ASK BILLY ROWE when his love for building guitars began and he’ll take you all the way back to his San Francisco high school in 1980. “I was a big Van Halen fan,” Rowe explains. “And Eddie was the guy of my generation who took guitars and reconfigured them to what he wanted or what he thought was cool. So I was always into tinkering with guitars, ever since I started playing.
“Then, in woodshop class, I decided to make one. I bought a block of wood at a hardwood shop in the East Bay, cut it, did the whole nine yards. I built a star guitar out of swamp ash. And that’s where it started.”
Still, it took many years before Rowe became a guitar builder. First, he had to become a rock star. In the early ’80s, he co-founded Jetboy, who relocated from the Bay Area to L.A. and quickly established themselves as one of the leading acts of the Sunset Strip’s mid-decade glam-rock explosion, alongside up-and-coming peers like Poison, Faster Pussycat and, most significantly, Guns N’ Roses. Over-the-top looks and attitude were the calling cards of the day, and that extended to guitars as well. “I painted my Strat hot pink during the band’s super-early glam era, put a mirrored pickguard on it and scratched it up,” Rowe recalls. “It looked like Paul Stanley’s cracked-glass Ibanez.”
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Diese Geschichte stammt aus der November 2021-Ausgabe von Guitar Player.
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Steel of a Deal
Jerry Byrd’s Steel Guitar Favorites packs a heap of American styles in one outstanding disc.
The Knockoff That Became a Knockout
Forced to stop copying U.S. guitars, Ibanez launched the all-original Artist line and took America by storm.
UNCOMMON FOLK
He grew up in a folk music haven. As he celebrates his latest album, Wide Open Light, Ben Harper shares sights and memories of his childhood home.
WILD SIDE
After Lou Reed's Berlin concept album bombed, guitarists Steve Hunter and Dick Wagner helped him get his groove back. The result was Rock 'n' Roll Animal, the live classic that redeemed his spirit and saved his career.
'THE BUILDING BLOCKS OF OUR BAND IS TWO GUITARS'
Sleater-Kinney were making bass-less records long before the White Stripes and the Black Keys came along. Says co-leader Carrie Brownstein, \"The power comes from the conversation the guitars are having with each other.\"
YOUR INFLUENCES STICK WITH YOU
Scott Henderson spent lockdown training his ears and building improv skills. As Karnevel! shows, his jazz chops flourished, but his blues-rock roots remain as strong as ever.
EYE ON THE PRIZE
Erstwhile blues-rocker Hannah Wicklund finds her true self with an album of songs she calls the most authentic I’ve ever written.”
'I PLAY LESS NOTES THESE DAYS, BUT THEY ALL MEAN A LOT MORE'
On Broken, Walter Trout packs his licks for maximum impact as he testifies to the hope that can save our divided world.
TIP SHEET
Think effects are a crutch? Reeves Gabrels has a few choice words and good advice) for you.
WATER UNDER THE BRIDGE
As he releases One Deep River, Mark Knopfler reflects on the guitars he's loved, the music that keeps his passion youthful... and how he'd like a do-over on that Dire Straits Rock Hall induction.