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The Best Guitarists First Played a Les Paul

If you want to know what guitar a great guitarist really plays — you need to look beyond what they are playing now — and hearken back to what guitar they were playing when they were poor, unknown, and hungering for fame.  I argue today, that the greatest guitarists of our time started off their careers playing the Gibson Les Paul — even though Fender and the Stratocaster and Telecaster were cheaper and beat the Les Paul to market.

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How to Salvage a $5,000 Gibson Les Paul Custom Black Beauty Guitar with a Radical Truss Rod Adjustment

After deciding to up my tone and sustain standards by returning to .011-.049 gauge D’Addario EXL115 strings, I also determined that, in the necessary tweaking of my guitar setup, I would finally face down the basic un-playability of my Gibson Les Paul Custom VOS Black Beauty with three pickups — I hoped — once and for all.

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Strings Saga, Part Twenty: Back to Eleven

Welcome, once again, to my ongoing Strings Saga: Yes, I’ve Gone Back to Elevens (And, “No, We Have No Bananas)!  Yes, I know.  This is like the 20th time you’ve read a strings review from me or found out that, once again, I had changed my mind about my Favorite Strings Ever.  Welp,   today is another day, and here’s another dollar:  I’m back to .011-.049 strings — and this time — I’m staying!  I think.

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Gregor Hilden Plays the YouTube Blues

Gregor Hilden is one of those Bluesman who — once you hear a single chord he plays — forever owns your sense of what’s good and your definition of what makes The Blues intrinsically real and beautifully human.  I’ve never met Greg proper, but I feel as if I’ve known him forever — merely because I drink in his daily GregsGuitars videos on YouTube.  Four days ago, I couldn’t bear my secret delight in his talent any longer, and I posted my very first comment on a video in my long history of using YouTube:

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The Madding End of Mad Mike Bloomfield

One of the greatest Blues guitarists to ever live — and die much too young — was Mike Bloomfield.  He was born into a wealthy, North Side Chicago family and grew up a “Good Jewish Boy” — until he hit the age of 14 and discovered the guitar and Southside Chicago Blues.

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The Perfect Blues Guitar Rig

We’re always searching for The Best, The Ultimate — The Perfect Blues Guitar Rig — and today, I’m going to share with you the center, and the chained core, of my most golden Blues playing experience.  It all starts and ends with wood: I’m currently loving on my mahogany Les Paul.

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The Birth of The Birth of the Blues in Performance

In my article — American Folklore and the Blues Black Cat Bone — we discussed the song “The Birth of the Blues” in the comments stream.  Today, as an important follow-up to that conversation, I want to take you a little deeper into the birth of “The Birth of the Blues” in performance because it is an interesting watershed song.

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