Cold Shot by Stevie Ray Vaughan
June 24, 2008 by musicman
Filed under Blog, Guitar Riff Videos
Cold Shot -Stevie Ray Vaughan
The power and the passion of Stevie’s playing was unmistakable.
Stevie Ray hailed from Austin, Texas. Stevie was discovered by the Stones. With his band Double Trouble he came into his own with the Texas Flood album in 1983.
Vaughan continually paid tribute to his influences – Albert King, Lonnie Mack, Buddy Guy, T-Bone Walker, and Hendrix. But nobody played with the power and passion of Stevie Ray Vaughan.
According to Wolf Marshall, Stevie’s personal axe, known as “Number One”, a Fender Stratocaster featured an early 1960s “Oval” neck shape, a Pao Ferro fingerboard with flatter 12″ radius and larger frets (Stevie used bass frets). Stevie used an inverted left-hand tremolo unit. Stevie strung these with heavy gauge strings and tuned down a half-step. Number One was disassembled by Fender Custom Shop employees in 2003, and they reported that the neck was from December ‘62 and the body was from 1963. So, Number One can be called a ‘63 Strat. Pickups are 1959, which is why Stevie referred to it as a ‘59.
Stevie other favorite guitar known as “Lenny” was found it in a pawn shop in the early ’80s. He didn’t have the money for it so his wife Lenny and other friends bought the guitar for him. Brown stain on natural wood; butterfly tortoise-shell inlay in body. It had a rosewood fretboard, which was later switched to maple neck that Jimmie gave Stevie. It is reported that Stevie did the switch himself and used non-stock screws, screwing one through the fretboard. The guitar was said to have been a ‘63 or ‘64 model. Stevie used the guitar to record “Lenny” and “Riviera Paradise.” “Lenny” sold at the Eric Clapton Crossroads Guitar auction on June 24, 2004, for $623,500.
Stevie used an old Ibanez TS-808 Tube Screamer distortion box and a Crybaby wah-wah pedal. Two of Stevie’s favorite amps were a blackface 1967 Fender Super Reverb and a tweed 1959 Fender Bassman. Stevie used Fender Super Reverbs in addition to his Fender Vibroverbs throughout his career. The Bassman was his amp of choice in the sessions for “In Step”.
In 1990 he released Family Style, with his brother Jimmie. Sadly that summer it all ended, when Stevie Ray Vaughan died in a helicopter crash at Alpine Valley in East Troy, Wisconsin.
Classic Guitar Riff Videos are for educational and instructional purposes only.
The artist(s) mentioned in the videos do not endorse, appear or participate in these educational videos. Video Presentations Copyright 2008 ProSound Corp. All Rights Reserved.
Led Zeppelin’s Whole Lotta Love
May 5, 2008 by musicman
Filed under Blog, Guitar Riff Videos
Whole Lotta Love- Led Zeppelin
The Story behind the Riff…
Jimmy Page built a reputation in large part with his riffs on this classic Zeppelin song.
The song is featured on the opening track on the band’s second album, Led Zeppelin II which was released on October 22, 1969. “Whole Lotta Love” became their first hit single. In 2004, the song was ranked #75 on Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, and in March 2005, Q magazine placed “Whole Lotta Love” at number 3 in its list of the 100 Greatest Guitar Tracks and it placed 11 on a similar list by Rolling Stone. It is also the last track the band ever played as whole.
In 1962, Muddy Waters recorded “You Need Love” by peer Willie Dixon. Some of the lyrics of Led Zeppelin’s version were borrowed from the Willie Dixon song, a favorite of Robert Plant’s.
Jimmy Page played the riff for the intro, on a Sunburst 1958 Les Paul Standard through a 100W Marshall “Plexi” amp top. As audio engineer Eddie Kramer explained: “The famous “Whole Lotta Love” mix, where everything is going crazy, is a combination of Jimmy and me twiddling every knob known to man on a small mixer.” Kramer is also quoted as saying: At one point there was bleed-through of a previously recorded vocal in the recording of “Whole Lotta Love.” It was the middle part where Robert screams “Wo-man. You need it.” Since we couldn’t re-record at that point, I just threw some echo on it to see how it would sound and Jimmy said “Great! Just leave it.” In a recent interview Jimmy Page said…“Whole Lotta Love” was put together when we were rehearsing some music for the second album. I had a riff, everyone was at my house, and we kicked it from there”.
Classic Guitar Riff Videos are for educational and instructional purposes only.
The artist(s) mentioned in the videos do not endorse, appear or participate in these educational videos. Video Presentations Copyright 2008 ProSound Corp. All Rights Reserved.
