Les Paul Innovations: The Man Behind The Music

The world has seen many advances in music technology in recent years, but if you dig down about 80+ years ago, you’ll find a young curious boy tinkering with electronics. He would be the reason that the solid body guitar and multi-track recording exists. His name was Les Paul.

At the age of eight years old, Les Paul was interested in music, and started off playing the harmonica. Fast forward 11 years, and he was in Chicago, playing on the radio. Les had an avid ability to hear things that others did not, and appealed to listeners all around. Playing mostly country and jazz, Paul had always been playing on archtop guitars, because that’s all that existed. This would all change soon enough.

Les didn’t enjoy the sound of the archtops. The body resonated the sound of the strings too much, and made the instrument feedback when playing at louder volumes. He wanted to change that. Once he realized that a solid piece of wood would end this inconvenience, he invented what we now know as the Gibson Les Paul. The first version of the guitar was built in the Epiphone factory in 1940, and when Gibson decided to market it, it became an instant success. Without the Les Paul, who knows what Jimmy Page would have played… would it have been a Stratocaster? Read more

10 Years Interview with Guitarists Brian and Tater

10 Years Interview–Gear-Vault exclusive – 10 Years’ guitarists sits down with us for a full on interview. You can listen to the 10 Years interview live or read the transcript below. Guitarists Brian Vodinh is endorsed by Taylor Guitars and plays his Taylor Standards in stock form. While Ryan Johnson (aka Tater), on the other hand, plays Gibson Les Pauls with some interesting modifications… he pulls the neck pickup to give the guitar more sustain and crunch. His humbucker pickups are custom made and hand wound. Read more

Tater Gear List – Guitarist of 10 Years – Ryan Johnson

Ryan Johnson (aka Tater) is one of the founding members of the alternative metal band, 10 Years. Tater wanted to play guitar at the early age of 13 years old, but coming from strict Southern Baptist roots, his mother didn’t want him to play music, especially rock ‘n roll. After Tater went to his first show (Rancid and Offspring), he knew that’s what he wanted to do.

Tater never took any guitar lessons, instead he would just try to surround himself with the most talented musicians he could to help him learn. Tater’s guitar influences were more on the side of punk and alternative music such as Nirvana and Alice In Chains. Tater is also in another band called American Plague. See pictures of Tater’s gear taken from the Carnival Of Madness Tour at the DTE Music Theatre in Clarkston Michigan.

Fun fact: Tater loves destroying drum symbols with an AXE on stage. Watch the YouTube video of Tater demolishing a drum symbol on stage.

Tater’s Gear List

• Gibson Les Paul guitars (with the neck pickups removed)
• Genz Benz Black Pearl amplifier
• Bogner Uberschall
• Genz Benz Speaker cabinets

Rack:

• Furman PL-Plus Series II
• Rocktron HUSH
• Monster Power PRO 2500

Read more

Brian Vodinh Gear List – Guitarist of 10 Years

Brian Vodinh is one of the founding members of alternative metal band, 10 Years. He started off as the drummer for the band, but later switched to guitar. Some of his band members say he is a guitarist first, a drummer second.

Brian started taking guitar lessons at the age of 11 years old. He grew up around music as his father was a first-chair violinist in a symphony orchestra and his mother was a huge Elvis Presley fan. Brian says growing up with rock ‘n roll meets classical helped shaped his style.

Brian’s guitar influences growing up was bands like Deftones, Metallica, and Korn. Brians says you can hear a James Hetfield-style in his guitar playing, especially in his right hand attack. What helped him develop that style was his determination to learn Metallica songs, especially Master Of Puppets at the age of 13. See pictures of Brian Vodinh’s gear taken from the Carnival Of Madness Tour at the DTE Music Theatre in Clarkston Michigan.

Brian Vodinh’s gear list

• Talor Standard Guitars (single cut)
• Demeter TGA-2 guitar amplifier
• Bogner Custom Shop Shiva guitar amplifier
• Roland JCM120 2×12 combo
• Bogner 4×12 speaker cabinets

Read more

Keith Richards – Guitarist of The Rolling Stones

Rolling Stones are one of the greatest rock bands of all time, so of course everyone should be familiar with this band. You have heard their music, you watched their biography on VH1, and you probably even see people wearing a Rolling Stones logoed t-shirts every day. It is safe to say that this band has made themselves into something bigger than life. Read more

Tom “T-Bone” Wolk 1951-2010

Today the music world mourns the loss of Tom “T-Bone” Wolk, longtime bassist for Hall & Oates and the Saturday Night Live Band. Often seen working in the company of guitarist G.E. Smith, Wolk died of a heart attack February 27, 2010. He was 58 years old. Wolk was a Yonkers, NY native who first came to prominence playing bass on Kurtis Blow’s seminal rap classic “These Are The Breaks,” which was the first rap track to achieve a gold record. Read more

Guitar Player or Guitar Collector – Which Are You?

Guitarists, as most of us already know, are perhaps the most intense and obsessive of all musicians about their instrument and their relationship to it. This obsession normally manifests itself in one of two ways that have been identified and can be determined by the behaviors displayed by each player in turn. The two types are Players and Collectors. Read more

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