Tater Gear List – Guitarist of 10 Years – Ryan Johnson

Ryan Johnson (aka Tater) is one of the founding members of the alternative metal band, 10 Years. Tater wanted to play guitar at the early age of 13 years old, but coming from strict Southern Baptist roots, his mother didn’t want him to play music, especially rock ‘n roll. After Tater went to his first show (Rancid and Offspring), he knew that’s what he wanted to do.

Tater never took any guitar lessons, instead he would just try to surround himself with the most talented musicians he could to help him learn. Tater’s guitar influences were more on the side of punk and alternative music such as Nirvana and Alice In Chains. Tater is also in another band called American Plague. See pictures of Tater’s gear taken from the Carnival Of Madness Tour at the DTE Music Theatre in Clarkston Michigan.

Fun fact: Tater loves destroying drum symbols with an AXE on stage. Watch the YouTube video of Tater demolishing a drum symbol on stage.

Tater’s Gear List

• Gibson Les Paul guitars (with the neck pickups removed)
• Genz Benz Black Pearl amplifier
• Bogner Uberschall
• Genz Benz Speaker cabinets

Rack:

• Furman PL-Plus Series II
• Rocktron HUSH
• Monster Power PRO 2500

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Keith Richards – Guitarist of The Rolling Stones

Rolling Stones are one of the greatest rock bands of all time, so of course everyone should be familiar with this band. You have heard their music, you watched their biography on VH1, and you probably even see people wearing a Rolling Stones logoed t-shirts every day. It is safe to say that this band has made themselves into something bigger than life. Read more

Blog & Roll: 50 Greatest Guitarists

The L.A. Times recently published a list of the 50 greatest guitarists to ever play the instrument. If you have read music-related magazines, in print or online, for any amount of time, you have probably seen a few lists of this sort published and discussed. These types of lists are really a no-win situation, as music and guitar playing are subjective, not competitive, so it is really just one persons’ opinion going against another.

There are always hard feeling about who was left out and who was included, too, for the exact same reason. That being said, the list in the L.A. Times, while far from perfect, does a better job than most at picking the most influential and proficient players of our favorite instrument. Read more

Paul Phillips Puddle Of Mudd – Interview

I sat down with Puddle of Mudd’s guitarist, Paul Phillips, 4 hours before the Traverse City, Michigan show at Ground Zero was about to kick off. I was on stage shooting some images of Paul’s equipment and talking with Paul’s tech guy, Sparky, before Paul showed up for our meeting. Sparky walked me through Paul’s equipment, how he tunes his guitars, how the rack equipment is all connected and showed me the night’s set list, all of which I have taken pictures for you, the Gear-Vault readers, to see. Read more

Tom “T-Bone” Wolk 1951-2010

Today the music world mourns the loss of Tom “T-Bone” Wolk, longtime bassist for Hall & Oates and the Saturday Night Live Band. Often seen working in the company of guitarist G.E. Smith, Wolk died of a heart attack February 27, 2010. He was 58 years old. Wolk was a Yonkers, NY native who first came to prominence playing bass on Kurtis Blow’s seminal rap classic “These Are The Breaks,” which was the first rap track to achieve a gold record. Read more

Slash Interview by Guitar Center

Slash is more than just a musician, he’s a legend. Best known for his work with Guns N’ Roses and Velvet Revolver, Slash has also served as a first-call studio gun-for-hire who has played on records by Alice Cooper, Daughtry, Bob Dylan, Michael Jackson, and Iggy Pop. But for the first time since he shot onto the scene more than two decades ago, Slash is going the “lone gunman” route and releasing his first bona fide solo album. Read more

Is It Wrong To Be Popular?

Music is a funny thing. From the time we are first inspired to pick up the guitar or any other instrument, most of us dream of stardom. Our fantasies are filled with visions of sold-out world tours, buses, hotel trashing, groupie wrangling, and all the rest. We dream of legions of loyal fans supporting us and our creative efforts who buy each CD we release, wear our t-shirts, and come out to our shows. Read more

Guitar Player or Guitar Collector – Which Are You?

Guitarists, as most of us already know, are perhaps the most intense and obsessive of all musicians about their instrument and their relationship to it. This obsession normally manifests itself in one of two ways that have been identified and can be determined by the behaviors displayed by each player in turn. The two types are Players and Collectors. Read more

Stevie Ray Vaughan – Forever Cherished

The first flash comes over the Associated Press wire at about 7 a.m. on Monday, August 27, 1990: “Copter crash in East Troy, Wisconsin. Five fatalities, including a musician.”

Keen-eyed staffers at the Austin American Statesman catch that item and begin putting two and two together. The AP updates its story every half hour with fresh details: The mysterious “musician” becomes “a member of Eric Clapton’s entourage”—and then, “a guitarist.” By 9:30, rumors spread that Stevie Ray Vaughan was aboard the doomed craft. Read more

IS ANGUS YOUNG OVERRATED?

The topic of Angus Young, who is, of course, the lead guitarist in everlasting rock gobstopper AC/DC, comes up frequently in guitar circles, both with students and with peers. There are a lot of folks out there who aren’t sure if Angus is really any good and wonder if he might be a bit overrated as a player, mostly due to the simple and straight ahead music his band plays. Read more

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