screamin' armadillos

Every once in a while, I realize something I about music, bands, instruments, singing, songs, songwriting or performing that changes the way I play or the way I approach my craft. Here’s a few of mine: -Rhythm guitar is more important to the song than lead guitar. -Using a pedal, guitar, amp...

I have owned (and still own) a pretty large handful of amps, tube, solid state and digital. But my 1990 Fender ‘63-reissue Vibroverb is the most special, due to its “perfect for my needs” specs… I bought it NOS/new-in-the-box in 1992, and it’s been a part of my rig ever since. It sounds...

A group of crows is called a Murder; a group of geese is called a Gaggle; a group of bats is called a Colony… Therefore, a group of Telecasters is called a Twang. Here’s my Twang of Telecasters, both current and former… My #1, the 1995 MIM Fender Tele Special, aka “Big Tex”: The most...

My daughter left for Namibia yesterday…she’ll be doing missionary and construction work for 6-8 weeks. She said she wanted to go to her favorite Honky Tonk with her mom and me, so Sunday afternoon we hit Little Red’s Longhorns Saloon in the Fort Worth Stockyards and danced to a pretty good Ray...

When this year started, I was only planning to finish assembling a partscaster that I’ve been collecting the parts for the last five years or so… And then I promptly bought two guitars and an amp. My name’s Fiesta Red, and I’m a GAS-aholic. Before this year started, I had plenty of guitars...

The only planned expansion of my rig/herd/guitarsenal this year was finishing the Esquire/Les Paul Junior Frankenstein’d partscaster for which I’ve been accumulating parts for the last few years. I really, truly had not planned on buying any new gear this year. …and then I bought two guitars...

Tolstoy Version: When I started playing guitar in 1989, I wanted to be the bastard love child of Keith Richards, Muddy Waters and Jimmie Vaughan. I always loved the funky looks and sound of Keef’s 1974 Custom, which I later found he’d bought in San Antonio during the Stones infamous 1975 “Tour...

Despite all the “horse-tradin’” and GAS episodes and everything else that comes with the musician hobby/lifestyle/etc., I’ve been fortunate to find (and keep) twospectacular instruments that have been my “#1” guitar. From 1993 to 2008, it was my (namesake) 1992 Fender US Vintage ‘62...

If you play multiple instruments (as many of us here do, including me), who are your top three influences on each of those instruments? For example, in my case… Guitar: Keith Richards Jimmie Vaughan Lightnin’ Hopkins Slide Guitar: Muddy Waters Ron Wood Rollo Smith Vocals: Mick Jagger...

Since 1977 after the song by Waylon Jennings blew up, Luckenbach has been a symbol of slowing down, leaving the rat race and getting “back to the basics of love”… My parents took me there right after the song became a hit, sometime in ’77 or ‘78. At the time, there wasn’t much besides the old...

Many of y’all know me from other forums and sites…those of you who do will already be familiar with my gear and a lot of my stories, so some of these will be repeats of what you’ve seen before… But for the people who haven’t met me before, come with your expectations low and you’ll only be...