ROY BUCHANAN

If one guitarist could exemplify the maxim ‘It’s not what you play, it’s how you play it’, it would surely be Roy Buchanan. Utilising every piece of the Telecaster’s modest anatomy to extract different tones, effects and expressions, Buchanan proved that the Tele could be as versatile as it could be simple. He pioneered techniques like creating tone and volume swells by manipulating the control knobs with his pinky, popularised pinched harmonics, and developed a faux whammy effect by applying above-the-nut pressure to fretted notes. Listen to the climax of The Messiah Will Come Again or Sweet Dreams and you’ll receive a masterclass in all of the above. From a 21st century perspective, these techniques might not seem earth-shattering, but in the context of his time, they were practically witchcraft.