Kenny Wayne Shepherd believes players who start out learning on cheap electric guitars are more appreciative of good gear when they get it.
He should know. As the bluesman tells Total Guitar in its November 2024 issue, his first guitar was a budget-friendly Yamaha SE150 with a Candy Apple Red finish, purchased for him by his parents when he was six or seven. "It’s basically a Strat body without the contours," he says. "It had one pickup and one volume knob."
Yet Shepherd, who just released the second part of his Dirt On My Diamonds double album earlier this year, says he’s grateful that his humble beginnings included a humble instrument.
“It was an incredibly crude guitar,” he continues. “My family couldn't buy me a fancy guitar even if they wanted to. But it was all I needed at the time to get me going and give me an opportunity to start honing my skills."
Moreover, it set him on his path of obsessing over gear and tone.
“When you start with a crappy guitar, it begins the cycle of gear addiction; you appreciate it, but you long for a better instrument. It gives you a level of appreciation because you started with humble beginnings, and then when you make it to the top of the guitar mountain you've appreciated every step along the way and what it took to get there.”
And that's not a bad thing at all. An appreciation of good gear — and what it means for his tone — led Shepherd to work with the legendary amp builder Alexander Dumble, who created 11 amps for the guitarist. “And from the first amplifier to the last,” Shepherd says, “they elevated my playing and creativity. It freed up so much energy for me to express myself. I didn't realize how much energy I was using with my previous amplifiers to try and get them to do the things I wanted them to do."
(Meanwhile, Joe Bonamassa, another Dumble fan, recently completed a 15-year quest to own Lowell George's Dumble Overdrive Special. He’s set to tour with it this fall. )
Shepherd's experience with great gear gives him perspective to appreciate what guitarists achieved in earlier eras with less-advanced technology. He holds particular reverence for Jimi Hendrix, whom he paid tribute to with his recent performances on the annual Experience Hendrix tours.
“He was incredibly innovative, especially if you consider the technology, or the lack of technology, that was available to him back then,” Shepherd told Loudwire Nights on Demand.
“I mean, multitrack recording wasn't even that old at that point. He had, like, three pedals for his rig because that's basically every pedal that was available at the time. And it's just amazing, all the ideas and the sounds that he was able to create with such limited resources.”
Which just goes to prove Shepherd's point about starting out with cheap gear and how it forces you to work harder.
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