technique: summer Of ’66
In a special Blues Headlines, Richard Barrett channels our heroes, Clapton and Hendrix, to bring you a masterclass in 60s tone and technique Difficulty 15 mins per example
Gear used: Gibson Les Paul Standard, fender Stratocaster, Whirlwind Gold Box Distortion, vox Wah, Marshall JTM45
EvEn if you’re not a football fan, the summer of 1966 is historically significant. Eric Clapton redefined electric blues forever on the ‘Beano’ album with his Les Paul and Marshall setup – reportedly very loudly, too. Just a couple of months later, the music scene was given another monumental shake-up by the arrival in London of Jimi Hendrix, wielding his Strat and a radically new approach in soloing, accompaniment and signal processing. Though these two players would have listened to some of the same records growing up, Clapton had stayed resolutely true to his blues roots – to the point of leaving The Yardbirds after the release of For Your Love – while Hendrix had absorbed much from the R&B/soul he was playing as a sideman for Little Richard and the Isley Brothers (among others), before making a name in his own right with the Experience.
For these examples, I plugged both the Strat and Les Paul into the same JTM45, with the channels linked – almost all the way up on both volumes for the Clapton licks, balancing until we felt we’d achieved the right ratio of warmth and bite. No pedals for this one, an approach Clapton still adheres to today. For the Hendrix licks, I backed off the master volume for a clean(ish) tone and plugged in a Whirlwind Gold Box Distortion, which boosted things nicely in a Fuzz Face style for the solo licks. The Strat doesn’t drive the Marshall as hard as the Les Paul, in any case. Where a wah is used, it’s a trusty old Vox. Though we’ve been as authentic as possible, you don’t need the exact, specific gear to sound ‘right’. Any good quality amp/distortion pedal will give perfectly acceptable results if you’re willing to spend the time tweaking. Don’t forget, a simple thing like rolling back the guitar’s tone control slightly can make a huge difference.