortless. My job as a lead guitarist is to sing my leads with great phrasing and make a statement.”

With his new record Livin’ My Best Life, Athas has that dialed in. “Every album is like a time capsule of who I am,” he says. “I’m always trying to learn something new, so my new album is the best representation of me. Not because it’s new, but because it backs up what I believe about playing leads that sing and say something memorable.

“Taking my time to find the right paint brushes to work with to fit a song’s mood and message is important to me. How boring would it be for every track on an album sounded the same?”

At 69, Athas is full of life and playing better than ever. “Being remembered as the guitarist with the identifiable, monstrous tone that always made an audience smile would make me happy,” he says.

“Things that sound good become timeless. Music is about making people feel something. Happiness and joy align with my belief system of why I am on this Earth.”

What inspired you to pick up the guitar?

“As a baby boomer I witnessed the Beatles’ performance on The Ed Sullivan Show, which birthed a generation of aspiring musicians. But my older brother, Nick, already played guitar and influenced everything in my life from sports to music; so the guitar was probably predestined for me.”

Can you remember your first guitar? 

“It’s impossible to forget! My parents memorialized my budding musical interests with an 8x10 Sears portrait of me, my Beatles haircut and my Kingston three-pickup pawnshop special with a million buttons.

“It’s no longer in my possession, but if anyone finds it I’d love to hear from them! My first real guitar was a beautiful 1964 tobacco sunburst Gibson ES-330 that I cherished.”

How were you impacted by growing up in Texas surrounded by great players?

“Texas has a deep, rich musical environment; I was lucky to be born here. The level of diversity and excellence, especially in Dallas, was so high that it raised the bar for everybody in or near it. The motivation and competition were contagious in a good way. All the musicians I hung out with were generous with their knowledge, and we all reciprocated.

“Even though Eric Johnson was in Austin, we had the same manager for several years and we did many shows together. One day I was with him at his parents’ house, and he sat down at the piano and wowed me – I had no idea he was so awesome on piano. Eric is one very talented, multi-faceted guy.

“And, of course, Stevie Ray Vaughan and I met in elementary school and became very good childhood friends, all because of the fifth-grade talent show. I played House of the Rising Sun, Secret Agent Man and I’m Not Your Steppin’ Stone on my 330.

“Afterward Stevie walked up and said, ‘I play guitar too,’ and our friendship began. We would call each other and talk about great guitar players and what guitars they were playing, what kind of amps they used, and all that.

“In junior high we ate lunch together, and the only thing we talked about was music. Since we both had older brothers who were close in age, we were influenced by their choices. Once I was old enough to drive, I would pick Steve up in my brother's car, and we would go to jam sessions as often as we could find them. Those were great times before we chose a lane to pursue, and he followed his brother to Austin.”

As I understand it, Brian May borrowed a few licks from you.

“When Guitar World published the interview that mentioned it last year, my phone blew up! My friends… they all knew it was me.

“Dallas was an absolute hotbed of live entertainment during this time. My original band, Lightning, had a reputation for putting on an amazing live show. Promoters had us opening for The Kinks, Ritchie Blackmore, Pat Travers, Montrose, Trapeze, Joe Walsh, Rick Derringer, Alice Cooper, America, Mountain…

“We would pull out all the stops, including our drummer doing backflips at the end of the show. The word was out, and we were happy to show off everything in our arsenal. So, our reputation preceded us when Queen came to town in 1977 with Thin Lizzy.

“Brian came to [Dallas venue] Mother Blues with the guys from Thin Lizzy, and at the end of our show, he walked up to me and said, ‘Hey, I dig that thing you do with your right hand.’ I was finger-tapping with my right hand. Then he says, ‘I’m going to nick that from you.’ I was cocky in those days and said to him, ‘Go for it!’”

Did May ever follow up with you?

“Brian has never spoken directly to me since then, but I would love to have a chat with him now if that could be arranged. I’d love to hear how he remembers that night. As a producer now, I have an entirely new appreciation for his skills as an arranger. He’s done brilliant work.”

Tell us about the rig you used with Black Oak Arkansas and Glenn Hughes.

“In Black Oak Arkansas I was all about the tone and decibels for live shows. I used my Lab-L5 and my Fender Twins. When I was with Glenn, I used Marshall Amps on most of those shows because that’s what the promoters provided.”

You later recorded with Stevie Ray Vaughan’s backing band, Double Trouble. What was that experience like?

“Phenomenal! Working with a rhythm section so tight without rehearsal is a dream come true! They were the real deal with a solid pocket that allowed me to breathe and play all over the place. Steve was very lucky to have them.”

You covered Jimi Hendrix’s The Wind Cries Mary for the Blue Haze – Songs of Jimi Hendrix record. How did you approach that?

“The recording came from the Blues Berries sessions and was given to Ruf Records for the Blue Haze compilation album. I used a 1959 cream Tolex Fender Bassman amp and a 1960 Fender Strat.

“Hendrix was always a favorite of mine, and I developed a catalog of his covers when I was young, so recording it for that album was easy. I just reached into my bag and played like I did Villanova Junction on my Shakin’ the Dust album. I don’t overthink it – I just let it flow.”

How did you get the gig with John Mayall in 2009? 

“It was a simple call out of the blue from John asking me to join him. There were no middlemen, handlers or auditions. I wasn’t even looking for a gig; I actually thought it was a prank call by one of my best buddies. The first few minutes were awkward – I didn’t believe it was John and I almost hung up on him!

“Ultimately, he convinced me it was really him and said he remembered seeing me play years before. He’d heard my album, Miracle, on the radio in the UK and liked what he heard, so he bought it and eventually called me.”

Was it challenging covering licks by Eric Clapton, Peter Green and Mick Taylor?

“The most challenging thing was John’s massive back catalog. There was no way to prepare all the material – John thrived on improv and never repeated the same set twice in all the years I was with him. The band wouldn’t know what we were going to play until about half an hour before the show, when John wrote the setlist.

“Even if you knew the song, John changed the keys constantly. Every set list had a song, and next to the title was the key he wanted to play that night. You have to have complete mastery of your instrument to be able to just go with the flow and watch John for any changes.

“It was challenging at first, but it made me a better player by forcing me out of my comfort zone and into keys that are not necessarily guitar-friendly for lead work. John was extremely generous; I got to stretch lead breaks into infinity, expanding into possibilities I’d never tried before. He encouraged experimentation.”

What’s the most important lesson you’ve learned?

“I picture my life as a three-act play. The first act is about discovery, development, and the discipline of finding my way. The second act is about living with what I chose to create and being productive. I expected to start slowing down by the third act, but I was wrong!

“Covid gave me time to reflect, recharge, and embrace whatever’s next. I’ve learned so many new things in the last decade – especially when it comes to technology and what it can do for an artist’s career.

“I never envisioned having an online presence where my music would be available to a worldwide audience, having a band that included the next generation of our family with my son on bass, or having a family business that involved my wife and my daughter! That’s the lesson: never stop learning.”

So what’s next?

“I’m open to anything and everything. I’d love to do another European tour on a double bill with another good blues-rock band and have fun. Maybe I’ll go back on the road with a big band as their lead guitarist. I’d love to produce someone else’s album or collaborate with someone new.

“I’d also love to do one of those rock and blues cruises to jam with some of my old friends. I especially love answering guitar questions through social media. Maybe I’ll do all these things! 

“The only thing I’m sure about is that it will be interesting. That's the beauty of being an artist: I get to create whatever makes me happy.”

• Livin’ My Best Life is on sale now.

The Ibanez Tube Screamer is one of the most popular overdrive pedals of all time, used by dozens of famous guitarists on hundreds of well-known tracks – but the main reason for its perennial success is overwhelmingly due to its association with Stevie Ray Vaughan. 

If you’ve looked around for info on the Tube Screamer model that Vaughan used, you’ll likely see the first iteration TS808 lauded as the ne plus ultra version for authentic SRV tone.

This is usually repeated ad infinitum by writers who haven’t done thorough research or, even worse, by pedal designers and vintage guitar dealers who are likely more concerned about profit than truth or historical accuracy.

While it is indeed true that Vaughan once used a TS808, it was only for a very brief period from late 1981 through early 1982, and he never used an 808 on any of his officially released recordings.

Vaughan’s actual Tube Screamer of choice was the circa 1982-85 TS9 model. Vaughan consistently used a TS9 on stage and in the studio from mid-1982 through mid-1988 on the bulk of his peak career output.

The only exceptions are the In Step and Family Style albums and the studio version of Boot Hill on The Sky Is Crying where he used the TS10 Tube Screamers that replaced the TS9s in his rig.

Vaughan’s use of the TS9 is exceptionally well documented in live photos and videos from 1982 onwards and numerous inventory, insurance and customs declaration documents.

If you’ve dug into Tube Screamer lore, you’ve probably noticed obsessive ruminations about certain op amp chips like the JRC-4558. Here’s another truth – Vaughan wasn’t fussy about this kind of minutiae, so you really shouldn’t be either.

Many amateur pedal builders who have experimented with swapping op amps admit that they can hear only subtle differences between various op amps, if any. Usually the most notable contrasts in tone and character emerge when the gain (drive control) is almost fully boosted, which isn’t a setting that SRV used on his TS9s anyway.

Rather, Vaughan dialed his TS9 with the Level knob nearly or all the way up and with the Drive knob nearly or all the way down for a “clean” boost setting. He also liked the pedal’s distinctive lower midrange emphasis.

“I use the Tube Screamer because of the tone knob,” he told Frank Joseph in the September 1983 issue of Guitar World. “You can turn it on slightly to get a Guitar Slim tone, which is how I use it.”

It should be noted that Vaughan engaged his Tube Screamers very sparingly. For example, on his debut Texas Flood album, he used it only for his gritty solos on the title track and Testify, and he didn’t use it at all on David Bowie’s Let’s Dance.

Vaughan particularly liked how the Tube Screamer enhanced the vocal character of his Vox V846 wah, so anytime you hear Vaughan using a wah you can be sure that the Tube Screamer was on, too.

You can spend hundreds or even thousands on an original ’80s Tube Screamer. Numerous pedal builders offer Tube Screamer modifications, and dozens, perhaps even hundreds, of Tube Screamer-derived and -influenced stompboxes are available from boutique and mainstream companies alike.

However, it’s truly hard to beat the TS9 reissue that Ibanez still offers today. It sounds more than good enough, it’s affordably priced and it won’t break your heart should it get stolen or ruined after some boisterous barfly barfs Bourbon all over it.

Stevie Ray Vaughan Tube Screamer setting

• Drive: 2-3
• Tone: 3-5
• Level: 9-10

This setting works well with pretty much any guitar and amp rig, but it sounds especially good with a Strat or Tele with a black-panel Fender amp.

The TS9’s boosted low midrange and slightly rolled off bass gives single-coil pickups extra body, heft and definition that’s particularly ideal for solos that cut through the mix.

Larkin Poe's Rebecca Lovell is known for getting great tones out of her Stratocaster. From full-on blues riffs to heavier rock, Lovell has undoubtedly developed a distinct approach and sound. So, what's the secret to getting a great Strat tone?

“It’s all in the right hand – and that’s coming from someone who started out as an acoustic player,” she says in the new issue of Guitarist. “It’s taken me a long time to understand the appropriate amount of force to use on a Strat. Because watching a player like Stevie [Ray Vaughan] play, you begin to understand how much violence the guitar can actually take.”

“You can draw a lot of dynamics out of your instrument if you’re willing to muscle in but also lighten up. I’ve broken thousands of strings on my blessed guitar… poor thing.”

Lovell's determination to master the Strat tone goes back to Stevie Ray Vaughan, particularly his 1991 Live At The El Mocambo concert film. “[It's] probably one of the most inspirational exhibitions of a Stratocaster from where I sit.

“Also, we played Doheny Blues Festival in California five or six years ago and watching Jimmie Vaughan play his Strat on stage was like raising hair on the back of the neck. When you see somebody playing with that authority, that is a connective moment where you understand the instrument’s power.”

And the best amp and pedal to accompany the Strat tone? “On a track called Bad Spell I used a Fender Deluxe with a Royal Jelly by Beetronics. It’s like a really overblown fuzz pedal that gives a kiss of an octave sound to it. It’s got a little bit of a slap on it and sounds really sick.”

For more new interviews celebrating 70 years of the Fender Strat, pick up issue 511 of Guitarist at Magazines Direct.

Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble – drummer Chris Layton and bassist Tommy Shannon – faced the classic second-album conundrum at the end of 1983. 

They needed new material quickly, coming off the road from a year of extensive international touring behind Texas Flood, a debut album that included the highlights of their excellent live shows. 

“We didn’t have all of these songs floating around for most of the band’s life as we did the first time,” Shannon says. “We had to start from scratch.”

The band spent three weeks doing pre-production in an Austin studio writing and recording demos. 

The excellent outtakes released in later years highlight both the band’s strong playing and the need for new tunes, as they were largely playing the music of others, including Jimi Hendrix (Little Wing), Lonnie Mack (Wham!), Muddy Waters (Willie Dixon’s Close to You), Earl King (Come On (Pt. III)), Freddie King (Hideaway) and Hound Dog Taylor (Give Me Back My Wig.)  

One song fell into Stevie’s lap when he saw Mike Kindred, a bandmate in the short-lived Triple Threat Revue, who gave him a cassette of Cold Shot, the song the pianist wrote and sang in their former band. 

At the sessions the group wrote Couldn’t Stand the Weather, Stang’s Swang, Honey Bee and Scuttle Buttin’, the scorching instrumental, which Vaughan’s brother Jimmie notes was inspired by Mack’s Chicken Pickin’.

“We had to come up with the songs pretty quickly,” Shannon says. “Stevie wasn’t a fluent songwriter; he’d spend a lot of time on a song. Couldn’t Stand the Weather came together over time. We worked through it in rehearsals and gradually put all the sections together. “

The song, which would become the album’s title track, was inspired by Cutter Brandenburg, the group’s initial road manager and first true believer. 

A childhood friend of Stevie’s, it was Brandenburg who helped transform Little Stevie into Stevie Ray Vaughan, encouraging him to use his full name, to wear the black hat and to adopt a consistent persona. 

Brandenburg had quit on the flight back from a European tour in August 1983, upset by Vaughan’s growing alcohol and drug intake and terrified that he was watching his friend slowly kill himself. 

“On the very first day, Richard asked us to play something so he could get sounds, so I did the floor tom drum roll that starts Tin Pan Alley, and Stevie and Tommy just fell in,” Layton says. 

“When we were done, John said, ‘You’ll never get it better than that!’ It was a warm up, but he was right; that’s the track we kept.”

The band members were living large, with a big budget and rooms at the Mayflower Hotel, overlooking Central Park. They were in “party down” mode, recalls Layton, with one problem. 

“We felt like we couldn’t do drugs in front of John Hammond, so we’d sneak off behind the Steinway piano or a sound baffle. But he knew what we were up to.”

“We couldn’t have been more obvious,” Shannon adds. 

Jimmie Vaughan came to the studio and played rhythm guitar on Couldn’t Stand the Weather and a cover of Guitar Slim’s The Things (That) I Used to Do in one afternoon. 

He was joined by most of his Fabulous Thunderbirds bandmates, and drummer Fran Christina played on Stang’s Swang because Layton was passed out on the studio couch at the time. 

Layton was sleeping on the couch at 4am another morning, when Vaughan woke him up to get behind the drums and record Cold Shot. That first take appears on the album, though they had barely rehearsed the song, and it had no definitive arrangement. 

Layton laughs recounting that “drummers have always asked me how I got that super-laid back, in-the-pocket feel. Well… Stevie didn’t sing even a scratch vocal, and it was the first time we’d ever played the song beginning to end. I’ve always wondered if it would have been better if I was really rested and had known the arrangement!”

Another highlight of Couldn’t Stand the Weather is Vaughan’s cover of Voodoo Chile – and he had to be talked into doing it by Shannon, the biggest booster of Stevie letting his Hendrix flag fly. 

“He needed encouragement to pursue what was in his heart, and Voodoo Chile was our point of departure into the future,” Shannon says. “It felt like breaking out of jail.” 

“Stevie played the song with so much soul and spirit,” recalled producer Richard Mullen. “That take was live from beginning to end, seven minutes of pure guitar energy without a single miscue.”

Vaughan played his trusty Number One Strat on most of the album. “He had the most authority and best sound on it,” Mullen said. “It always had a huge tone whether he slammed it or picked it gently.”

The album’s basic tracks were recorded live, with Vaughan standing next to Layton’s drums in the main room. His amps were in a large isolation booth, with a sliding glass door often left open. 

“I always tried to allow Stevie to play without headphones, so he would be just as animated as he was in his live performances,” said Mullen. “He danced around, slidin’ across the room on his toes.”

Couldn’t Stand the Weather was released May 15, 1984, and turned out to be an immediate hit, selling 250,000 copies in only its first three weeks in stores. 

“After the release, we hit the road with all of these new, fresh songs no one had ever heard, which was great,” Layton says. The album solidified Stevie Ray’s standing as a guitar icon and proved to any doubters that this was no one-hit wonder.

• Adapted from Texas Flood: The Inside Story of Stevie Ray Vaughan, by Alan Paul and Andy Aledort. 

When John Mayer said he’d never produce a Sunburst version of his PRS Silver Sky, many guitar fans were left feeling a tad disappointed. 

However, thanks to one individual who has given his own Silver Sky a complete aesthetic overhaul, we can now see what a sunburst variant of this hugely popular signature guitar would actually look like – and it’s quite a sight to behold.

But what’s more, the Silver Sky’s daring owner hasn’t just given his electric guitar a fresh lick of vintage-inspired paint – he’s completely transformed it into a tribute to Stevie Ray Vaughan’s Number One Stratocaster.

The mod job was shared in an Instagram post from John Priest – owner of UK guitar store Peach Guitars – who received pictures from a rather adventurous customer, who in turn had decided to fashion his Mayer model in the style of SRV’s iconic Strat.

The unnamed player even attempted to painstakingly recreate the heavy wear and tear of the original Strat, going as far as to equip it with an ‘SRV’-branded pickguard, a ‘Custom’ sticker below the bridge and giving the headstock what looks to be a coat of vintage-esque varnish.

On the rear, “S. R. Vaughan” has also been carved into the wood below the tremolo cavity. Heck, even the gig bag has been customized. He's probably strung it with the thickest strings possible, too.

As far as transformations go, the Number One/Silver Sky hybrid really is quite something, and probably the most comprehensive Silver Sky overhaul we’ve seen to date – that includes Zach Myers' heavy relic model, Neal Schon’s Super Silver Sky and the single humbucker ‘John DeLonge’.

“Ok, this isn’t my doing,” Priest said in his Instagram post. “A peach customer sent me these pics of his #silversky and I thought I’d share. Is it wrong in every way possible or do you dig it? I think a Sunburst Silver Sky would work nicely.”

There’s another guitar the PRS Silver Sky Number One reminds us of: John Mayer’s very own signature Fender Stratocaster, which itself was said to be inspired by the SRV model. Notably, that guitar also had a sunburst finish and a dark pickguard.

With Mayer making clear his preference for using sleek 21st century finishes in his signature range, this custom mod job might be the closest thing we get to seeing a sunburst Silver Sky.

Having said that, the Sob Rock guitarist has recently pulled his Black1 and Monterey Fender Stratocasters out of retirement. 

Is Mayer swaying back towards classic Fender aesthetics, and if he is, could he be tempted to rethink his stance on a sunburst Silver Sky? We certainly hope so. Only time will tell. 

Stevie Ray Vaughan’s second album Couldn’t Stand the Weather was put together in a whirlwind rush as the band – in the ascendence following a huge run of tour dates in support of Texas Flood – needed new material, and quickly. 

A common criticism leveled at the record is that SRV did not push himself particularly hard in the writing department, which is perhaps not surprising given the need for speed – and the substance abuse that was rife in the group at the time. 

However, of the four covers included in the final track listing, the one that no one questions is SRV’s take on fellow Stratocaster icon Jimi Hendrix’s Voodoo Child (Slight Return). 

The new issue of Guitar World shares an excerpt of GW scribes Alan Paul and Andy Aledort’s book Texas Flood: The Inside Story of Stevie Ray Vaughan, featuring interviews with SRV’s Double Trouble bassist Tommy Shannon and drummer Chris Layton, alongside the album’s late co-producer/engineer Richard Mullen.

In the piece, Shannon and Mullen highlight the importance of SRV’s Voodoo Child in unlocking the rest of the album, providing a spiritual nod to one of Vaughan’s early heroes and a virtuosic line in the sand. 

“He needed encouragement to pursue what was in his heart,” explains Shannon, recalling the 1983 session at New York’s Power Station studio. “Voodoo Child was our point of departure into the future. It felt like breaking out of jail.”

Fortunately, Shannon succeeded in convincing SRV to go for it and, as is so often the case when players return ‘to the source’, the track proved a pivot point for the whole record – representing the moment at which Vaughan suddenly felt reinvigorated and freed from the obligations of topping Texas Flood. 

“Stevie played the song with so much soul and spirit,” says Mullen. “That take was live from beginning to end, seven minutes of pure guitar energy without a single miscue.”

Can’t Stand the Weather has subsequently gone down as a classic, with the likes of the title track (inspired by the departure of road manager Cutter Brandenberg), Tin Pan Alley and Vaughan’s instrumental workout Scuttle Buttin’ all still considered among his essential works. 

Hendrix has obviously inspired countless players, but few have stood alongside SRV in their ability to authentically channel Hendrix’s dexterity, while maintaining so much of their own personality. 

Indeed, even Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready said it took seeing Stevie Ray Vaughan for him to understand Hendrix.

Voodoo Child (Slight Return), meanwhile, has recently received another re-working, this time as the star-studded hero track for Fender’s 70th anniversary Stratocaster celebrations. 

The track nods to the SRV legacy with an appearance from Jimmie Vaughan, alongside the likes of Tom Morello and Nile Rodgers.

For more insights from the sessions, read the full interview with Layton and Shannon in the May 2024 issue of Guitar World, available from Magazines Direct. 

Update 3/25/24: This article was amended to tweak the track title from Voodoo Chile to Voodoo Child (Slight Return). 

Various Hendrix and SRV releases feature both variants of the title, but the initial studio recordings on Hendrix's Electric Ladyland and SRV's Couldn't Stand The Weather both use the latter version – with the prevailing use of Voodoo Chile referring to Hendrix’s longer 15-minute song – hence the decision to change it.

W. C. Clark – the influential Austin musician who had an indelible impact on the city’s blues scene and mentored some of its most notable exports – has died aged 84.

The news was reported by former Austin Chronicle columnist and music historian Michael Corcoran, who relayed news provided by Clark’s manager, Vicky Moerbe, in an article posted to his Substack.

According to Moerbe, Clark checked into Seton Hospital after his show at Giddy Ups – a venue where he held a residency for the last six years of his life – on February 20: “It all happened so fast,” she said. “He was acting erratically, not feeling like himself.”

“We have lost one of the true masters,” reflected Carolyn Wonderland, a musician whose band often opened for Clark’s own. “W.C. was the bridge between at least three generations of Austin musicians. He was genuinely happy to share the joy and the spotlight with those around him.”

As alluded to by Wonderland, Clark was a hugely impactful member of the Austin blues scene, and had a generation-spanning influence on the likes of Stevie Ray Vaughan and his brother Jimmie Vaughan, the former of whom he played alongside as a member of the Triple Threat Revue.

Throughout his life, Clark selflessly gave priceless guidance and advice to up-and-coming blues guitarists (he also taught guitar to Will and Charlie Sexton), which earned him the nickname “the Godfather of Austin Blues”.

Long before he was anointed that title, though, Wesley Curley Clark grew up in Austin, and picked up guitar in the early '50s after having gained exposure to gospel music through choirs.

His first paying gig came at the age of 16 (when he played with T.D. Bell's band, the Cadillacs) and by the time he was later tapped by Joe Tex for his first tour in the late ‘60s, Clark had already developed a robust touch for the blues and beyond.

Clark’s approach was one that blended the best of full-out Texas blues with a supremely soulful touch that carried an air of Memphis about it. It was a sound that would permeate through his solo releases – including his hugely popular Texas Soul record – as well as the music he played with his peers.

Upon returning to the Texas capital after the tour, Clark was greeted with a changing blues scene – one that was being defined by the likes of Jimmie Vaughan, Doyle Bramhall and their contemporaries.

Showing his versatility and flexibility as both a musician and a band member, Clark also played the bass guitar, and notably held down the low-end as adeptly as he played the guitar while part of James Polk & The Brothers. In fact, his proficiency on the bass made him a highly in-demand sideman during his career.

By 1975, SRV had convinced his mentor to quit his job, and a few years later the pair were playing together – along with Mike Kindred, Freddie Pharaoh, Johnny Reno and Lou Ann Barton – under the Triple Threat Revue umbrella.

During his time with the group, he co-wrote Cold Shot with Mike Kindred, which would go on to become one of Vaughan’s biggest cuts.

"Folks are always writing about how I taught Stevie and Jimmie, but I actually learned as much from them as they learned from me," he once reflected of the Vaughan brothers (via Michael Corcoran’s Overserved). "The No. 1 thing those young cats taught me was endurance. As long as the people are coming out to see you, you play as long and as hard as you can every night."

When Stevie disbanded the group to start Double Trouble, Clark himself remained busy with a group of his own, the W. C. Blues Revue. Clark would remain close to SRV over the years and continued to share the stage with him on occasion, including an Austin City Limits performance taped in 1990.

Formal recognition of Clark’s service to blues music, however, wouldn’t come until later. In 1994, at the age of 55, he penned his first record deal with BlackTop, and before long he had scored two W.C. Handy Awards – nowadays known as the Blues Music Awards.

His most telling award arrived in ‘98, when he was officially named Artist Most Deserving of Wider Recognition. For a musician whose career is defined by his service to the wider community, the title is especially fitting.

A year before, Clark’s career almost came to an end following a tragic accident that led to the death of his fiance Brenda Jasek and drummer Pete Alcoser Jr. 

“I was sitting on a commode, of all places, and I decided to stop feeling sorry for myself,” Clark once said. “I stared at my hands, which had been hurt in the accident, and I realized that it's all in God's hands and what he put me here to do was sing and play guitar, so what was I waiting for?”

“He said playing kept him young,” says Anna Bosworth, the general manager at Giddy Up. “W.C. was always very engaging during his shows; answering the listeners' questions or telling wonderful stories about his life and songs that he wrote.”

Clark is survived by his daughter, two brothers, and sister.