Valco, the Chicago-based maker of amplifiers such as Supro, Gretsch, and Oahu, began its history around 1942 amidst the Hawaiian music craze. By the late 1960s, it had become roughly the third largest amp manufacturer in the U.S., only to disappear from the radar screen in 1968. The company’s history is familiar – a rise [...]
Monthly Archives: June 2006
Alex Skolnick
Jazz-Box Paradox
The album starts off with “Detroit Rock City,” and includes other covers, like the Who’s “Pinball Wizard” and two Scorpions tunes, among others. The final track is a version of Black Sabbath’s “War Pigs” that clocks in at 10:33. A heavy metal tribute album? Well, sort of … but don’t expect a lot of power [...]
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Ry Cooder and Manuel Galbán – Mambo Sinuendo
Ry Cooder is a guitarist with an ear tuned to a past no one else hears anymore. Inspired by the music of old-time Havana, he brought together a troupe of master Cuban musicians to record 1997′s sensational Buena Vista Social Club. In the process, he resurrected the world’s love of Cuban sounds. Now, six years [...]
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Crazy – The Demo Sessions
There once was a time when Willie Nelson was just another starving songwriter trying to make it in music city. Stories abound of songs he tried to sell for $50. During the early ’60s he made a number of demos for Hal Smith and Ray Price’s Pamper Music. In 1994, a large reel labeled “Pamper [...]
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Chris Knight – The Jealous Kind
Occasionally, I hear a disk that grabs me so hard during the first 10 seconds that it makes me stop whatever I’m doing and just plunk my scrawny butt down to listen. Chris Knight’s The Jealous Kind did exactly that. Knight has a voice that wears an aura of suffering and grit like a merit [...]
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Tony Nobles Resonator
Museum-Bound Resonator
This guitar is a special project built after I was approached by the new Braunfels (Texas) Museum of Art and Music to show a guitar in an exhibit of Texas musical instrument builders. This exhibit was to coincide with a the traveling Smithsonian exhibit “Hearts and Hands,” which features photos of instrument builders. I was [...]
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Asphalt Jungle – Electro Ave.
I know this kind of music raises the hackles of some guitarists. It’s a rock/electronica mix that sounds a little different. Jeff Beck drew the ire of lots of players doing this stuff. Well, here guitarist Brian Tarquin and producer/programmer Chris Ingram have put together a package that lets guitarists smile and still gets a [...]
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June 2006
FEATURES IN DETAIL Gretsch’s 1953-’57 Duo Jet Gibson’s Les Paul and ES-295 gave credibility to painted guitars, and by the mid ’50s Gretsch was making all of its new models available in swanky colors, including its workhorse, the solidbody Duo Jet. By R.J. Klimpert GIBSON K-4 MANDOCELLO Gibson was founded as a mandolin builder in [...]
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Marty Friedman
Unleashed in the East
Marty Friedman made his mark as one of the foremost shredders of the ’80s when he teamed up with guitarist Jason Becker in Cacophony. He achieved greater celebrity after joining Megadeth in late 1990 as the group’s third lead guitarist. In 10 years with the band, he recorded three albums while continuing his solo work [...]
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