McSwain Guitars Proves That One Off Custom Gear Is Just As Important As A Great Song

McSwain Guitars Proves That One Off Custom Gear Is Just As Important As A Great Song

If you choose to use a guitar to speak your language and also as a visual selling point, McSwain Guitars might just be right up your alley. Amazingly precise detail work and known for their solid sound, these guitars aren't just works of art, but maybe the muse you need to kick out the jams. I found out about them through links on Vimeo and once I started to explore, I just had to report back and show what I had found. 

Custom ESP Guitar For Gary Holt of Exodus and Slayer Painted With His Own Blood by Vincent Castiglia

Custom ESP guitar for Gary Holt of Exodus and Slayer painted with his own blood by Vincent Castiglia

Do yourself a favor and dive into the detailed illustration work of Vincent Castiglia. He is renowned for his work with using human blood to paint intricate narratives and has now taken that level of detail upon a custom ESP Guitar for Gary Holt of Exodus and Slayer fame. The guitar was presented at NAMM this past weekend and ended up taking two months to paint and roughly 19 vials of blood from Gary Holt himself. 

James Hetfield of Metallica Jams at Guitar Center and Talks Music

James Hetfield, the man himself, sat down with us at Guitar Center in San Francisco. In the small room, he shared stories about becoming a musician, rising to fame, and even played a bit. All the while, customers continued to shop in the store, having no idea it was James playing, Hetfield's new ESP Iron Cross.

Can A Cardboard Guitar Be Shreddable?

Cardboard Chaos is here and it’s time to riff on a new idea! Rock out with your cardboard stock out! This episode we work with a master builder at the Fender Custom Shop to see if paper has the ability to handle the look, feel and sound of one of the world’s most recognizable guitars, the Fender Stratocaster. A master builder can make just about anything look good, but will it sound good? Will it have tone and will it be able to handle the heat and get approval from one who rocks for a living in one of the most ass kicking bands of the last two decades, Linkin Park?! It’s a tall order and with roughly 250lbs of torque put on the neck of a guitar from the strings 

Whiskeydick Rolls Into Nashville and Plays At The Gibson Headquarters

Whiskeydick with David Berryman, President of Gibson

Whiskeydick continues to conquer and today added one more notch to their Texas sized belt of achievements. On their day off they were asked to stop in to the Gibson offices in Nashville to play some tunes. not only did they win over the staff but Gibson President David Berryman enjoyed them so much he signed Rev Johnson's guitar and Fritz was also given a full Epiphone Guitars endorsement! Quality music, great attitudes and a work ethic like no other, Whiskeydick may be the Bastard Sons of Texas but they are now on the path to bring Heavy Metal Honky Tonk to the world!

The Craft Of Sound, A Short Film About A Luthier Named Alex Bishop And His Attention To Detail

Learn more about Alex Bishop and his luthier work

"My passion as a guitar maker comes from a life-long obsession with making things. From a young age I have always tried to manipulate objects and materials in order to create something entirely different. I find that working with wood  is a way for me to connect with nature. The simple act of shaping wood to make something functional or beautiful brings me endless satisfaction.

Having left a degree in Aerospace Engineering in Bath, I moved to London in 2007 to pursue the possibility of becoming a guitar maker. I studied for a BSc degreee in 'Musical Instruments' at London Metropolitan University, and I graduated in 2010 with a First Class Honours degree, the 'Top Thirty Student' award, and the 'University Recognition Award For Academic Excellence' award. Working for three years under the expert guidance of Nicholas Blishen, Norman Myall, Martin Bowers and Godefroy Maruejouls, I developed a flair for guitar making. 

Reverend Johnson Of Whiskeydick Has A Feature Interview Over On Epiphone.com Discussing His Guitar Playing Style And Acoustic Metal

Purchase Whiskeydick's latest album

Read the full interview below or on Epiphone.com with Reverend Johnson

"Imagine the look on country superstar Alan Jackson’s face when he went to the iTunes Alternative Country chart this summer to check out the progress of his latest and saw that his album had slipped to #2 three week in a row. His rival? The acoustic duo Whiskeydick—two of the shrewdest shredders in the land--and their latest, Bastard Sons of Texas, which held onto the #1 album position long enough to get the attention of a lot of people in the industry who had not been paying attention. Well, they are now. In fact, during the interview Reverend Johnson heard the band will play the legendar Speedfest Festival. Epiphone spoke with the Reverend about his new Masterbilt, the origins of the duo’s musical partnership, his searing chops, and life on the road in the fast-spinning music world. Listen and be amazed. 

Thanks for speaking with us Reverend. You’re about to head back on the road, right?
Yeah! We’ve been on tour for the last month on the Heavy Metal Honky Tonk tour –it’s a four and a half month tour. We’re about to do two months in Europe—20 countries. We’re flying to the Netherlands and then Belgium, France, and then we’re in Spain for two weeks. It’s our third time over there. And we just got booked to play Speedfest. 
 
How did you sound come together? 
Our first show was in 2005 but we were writing for fun together around 2003. I had never liked the clean sound of an electric. I always preferred an acoustic. And when I hit the distortion box playing on an acoustic for the first time, I was like that’s the sound I’ve been looking for. I had never thought about putting an acoustic through a Metal Pedal and that was pretty cool. At first I didn’t now how I was going to do leads. But I pretty much dug in and went for it. People think it’s a trick but I use 12 gauge strings and that’s what’s defined our sound for 10 years now. On electric, I used 11s and I already played hard as it is. With the acoustic, I found the tone I’ve always wanted and I’ve been using it ever since. And the Masterbilts are my favorite.

The new one I got the Epiphone Masterbilt EF-500RCCE has a C neck on it, which I’ve never played before. I play a bit unorthodox and because of that neck I’m playing smoother and tighter now. Epiphone is amazing. We have been told countless times: “Reverend Johnson, man you just blew my mind and changed everything I thought about the acoustic guitar. How do you shred on an acoustic guitar?” They have never seen anything like that and the tone of my distortion, they’re looking for a Les Paul up there on the stage and then see that I am playing an Epiphone Masterbilt.
 
They get even more shocked when they learn that I play on 12 gauge D'addario acoustic strings in standard tuning. I truly enjoy playing any Epiphone that has the e-Sonic2 pre-amp and Shadow Nanoflex under saddle pickup. I can rock them right out of the box. I would like to say that I am very excited to be a part of The Epiphone guitar family! I have always been a huge fan so it is a true honor for me.
 
We’re so glad to have you with us!  How has the audience been on the tour?
Oh, amazing. Totally amazing. Every time we play to new people, they’re just blown away. Most people’s mindset when they see an acoustic guitar is that it’s going to be laid back and soft. They just can’t believe the amount of energy we put into our live set and into our songs.
 
Are you able to write on the road?
We like staying busy so when touring we always have ideas rolling. I don’t know where it comes from but we keep writing songs. We bring a little recorder with us so when we get ideas, we record it so we can remember it. And then over the years of touring we’ve invested in building a studio at our house in Texas. So now we’re able to record all our records. We’ve been pretty much done everything DIY with this band from recording our first record, learning how to mix and master our stuff. And with this last one, it was completely done ourselves.
 
How did the album come about? 
We recorded the new album in our studio that we built at our home in Texas called YeeHaw Sound. This is our decade year and we wanted to take things to the next level. While we were on a 6-month U.S.A. and European Tour with no breaks, we were shopping this record around to labels. We connected with the Rusty Knuckles label. They believed in us and our hard work. So in joining forces, we knew that we would be a great alliance and help each other.
 
The Bastards Sons of Texas was released on Rusty Knuckles August 1.  The album got a new and noteworthy feature on the front page of iTunes Country New Releases right next to Alan Jackson. We have never been on the front page of anything, so this was a huge step for us. The Bastard Sons of Texas has been on the front page and has been the #1 iTunes Alternative Country Album Chart for 3 weeks running. For us to be breaking down some barriers, we feel there is hope for our music to be heard, and help get more DIY bands noticed and possibly even bring a whole new era of music to the world.
 
Has it been hard sometimes to find the right venue? A lot of club owners are tough characters—the margins are thin, and they don’t like to take chances. I can imagine they see a photo of you guys with acoustic guitars and might be skeptical. 
 
Yeah, there’s that. When we did our first five shows, we didn’t have a band name (laughs). But we’ve not had a whole lot of trouble--but yeah, quite a bit trouble with people not talking you seriously or not putting your name on the marque. But we just keep pushing it and doing it. Our whole success has always been word of mouth. We figure if the music is good enough, people will share it and it will get around on its own.

Epiphone Masterbilt EF-500RCCE

Promotion these days is pretty cut-throat. 
Big time. What our fans love about us is that we’re regular guys. We hate backstages. When bands play, we’re right up front watching them play. We’re so grateful that people want to hear our music and a lot of that support inspires us, too.
 
What have you been listening to on tour? 
We’re really diggin’ that underground scene. Most really good bands are people no one knows who they are. They’re playing those small dive bars for people who know and love music. One of the best guitar players out there now is Dylan Rose of Archer who is with Epiphone. Dylan is a hell of a guitar player—he’s got it.  He just wants to play music.
 
Do you find any difference in the audience reaction in—say—Europe as opposed to the U.S.?
We had been trying to get over there to Europe for awhile because our merchandise has been selling. It’s a little bit scarier in Europe because if you break down, you’re not just short drive away like you are in the States for someone to come help you (laughs). So we’ve been trying to find the right people to work with. But we got really lucky. We found a management company that was really gung ho to make an investment to see what would happen with us. We book all the U.S.A. dates ourselves and have a great management company Red Rumour in Europe that books all of our overseas shows. They really believe in us and feel that we are paving the way for the acoustic music scene, changing folks’ mindset of relaxed and mellow, showing the world that the acoustic sound can be heartfelt and beautiful. And then we stomp the Metal Pedal and blow the roof off! 
 
When was your first trip overseas?
We went over there to put out foot in the door last year. At first, he was having trouble booking the tour because people were thinking “it’s just acoustic.” We played the first show and the owner of the club, who had kind of lost faith in music, he did a complete article on us in the local paper about how were bringing back good music. That first show we played in the Netherlands, we heard that people drove 6 hours from Germany to see us play. So the reaction has been amazing. Our last tour we were there for two months last spring. We did 44 shows and got 44 encores. Our management was in tears on our last show. 
 
Tours can be long and punishing—even for just two people.  
It’s what we do, we love it. When we started building this thing, it took off on it’s own. Our first live performance was in 2005. The first 5 years, we played 250 shows annually around the Fort Worth, Texas area and the surrounding states as well. We wanted to tour for a long time but trying to figure out how to successfully book a tour in the U.S.A. was intimidating. In 2010, we had reached the point to where the only way to get further in our career and get our name out there was to book a tour and just go! In being a completely DIY band, our 1st tour was two months long and in that time period we sure learned a lot. It was a rough tour. You realize quickly when nobody knows who you are 1,000 miles away from home and if you love the touring life or if you don’t. Well we loved it!
 
There are not many nights with hotels for DIY bands, if you’re lucky a fan will offer you a place to stay the night and let you sleep on their floor and shower in the morning before you roll to the next town. For the last 5 years, we have toured 8 months out of the year. Our friends and peers tell us that we’re the hardest working band and they call us “Road Dogs.” We call it the relentless pursuit. The style of our songs and the way we play has been called “Metal Neck,” “Acoustic Hillbilly Country Metal,” and some say “Outlaw,” but we like to call it “Heavy Metal Honky Tonk!” Myself and Fritz have always felt that we’re searching for something and hopefully we’ll find it."

Rusty Knuckles Custom Leather Guitar Straps

Rusty Knuckles Custom Leather Guitar Straps

Rusty Knuckles hand crafted customs offers up a line of unique musical instrument straps for guitars, banjos and mandolins. We take the utmost pride in our craftsmanship and know that our customers expect nothing less. We back up all of our work and offer full customization on every product sold by us. Let us create the exact strap to best match your instrument to help keep you on the stage for many an hour per night and for the years to come. 

Whiskeydick - God Damn I Need Some Whiskey, featured song

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View our full portfolio of custom leather gear

Custom Guitars Made From Reclaimed Wood In Detroit, From CBS News

The final product of Mark Wallace's guitars, made from reclaimed wood in Detroit

Check out the original post on CBS News

"Detroit has more than 70,000 abandoned buildings. Among them is an old Cadillac plant that houses piles of wood. Where others see trash, Mark Wallace sees buried treasure.

Wallace started making guitars out of Detroit's reclaimed wood a year and a half ago. He not only enjoys making the instruments but also playing them.

"It feels great, as an instrument. It's also great to know that it's something I built and something that came out of the city of Detroit," Wallace told me.

Decades ago the wood for the city's buildings came from old growth forests where trees grew slowly. Wallace says the lumber has tight grain patterns and provides great resonance and sound. 

Diamondback Stringworks Announce The Release Of Their Latest Customized Guitar

Husky Burnette and the brand new "Snake Charmer" custom guitar from Diamondback Stringworks

Since launching Diamondback Stringworks in March 2013, 21-year-old A.J. Hancock has built custom guitars for such roots royalty as Peewee Moore, Husky Burnette, J.B. Beverly and Steve Earle. The business blossomed from a passion honed over the course of five years until Hancock perfected his skill at building one-of-a-kind banjos, electric guitars, mandolins and pick-ups.

The Santa Cruz Guitar Company Carves A Unique Balance Between Work And Life.

Richard Hoover of the Santa Cruz Guitar Company

The Santa Cruz Guitar Company carves a unique balance between work and life. They fully understand that one song can change the world, altar country borders or most of all be the passion to which you seek to perfect sustainability in a small ecosystem. 

Santa Cruz Guitar Company

LR Baggs Presents Santa Cruz Guitar Company. This short film narrated by Richard Hoover, founder of Santa Cruz Guitar Company, documents the culture of their boutique lutherie and a mission to provide exceptional instruments for musicians that truly change the world.

Video by: Cameron Ingalls & LR Baggs

Rusty Knuckles Customs - Banjo Straps - Handmade In USA

Rusty Knuckles Customs - Banjo Straps in Chestnut Brown and Sienna Brown Ends

Our banjo strap is made out of 8 oz. leather that is tanned and softened to be an easily worn for hours upon end. The strap has screw holes cut out for a variety of mounting options and adjusts from 42" inches to 60" inches.

A slit is cut into the leather to accommodate for acoustic guitars and larger grommets or for electric with a single screw for the heavier guitar body. The banjo strap is 3" inches wide over the shoulder and tapers at the edges for true comfort.

All leather edges are smooth and finished with a beveled cut and handmade In USA

Check out our straps on Etsy

Rusty Knuckles Customs - Banjo Straps in Ox Blood Red and Black Ends

Rusty Knuckles Customs - Banjo Straps in Sienna Brown and Black Ends

Rusty Knuckles Customs - Banjo Straps in Chestnut Brown and Sienna Brown Ends

Rusty Knuckles Customs - Banjo Straps in Black and Chestnut Brown Ends

Husky Burnette And His Electrified Resonator Guitar

AJ of Diamondback Stringworks with Husky Burnette's resonator preparing for surgery

Last year I scored a great endorsement deal with Diamondback Stringworks. They build anything from cigar boxes to mandolins to electric and acoustic guitars... even built a custom banjo/dobro hybrid. First, they built me a custom Telecaster-style guitar equipped with a vintage Epiphone humbucker pickup I gave them to make it right for my guitar tone. After really getting to know A.J. Hancock (owner) I've seen how great and on-point his work is. 

Not only have I made my Diamondback Tele-style my #1 guitar for standard tuning on stage, I've also taken almost every guitar I use on a regular basis to him for repair and/or for him to customize. This kid is 20 years old and one of the best luthiers I've ever ran across. Pretty crazy. If he's this good now, at 20 yrs old, who knows what the future may hold for him. 

He's built guitars for a few Rusty Knuckles artists already: Myself, Peewee Moore (Peewee and I got our endorsements/guitars at the same time) and J.B. Beverley. Other artists he's built for include the great Steve Earle, James Hunnicutt and more.

Two new guitars about to be customized

Here's some pictures I took at the Diamondback Stringworks shop in Tennessee this week. I took my National metal-body resonator guitar to him to electrify the thing. He wound a custom humbucker pickup for it and installed it so now I'm electrified, which opens new doors and possibilities for this guitar. This thing sounds amazing (it's a National, of course it does!) but, he wound the pickup to 1956 Les Paul specs so it's as thick and warm as it can get when plugged in to an amp. Perfection. 

 

Also, I've included a picture of my next two guitars he's customizing: the electric is a Zim-Gar (mid '60's Jap guitar) given to me by my uncle. My very first guitar. It's the guitar I learned my first chord on so it has some meaning. A.J. is making it playable again with all new electronics, a custom lipstick tube pickup and some cosmetic work; the acoustic is a Johnson and A.J. will be winding a custom pickup and mounting it. 

 

Don't take it from me, go check out Diamondback Stringworks' builds and quality products for yourself, like them on facebook, etc. They have a new line of acoustic guitar builds in the works right now so be on the lookout for those as well!

 

-Husky Burnette

 

Getting the pickup area ready for installation

The resonator with its heart ripped out in mid surgery

Husky Burnette and AJ of Diamondback Stringworks and the reconfigured resonator

 

Custom Guitar Straps For The Working Musician

Brand new guitar strap style to add to our growing collection of custom leather options

We firmly believe that great quality products dont have to break the bank. Check out our brand new guitar straps for the working musician that will be available starting this week through our main site along with our etsy store for $35. All details will be posted shortly along with a plethora of color options.

Adding Another level of personal touch to our hand crafted leather goods. A solid brass logo, CNC milled out to burn into the leather by torch.

The Continuing Saga Of Leroy Virgil's Guitar

Earlier this year, we posted up a batch of photos in which Leroy Virgil of Hellbound Glory, just so happened to leave his guitar behind at the Shore Road Tavern in Philadelphia. Since it stayed back in Philly, every single band rollin' through the place has had a chance to play it, while staying in the apartment upstairs. Leave it Mike Fiedler to never miss a great opportunity to make something cool happen. 

Check out the first batch of photos

Here is round two of the photos.

Awesome Bill Dorsey striking a chord

Billy Don Burns and Leroy Virgil's guitar

Brad Carr of Cutthroat Shamrock and Leroy Virgil's guitar

Brook Blanche of the Calamity Cubes

Brownbird Rudy Relic

Dave Dufrane of the Spastiks, NYC

Derek McRotten of Cutthroat Shamrock and Leroy Virgil's guitar

Dusty Rust of Johnny Outlaw and the Johnson Creek Stranglers

Henry Berger of S.S. Web

Jesse Roderick of Filthy Still

Kody Oh of the Calamity Cubes

Luca Fiorini of the The Spastiks, NYC

Marcus Bunch of Cutthroat Shamrock

Matt Olson of Filthy Still

Mighty Junior of Yankee Cockfight

Olds Sleeper

Orb Mellon strumming Leroy Virgil's guitar

Scrimmy Boucher of Yankee Cockfight

Sean Secor of Tex Railer's Boomtown

Saint Christopher

Tim Gagne of the Spastiks, NYC

Tim V. of Tex Railers Doomtown

Your Guitar Is Not Really A Guitar - Captain Beefheart

Knowledge is power. The better you can grasp the concept of where artistry resides within yourself, the easier it may be to tap that energy resource. Have a read on what Captain Beefheart thinks when it comes to artful sounds of a guitar.

Link to original post about Captain Beefheart

Ten Commandments of Captain Beefheart

"Captain Beefheart hired Moris Tepper to be his full-time guitarist in 1976, a position he held until the Captain’s retirement in 1982. Along the way he imparted these handy guitar tips:

1. Listen to the birds.
That’s where all the music comes from. Birds know everything about how it should sound and where that sound should come from. And watch hummingbirds. They fly really fast, but a lot of times they aren’t going anywhere.

2. Your guitar is not really a guitar.
Your guitar is a divining rod. Use it to find spirits in the other world and bring them over. A guitar is also a fishing rod. If you’re good, you’ll land a big one.

3. Practice in front of a bush.
Wait until the moon is out, then go outside, eat a multi-grained bread and play your guitar to a bush. If the bush doesn’t shake, eat another piece of bread.

4. Walk with the devil.
Old Delta blues players referred to guitar amplifiers as the “devil box.” And they were right. You have to be an equal opportunity employer in terms of who you’re bringing over from the other side. Electricity attracts devils and demons. Other instruments attract other spirits. An acoustic guitar attracts Casper. A mandolin attracts Wendy. But an electric guitar attracts Beelzebub.

5. If you’re guilty of thinking, you’re out.
If your brain is part of the process, you’re missing it. You should play like a drowning man, struggling to reach shore. If you can trap that feeling, then you have something that is fur bearing.

6. Never point your guitar at anyone.
Your instrument has more clout than lightning. Just hit a big chord then run outside to hear it. But make sure you are not standing in an open field.

7. Always carry a church key.
That’s your key-man clause. Like One String Sam. He’s one. He was a Detroit street musician who played in the fifties on a homemade instrument. His song “I Need a Hundred Dollars” is warm pie. Another key to the church is Hubert Sumlin, Howlin’ Wolf’s guitar player. He just stands there like the Statue of Liberty—making you want to look up her dress the whole time to see how he’s doing it.

8. Don’t wipe the sweat off your instrument.
You need that stink on there. Then you have to get that stink onto your music.

9. Keep your guitar in a dark place.
When you’re not playing your guitar, cover it and keep it in a dark place. If you don’t play your guitar for more than a day, be sure you put a saucer of water in with it.

10. You gotta have a hood for your engine.
Keep that hat on. A hat is a pressure cooker. If you have a roof on your house, the hot air can’t escape. Even a lima bean has to have a piece of wet paper around it to make it grow.

Let’s see whether Tepper absorbed the precepts, shall we? Here’s the Captain and the Magic Band playing “Hot Head” and “Ashtray Heart” on Saturday Night Live, November 22, 1980, hosted by Malcolm McDowall:"



(via Lists of Note)

Ever Wonder Who Does Some Of The Pinstriping For Gretsch Guitars?

Ever wonder who does some of the great pinstriping that you can buy on a Gretsch Guitar, fresh from the factory. Look no further than Hot Rod Walt of the Psycho DeVilles.

Hot Rod Walt laying down the stripes on a fresh batch of Gretsch Guitars

100 Riffs And One Hell Of An Ad

100 Riffs (A Brief History of Rock N' Roll) from Chicago Music Exchange on Vimeo.

Alex Chadwick plays 100 famous guitar riffs in one take giving you a chronological history of rock n' roll.

See the full detailed list of all the artists, keys, and year of each song played in the 100 riffs: chicagomusicexchange.com/100riffs

Alex plays a 1958 Fender Strat: goo.gl/g37oT

A Happy Accident Revolutionized Guitar Sound, From The Tennesseean

Unbreakable cell phone glass was born out of an accident in the labs at Corning Glass. Another of the great modern day inventions in music, the distortion sound was born out of a transformer dying from too much current in an amp. Happy accidents occur all the time, so it is just a matter of sometimes slowing down and processing the events around us, which could ultimately become influential in new and profound way.

Link to original post on the Tennessean

"The distorted sound of rock ’n’ roll guitar aggression was born in Nashville, in 1960. By mistake.

“I’m pretty sure what happened was the primary transformer opened up,” says Glen Snoddy, the 91-year-old retired audio engineer who worked on producer Owen Bradley’s three-channel recording console in the summer of ’60, when the console malfunctioned and caused session great Grady Martin’s guitar sound to go from clean to bludgeoning during the recording of Marty Robbins’ “Don’t Worry.”

Snoddy explains what happened by invoking tech-talk about tube amplifiers and insufficient wiring. But whatever happened inside that console, what happened on tape was a singular guitar sound that jarred, invigorated and launched “Don’t Worry” to fame: It become a No. 1 country hit and reached No. 3 on the pop chart.

Other recording artists began coming to Bradley’s Quonset Hut studio in hopes of replicating that sound. But the sound born when the transformer went on the fritz died when the transformer ceased to work at all.

“Nancy Sinatra came to town and wanted to use that sound, and I had to tell her people that we didn’t have it anymore because the amplifier completely quit,” Snoddy says. “So I had to get busy and conjure up some way to make it happen.”

Snoddy built a guitar pedal, with a button guitarists could press with the tap of a foot to change tone from clean to filthy. Then he took that pedal to Chicago and arranged an audience with Gibson president Maurice Berlin.

“I don’t play guitar, but they had a fellow there who did,” Snoddy says. “I took the box, plugged it in, and Mr. Berlin said, ‘Hey, we want that.’ Gibson applied for a patent and sold the box. For seven years, I got royalties off of it. They didn’t sell very well at the beginning.”

The Maestro Fuzz-Tone FZ-1 didn’t fly off the shelves upon its initial release, in 1962. But in August 1965, the Rolling Stones released “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction,” a song that featured Keith Richards playing a signature hook on the fuzz box. “Satisfaction” soon ruled charts in America and the U.K., and Snoddy’s box and subsequent copy jobs became a part of most electric guitarists’ arsenal.

Snoddy did much more in his career in music. Raised in Shelbyville, he learned about radio and recording in the Army and wound up at WSM radio around 1951. He ran live sound for the “Grand Ole Opry” and the Ernest Tubb Record Shop’s “Midnite Jamboree” and grew to love the voices of Marty Robbins and Tennessee Ernie Ford. After Snoddy worked for a time at WSM television, Bradley brought him in to work at his Quonset Hut, on an impressive sound board.

The original Fuzz-Tone distortion pedal

“It was a great console,” Snoddy says. “Until one of the pre-amps went out and caused us to have the fuzz-tone.”

Snoddy also recorded Johnny Cash’s “Ring of Fire,” mastered records for Columbia Records and was an executive there after Bradley sold the Hut to Columbia.

“I hired Kris Kristofferson,” he says. “I hired him to clean up the studio. What did I know about songwriting? Not much.”

In 1968, Snoddy opened Woodland Sound Studios at 1011 Woodland St. in East Nashville. He built the studio, which became the spot for now-classic recordings by Loretta Lynn, Jimmy Buffett and many more, including the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s “Will The Circle Be Unbroken” album. He also built Junction Recording Studio for Kitty Wells, and he served as a trustee for NARAS, the organization that puts on the Grammy Awards. But it is his fuzz-tone guitar sound that is an everyday part of thousands of musicians’ and listeners’ lives.

“I’ve heard people saying, ‘We’ve been trying to make audio purer and undefiled, and then some so-and-so comes up with a way to distort it,’” Snoddy says. “That so-and-so was me.”
Reach Peter Cooper at 615-259-8220 or pcooper@tennessean.com."

Electrical schematics on how the fuzz-tone operates