Gear Secrets of the Guitar Legends: How to Sound Like Your Favorite Players (Paperback)

~ (Author), Lisa Sharken (Author), Steve Vai (Foreword) "Angus Young's tone is defined by simplicity..." (more)
Key Phrases: overdrive box, overdriven tone, treble booster, Les Paul, Van Halen, Jimi Hendrix (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Two veteran music journalists reveal the keys to playing like a pro. With interviews, rig diagrams, amplifier settings, sound tips, and audio samples, this book reveals how guitarists can capture the sounds of their favorite players, including Eric Clapton, Dave Matthews, the guitarists of Pearl Jam, Metallica, and Korn, plus many other guitarists. 30 photographs and a CD that includes tracks in the style of each of the players featured in the book are also included.

Product Details

• Paperback: 120 pages
• Publisher: Backbeat Books (June 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 087930751X
• ISBN-13: 978-0879307516
• Product Dimensions: 10.7 x 8.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #69,537 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Son of Guitar Shop's Revenge!!, October 15, 2003

By	Norm Hammer (Lafayette, La.) - See all my reviews

Having read the book I'm pleased to say that I found it both interesting, informative, and fun. I like the no nonsense get down to it approach to the different guitar players and there gear. The rundown of the various guitars, amps, strings, and pedals, pedals, pedals used by these "Guitar Legends" (most of them are... but a few really don't deserve that title) gives a great insight in to the many sounds and tones you can generate from a electric guitar. More so Pete and Lisa go in to the playing styles of these players to give you ideas on how to go about adding some of there "Mojo" in to your style.

Perhaps the most important thing I got out of the book was to reafirm what I have felt for many years now. YOUR SOUND IS IN YOUR HANDS...not in some amp, speaker, or little pretty colored box from who knows where. Great Players sound great on anything but, by seeing the choices they have made in guitars and other gear goes a long way into developing your own choices for your own sound and style. I think players of all levels would enjoy reading this book because it covers sounds from the dawn of rock & roll up to the present.

The enclosed CD by Pete Brown has many good examples of the different sounds and playing styles of the many guitarists in the book. It is not a big over produced demo. It sounds like it was recorded at home using gear most of us have or can afford. The cool thing is Mr. Brown has the guitar chops to pull off close approxamations of the various "Guitar Legends" in the book. They are not perfect but they are well done nontheless. See what I mean good players sound good on anything. I'll be stealing some of those licks in no time. Where can I get my hands on Volume 2.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars lots of info, July 31, 2005

By	plinker - See all my reviews

This book is packed with info which will be of great interest to guitar gear-heads. You would have to search throught decades of old guitar magazines to compile the facts found here. A lot of the popular guitar players from the last 40 years are represented here, with the obvious exceptions of Stevie Ray Vaughan, (Beats me as to why any book would leave him out???) and Jimmy Page. It also wastes a lot of pages on several contemporary one hit wonders who will be nobody in a year. For example, Tom Delonge of Blink-182 is included, but Slash, who is actually a talented guitar player, is left out. The CD that accompanies the book was a bit of a dissapointment. With all the info in the book about vintage amps giutars and pickups, the CD was recorded with a computer's digital amp simulator and sound very innaccurate and fake. Still, for the price, it's a lot of good info.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Prown and Sharken Great TEAM !!!!!, September 22, 2003

By	alpep (NJ United States) - See all my reviews

Gear secrets is an interesting book full of the type of thing you would have read in the old Guitar shop magazine. The diagrams are easy to follow and the explanation of the signal chains are often done in the own words of the artist.
There is a good mix of players from vaious musical genres and enough info to satisfy players of all types. Even if you are not interested in certain guitar players it IS interesting to read about how they set up their gear.