Winter, Johnny

The late blues great on how he dialed in his tone

Speaking in 2014, Winter said: “I bought my first Gibson Firebird in the 1970s from a guy from St Louis, who was going around selling old guitars to musicians. I liked the way it looked at first, and then I played it and it sounded good and it felt good. I still play that same guitar now and I use Music Man amplifiers, which sound great because they’re very loud. I have the volume on 10, the treble on 10 and bass and middle off completely. I also use a Boss chorus pedal. I own about 25 or 30 guitars and they’re mostly Gibsons and Nationals. I’ve got about nine or 10 Firebirds.